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Editorials & Comments A Question Of Survival _ _• Gun Or Butter? In the largest increase in defense spending ever sought from Congress in peacetime, the Reagan Administration proposes to raise military spending for 1981 and 1982 by $32.6 billion. Tht increase woufd be on top of the $22 billion defense spending in crease proposed by the out-going Carter Administration earlier this year. The proposed increases, un precedented for its planning time, will increase virtually every major category of defense spending. These proposals would increase the number of people in the military services over the next two years by 45,000. This would bring our total militarv personnel up to 2.1.million. In addition, about 211,000 defense related jobs would be added to the nation’s workforce. In its simplest terms, and in the language of economists, Rea gan’s defense spending propos als mean more guns (military spending) and less butter (con sumer goods and numan ser vices). While the President ' claims his budget proposals would preserve the “social safe ty net” of income security and welfare for the neediest, the budget nevertheless proposes a $13.8 billion cut in over 200 social service programs; These include jobs programs, housing produc tion, education, food stamps, _ veterans benefits and water works projects. in announcing these shifts from butter to guns, President Reagan said, “the plan I out lined will stop runaway infla tion and revitalize our economy . if given a chance.” However, a closer look at how the U.S. economy really works would indicate that an expanded mili tary-industrial complex may vejry well increase inflation, not reduce it. First, since the nation’s medical doctors, nurses, engineers, city planners, and most of its teachers, are em ployed full-time, it is difficult to see how the nation can preserve the “social safety net” with al ready existing shortages in health services, education, hous ing and water projects in the face of the demand-pull for such manpower for military use. The end result of this demand for a limited supply of skilled and technical labor will be wage price inflation. Hardware Secondly, inflation pressures will build from what Seymour Melman calls “parasitic econo mic growth.” This involves the payment for work whose product - military hardware - immediate ly leaves the marketplace. In effect the wages paid to produce military goods cannot be used to buy back such goods. Therefore, those wage dollars must be used 1969 reads as follows: -By 1968 there were over 6 million grossly substandard dwelling units in the nation. -In 1968-69 over 10 million Americans suffered from, hunger. -In 1966 the U.S. ranked 18th among nations in infant mortal ity rate. -In 1967 40.7 percent of our young men were medically or emotionally unfit for military service. -The number of medical doc tors per 100,000 population de clined from 109 in 1950 to 98 in 1966. -About 30 million Americans continue to be an economically underdeveloped sector of our society. Attitudes Furthermore, the priority given to our military-industrial complex has led to a deteriora tion of our civilian industrial technology. This was led to declining productive output and more negative attitudes toward the work ethic in our nation’s labor force. These observations are not to suggest that the nation should abandon its military prepared ness. They are, however, to remind us of the social and human cost of failing to keep our military priorities in perspect ive. Furthermore, as Max Lera er has so aptly reminded us, like the Russians, we already have enough military fire power to destroy the earth seven times —over, Therefore, building a big ger atom bomb accomplishes nothing. Would we not all be better off if equally as much human effort were devoted by all nations to preserving the peace? After all, World War III, if it happens, will truly end all wars because civilization as we know it will no longer exist. Therefore, the only thing we stand to lose in the pursuit of world peace is the possible loss of self destruction and a civilization of ashes and dust. Peace, brother, let us pursue peace. Something On Your Mind? Something on your mind Is the name of a column devoted to our readers of this newspaper - as long as it relates in some way to young people, regardless of age. It wul be written by you and about whatever is on your mind! So, if vou have something to sav...WRITE ON! Some subjects that may be of special interest to you are: Drugs, Generation Gaps, Generation Gaps, Welfare, Gangs, School, Going Steady, Police Revolution, Whites, Blacks, Integration, Busing, Draft, God, Negro churches, etc. i UNITED COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP-NEEDED NOW LONG RANGE PLANNING SHOULD FIND BLACK BUSINESSES. PROFESSIONALS AND POLITICANS TO THE FOREFRONT OF PLANNING IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY. IT IS ONLY BY ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CLOUT THAT ETHNIC GROUPS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO _ADVANCE. Like It Really Is! History Belongs To The Winner By Jim Ingram Special To The Post Years Upon Years of watching Black History Month come and go, and then seeing such history largely ignored the rest of the time and blurred, dis torted and deleted by the dominant culture’s litera ture, has taught me that History belongs to the winners. + + + . .There has to be a better way of regulating those railway crossing signals. Have you had to wait at one of those railway crossings jately, only to watch an invisible train pass? + + + ..The smart husband al ways remembers that it’s his wife’s birthday, but forgets which birthday. + + + ..I don’t want to put any body in the dozens, but most men who run down women all the time are really running down one woman only. + + + . .The guy who hollers con stantly, “actions speak louder than words” usually is the same guy who, when his actions turn out badly, has to hire a guy with words to explain what went wrong. + + + ..Why is it that so many motorists seem to think the term “obstructing traffic” is now obsolete? Maybe it’s just the changing times, but more than every today I seem to notice drivers who will simply pull out into traffic whether they have the right of way or not, and most times they do not. Then when their ac tions cause an accident, they act as if they had no fault in the collision. + + + ..Those who give, hoping for some reward at a later time, are not giving. They’re bargaining. + + + ..If we wish to know the force and power of human political genius, we ought to watch Coleman Young. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his critics. + + + . .Why is it that the Ame rican male, so obsessed with photos and figures concerning the female breast, is always shocked or embarrassed when a foreign woman begins breast-feeding her baby publicly? The American culture is absurdly pro breast except when that breast is being used for the function God intended. + + + . .Those who incorrectly compare the breeding of humans with that of gods and horses might do well to consider that the only “purebred” people known to the modern world are the Tasmanians, and they are the only ones to become fully extinct. + + + . - At a round table there’s never any dispute about “place.” + + + . .From local promoters, a pet peeve: It’s the so-called “high class” people to whom you have to give free passes. The poor always pay. + + + ..Blessed are they who have nothing to say, and who cannot be persuaded to say it. + + + . .Not too long ago we just finished wishing everybody a happy New Year. But have you ever thought about just how much it would take to make some of those people happy? + + + Those racists who always contend that we should “deserve” our freedom, or that no people should be free (as in newly indepen dent nations in Africa) un til they are "fit to be," remind me of the fool in the old story who vowed never to go into the water until he had learned how to swim. + + + ..Man must surely be mad; he cannot make a flea; yet he attempts to create Gods by the thou sands. + + + ..A conservative believes that nothing should be done for the first time. + + + ..A minority is always compelled to think. That is one blessing of being in the minority. + + + . .If so-called Christian na tions were nations of Chris tians, there would be no bombs and no wars. + + + v' .'Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable we have to change it every six months. + + + ..Before acting, President Reagan begins making all his "cuts," somebody ought to tell him that peo ple don’t miss what they lack half as much as what they are deprived of. No body misses having an eye in the back of their heads, but we all would feel de prived if we lost one of the eyes we have in front of our heads. It’s the taking away that upsets people rather than never having it in the first place. + + + . .Why is it that people who cannot keep a secret al ways expect you to? + + + ..The most dangerous lunatics in our society are those who cannot be com mitted. They would pass any medical-psychiatric test for insanity, yet they suffer from a deep sense of persecution or from grand iosity. Affirmative Action KNIGHTS OF THE KKK J. W. Thompson, in a sense, looks like a Klans man. He’s balding, speaks with a syrupy Southern drawl and has two chins and two bellies. And for a while J. W. was a Klans man; that is to say, as a reporter for the newspaper Nashville Tennessean, Thompson was assigned to ' infiltrate this secretive, violent organization and re port his findings. And re port he did. In fact, not only is Thompson being touted for the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, his adventure is also thought to be a likely candidate for a major motion picture. rei me picture ne re ported was not a pretty one. Posing as “Jerry Thompson,” an ex-military man, now a cabinet-maker, he settled in Birmingham and infiltrated the Ala bama Knights of the KKK. At meetings firearms were much in evidence. Their activities included picket ing local TV stations to affect their coverage of certain issues (Anti-Klan activities would"do well to put the pressure on simi larly); they marched fre quently to protest the stricter firearms policy proposed for the police force. Though the Klan’s campaign to place Grand Dragon Don Black in the mayor’s chair was unsuc cessful (well-known black scientist Dr. Richard Ar rington won the race), they were successful in electing a close relative of the Exalted Cyclops to the post of judge in Cullman Coun ty, Alabama. i numpson s siory is fas cinating but from the wel ter of detail, a few broad trends emerge. First of all, there is the increasing ten dency for the Klan Klavern or chapter to be a family affair. The camps for kids, where they are taught how to strangle and shoot, is well known. Women are playing an increasing role in the Klan, with one elect ed to deputy president of “Special Forces” in Ala bama. Clearly, this is an issue the organized wo men’s movement must ad dress., Generally, the crowds at KKK rallies are youthful, with teenagers about 15 percent of the crowd, and 60-80 percent in their twenties or early thir ties. Many are hirsute with beards, long hair and drooping mustaches. This last broad point should come as no surprise to those who attended the Repiblican National Con vention last year in Detroit. According to the New York Times of July 31, 1980, Bill Wilkinson at that time en dorsed Ronald Reagan and said that the Republican platform "reads as if it were written by a Klans man.” According to the Times: “The endorsement was made in an editorial in the Klan group’s news paper, The Klansmaa, written Dy imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson and distri buted today.” Wilkinson went on to add, that he would vote for any candi date “opposed to forced busing and affirmative ac tion." The Times of the same day reported that Speaker of the House, Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr. had stated at his daily meeting with reporters that, “...the John Bir)|ers are now in control of the Republican Party. He singled out GOP House Leader, John H. Rousselot, a former leading member of the right-win, racist John Birch Society, for particular attention. Though O Neill’s party could well be subjected to some old fashioned “phy sician heal theyself" me dicine in light of the Demo crats’ long-standing flirt ation with the organized right-wing, his basic point is unassailable. Historians often discuss the point of "continuity” between the Progressive Movement of the turn of the century, which fought for regulation of big business, public ownership of utilities, child labor laws, etc., and the New Deal of the 1930s which helped to bring on social security, unemploy ment compensation, rights of unions to organize, etc. The point is that many of the same figures who were fighting for progressive re form at the turn of the century, were doing the same during the Great De pression. Historians of the future will no doubt observe that those who helped to bring on the Cold War and lead the campaign of “massive resistence” to desegrega tion during the “Silenced 1950s,” are now pulling the levers of power in Wash ington in the 1980s. A case in point is Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, who, as head of the Agriculture Committee, has declared war on food stamps. His baptism of politics came in the early 1950s when he played a pitoval role in the defeat of “liberal” Frank Graham in a race & the Senate in a campaign cha racterized by red-baiting and race-baiting of the vilest sort. His resume also notes that he wrote edi torials for the notorious Mississippi-based “Citi zens’ Councils,” that were widely known then as “Klansmen in three-piece suits.” Today he is darling of the so-called “New Right” and a powerful GOP Senator who has the ear of President Reagan. “Continuity” is again the by word. Hence, those who are counselling allowing the new administration some kind of honeymoon are either terribly naive or conscious deceivers. In any event, they should be roundly ignored. ' THE CHARLOTTE POST Second Class Postage No. 965500 "THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 WmI Blvd., Charlotte, N.C. 28208 Telephone (704)378-04M Circulation 9,200 62 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson...Editor, Publisher Bernard Reeves...General Manager Second Class Postage No. 96550 Paid At Charlotte, N.C. under .the Act of March 3,1878 Member National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m. Monday. All photos and copy submitted become the property of the POST and will not be returned National Advertising , Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. 1 2400 8. Michigan Ave. Chicago. III. soois Calumet 5-0200 45 W. <.,th 84., Suite 1493 New York, N.Y. 1003* (212) 489-1220 , I From Capitol Hill Who Determines Who Should Live Or Who Should Die? Allred* I,. Madison The Democratic mem bers of the Senate Labor committee, chaired by Sen ator Kennedy has begun hearings on President Rea gan's budget proposals to assess their impact on hu man needs. Kennedy says all mem bers of congress agree that there should be a budget cut. He stated that they are pledged to do all they can to cooperate with the Presi dent. Yet, they are ques tioning Mr. Reagan's bud get cuts. They neither mean to be obstructionists for rubber stamps. In re ferring to the President's statement that selfish in terest group opposes his budget recommendations, the Senator asked if the following were being con sidered in that category: 1. The middle class family whose children will no longer t* eligible for college loans? 2. The fourteen and a half million children who will 1 lose their lunches? 3. The millions of senior citizens who will find health care beyond their Alfreds L. Madison reach? Kennedy said the oil companies and nuclear in dustry are not complaining because they have not been cut at all. —. The entire education panel rejected the idea that the November election was a mandate to cut every thing that the Administra tion has proposed. Con trary to this belief the recent Harris Poll shows that only 15 percent of the American people favor education cuts. Public edu cation cannot afford an education reduction of funds diverted to private and parochial schools, elimination of programs that greatly aid the poor, handicapped, those who need bilingual education programs that are to be Stockmanized out of exist ence. The education group stated that the cut in granted student loans re presents a serious restric tion of opportunities for many young people to get a college education. The senior citizen panel said that the President’s economic recovery pro gram is based on two in correct assumptions: (1) That federal spending is the primary cause of in flation. (2) That massive cuts in federal spending will control inflation and strengthen the economy. Medicaid has had an an nual increase of 15 percent because of inflation. One out of every five medicaid recipients is a senior citi zen mostly over age 75. Without medicaid basic health needs would be in accessible to these people. The panel emphasized that the government should not be investing scarce reven « ues in numan services where the cost-benefit to taxpayers exceed the bene fits obtained from the ex penditures. “The social safety net is filled with holes and the cut package is not a scape! but a meat axe that will kill the pa tient.” Mrs. Richard, a 70-year old senior citizen, said that she gets $308 a month. Her mortgage is $134, she gets $70 for food stamps and $80 for her grandson. She goes to the Central Virginia Health Center for health care. This costs her $5 a trip which also includes medicine. Mrs. Kenny receives $282 plus a $99 supplementary and her sick husband re ceives a small 20 percent disability check. Out of this she pays rent, utilities, food and all other necessities. Mrs. Kenny is a diabetic and she would be entirely unable to get health care without the health center and medicaid. However, recently she was hospital ized for a kidney operation, and there were some things for which she was charged. n »ne produced a letter from a collection agency that threatened her for pay ment. She informed them that she would send them one or two dollars a month from her allowance. Amy, a 20-year-old form er drug addict, who is enrolled in a drug rehabi litation program, is now in school. She had a (200 a day habit; money gotten by any possible means. She made a strong appeal to the committee asking that they prevent the cut-off of funds for the drug and alcoholic programs. Amy said that if the program is stopped now while she’s going to school enabling her to become a prodictive citizen of so ciety, and since at this point in her life, she is not able to do that without the care and training that she is getting, she would return to drugs and eventually die. , Ed Menken, a rehabili tated alcoholic, is director of Project Return, a drug center in New York City, stated that to cut off funds for these rehabilitation centers will prove far more costly in money and lives by the addicts’ return to the street than will be saved by closing them. If this is done thousands of young people will die, annually. He asked the question, ' Who’ll make the determination on who should live or die? Is it Reagan, Meese, Stock man?" Senator Reigle stated that since Amy’s habit cost $200 a day, closing the center and turning o«4Mu>c 400 addicts there, could cost $80,000 daily. He said that the rehabilitation cen ters prove that government can do some good and to walk away from this pro gram now is saying, "...go away and die," Read The Pol 1 _ feSj Ml I ft I • Ml |«M» R> Ittft ' $ 1
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 12, 1981, edition 1
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