Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 7, 1981, edition 1 / Page 2
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Editorials & Comments ._ >/ :Davis - The Nonconforming Leader ; From roots in old Brooklyn, ^work as an elevator operator, ;and observing many power de cision-making sessions while '.serving as a waiter at the ^Charlotte Country Club, Bob •Davis has risen to the chair .manship of the Mecklenburg •County Democratic Par*;,. These non-conforming charac teristics of the new Democratic Party Chairman do not fully reflect the measure of the man, Bob Davis. While giving 35 years of loyal service to his party, Bob lived with his moral commit ment and values to such an extent that he has often been viewed as a controversial per sonality. Bob has challenged the Demo cratic Party he loves so much when he felt it was wrong; and he often stood alone from other black leaders in support of unpo pular causes exhibiting the cour age of his convictions. During the days of school segregation Bob called upon the all-white School Board to fully comply with court-ordered desegrega tion. While such action nearly threatened his career as a public school educator, Bob neverthe less continued his~attacks on what he felt was wrong or in justice. Among these were his criticisms of the Police Depart ment for its refusal to hire and promote blacks and his protest to the city’s failure to bargain in good faith in responding to the grievances of bus drivers. Yes, as many have said, Bob Davis has paid his dues to both his party, the black community and the larger Charlotte com munity because all that he has supported, history now tells us has been in the best interest of a better, more progressive city and improved race relations. Whether Democrat or Re publican, the people of Charlotte should wish Bob Davis well in his new challenge because all that he has done and all that he symbolizes is a reflection of what S makes America what it is. We wish Bob Davis much success as he leads his party as part 6f our tradition of a strong two-party system. t he Pulitzer Prize Comedy On April 18 The Washington Post printed an embarrassing news story that its reporter, -Janet Cooke, had admitted that her Pulitzer Prize-winning ar .. tide “Jimmy’s World” - the . story of an eight-year-old heroin ; addict - was in reality a figment : of her imagination, T Ms. Cooke’s admission of a * hoax-stunned her associates and ! shook the foundation of the news business because the grand Pu ' litzer is journalism’s highest award. Furthermore, in ite M year history it has never before been discredited by a hoax. Because Ms. Cooke, 25, hap pens to be black, The Wall Street Journal questioned the pressures t>ig-city newspapers are under to recruit and promote minorities as well as the decisions as to which of their stories to publish. The Journal in our view missed the real point which is the whole comedy of errors that allowed the story to be written, published and declared a prize winner when there were doubts about its authenticity from the very be ginning. . In spite of these doubts, the editors of The Washington Post allowed the story to be published and the Pulitzer Prize board of directors awarded “Jimmy’s World” a feature writing award while the feature subcommittee had not even seen the story. Ms. Cooke, who was exposed only after her academic creden tials were questioned as being falsehoods, was caught up in the media’s quest to get the good story before their competitions. Editors ignored things that should have been questioned and the Pulitzer Prize board itself acted with unbelievable stupi dity. The whole unfortunate mess certainly raises new concerns about the credibility of the media and whether editors will insist on knowing a writer’s sources. As bad as it is, it’s all we’ve got because an imperfect free press is better than a perfect con trolled press. Death Of History With recent decisions to close Double Oaks Elementary School and Charlotte Community Hospi tal, a little more of the history of Charlotte’s black institutions has met its death. These institutions join Second Ward High School, Myers Street School, the House of Prayer and St. Paul Baptist Church, when located on S. McDowell St. The relocation of some of these structures or the finding of new uses for them does not diminish the fact that a part of their tradition was given a death-blow when their original missions were charged not by blacks but rather by others. Such changes raise questions too about the presumed usefulness or need for the new missions. For example, a wide range of social services and possibly adult education presumed needs may be housed in the Double Oaks School. This raises the question as to why, if such ser vices are truly needed, the ser vices were not already in the community? If then, the services are not really needed, after a cooling off period those services will be quietly removed and the school closed. Such acts would simply be a way to pacify and insult black people. THE CHARLOTTE POST Second Class Postage No. 965500 “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co.. Inc. Telephone (704)376-0496 Circulation 9.200 _ 62 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson...Editor. Publisher Bernard Reeves ...General Manager Fran Farrer...Advertising Director Wayne Long...Circulation Manager Dannette Gaither...Office Manager Second Class Pdstage No. 96556 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 a jgd will not be returned. ‘National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. 249# S. Michigan Ave. 45 W. 45th St.. Suite 1493 Chlcage, III. 60616 New York. N.Y. 10036 Calumet 5-0209 (212 ) 489-1229 ‘1 » Stop The Flight Of Black Capital t 1 ^ YOU MUST BECOME INVOLVED IN THE WELFARE OF THE COMMUNITY i NAACP Urges Alternative To Reagonomics ATLANTA - The NAACP is deeply concerned that the net result of the Reagan economic recovery pro gram will have a devastat ing effect upon the poor, near poor and persons who rely on existing social service programs to main tain basic minimum stand ards of quality living. The proposed cuts in do mestic spending for such programs as CETA, Food Stamps, Medicaid, Child Nutrition, Low Income Energy Assistance and the repackaging of other pro grams into block grants to states, cities and counties, only demonstrate a politic al philosophy of “nullifica tion and retrogression’’ to wards poor and minority citizens. Moreover, the pro posed Reagan Administra tion tax relief proposals will aid the wealthy much more than the poor. The NAACP National Board of Director has re cently adopted an alterna tive program and policies for economic recovery de signed ~tb“ cbmbaT unem-~ ployment, inflation and the deteriorating conditions in the inner cities. The Administration’s proposal while seemingly recognizing the need to increase productivity as a means of stimulating eco nomic growth and simul taneously fighting infla tion, nonetheless, seems unrealistic to minorities who find that the social investment necessary to assure their productivity is being curtailed. The Ad ministration, while foster ing high unemployment, reduces support for the unemployed and per petuate a dual and unequal economy which cannot be tolerated by black Ame ricans in the 1980s. Those comprehensive manager ial reforms which would improve social service de livery systems were not proposed and no attempt was made to eradicate al leged fraud. Instead, while the need for programs and the services which they render still exists, the pro grams are being severely curtailed or eliminated al together. NAACP urges Congress to engage in a full debate of the Reagan economic re covery program with a close eye on how this pro posed program will affect me poor and near poor in our country. Political ex pediency at the price of human need is a dangerous game. The government has an affirmative obligation to ensure a healthy nation which has as its corner stone, the full devel.opment of human potential. We urge every citizen to speak out against the pro posed Reagan economic re covery program and en gage in lawful campaigns to demonstrate their con cerns. some ot the major pro visions 'of the NAACP’s alternative program to combat unemployment, in flation and the deteriorat ing conditions in the inner cities include: 1. Eliminating federal in come taxes for a family of four whose incomes falls below $10,000 per year. 2. Expanding investment tax credits and accelerat ing the depreciation tax schedule to stimulate busi ness investments. 3. Increasing productivi ty by providing incentives to private employers based on the condition that invest ments would also be made in human resources. 4. Providing public sec tor employment for the long-term unemployed population. 5. Channeling all federal funds for education to the public school systems to ensure quality education for public school children. 6. Maintaining at the very minimum the present levels of funding assistance to cities experiencing fiscal difficulties. 7. Utilizing general tax revenues to meet the de ficiency in the Social Se curity Retirement Fund. “We dispute the Admin - istration's notion that de— licit federal spending is the decisive factor in stem ming inflation. In keeping with that premise, our na tional policy stimulates business investments by targeting government in centive to productivity related investment. This leads toward the desired outcome of an expanding economy but recognizing that national economic growth alone is insufficient for blacks’ progress,” Ben ‘ L. Hooks said In explaining the overall concept of the new policy initiatives. Hooks Named Chairman OfLCCR Benjamin L. Hooks, Executive Director of the NAACP, last week was elected Chairman of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The 31-year-old civil rights lobbying organiza tion, which serves as an umbrella for 152 national civil rights, religious and labor coalitions, was found ed in Washington, D.C., in 1950. —By Gerald C. Horne, ESQ—— Affirmative Action Racism And Violence Racism has become - unfortunately - such a common facet of life in the USA that even the most outrageous excesses barely receive attention or merit note. It is all well and good that national attention has been focused on the Atlanta child slayings, the Mobile lynching, the New York City slashings, the murders in Buf falo and Salt Lake City, etc. Nevertheless, the attention focused on these incidents should not blind us to the fact that such racist inspired mayhem is no longer and aberration or freak occurrence but has become part of an overall pattern and practice that has few parallels outside of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Let a few more examples suffice to illustrate this trend: The Jackson (Miss.) Advocate reported recently the lynching of 32-year-old Roy Washington in rural Holmes County near Pickens, Mississippi. The young black worker had been shot in the head, his hands bound behind him. He had been weighted by a scissor jack attached to his body by barbed wire wrapped around his waist and had been beaten badly about the head and face. The FBI, which worked zealously in infiltrating and disrupting civil rights groups in Mississippi in the 1960s has been a virtual Rip 'Van Winkle on this case, investigating briefly and inadequately. Local residents who recall the bad old days when lynchings were as prevalent as blooming magnolias have been paralyzed with fear and have remained rather tight lipped about the entire situation. The slaying of Roy Washington - a' slaying -that cries out fpr a full-scale, comprehensive investigation - was more bizaare perhaps but not dissimilar from the lot that has befallen other black males of his era. Indeed, homicide is the leading cause of death among black males between the ages of 25 44, according to the National— Center for Health Statistics. The average life expectancy of black males, unlike other groups, is declining* The leading cause of death in this country is heart disease but the black population is at about one-fourth greater risk than whites; for stroke (cere brovascular diseases), the second leading cause, blacks are at twice the risk of whites; for the third leading cause of death, cancer, the black population is at one-third greater risk than whites. But homicide presents the most striking statistics.~Blacks are six times more likely to die of homicide. During the Vietnam War, a war where blacks were put “at the point,” leading the charge, almost 6,000 were killed. Today the war is over but. the traumatizing effects remain. In fact the Multi-service Veterans Center in Philadelphia says that more Vietnam vets have been claimed by suicide than by the actual war. Thus far, i over 50,000 Vietnam veterans have taken their own lives, a high percentage of them black. The reasons cited for the suicides range from psychological stress to dispair over the inability to obtain and retain jobs. Yet with all of its problems, the scarred rice paddies of Vietnam may have been safer than the urban areas of the United States. The number of police killings of blacks has shot up so dramatically that black males - especially - are in danger of becoming an “endangered sneriea ” From Capitol Hill Reagan’s Budget Cut Not Geared To Improvement Of Life By Alfreds L. Madison Special To The Post Ed Dale an assistant to David Stockman, Director “'oTTnTTce'ol MafiagSfWHir" and Budget made a strong attempt to defend Presi dent Reagan's budget. He stated that they had looked at some parts of the Con gressional Black Caucus Budget, but that they were stckingwith their own pro posals. Concerning the Congres sional Budget Office’s re port that 20 million people roughly one-tenth of the na tion's population will lose some income under the Reagan plan, Mr Dale dis agreed with the assess ment. He said that 15 per cent of these families would actually gain through the tax and benefit changes, 34 percent will lose no benefits, 47 percent will lose only a little; about five percent and that five percent will lose. Dale said that all will eventually gain when inflation is reduced and the economy starts working. He emphasized that the student grant program was ' cut to prevent the wealthy Alfreds I,. Madison riders, and that the needy will still be able to get some grants which can be cou pled with the work pro grams that colleges pro vide. In order to qualify for grants the student must have at least $750 of his own. Dale made no refer ence to the fact that, as many colleges have al ready stated, they do not have enough jobs for these applicants In response to a state ment that the defense bud get will be a trillion dol lars by 1984, Mr. Dale said that in stead of having a budget of one trillion dol lars by that time, the total expenditure of defense for the four years will add up to a trillion dollars. When he was reminded that QAO said $10 billion could be saved annually by getting rid of waste and fraud in the Defense Department, he said the Executive branch is investigating that matter. The OMB official stated that money for job training CETA programs was not being cut, only that public service CETA jobs were being curtailed. „ Mr Dale said the Ameri can Bar Association favors I^egal Service Corporation because lawyers can make money by government funding of these indigent persons' complaints. He said that states can provide such services out of the block grants, and that the same could be true of the drug and alcoholic pro grams. Ed stated that President Reagan's program will in crease the real income of lower income families, after tax deductions. An ex ample was given of a family earning 17000 a year will have a two percent increase between 1981 and 1984. Of course this will - moan-owlyjMO-That paltry . sum is based on reduction of inflation and increasing economic growth. When he was asked what these poor people would do while wait ing for these Administra tion accomplishments, his response was, "I don't know. We had over two hundred years without the government programs and the people survived.” The question was asked if it is the policy of the Reagan Administration of mere survival or is it one of improving the quality of life? Mr. Dale replied, "I made a mistake when I said that." He continued, "Mr Stockman said go vernment is not supposed to take care of people." He was reminded that the Constitution, "establishes justice, insures domestic tranquility, provides for the common defense and promotes general wel fare.” Dale responded that all of these will be done through implementation of the President’s program. Mr. Dale disagreed with the Congressional Black Caucus’ call for closing tax loopholes for the rich. He -wistv profits for corporations were larger, because that would provide more goods and Jobs.” Dale pulled out an article by Representative Shirley Chisolm in which she said. "Give Reagan a chance." At this point his attention was called to the fact that Mrs. Chisolm wrote that article during the transi tion period; that now she says Reagan’s block grants to the states, without any directives, is a set back to minority civil rights. She also testified before the House-tabor and Edfrca tion Committee against the President's education pro posals and that she played a key role in formulation of the Congressional Black Caucus Alternative Bud get. Dale’s reply was, "I know that.” This conversation re vealed that even members of OMB find it hard to really explain all aspects of the Administration Budget. Adult Education Course — An adult education course for people who want to learn "How To Play The Piano Despite Years of Lessons” is being offered again by the University of North Carolina at Char lotte Tuesdays, May 12 to June 30. Scheduled from 7-0 p m. in the piano laboratory in UNCC’s Rowe Arts Build ing, the class costa $130. The instructor is Gilda Gla zer, an experienced piano instructor and former pian ist with the St. Louis Sym phony Orchestra. For registration and other information, contact UNCC’s Office for Continu ing Education and Exten sion at 597-2424 from lam. to 5 p.m. weekdays. READ THE POST
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