Editorials & Comments
Preserve Park Safety
•" On Sunday a young man said,
: “This is a nice place to go if
you’re in love.” Another said,
; “It’s a great place to sell dope,
^ou could make a million dol
lars here.” These contradictory
statements are about Freedom
Fark as quoted in a Charlotte
News story on Monday. They
;reflect more than a viewpoint
;about one of our_ vacation-at
home 91 City parks. More sig-'
nificantly they reflect attitudes
about our values and the quality
of life we must want for our
selves and our children.
Unfortunately, however, the
negative viewpoints and destruc
- tive behavior - selling dope,
smoking marijuana, drinking al
coholic beverages, nearly public
sexual intercourse, homosexual
advances and loud playing
radios - which we like to think
represents a small minority of
the park-visiting population, is
nevertheless the element that
may take away the only vaca
tion-at-home playland that many
citizens enjoy.
While the City’s parks are by
design places for relaxation,
communication with nature and
a temporary refuge from the
demands of daily living, they are
also places where we assume
that our fellowman, be he a
stranger or a friend, would
assume a citizens’ responsibility
for preserving that environment
for those to follow him. By this
we mean for those who truly
believe our parks are for playful
tun, informal association and
leisure, it is unreal to have to be
reminded of the destructive ele
ments in the parks. Further
more, while we can complain to
City Hall about more park
rangers and more police pro
tection, we must realize that
much of this problem (in our
parks as it is elsewhere) is more
a matter of values and citizen
attitudes. For example, it seems
unbelievable that our park
rangers had to ask five adults
AND four children to leave Free
dom Park on Sunday because
"...they had two bags of mari
juana, beer and two bottles of
liquor on their blanket.”
This kind of behavior can be
expected in our parks and other
public places as long as we have
parents of high school age child
ren and young saying they have
no objection to their children
having a small beer party at
home or as a Liz Hair’s drug
awareness committee recently
noted, parents are simply not
aware of the gravity of the drug
problem in our schools or among
young people generally .
Until we as parents, educa
tors, ministers and responsible
adults begin to act responsibly,
we will have problems created
by a few who will make it
uncomfortable for the many who
desire to visit our parks.
City Park and Recreation di
rector Marvin Billups put the
issue in proper perspective when
he said, "Freedom Park is a
beautiful place that thousands of
people use within the letter of the
law. We will not let a handful of
people give it & bad name!”
Test Of Our Progre ss
as America was struggling to
emerge from the Great Depres
sion and seeking to salvage the
free-market economy in 1937,
President Franklin D. Roose
velt put the urgency of the times
in perspective when he said in
his second inaurural address,
“The test of our progress is not
whether we add more to abund
ance of those who have more; it
is whether we provide enough for
those who have too little.”
, That philosophical statement
of entitlement was to remind
those who “have” that our suc
cess as a nation and indeed the
very survival of our free market
democratic society can only be
measured, to use Mr. Reagan’s
Words, by “safety net pro
grams tnat assure the basic
heeds of life “for those who have
too little.”
As Mr. Roosevelt’s entitlement
commitment to the needs of the
poor became a cornerstone of
American domestic policy, nu
merous programs were institut
ed over the next 43 years to
provide some degree of a mini
mum standard of living for the
poor and minority groups.
Among these were fair employ
tnent practices, Medicaid, Me
dicare, job training, legal ser
vices, subsidized housing and
higher Social Security benefits.
However, these benefits to the
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From Capitol Hill
Slick Tricks Presented To Deny Blacks Voting Rights
By Alfreda I,. Madison
Special To The Post
Since certain aspects of
the Voting Rights Act will
expire in 1982, the House
Judiciary Subcommittee
on Civil and Constitutional
Rights chaired by Repre
sentative Don Edwards, a
hard fighter for justice and
equality, has been holding
hearings on the extension
of the Act.
Representative Rodino
has introduced H R. 3112 in
the House and Senators
Kennedy and Mathias have
introduced S 895 in the Sen
ate. Both of these bills
extend the special. provi
sions. These proposals will
extend for another ten
years, section 5, the pre
clearance measure of the
Voting Rights Act which
prevents local commun
ities and states from using
gerrymandering, annex
ations. at-large-voting,
multi-member districts
and in heavy language
areas ballots must be
printed in the native lan
guage There is also sug
gested that Section 2 be
amended to return to
standards for proving dis
crimination, from that
Alfreda I,. Madison
imposed by the Supreme
Court recently in Mobile
Vs Bolden. In 1973 White
Vs Redester, the Supreme
Court upheld the position
that direct and indirect
evidence could be intro
duced to establish voting
discrimination, but in
Bolden the Court changed
and said that only direct
evidence of specific intent
to discrimination should be
allowed.
It was brought out at
these hearings, that over
the fifteen years of the
Voting Rights Act, the Just
ice Department has reject
ed more than 800 changes
recommended bv states
and local communities, and
these are only a small
percentage of the local
changes.
Representative Henry
Hyde has introduced H.R.
3473 which substitutes for
the mandatory pre-clear
ance section, a require
ment that will permit the
Attorney General or ag
grieved party to bring an
action in any Federal
Court, instead of only the
District Court of the Dis
trict of Columbia as is now
required. If a patter of
voting rights abuse is
found by the Courts, a pre
clearance should be Im
posed for four years. H R
3473 will apply to all states.
Great objection to the
Hyde bill was voiced by the
witnesses. It would require
each aggrieved party to file
a suit and that will cer
tainly take a long period of
time before getting to the
Courts. Then it would be
meaningful to that one par
ticular area in which the
suit was brought Mr Hyde
explained that as the pre
clearance section now
stands it only penalizes a
few Southern states It was
noted that no state or local
rty can abuse the pre
clearance mandate and
that Alaska, Arizona, some
parts of New England, Ca
lifornia and New York are
under the Section 5 man
date.
Benjamin Hooks of the
NAACP stated, that despite
the legal protection of the
Act, problems of some
magnitude still exist in
minority voting, in Alaba
ma, Plordia, Georgia,
Mississippi, North and
South Carolina, Texas and
Virginia.
Vernon Jordan of the
National Urban League
emphasized very strongly
the necessity of extending
the Voting Rights Act, that
the present climate in the
country makes the exten
sion imperative. He stated
that Senator Strom Thur
mond - a strong opponent of
civil rights is against ex
tension. fn response to a
question from Mr. Hyde,
who said that he felt
improvement has been
made that will render pre
clearance unnecessary,
Mr Jordan Said that he
certainly can’t' trust his
right to vote to the good
white folks in some of these
states. Mr Hyde replied
that the real issue is that
the pre-clearance aspect
makes the six Southern
states that still have to
clear their voting activities
with the Justice Depart
ment as “penalty box.”
Mr. Jordan stated that
these six states have, hi
storically, discriminated
against blacks in the
voting process for around a
hundred years and that he
did not see the rationale for
not extending the Act. He
strongly emphasized that
congress will do all citi
zens a great service if it
leaves the law as it is,
because there is still a hard
core of whites who have
never been touched
Mr Kirkland, President
of AFL-CIO stated that the
only purpose of the Voting
Rights Act was to right a
wrong in which we failed
for nearly a century to end
discriminatory denial of
voting rights to a class of
citizens. He firmly empha
sized that he would much
rather have 95 years of
application of the law than
95 years of denial.
I^arry Speakes. White
House Deputy Press Se
cretary said that President
Regan has not affected a
policy yet, on the Voting
Rights Act, but that during
the campaign he said that
he would like to see it
extended to all the states
Speakes was told that no
state can violate the Act
and that if the President
continued to take that view
he would be going back on
his campaign promise,
“not to set civil rights
back.”
StatMtics
Elements of statistics, a
course required of nursing
students working toward a
BSN or toward a graduate
degree, will be offered by
the UNCC Office of Contin
uing Education beginning
at 3:30 p.m., June 15, at
Charlotte Rehabilitation
Hospital.
The course will register
at the first meeting and
meet on subsequent Mon
davs through August,
poor become crumbs from the
table as the psychology of en
titlement also led to huge cor
porate subsidies, high tariffs to
protect against foreign competi
tion and lower taxes for the rich.
Excesses among the righ and
corporate community has re
sulted in the Reagan Adminis
tration seeking to end the na
tion’s sense of entitlement. This
is evident by the recent report by
David Stockman, Director of the
Office of Management and
Budget.
Speaking on ABC-TV’s “Issues
and Answers” Stockman said, “I
don’t believe that there is any
entitlement, any basic right to
legal services or any other kind
of services, and the idea that’s
been established over the last 10
years that almost every service
that someone might need in life
ought to be provided, financed by
the government as a matter of
basic right, is wrong. We chal
lenge that. We reject that
notion.
Ironically, the way Mr. Stock
man and the Reagan Adminis
tration have chosen the pre
sumed ending of the entitlement
psychology is to reaffirm en
titlement to the corporate rich
through the trickle down theory
that means only the poor and
minorities will see their entitle
ments lost.
LETTS START THINKING TOGETHER
THOUGH FOuct CAN PuOTECT
IN EMERGENCY, ONLY JUSTICE /
FAIRNESS, CONSIDERATION
AND COOPERATION CAN
FINALLY LEAD MEN TO THE
DAMN OF ETERNAL PEACE" '
owicht a taenMoutQ • J
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'
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A View From Capitol Hill
Independent Reports On Washington
By Gus Savage
Member of Congress
In my first column last
week, I promised to share
with our readers details
about a bill I have intro
duced to help job-seekers in
their efforts to secure em
ployment - my first major
piece of legislation - and a
package of five bills to
honor the memory of form
er world heavyweight box
ing champion Joe Louis.
The legislation to aid
job-seekers, the National
Transit Fare Employment
Incentives Act, would
amend the Wagner-Peyser
Act to establish a program
to provide transit fare as
sistance to persons looking
for jobs. It is structured to
ease the financial burden of
those who use public trans
portation in looking for
jobs.
President Reagan has as
serted on a number of oc
casions thSl there are jobs
out there in the market
place. he hps pointed to
help wanted sections in our
nation’s ^largest newspa
pers and questioned why
people remain unemployed
when there are employers
in the private sector who
obviously need and want
pefple to come and work
for them.
While I also believe that
there are jobs in the pri
vate sector that are waiting
to be filled, at the same
time 1 believe that one of
the main reasons why these
jobs aren't being filled as
readily as they should be is
directly related to the high
cost of mass public trans-'
portation which job-seek
ers, especially those who
live in and around urban
areas, must necessarily
utilize to apply for, and
thus, to obtain work.
I firmly believe that the
National Transit Fare Em
ployment Incentives Act
will provide incentives to
job-seekers to look for em
ployment opportunities in
the private sector, and also
will provide financial relief
to the unemployed who
must rely on the use of
public transportation to ef
Hon. Gus Savage
fectively maintain an
active job search.
In my opinion, this bill is
a logical and effective way
to point job-seekers to
wards actual, existing jobs
in the private sector. The
program under terms of
the proposed legislation
would be administered by
the U.S. Department of
Labor through the alread
yexisting Office of Employ
ment Services. No new
agency or department need
be created to organize or
administer this Act.
To receive transit fare
assistance, each job-seeker
would be required to ac
tually come into the Em
ployment Services office in
his or her local area to
accept referrals through
that office to actual job
positions available at that
time, r or each referral
accepted, the job-seeker
would be eligible to receive
one round trip transit fare
to take the form of what
ever method of payment is
used by that city’s transit
system (such as farecard,
token, transfer, or pass).
These fares would be
issued at the Employment
Service Office at the same
time as the job referrals
are made.
As an additional benefit,
it is anticipated that the bill
will greatly increase utili
zation of the Employment
Services Offices of the
labor Department - not
only by prospective job ap
plicants but by private em
ployers themselves.
This is a highly desirable
side effect as the Employ
ment Services Office is al
ready in existence and ope
rating and should be util
ized to its maximum po
tential as an employment
mechanism. Since the
Office can use existing
space and personnel to aa
minister the program,
there should be only mini
mal administrative costs
involved in its set-up and
operation.
,1 believe that the Nation
al Transit Fare Employ
ment Incentives Act is
unique because it is not
another hashed-over wel
fare concept but rather, it
is a "work-fare” bill. When
one stops to consider the
overwhelming benefits to
be gained towards the bet
terment of our economy
and towards the better
ment of standard of living
and way of life that will be
gained when people are
working instead of having
to draw public assistance,
any costs that may be as
sociated with a program o
get people into jobs must be.
considered small indeedrT*'
firmly believe this legisla
tion is a positive step in
bringing us closer to the
goal that we all share —
helping those who want to
work to find jobs. The
legislation was introduced
on May 7. I am pleased to
announce that several of
my colleagues are co-spon
soring the bill.
Joe Louis was the son of a
black sharecropper who,
through exceptional cou
rage, strength and skill,
became the heavyweight
boxing champion of the
world. But Joe Louis was
more than just a legendary
hero, he was a quiet, de
termined, talented Ameri
can who stands as a model
of inspiration to millions of
people all over the world.
The package of bills that
I introduced on May 12
would honor Louis by (1)
directing the U.S. Postal
Service to provide and sell
a “Joe Louis” stamp; (2)
expressing the sense of
Congress that the Presi
dent should award posthu
mously the Presidential'
See View on Page 13
By Gerald C. Horne, ESQ.
Affirmative
Action
Cooke And The Ful Court Press
The dust has settled and perhaps it is now
an appropriate time to look back soberly on
the now notorious “Janet Cooke Affair.”
For those who may not be aware, Janet
Cooke was a journalist with the Washington
Post who recently became the first black
woman to win the prestigious Pulitzer Prize
for her fall 1980 articles “Jimmy’s World,”
which chronicled the story of an eieht -VPQr
old black junkie and drug addict. The only
problem was that (1) it appears that the
story was primarily a figment of Ms.
Cooke’s evidently vivid imagination and (2)
it appears that Ms. Cooke’s claimed aca
demic credential-she alleged attendance at
both Vassar and the Sorbonne in Paris-w
were not in order. In fact, Ms. Cooke’s finely
weaved tale began to unravel when officials
at Vassar College called the Post to inform
them that she was not a graduate.
..This movie-like scenario should concern
all affirmative action advocates because it
has been used to call into question the
credentials and capabilities of not only
black journalists but black professionals
generally. As one waggish observer
cracked, “You better put your diplomas and
certificates on the wall of your office now
before they begin to challenge you.” Witting
and unwitting racists have used the “Cooke
Affair” as a crude weapon to bludgeon the
affirmative action thrust by alleging that
efforts to increase black participation
inevitably leads to fiascos.
This is vicious, unalloyed racism because
the attempt by John Hinckley to commit
the dastardly act of assassinating the
President of the United States did not cause
a similar outcry of challenge against the
capabilities of white sons of right-wing oil
executives. Imagine the lynch mob spirit
that would have arisen if the attempt to slay
Reagan has been done by a black! Similar
ly, as baseball players union chief Marvin
Miller has noted, some fans scream bloody
murder about the salary of a Reggie
Jackson but remain mute about the mega
bucks of a white star like Pete Rose. The
fact is that the double-standard-judging
blacks detrimentally by one standard and
whites by another-is a tell-tale sign of
, racism.
In that light it will be interesti
how another brewing scandle in
white journalist is handled. The New York
Daily News has the largest circulation of
any newspaper in the country. Recently one
of their star white journalists, Michael
Daly, was charged with fabricating a story
during a recent visit to politically charged
Northern Ireland. The Londa Daily Mail
termed his piece about Irish youth attack
ing British troops with gasoline bombs with
the latter retaliating with live ammunition
a work of pure imagination...” a male
volent piece of propaganda which is a
disgrace to journalists. Daly quickly
resigned after these revelations hit the
newsstands. Let’s see if this disgrace will
call into question the credentials and capa
bilities of white male journalists. If the
history of racism in this country is any
guide, this definitely will not occur.
But it should be obvious why racism has
reared its ugly head in the Janet Cooke
Affair. For like the thief that yells “stop
thief” the nation’s press - which is virtually
lily-white -- has a material interest in
conjuring up all sorts of red herrings to
distract attention away from their lament
able affirmative action records.