Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Aug. 15, 1985, edition 1 / Page 2
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The Past Is Upon Us JL I am the marginal man between two forces, and possibly I will be crushed. But that is where God has placed me and I have accepted the vocation.” These sincere words, no doubt, bring thoughts of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and cause us to wonder which book, sermon or civil rights speech these utterances came from. King, a ; Nobel Peace Prize winner, had made many such profound statements in the 1960s as black Americans sought equal justice. This quotation, however, is not from the charisma of Dr. King but, rather, from another black Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1985, Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Afri- >. ca. Tutu’s emotion-laden statement reflects the bitter ethnic struggle that rages in South Africa today in 1985. It is a reminder to - those of us who remember America’s civil rights struggles of the 1960s and it is the past *. upon us for younger blacks who too often take for granted the opportunities at their fingertips. It is a reminder, too, that the struggle for justice and equal opportunity is worldwide and never ending .i j Bishop Tutu and others like him in Jiis far away homeland are engaged^ a far more serious racial and cultural conflict than black Americans encountered some 20 years ago. Yet black Americana need not look far to realize that their struggle too is far from ended and that we must keep up the good fight in support of the causes of civil rights wherever injustice exists. Therefore, black Americans must expand the support of their black brothers across the Atlantic to the south. After all, it is only when all men are free that any one of us is free. Yes, the past is upon us and we are reminded in a most shocking way of just how great and how difficult the struggle for justice and fair play truly are. We must wish for Bishop Tutu and his supporters 'God’s blessing as they reflect our past in their quest for dignity, respect and freedom. $8 Million Is Not Enough In this column last week we said “...the responsibility for preserving black colleges and universities does not rest on the back of corporate America. Black alumni...have the primary responsibility for contributing to the efforts necessary to maintain or reestablish such institutions on a strong financial footing.” The Post’s headline story last week quotes Hilliard L. Lackey, vice president of the Council of National Alumni Associations ' as saying. “The more than 800,000 grad uates of historically black colleges are being urged to send a minimum of $10 t<each) to their respective alma maters on September 30 to show that they are willing to pay financially to keep their schools open and to preserve this part of our valuable history.” This fund raising, to, be held in con junction with National Historic Black Col lege Day, is, without question, an excellent idea except that the challenge «nrf the request of $10 per person is too little. It is good to talk about how many black Ameri cans have graduated from these fine' -‘schools. However, studies have shown that in any alumni efforts a 35 percent re-. sponse is considered good. Thus, with a 100 percent response, the $8 million divided . equally among the 107 black colleges would give each a mere $/4,7M. If even a 50 percent response is realized as opposed to 35 percent, that $74,768 will be halved to only $37,389 per institution. With today’s costs for anything these dollar amounts are terrible 'insufficient in preparation to the great need. w 'rv“>nefore, we strongly belieVe, as we Bented last week, that with the wealth ersonal gain that many black Ame have achieved, especially over the ) years, that the challenge for giving ?port of our black colleges should be ntially greater or more like $50 to $100 per person. Frankly, anything of this kind of a fund raising nature that does not generate at least $1 million per school will . have relatively little positive impact on those schools and the services they are ' providing. In effect, one of our handicaps as black people emerging from the ashes of slavery and institutionalized racism is that we tend to think only in small terms and things. Success requires thinking big and accepting the challenge to do big things. This means, for example, if black colleges want to make big megabucks from football, they must have alumni support to build multi-million dollar athletic stadiums, substantially increase their athletic re cruiting budgets, and pressure the NCAA rated white schools to play them. After all, these large, predominantly white instituh y: tions themselves have built their athletic programs on the talents of black youth and get large television contracts. There are some primarily black colleges and univer sities - jackson State and Grambling, to name a few - that could do very well in really big time football with an initial and sustained network support system from their alumni. Black schools must first think big if they want to do big things What’s On Your Mind? Do you have something to say? Then do so for everyone to reaa. The Charlotte Post, the only other voice in town, welcomes all letters on various subjects. Letters to the editor must include your signature and address, both of which may or may not be used per your request. Please limit letters to 500 words. ^ Letters should be addressed to: Editor, The Charlotte Post, P. O. Box 30144, Charlotte. N.C. 2823A. BLACK COHfWNnBSyr THAT CARS ABOUT THE PUCK FUTURE SHOULD HOP IMPOSE 0*t>at HHBR6MeBDEa% . ---- - -- TWW . ,1 Answer To -Block On Block - Crlm.....Be«er T«om Work! Jl OlVfflranh IA In A/ rwi? t jo i mxD -*-■■■■■ m-jm.jlvfm. v/iiij*jlmru til i r i#** Sam Ervin called it “20th century witchcraft.” Some courts consider it inad missible evidence and others believe It. What is “it” - lie detector tests. Why do some presidents, police and private citizens believe in the polygraph or lie detector tests? Research has shown that the polygraph is in error one-third of the time. While this is stated fact, a least one million of American citizens will sub mit to the test this year. Although the polygraph is not the most appealing of methods in proving guilt or innocence, a great many peo ple do believe in them. It is becoming common to see the polygraph used in screening jobapplicants and investiga tions of losses in business and industry. *? Frank Horvath, Director of the American Polygraph As sociation Research Center at Michigan State University, views the accuracy rate of the polygraph at 90 percent instead of the accepted 70 percent. The basis for this belief being fair and realistic in measuring the polygraph against other accepted me thods used. For instance, psychiatrists are commonly believed to be right 50 per cent of the time - eyewit ness information about the Sabrina ' i same. So upon conducting an investigation or screening, it can easily be seen or un derstood why some citizens Horvath g^Son to state that noone shbuld be denied or convicted solely on the polygraph results - but it should be used along with other information or evi dence to make the decision. In addition to this, there is some scientific information that people are not offended or scared of the polygraph. And the reason they consent is due to the method of questioning or line of ques tioning and who is admin istering the test. On June 26 of this year the House overwhelmingly ap proved the Young Amend ment, 333-71. The Amend * ' ‘ Yrli • :-'V T • THE CHARLOTTE POST North Carolina’s ; Fastest Growing fc. .. Weekly j704-376-0496 •The People's Newspaper" L~'- '.friff ■' 107 Years r Of Continuous Service ; Bin Johnson Editor. Pah. I Bernard Beeves Gen. Mgr. • Fran Farrer-Bradley Adv. Mgr. Dannette Gaither Office Mgr. Published Every 1 Thursday by The Charlotte Poet Pnbdehiag Company, Inc. Main Office. 1931S. Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 33303 Second Class Postage Paid at Charlotte Member, National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers -1 Association National Advertising Representative: Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. One Year omvw'iiui , Payable la AdVaace ' USPSNe.MSMO POSTMASTER Send Change of address te: ' Charlotte Post 1531 8. Camden Rd. Charlotte, N.C. 2*203 , ‘ rHi • I Miller Says My Sherman N. Miller Special To The Post Jacob Jacoby and David Mazursky in their article, “Hie Impact of Linking Brand and Retailer Images on Perceptions of Quality,” reveal how a store’s poor quality image can adversely affect the good quality image of products they sell. These chaps write, “When a product having a high image for quality is linked with a store having a lesser image for quality, the store’s image is helped by this association.. .and the brand’s image is harmed by this association.” Nonethe less, I wonder if these find ings are working to the de irimeni or many small busi nesses seeking good inexpen sive equipment to signifi cantly enhance their sales. I am often asked to give my recommendation on what is the best computer for an individual to buy. I usually respond with the same ad vice that a computer hack and salesman gave me. His advice was to call everyone old enough to have any in terest in a computer into a room and write down what they want the computer to do. One can then use this list to screen computer systems on the availability of soft ware and system cost. It is important to note that with out software the computer is much like a record player without records. This com puter hack’s method saved me several thousands of dol lars and our computer is used everyday by someoiMi, When pinned down to re veal the brand name of the computer my family chose, I first give people the items on our computer “do” list: Pro fessional Word Processing, Spread Sheets, Graphics, Data Base Management, Fi nancial Analysis programs, Children Learning programs and Games. Once I see that they realise we have some very serious computer uses in mind, I reveal that we have a Commodore 64. I bring them out of shock by suggesting that they do a cost and benefit assessment on the Commodore 64. This usually brings some re assessment of their previous ly held perception of the Commodore 64 as a toy.. If a small business wants an inexpensive computer to enhance its sales and record keeping capability it can purchase a Commodore 64 system for around $700. In' order for a small business to share in this outfall bounty of the Computer Age, it must first accept that computers like the Commodore 64 are not toys no matter who sells them. These computers can be compared to video tape machines that can play car Joon cartridges yet also re gularly run business or serious personal tapes Therefore, one should not feel discomfort going into stores like Toys R Us to seize upon good deals on a busi ness computer or its soft ware. Slow program bperation and limited computer me mory are key drawbacks to using the Cotnmodore 64. One must run smaller spread sheets, link many smaller written documents together to form a larger one, and so on. Operations, such as Spelling Checkers that require only a few se conds on an IBM PC XT, may take a few minutes to ac complish on the Commodore 64. The issue becomes, “How fast does one really need the computer to run to get his task completed efficiently?” A small contractor recent ly challenged me to reveal my hidden agenda for using a Commodore 64. I told him that I wrote all my articles on the Commodore 64 be cause I did not have to worry about prolonged down time from computer breakdowns. I pointed out that a new computer costs only $139 so I can simply replace it when it does finally breakdown. He told me he was going out to get a Commodore 64. I hope American consum ers start to view computers similar to telephones, radios, televisions, and record players That is, the store that sells these items has little impact on their functional capability. People failing to realise that a Com modore 64 computer bought from a store like Toys II Us which accomplishes the same tasks as many brand name computers purchased from a computer store will have the dubious honor at paying a significant pre mium for a trip 1hrough%^ “Gentryland.”^' ment authorizes a program of random counter intelli gence polygraph examina tions of ail Defense De partment personnel with ac cess or clearance to classi fied security information. The reason for the Amend ment is that the polygraph exams are one of the best tools available to combat espionage. For more than 3C years thp Central Intelli gence Agency and the Na tional Security Agency have conducted the exams with noted success in de tecting possible negative fac tors that could jeopardize national security. £ ^Adm. John Butts, Director th/'p»lygraph aPatSrnTof screening to be a big deter rent to espionage. What Adra. Butte is basing his de cision upon is the. fact that many convicted spysrand the like, who know they would not pass the test, claim that they would not have con trived the acts they are ac cused of. Valid point! But if the Department of Defense is not responsible for national security - then who is? The Young Amendment poses to place the necessary tools in the Department’s hands to be used, Intelligently, in the effort to combat espionage. , The real question or pro blem with the polygraph is how widespread the use of it in the private sector has be come. In must states, em ployers require job appli cants to submit to polygraph tests or when an obstruction has occurred. It is at that time that suspected employ ees are subjected to a kangaroo court - the poly grapher acts as the judge and jury in the case and the punishment being dismissed from the position and os tracism. A bill that would prohibit this has been intro duced in Congress. Laws similar to this have been enacted in several states Nevada casino operators rely heavily on the poly graph whereas they are not admissible in New Jersey - New Jersey has a lower theft rate among casino employ ees than Nevada. Business in Minnesota is still going on as usual even after the me sz&izssrt ployee in Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, or New York more than likely will undergo such a test, unless Congress puts Its foot down and enacts state tSf^^fos'onwten' where, and how the poly graph la to be used. It Is ironic that lawmakers gg&Suu£ more and leas, if any, in industry.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Aug. 15, 1985, edition 1
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