Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Jan. 15, 1987, edition 1 / Page 2
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€ tutor iate The Television Mentality ~ White flipping the television dial two Sundays - past the violent movie "Rambo First Blood" appeaed and seemed to leap out like a roaring lion. The shock ofitwas suddenly seeing the crazed Rambo as he appeared to be indiscriminately and single-handedly burning down, blowing up, and riddling numerous buildings with ballets from an automatic rifle. This' too was a movie that grossed many millions of dol lars while on the nation's big movie screens just a few years ago. The shock of it also brought back to mind the many concerns that we adults profess to have abouX the potential harm of television, especially to chil- \ dreo. In fact in his book, "Creeping Compromise," Joe Crews says, "Children spend ooe-thiid of their waking hours under the artificial, hammering in fluence of ideas and philosophies which their pments do not originate and often do not even know about" Crews adds. "Of all TV programming 83% contains violence, and (even) 98% of cartoons depict violent action ...Western and detective dramas are not much better, because 97% of them contain violence." Ironically, and yet not loo surprisingly, even the nonviolent good life, good times side of television lias contributed to violence in the real world. Writer Gary Willi reminds us that when some businessmen in the 1960s were blaming riots in the black ghettos 00 radical elements, he encouraged them to drive their Quickly through black neighborhoods wd to ob ■" serve the "forest of TV antennas rising above most rundown housing." When these poor blacks saw and were exposed to the good life, via television, and had their expectations raised but denied by the reality of racism and discrimination, riots occurred in our urban Likewise, journalism professor Jane Brown at UNC-Chapel Hill says, "While it's taboo to talk about sex in many family situations, we allow our media to talk about it, (and) to show it to tu all the time." Brown notes too the so-called TV soap operas regularly expose their viewers to about 1.5 verbal mentions of sexual intercourse per hour, one act of erotic touching every two hours, and at least one ref erence to rape every U hours., and music videos are „ no betler. While it probably cannot be confirmed, one has to wonder how much of this kind of television viewing has influenced the 54% out-of-wedlock of all black births since 1980. We have to wooder too is there any TV ratationship to the fact that Mack wom en die in childbirth at three times the rote of white women in America primarily due to poverty and dis crimination. Undoubtedly, the biggest tragedy caused by TV fa the breakdown of family communication - people talking to people. The lack of communication fa a factor that helps lead the problems, noted herein - the tendency or potential toward violence and sex outside of marriage, to name but a few. Parents, let's check up on what our children are viewing an TV and let's check up on what we are watching on the boob tube also. TV too can be a way u> wane a good mind; don't let h be yourt or your young ones'. We have observed with ever increasing interest the somewhat feasible efforts of the National Collegiate , athletic Association (NCAA) to get on with the seri ous business of cleaning up the mess in collegiate athletics. The exploitation of athletes, chief universi ty administrators who conveniently ignore violations of NCAA rules by their athletic directors and coaches as long as they keep winning teams, the often exces sive commercial endorsements that coaches receive for the athletic shoes they require their players to wear, and die most ridiculous rule that everyone-lhe schools, the coaches, the television stations and tome ; - influential alumni-eam money from each sporting event played by the red stars, the student-athletes, who can get nothing for their efforts - a limited ath letic scholarship. Yet the TV revenues from a single game can be more thap enough to provide scholar ships for four years for an entire basketball team. We note loo the distasteful but quiet struggle go logon between the athfetic dfaedors and the univerei for control of the athletic programs, friction, no matter how small, is not good for collegiate sports. Lastly, and most disturbing to us, is the continu ing opposition of the CIAA to the NCAA's Proposi ' tion 48 that requires higher academic standards for athletes. If there is anything that blade youth need it is a greater academic challenge: Therefore, we cannot see for any reason why the CIAA would even consid er Withdrawing from the NCAA over an issue that will particularly affect blacks since there are so many of them participating in college sports programs. The fact is some athletic directors, coaches and ’ypproc chancellors don't have die confidence and the strong enough commitment to challenge and prepare Mack youth both on the court or gridiron and in the clasftoom. Yet, the Cam is such youth will for the most part rise totbe level of expectation demanded of ■' them. / ‘ Left face it, in the final analysis college sports is, or should be, part of the life training and preparation procea. Thus, values, habits and philosophies that may carry a youth through life should be taught along with naming thefootheH or shooting the bas ketball. Unfortunately, too little of this ia happening in cor colleges and universities. Therefore, it's time " for psrvais. the high schools from which youth we recruited and others at the local level id speak out Something On Your Mind? Then, fed free to apeak out ferough an editorial. AH letten to the editor should be sent to The Charlotte Foal, 1531 Camden Rd. Charlotte, NjC, 28203 | THE CHARLOTTE FOR I 'i, 1 'J f. * 7i u v r -‘‘UtsVi?t , . Sherman war philosopher Sun Tzu who wrote "Tne Art of War" over 2,000 years ago. In stu dying Sun Tzu's teachings, a Strategic rationale for Iran leaking the existence of the clandestine Americans arms deal can be surmised. "...Sometimes drive a wedge between a sovereign and his ministers," wrote Sun Tzu; "on other Occasions sep arate hit sllies from him. Make them mutually auspi cious so that they drift apart. Then you can plot against diem.” The Iranian leadership must be taking great pride in their ability to rekindle Watergate's disenchanting fervor in Amer ica's moral consciousness since it is a proven method of destroying a popular U.S. President They knew the American press would be gul lible for any information that would tarnish Ronald Rea gan's "Teflon Man" image. % ‘ ? yJ&L i• * v , vu unce tne Iranians got Pando ra's box open, they saw how quickly the link was esta blished between their arms deal and aid to the Nicaraguan Contras which brought on cries from America's con gressional leaders for a Wa tergate-style investigation. Tne above scenario fits the symbolism of SunTzu's prin ciples on the use of fire in ■ military attacks. "When fire breaks out in the enemy's camp immediately coordinate your action from without.. When the fire reaches its height, follow up if you can..." An example of how well the Iranian strategy is working can be seen in OPECs cur rent financial mugging of the American people in the midst of President Reagan's current credibility crisis. On Novem ber 29 in New Castle County, Delaware, my family pur- . chased fuel oil for 550 per gallon, in less than a month (December 24) at die same company oiljhad risen 23.6% to 680 per gallon (although we did find other local com panies selling fuel oil in the range of 710 per gallon down to 600 per gallon). The rad American tragedy which will guarantee that OPEC's high oil prices are not based on market demand is the impending USA con gressional world class media events. Congressional com mittees hope to determine what President Reagan knew and when he knew it. The _ Iranians could not have asked for a better scenario than a Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress versus a Republi can President with the U.S. general elections less than two years away. Another renown war philos opher, Carl von Clausewitz, 1 wrote a comment that should be heeded in the Congres sional investigations of the Iran/Contra deals and the sub sequent reporting on it by the national media. "The deceiver by stratagem leaves it to the person himself whom he is deceiving to commit the er rors of understanding..." Relapse 1b Major Problem Relapae to • major problem facing dn AlcoholUm end drag dependence Add. Although many raUpM-pNnc patient* do not rerpond, to tradition al method* of treatment, than it reducing the frequency, duration ant? (•Verity of relapea apitode* in treat ed patiutu*. Thi* workahop will naoaaaaay to undanutid and treat fie relapte-prone patient, review the extant of dta problem and explore tion* that block effective treatment. Taranaa Ooraki it the hHiH1 of CBNAFI Corporation, a con.ulu don and training Arm that apaeUl ixaa in aleohoHam. drug depen danoe, and mantal health earvfcee. Ha ia a Senior Certified Alcoholiam Cotmeaior and k a nationally racog nixod trainer and lecturer, aa wall aa articlee including 'Learning to Lira Again,’ Counaeling for Relapae Pre vention.’ and The Management of Aggraeeion and Violence." $ -IF! CAN DOM DUTY ASA CHRIST IAN OUGHT. IF I CAN 0R/NG SAL VATION TO A WORLD once Brought. IF I CAN SPREAD THE MESSAGE AS THE MASTER TAUGHT. THEN MYUV1NG WILL NOT BE IN VAIN. TP LIKE FDR SOME BODY TO SAY THAT PAY THAT MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. TRIED TO LOVE SOMEBODY" imm ■ HAS ms LIVING IN VAIN? Am I Sep h Preparation For Tax Simplification BY GERALD O JOHNSON The new Tax Simplification program became effective January 1, 1987. It is be coming quite apparent to eve ryone that the word simplifi cation was a public relations stunt to sell the package. The new tax is far from being simple. The only consolation we tax payers have is that the IRS doesn't understand it ei ther. But regardless of die difficulties we are going to face with the new tax laws, there are several things we can start doing now to ease the "end of the year" blow * that is coming. First, by October 1, 1987 anyone who is employed must file a new W4 form. A W4 form is the form that tells your employee how much to withhold from your paycheck each pay period for tax purpos es. I would suggest that you file your new W4 as soon as UP —.— » ‘ 7 «<?* «’J. i '■»'•!*# *. /• . :■** • A .7, ' . _ possible. Under the new tax law, you could possibly get a bigger paycheck just by filling out the form and returning it to your personnel department. When filling out the form, take all the deductions you ate entitled to. Do not understate your deductions to get a tax refund at the end of the year. Why? I'm glad you asked. By understating your deductions, you arc giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan of your money for over a year. You would not do this for anyone else, so why do it for the IRS. Claim all the deductions you are entitled to and manage die money yourself. The W4 form will be your first experi ence with the new Tax Sim plification law. It is by com parison a lot harder to fill out then W4's of the past. Hint! Hint! 4 If you itemize yqur taxes from year to year, then you will note that this year is the start of the elimination of in terest deductions. Interest from loans, credit cards, and the like will no longer be tax deductible. Interest on homes was the only thing spared with this type of deduction. Therefore, if you own your on home, you should open an eauitv account with a financial institution. An equity account is a line of credit secured by the equity in your home. It works like this. Let’s assume your home has an appraised value of $80,000. Moreover, let's assume you owe $30,000 in mortgages. Then financial institutions will al low you 75 per cent of the equity in your home to estab lish an equity account In our example you would have $50,000 equity ($80,000 val ue less $30,000 mortgage). Hence, you could open an equity account of $37,500. This money would in effect be a line of credit for you. Whenever you needed mon ey you would write a check and that check would ini tiate a loan in the amount of the check. Of coarse a fi nancial institution could give you the details on the account. Our purpose here is to utilize this tool as a fi nancial tax planning device. Equity accounts are consid ered home loans for tax purposes. Hence, an equity accoftnt could be used to pay off all of your other loans and credit cards, thereby retaining the interest deduction you currently re ceive. Another point worth considering is that equity loans are generally at much lower interest rates than credit cards and other types of loans. Therefore, they are better deals overall. As with any type of credit, though, you must use it wisely. • These are just two things you can do now as part of your tax planning for the new tax law. v.. • ^ *' i-V *
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 15, 1987, edition 1
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