Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / April 9, 1987, edition 1 / Page 2
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Labels And Social Change Most Americans believe that the nation has two major political parties - Democratic and Republican. Yet, a careful analysis of the ideological or philosophical thinking and values of the individual members of the two Houses of Congress would reveal that there •are many Democrats and Republicans who •have such nearly identical views that they •could more oppropriately be called conserva tive. Likewise, another group of Democrats/ ;Repubtieans could be called liberals. While •we frankly deplore the use of labels, they •serve a useful purpose for illustrating what •we are seeking to explain and comment on. •Our opposition to labels arises from the fact jthat the general public too often "brands'* an •elected official a liberal or conservative •based on actions involving a few legislhtive {decisions. Furthermore, most members of •Congress and state legislatures admit to ba ling a Democrat or Republican but few will {willingly accept the "liberal" pr {"conservative" label unless it provides a par ticular political advantage in a given situa Itson. { \ A case in point can be seen in a recent Los ;Angeles Times analysis of the actions of the {so-called "Rehnquist Court." This phase, of course, refers to the U.S. Supreme Court with William Rehnquist as Chief Justice follow ing Warren Burger’s retirement and Presi dent Reagan's elevation of Rehnquist. Fur thermore, with the appointment of Antonin Scalia to the high Court seat vacated by Rehn quist, both of whom are considered to be con servatives, "...the Reagan administration ; hoped,” as stated by the LA Times, "to tilt the Supreme Court toward the right, that iS, to ^haiva a cohservatiSb 1 staling. / V. ^ vr h# - By definition, conservatives generally op pose change and favor the Status quo. There fore, they oppose affirmative action^frograms designed to enable blacks and jjtomen to off set past years of racial and sexist discrimi nation. For example, seniority systems as a basis for job advancement or promotions are in and of themselves biased because in too •• many cases blacks and women have only in recent years been able to get some kinds of employment under relatively new Civil , Rights laws. Thus, affirmative action pro , people to ef bels And Textbook Bias Consistent also with the issue of labels has been the emergence of controversies over pub lic school textbooks. The current central is sues revolve around two hotly debated issues. In Alabama, U.8. District Court Judge W. Brevard Hand has ruled that about 30 text books used in his state, mostly in social stud ies, history and home economics, are in vio lation of the U.S. Constitution's provisions on separation of church and state because they promote a creed, a religion that the judge defines as "secular humanism." V _ 0t;^er r®d-hot issue centers around a ' California Bicentennial Commission's ap proval of a textbook that refers to black chil dren as pickaninnies" and say slave own ers were the worst victims of the system. Sale rf the book was stopped on February 0. The funds from the sale were being used to rdise money for California's observance of the Bi centennial of the U.S. Constitution. The book, The Making Of America," was published by a conservative organisation based in Salt Lake City. Thus the book was published by an organization that is not sen sitive to the needs and concerns of black peo ple. The California Commission issued an apology and said it was a serious error in judgment. On the "secular humanism" issue, Judge Hand's sweeping decision appears to us to be weakened by his assumption that humanism is somehow a religion. It seems bad enough that textbooks, especially in U.8. history,., have increasingly exhibited a disregard for the historic role of Christianity in the devel opment of this nation, but too many other spe cial interest groups have also tried to sup press historic facto, i.a., the Great Depression of-the 1930s. Such suppression by labeling biased groups endangers our very identity as a nation and erode* the historic foundation of our heritage. { i m®w r By Gferald O. Johnson H A war is waging over the issue of School-based Health Clinics. Without a doubt the subject is very sensitive. Both sides are us ing emotionalism and sensational - ism to get their points across. The unfortunate truth as you muddle through the (acts lie* somewhere between the two sides. It is a fact that 1.1 million teens become pregnant each year. This figure represents 11 percent of all teens between the ages of IS and 19. Based an this feu proponents of the school-based health clinics feel that teens need the accearibili ty to sex counseling tnd to contra ceptives. This, they feel, will help curb the alarming increase in teen age pregnancy. Opponents of the clinics feel that this whole issue is "a battle over the morals of our children", i They offer as evidence the asso Planned Parenthood had 300.000 clients and a budget of 11 million dollars. In 1980 the figure had in creased to 1,500,000 teen clients and a budget of over 442 million • dollars. The increase in exposure nents of school-based health clin ics argue that this intrusion of the family responsibility is only an other ploy ty Planned Parenthood and other Government funded health organizations to insure their future. r Moreover, l|e opponents claim that the increase in contraceptive education has led to an i&rtase in abortion rates by teenagers. Instead Ijftegnancy. the health are reducing births } moling abortions, the st They feel the in I ive distribu <rew will be ta 10% u m • Only 34% of non-while teen pregnancies ends in abortion as compared to 40% of white teens. Hence, more non-white teens will have their kids. * Two-thirds of babies bom to teens result from unintended preg nancy. • The birth rate among black teens is double that of white teens, indicating that young black women are more likely to continue (heir pregnancy. ; ^ * The maternal mortality rate is higher than for any other age group; the maternal mortality rate among black teen mothers is more than double that of white mothers .! .g (16.6% as compared to 7.6%). . • Younger mothers are more like ly to have higher infant mortalities, babies with birth defects, and men ’tnl retardation. Gerald - that will teach diem morals; I hope not. Furthermore, how do you teach sexually active teenagers ab stinence. This type of education must start well before a youngster reaches their teen yean, lit is esii- i cordingly. We are putting a whole genera tion and possibly future generations at risk by not seriously considering programs that may provide some type of assistance to our teens. To date the voices being heard in Charlotte are from disturbed parcfttt whose kids this program was not intended to serve^Their kids have alternatives available to them that a lot of kids do not have. Unfortu nately. the kids who would benefit from the service have no representa tion at the meetings that will deter mine the fate of school-based health clinics in the Charlotte M*cUeobeiB School System. Education and contraceptive distri-' bution for sexually active teens can be an effective tool to help Tight diis growing problem. 1 think it is a bit naive to try and pin the prob lem of teenage sexuality on contra prooiem stems from a promiscuous society of which teens aTa p*t To downplay the problem by ig noring the realities of what axist is irresponsible. The school-based health clinics am not the total an swer. bat I do think they have a place in what may turn out to be a problem requiring a myriad of ap proaches to arrive at a sohnian. • V f:'» JW?*. . ->»!: -MtfKKia' 4 America s Powerful Customer Leverage With Foreign Clients percent of a com pa __JMws quite often ac tor 80 percent of ite sales ! Thus business strat worry a great deal arge customers because purchasing lever business. If we as America is a large (United States of file.), then America significant cus :a on the oil ax is (e.g., Organ roleum Export ries (OPEC)) world. America’s cus ought to be media reports 12 Wall Street commodity leum imports free flow of oil into world A ^ » A ^ ^ I S# SfcS • '..tt jiUxi *- * W*'* • 3 Inman N. Miller can people by ■uppre.sing' the a new world oil price atruc ’ ture look, like a'claeeic a., ample of the Cheat Chinee# W«r philosopher Bun Tau'a principle* on maneuvers in war. *H« who Wishes to snatch an advantage takes a devious and distant route and rngkes of It the short way," wrote Sun T*«i. "He turns ififtfcrtttne to hi* advantage. He deceives and fools the ene my to make him dilatory and Sun Tsu pointed out that this strategy is dangerous if ft is not applied with skill. Thus there It a real opportunity for America's leadership to make OPEC’s latest attempt to drive up world oil prism backfire. It entails the American press becoming strange bedfellows with the energy companies. Michael E. Higgins, man •**r technical maintenance support for Florida Power Corporation, says they have learned to control their elec L trie generations coat by being . hble to readily switch to faels iHth attractive economics. That is, they employ coal, oil, and nuclear generators and they bring on line a mix of these generators that gives op timum fuel economics. This operational system permits Florida Power to counter balance high oil prices with economical coal from the United 8tates of Amerioa, Australia, and 8outh Ameri ca. Acsordfng to Higgins, the United 8tates presently has 200 plus years of provsn coal reserve*. Racist South Africa bM demonstrated ffigfVna. Uou can exploit its abundant coal resources to obviate for aign nations anargy •fo on their eoonoany. Whv then, is the United State* of America not brandishing it* orecT nmH bef°™ Americas press must play up these creative operational systems that destroy OPEC's^ strangle-hold on world oil priest. Imagine if America's 1 pme took the mindset that w. will highlight the nation's strength, in addition to restively reporting on its weaknesees.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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April 9, 1987, edition 1
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