Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Sept. 24, 1987, edition 1 / Page 2
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Is From The Primary in last Tuesday'* primary elections, Char lotte s voters began the two-month long pro cess of deciding who will be their guardians of the public purse, policy makers for public services, foreeasters of the City** fixture, and quite possibly trendsetters by being leaders in the Carolina*' largest city for the next two years. However, even before the first primary bal lot was cast, it was known that some change in the make-up of the City Council was evi dent because two incumbents had *nniwni^ that they would not seek reelection. Five term Republican at-large member Minette Trosch and two-term District 1 Democrat Pam Patterson are not seeking roeleethm. Vying to win the at-large Council seat be ing vacated by Ms. Trosch is neweomer Jeff Williams, the fourth highest vote getter in the Democratic Party at-large seat primary. Williams 2,496 votes left him for behind frontrunner A1 Rousso with 8,664 votes, five term District 3 Council member Ron Deeper with 8,108 votes in his first at-large bid, and incumbent Cyndee Patterson with 6418 votes. These Democrats will foes a formidable Re publican foursome headed by incumbent Richard Vinroot and former County Com missioner Qus Campbell in the November general elections. The primary will result in seme new Aces at the district level. Businessman Stan Campbell, a raaor thin 86 vote loser to Allow Republican District 6 incumbent Ann Ham* mond two years ago, turned the tables and won by a 1,187 to 981 voter margin on Tues* day. In the seoond of two most competitive District raoes. District 7 inoumbent Republi* can Gloria Fanning's 1,1 U. votes were tnough to stop Vic Bell with 950 votes. Fanning's victory is tantamount to win* nlng the November 8 election beoauso she has no Democratic Party opposition. Likewise, in Districts 1 and 8 the Democratic primary winners will have no opposition. The west side's District 8 will have a new representa tive for the first time in a tan-year period when Ron Leeper was elected as the district's first Council member in 1977. Ella Scarbo rough, a former school board candidate, won District 3's democratic primary in a field of three with 931 votes to 433 for City Sanitary worker Samuel L. Carr and 96 votes for Paul Recard, a five-year City resident and owner of a painting company. Likewise, incumbent District 3 Council member Charles Dannelly's 1,684 vote win over City policeman Steve Barker with 906 votes assures him a November 8 election win because there is no Republican opposition. In the District 1 Democratic primary, Bob Davis'1489 votes and Dan Olodfolter's 1,009 votes led a field of five and puts them in a pri mary run-off because no one had a clear ma jority of the votes east Davis is a public school principal and a former chairman of tire Mecklenburg County Democratic Party. Clodfelter is current chidrman of the Plan ning Commission. In the lackluster RepubUo mayor primary, former one-term Council member 8ue My ■■ in S lopsided 6,767 to 806 margin. •1m ba MpniMinf your' afaeuhfeaJ*! ■uaa of roads, allagad inaffleianoy in my. arnmant and many rolatad ls.utsas wa\p. homo antPffctnily.’ ^ ##mmun,ty *nd yottr : As general election time approaches, some ; candidates for public office begin to seek : straws and propose simplistic solutions to : complex problems in the hop* of swaying vot ;*rs. Unfortunately, too, many voters are too :oftcn swayed by such emotional appeals that foil for below the level of common sense and or a thoughtfol analysis and understanding of the issues. For example, much of the heated dlsouaalon about roads appears to miss the oootral point of who has the responsibility for providing roads, at what level and what responsibility does the private sector have. The city or state : could unrealistically provide numerous six lane roads to get the thousands of cars down town in the morning and out in the evening in a somewhat more timely manner than at present. However, as we expand these roads we sim ply have a supply side economics situation in that motor vehicles will fill these roads to near oapaclty Just as they are now in those rush hours of 7 to 9 a.m, and 4 to 6 p,m. daily •xcopt on waaksnds. Beonomloi of tsals do In Ikot mnka it unrsalUtlo to try and build mora and mora roads to masthsavy damands for only four hours par day, flva days par wash. Thus, mora roads as suoh is not ths solution uniats it Is dona in sonsart with soma action and saoriflss by thosa who usa suoh roads. Reduced to the bade point, If the 60,000 plus people who rush to work In downtown Char lotte were on staggered work schedules with one-third beginning work at 7:48 a.m., one third at 6:80 and one-third at 9:18 we oould, with some fine tuning, reduce the traffic juts at the peak travel hours fey two-thirds, This too may sound overly simplistic. How ever, with a publi(^private Joint oommitenant, our traffic problems oould be eased somewhat without spending one dime. Planned eity growth, more efficiency In government *nd private business and a better disbursement of the public schools oould be achieved In a more healthy living environment if we begin to think and then act on these things. [N.C. s Poor Children Are Worse Off Now There ere mere poor children in North Caroline today than there were 30 yean ago, and in many reepeota they an worn off. Thai la tha dUoouraglnf nawa in a meant report laeued by tha North Caroli na Child Advocacy Institute. A quarter of the children in our state live in poverty. Thia should concern thoughtftil North Carolln Ians. Studlee hava shown that chil dren growing up in poverty an more likely to hava low calf esteem and caaaacive ratee of high school dropout, cchool failure, teenage pregnancy, and juvenile delinquency. While the proportion cf children In poverty ha* been growing, many vital program* dedgncd to halo poor ohildron have boon out back. Eighty percent of the fund ing for poverty-related programs U federal funding. Thus, it Is not surprising that corns of these pro grams have suffered drastic cut backs in recent years, while other shave not kept pas* with inflation. The sharp 14 percent drop in funding for child welfare pro gram* overall is ironic, given re cent attention to th* plight of abused and nsglseted children. Th* out* mean, among other things, that county social services workers in North Carolina have fewer recourse* oven though th* number of abused children has In creased IS percent or bom in re cent yean. The main program In North Carolina to help poor fkmlllec with children meet their bads needs Is Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDO). That program provides $8.94 per child per day, which is ona third of the poverty levd. And only one of every three eligible poor children actually re odvee this help. Fewer fkmillee re celved support from AFDO In IMS then In 1884. TOO school breakfast and lunch program, tho main ohlld nutrition program, reaches fewer poor chil dren today. Budget cutbacks and eligibility changes have resulted in *7,000 poor children in North Oar ollna being out out of tho program. for poor children, tho lack of hoalth oaro can bo devastating in term* of bofh social and financial coots. Almost half of tho teenagers giving birth in North Carolina in 1IM had little or no prenatal care, and l^M had low birth-weight ba biee. Despite increased state fend ing fcr ddld hoalth oaro, the North Carolina infant mortality rate con tinues to bo one of tho highest in tho nation. What can bo dons about this bleak situation, in which one of every fcur children in North Caro lina is exposed to a grim and harsh oubdotenoo on tho fringe of society and a aeoend-dass chanoe at lift In their early years? The ideal solution, of sourso, would bo for parents to have jobs that allow them to adequately sup port their children. But many par ents are not employed and many others who do work are paid a minimum wags which la so lew that they are still In poverty. In fhot, «0 percent of the children in poverty In North Carolina are in families where at least one parent la working. We need minimum wages to be established above the poverty level. When job* are not available to •new parents to rapport their chil dren, we muet ensure that there are program* eet up to alleviate th* harsh effect* of poverty, lhon w* muet bo rare that they are actu ally reaching the children for wham they were intended. Aa Individual*, w* have an obli gation to enwro that our comma nitioa roopond to th* need* of our moet vulnerable children. We can bring children's need* to th* atten tion of county commlcci on are, echool bawd member*, legislator*, and the heads of private and pub lic agendeo. We can help ae volun tom and contributor! to private and public program*. Ae John De wey once said, it is the teet of* so ciety to have ritisana who want for other children what they want fbr their own child. . /*>.*♦■ ■* ' ’, % ■ t-T • *5*■<&£>{& r >v .'^ ^i'',c V ■* ’ | Theory On The Existence Of Hate Groups I have always found the his tory of slavery to be a very in teresting and thought provok ing subject. The one lesson it has taught me is to be leery of the obvious. This lesson has caused me to develop my own theory on hat# groups. The theory finds its roots in the history of slavery and cur rent events surrounding sub versive activities of hate groups. Black people were not the first people in this country to be used as slaves. The first were probably the Irish. But, white skinned slaves were difficult to trull because they blended in with the rest of the society, if they escaped. Moreover, they were not well adapted to working in the sun. in# Uhinm r#pl#o#d th# Irish to make It easy to Identi fy slaves. Their skin color and Aslan features made them easily identifiable, If they escaped. Unfortunately, their small body builds caused them to tire easily un der the heat of the sun. Thus, the crop production was not what was desired. Bliekr were discovered as race for slavery. We wirtf easily identifiable from the rest of the population and we were strong. Our skin col or made us less vulnerable to the rays of the sun. Once Blacks were intro duced to the Southern cotton forms, the South began to pros per. The increased cotton pro duction caused both sotton and Slave trading to become key ingredients of the countries Gross National Product. with T7TT—'-, 1 -i1. •' . At.the cotton and slavery prospered, it attracted unscru pulous individuals into the marketplace. These individ uals used whatever means available to find and bring Afrioans to this country. They began to Invade villag es, wreck towns, and literally steal strong Black males and females for slave trading. Only the strong could sur vive the long boat ride from Africa to America and still be fit for trading. Tha unaerupulouanaaa and vielouanaaa of obtaining alavaa atartod a human rlghta movomont by aoma whito ra ligioua fhctiona.: ^ Thia raalitanoa was mat with vlolanaa. Paopla wara killed fbr trying to put an and to alavary. Blaaka wore olaaslflad aa sub-human oroiturea to atom tha rising tide of raaistanaa. Hata groups* wara formed to carry out tha will of those who stood to lose tha moat; tha cot ton producing formers. A calculated movement of brainwashing white America into believing that Blaak skinned paopla wara dumb, ignorant, and animalistic took root Newly formed hate groups used foreefUl methods te help convince any reluctant be* , lievere. The rest is document ed history. The key point in this lesson is hate groups are used and sometimes formed to main tain an economic status quo. An interesting corollary - can be drawn between this theory and the Greensboro shoot out several years ago that resulted in five Commu nist leaders being killed. The Communist leaders were very active union orga nisers. They had been active ly seeking to organise unions in several counties in the State. The 8tate of North Caro-' Una does not exactly roll out the red carpet welcoming un ions to oome on down. What makes this so inter esting is with all tha shooting that took place, in what ap peared to ba a freniy, tha in dividuals killed ware key to tha union movement. Tha whola inoidant was built up as a "Klan hates Communists and Blaok folks" confrontation. But, I wondar if there wouldn't ba more to this whola thing. Tha open, public vio lenoe is not characteristic of these hata groups. Tha ohosen targets seam not to ba coinci dental. 1 wondar ifthlseould ba another oasa of using hata poups to disguise tha intend ed purpose. This is just a theory and has no factual research to support any of tha allegations. But the Incidents surround ing the shoot out and the sub sequent handling of tha ease leaves room fbr doubt Need For Jobs Is An Issue Of Fairness Tha man tarn undenlaaa" be* oona toahlonable In aortal artanaa rtralaa about 18 yaara ago and ia baak In tha nawa again ainaa tha ralaaaa of tha Now York Olty* baaad Oommlttaa tor laonanla Davalapmant report laat waak which aoundad an alarm that tha iataaloratlng public education aya* tan waa creating a "parmanant undaralaaa of young paopla" in tha United Btatao. , There is no doubt that this ooun try'e educational system le not ed ucatlng our youth, not preparing them for productive and prosper, ouc future*. But the fbflure of the school system le premeditated; ltfe by dedgn. Our eodety is fbroed to >wop a mase of people unskilled end uneducated beeeuee it has no Jobe and no opportunity to offer large numbers-of our people. Ike policy lc to hoop people unem ployed and underdeveloped. What le the Implication of thlc term "underdme"f It euggeets that the poorest people In our eodety, including very large numbers of people of color, arc not a port of the working dace of America. It •de up a division among working people - It means that the working elase la divided into the "etablo, "respectable," "working" elements end the "disreputable" poor-the untouchablee-typically people of wder. It indicate* that the poorest members of the working elase are not really workers, and are the**, fore net the problem of "real" **ldng people but parody on them. Underdose is thus a funda mentally dlvidve term; intention. ally or not, it is used to keep work lng elaae people separate from end in foot antagonistic towards each other • In thdr community, In the church, even inside the fkcnUy. A* our economy deteriorates, propaganda about a "recovery" notwithstanding, increasing mini bon of working tlui mon and woman do not work for a wage. That la became our falling educa tion ayatem doca not teach tha •Mila that would make them worth hiring, aomothing even the oorperate-eponeored Committee far Economic Development aa knowledge#, though even If tha ad uoatlanal ayatem waa more pro ductive, there are not enough Jobe to no around. Million* in thl* country need and want Job#. MUllona need and want Job training, a decent educa tion, quality eupport aervleee for working mother#, day can, and on and on. But in aplto of the fket that tha majority of Americana favor thdoe program#, they are not en acted a# public policy. Serial pell, ey la incraaalngly at odd# with what the people want became ae rial policy la not defined by the majority of the people, but by a anudl and Immoral minority. The probable confirmation of federal appeals Judge Robert Book to the Supreme Court le a eaae In point Ronald Reagan's nominee la a dyed in the wool reactionary whose tenure an the Court guar antees deeadee of anti-people, pro big badness deddona that would savage the already jeopard!ted righto of peer and working people, Blaeks, women and gays in this country. Yet deepite the masdve grassroots oppodtion to Ms nomi nation, and despite the fast that there is a Democratic Forty major ity in the Senate where the nomi ■LUCK emuuiiiiment nation wd be (bolded. Belli haa an •van-money ehanoe of being con ■ firmed later thie month. Why? Because the email and im moral mlnorlty-tha Democratic *?*. Bepublican monopoly which oontmla public policy in thie country-eervee very specific in toraats-thoee of white corporate America. The monopoly of the so oalled major parties leaves the ma jority of the people out of th# for mutation of publis policy Juat as pro-psopl# candidates are exclud ed from the electoral process by ballot assess requirements for in dependents and third partiee that are virtually impossible to moot and Juat as it excludes tho people themselves from the process. Of the 79 countries in the world wtdeh have some form of particip atory democracy, the United Stetee ranks 7Bth in voter partici pation. Half the country's regis tered voters did not vote in the lest national election. That two-party monopoly is inherently unfoir. I am convinced that a crucial •truggle in the 1990c and beyond will be the struggle for folr elec tions, which will engage the lack of democracy In this country end the failure of th* political ayatem to tranalate our derives and demands for Job* and service# into public policy.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 24, 1987, edition 1
2
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