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THE TRIBUNAL AID
IVEDNESDA^ , JANUARY 30, 1974
TH VIEWS er THE WIITEB'S UE HOT UWHS THOSE OF THE PIPEI’S
You’re A Part Of The Solution, Or You’re A Part Of The Problem ’
THE
POINTER
by Albert A. Campbell
Community Control...?
In this the so-called “Basketball Capital of
the Country”, apparently professional
basketball can not survive. The statement just
made I hope is untrue, because I personally
would like to see the only major league sports
team we have in this area remain.
As most of you know by now, The Carolina
Cougars, this area’s only big league team is
not only considering moving to another
location, but financially, they are compelled to
relocate in a more supportive community.
The Cougars came to the Piedmont Triad
area and established their headquarters in the
Greensboro Coliseum Complex because of the
coliseum’s capabilities. The coliseum in
addition to its large seating capacity, was
uniquely located where it also served a 100
mile radius that included approximately one
million people. Certainly with that kind of
potential, most sports teams would consider
the location attractive.
However, over the past four and one half
years, the Carolina Cougars’ attendance has
continuely fallen. The decline in attendance
can not in any way be equated with the caliber
of ball the Cougars have played over the
years; The last of which was Division
Champions. A championship team demands
and normally receives support from its area
fans, but not so in this area and the Carolina
Cougars. The fans as well as the surrounding
business community seem to take the team for
granted. It is as though we the fans are doing
the team a favor by allowing them to locate in
this area. We have adopted the attitude that
we are entertaining them instead of them
entertaining us. They are at our disposal...and
only when we need an added attraction.
In many areas throughout this country, the
areas professional sports team is usually the
pride and joy. It is the areas most popular
conversational topic as well as the number one
attraction. When looking at professional
basketball on television, you will sometimes
get a feeling of total committment from the
home team’s fans. Home-made signs are
decked throughout the arena claiming
goodness for their home team. Support comes
' from the entire community, and usually the
attendance is very good. Why then can’t the
same be here in this area? Is not the Carolina
Cougars a top quality basketball team? After
all, that team is loaded with some of the best
talent in the country. What else could any
community ask for, or is this area just not
ready for clean family fun?
Additionally, the Black community certainly
should look upon the Cougars as a boost to
Black economic community. There is no other
industry in this area that pays so many Blacks
salaries comparable to those of the Carolina
Cougars. Ask the players themselves, why do
they continue to play ball year after year. I’ll
bet the answer will be plain and simple.
MONEY.
This in itself is enough inducement to
encourage more Blacks to support the efforts
of community development. Personally, I feel
that Black attendance has not been what it
could have been, as compared to other
locations.
Before it’s too late, before the Cougars are
forced to relocate somewhere else, before this
area is again without a major league
basketball team, let’s all take another look at
what we have here. Do we want to lose our
largest attraction, or do we really care?
Can we sacrafice a bottle of scotch for a
more meaningful experience, or are we
incapable of appreciating other activities?
I would like to see the Cougars stay, and
with a little help from the entire community,
yes the Blacks also, I think they can.
THE TRIBUNAL AID
122H Montlieu Avenue
(919) 885-6519
P. O. Box 921
High Point, N. C. 27261
Published Every Wednesday
By Tri-ad Publications, Inc.
Mailed Subscription Rate
$3.00 Per Year ,
Payable In Advance
Albert A. Campbell,
Managing Editor
TO BE EQUAL
by Vet^non E. Jordan, Jr.
Discharge Codes Still
Discriminate; Deny Jobs
A broad attack is being mounted
on the way discharges from the
armed forces are being used to
deny jobs to people who would
otherwise qualify for them, and if
it is successful the country will
have taken a major step toward in
securing civil liberties for veterans
and in dismantling a system that
encourages widespread discrimi
nation.
Impetus to the movement to end
abuses of the army’s classification
system came recently in a Federal
Court decision striking down a
town’s ordinance that limited city
jobs to veterans with an honorable
discharge.
Thus, the Court struck at a
practice common to private
industry as well as government, a
practice that discriminates against
people on broad grounds that do
not take into account the
individual’s circumstances or the
discharge’s relevance to the job at
hand.
Just how discriminatory this
practice is becomes obvious when
we consider that about a million
veterans left the service with less
than honorable discharges since
1950 - nearly 200,000 in the
Vietnam era alone.
And most of these discharges
were given under circumstances
that would not earn any sort of
punishment in civilian life. The
system of military justice has a
well-earned reputation for capri
ciousness and a dishonorable or
general discharge might only be a
whim of a commanding officer or a
non-com’s grudge.
So the Court’s ruling is a step
toward returning full civil rights
and equal job opportunities to
hundreds of thousands of people
unfairly denied them. But there is
another, less known aspect about
discharges that discriminates
against the millions of other men
who have, or think they have,
honorable discharges.
That is the secret code the
services place on honorable
discharges. There are over 200
such code numbers, each standing
for some personal characteristic,
and most big employers have
access to the number code. So if a
veteran shows up at an
employment office to apply for a
job, an employer can see his
discharge papers, note that the
SPN -- separation program
number - indicates the man’s
personal habits or sexual activities
or family problems noted, and
deny him the job.
The really vicious part about all
this is that the veteran himself has
no idea what the code number
means or why it was put there. He
had no opportunity to challenge it,
can’t determine who made the
judgement, or do anything about it
immediately.
All this compounds the
employment problems faced by
minorities, especially since racial
attitudes on the part of some
officers and non-coms is prejudi
cial. And with blacks making up a
fifth of today’s army, the problem
is bound to become worse.
The core issues here are the
veteran’s right to privacy and the
army’s right to make personal
judgements about the men who
serve. The armed forces’ job is to
defend the country against
external aggression, not to erect a
secret code system that follows
veterans back to civilian life. The
Army has more important things
to do than to serve as a screening
unit for corporate personnel
departments.
Right now the battle is being
fought in the courts, although
there are indications that some
Congressmen will fight to restrict
this code numbers game and that
the armed forces themselves will
try to streamline the system to
guard against greater abuse.
But reform isn’t what’s called
for. The system has to be uprooted
completely if civil liberties are to
remain intact and fairness served.
The Pentagon ought to move
swiftly to end the coding system
altogether and to refuse to honor
all requests for personal informa
tion about veterans. In fact, it
ought to do away completely with
the discharge system, merely
giving each serviceman a
certificate of separation when he
enters civilian life.
THE ROY WILKINS
COLUMN
Black Mayors Say It-
‘Crime Must Go’ - NOW!
If there had been any doubt that
a Negro mayor just might not have
an understanding of the principal
problems of the whole city, rather
than those of the areas where
black citizens live, the doubt
should be resolved by the
inaugural speeches of the two new
black mayors of Detroit, Mich.,
and Atlanta, Ga.
Both declared that crime was
one of the big problems and both
urged their citizens to help reduce
it. Now crime, despite propaganda
popular in some localities, is not
racal. It is neither black nor white.
When white people have been
mugged or have had a relative
attacked or killed by black
criminals, it is difficult for them to
be cool, objective, non-racial. The
grief and bitterness are so great
that it is hard to have a fair and
balanced point of view.
Yet Mayor Coleman A. Young
and the 35-year-old Mayor
Maynard H. Jackson both know
that crime is a city problem.
Detroit fashioned its 1973 killing
record and handed its black Mayor
Young the label, “The Murder
Capital of the World.” Atlanta
gave its young Mayor Jackson “a
soaring crime rate.”
Both of these elected men know
that a city cannot grow and have
an extraordlriafy' crime rate.
Businesses leave crime-ridden
cities. The tax base shrinks; fewer
enterprises, large and small, see
the tax collector. Not only does
crime drive the corporate
taxpayers away, but those who
must remain are senior citizens or
children, who are on the welfare
rolls or a very few dollars above
the poverty level.
Poor citizens, white or black,
require costly municipal services
such as schools, clinics and other
health services, garbage collec
tion, fire and police protection and
a dozen other items. Their tax
money does not stretch this far.
Deficits result and mayors become
gray-haired.
Mayor Jackson recognized that
crime and poverty go hand-in-
hand. He challenged Atlantans to
join him and the newly-elected city
council in combating crime and
poverty. He opined that if the
latter were eliminated, crime
could be reduced spectacularly.
Mayor Coleman Young in
Detroit had a 3-day inaugural and
spoke in soul brother language: “I
issue a warning now to all dope
pushers, rip-off artists and
muggers. It’s time to leave
Detroit. Hit the road! I don’t give a
damn if they are black or white, if
they wear Superfly suits or blue
suits with silver badges. As of this
moment,” Mr. Young said, “we
are going to turn this city
around.”
Three thousand people paid
$5.00 each to eat breakfast with
the new mayor.
Mayor Thomas Bradley, the
black mayor of Los Angeles, had
sounded much the same theme,
last July, with variations, of
course, as southern Californians
think of themselves as special
people. Thus it was clear that
black mayors, in order to be good
mayors, must be mayor of all the
people, not just the black people.
One black mayor elected two
years ago once said: “We found
almost the moment we got to City
Hall that there were a hell of a lot
of problems beside the race
problem.”
The good ones, like the good
ones of any race, will hack away at
crime and poverty (both of which
have been all over the world for a
few thousand years), at budgets
and taxes, at strikes, at political
doublecrosses, at slick performers
and at fleeing businesses and
whites heading for the suburbs,
leaving present troubles for those
of which they know nothing. The
bad ones, like the bad ones of any
race, we can get along without.
PIEDMONT
PROFILE
BY CECIL BUTLER
Time For Feeling Pensive
Today, as I write this column
I’m feeling particularly pensive.
Therefore I will take a different
tact with this article than I have
before. I have been thinking for
the last week, rather philosophi
cally, and have raised questions
which certainly have no clear
answer, nor do they relate directly
to politics. I would like to take this
opportunity to share some of these
questions and some of my thinking
with you.
Last week, I had the ironical
experience of celebrating Martin
Luther King’s birthday and
dealing with the game of emotions
that thinking about “That man”,
and “those days” cause in me!
(Nostalgia for the early civil rights
movement, the Greensboro sit-ins,
sadness, satisfaction for the
changes, and frustration because
there are miles yet to go.) Those
were the days when I was a young
man, in school, thinking, and
doing “my thing” to try to make a
difference.
The irony of that day was that
later that evening as I was rocking
my sleepless son who had
awakened, I saw an interview on
the Tomorrow Show with the
Grand Dragon of the Lousiana
Klan. Seeing this Grand Dragon,
this twenty-three year young man,
speak openly of his fears, his
hostility, and his belief in the
superiority of the white race was
not easy, especially since his
image crept into my mind’s
mirroring of the King memory.
As I watched this man speak, I
was aware that he embodied many
of the artifacts which supposedly
makes a secure, happy person. He
is well educated (a recent graduate
of L.S.U.), he did not speak of
childhood deprivation. He was a
successful young man. (His
youngness made me particularly
sad.) Yet I know that a man so
obsessed with hlarV movies,
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