PAGE 4
IHE TRIBUNAL AID
WEraffiSDAY. MARCH 12, 1975
EDITORALS
^You’re A Part Of The Solution, Or You’re A Part Of The Problem ’
TIE VIEWS OF TIE WIITEI'S ME NOT UWIYS TIOSE OF THE PtPEI'S
THE
POINTER
by Albert A. Campbell
The time is rapidly drawirg near for the city
elections. This year, 1975, for the first time.
High Point will elect some members to its
school boaid.
As we all know, the present school board
now has 2 Black board members who were
appointed by the City Council. This is in no
way an indication that the same will happen in
the elective process. I, therefore, submit to
the Black citizens of High Point that the need
for locating that “one” person or someone to
run for the school board is upon us.
If for some reason we have been lulled to
sleep in believing that we will be represented
through the elective process equally as much
as we are represented through the appointee
process, we are sadly mistaken.
As an example, I would like to just point out
some of the shocking and revealing statistics
that we are going to have to reckon with if we
are to elect a Black member to the school
board. In the last election, it was discovered
that 4500 votes was required to get someone
elected to the City Council. This, the.i, does nt
have too much of a meaning considering the
number of registered voters in High Point.
But, when you consider the low number of
Black registered votes and the even lower of
percentage of Black voters, it does create
anxiety.
High Point has approximately 2600
registered Black voters. Keep in mind, that it
takes 4500 votes to elect! With the low
percentage of Blacks going to the polls
(approximately only 1500 blacks vote), where
does that leave us???
The above statistic simply says that in order
for a Black to Be dected to an office in Hgh
Point, he is going to have to gain 3,000 votes
from the white community! Assuming, of
course, that he gets all of the 1500 Black
votes!
In my opinion, we must seek to find a black
who is popular in the white community as well
as in the Black community. The kind of
popularity needed to obtain 4500 votes in this
city cannot be acquired in just the short filling
period of an election!
As Blacks, we need to get together and look
at some of the realities that we will have to
face. In addition to finding that “super”
person, we must popularize him, through
involvement in the community, to both ethnic
groups.
Ihe time is now - not September! For if
that person is to gain the popularity that he is
going to need, he must now be doing his
homework. He must now be visiting the
various functions that are coordinated in this
city. He must also be a proven respected
person with a deep concern for whichever
office he will seek. THE TRIBUNAL AID
would like, in some way, to emphasize the
importance of this responsibility. And if
through the churches and the ministers, we
can locate that person, popularize that person,
and get the job done, we can also get that
person elected.
This, then, should be our Number One goal
in the city of High Point between now and the
filing date in September. If you haven’t
thought about it -- September will be too late
to think about it!
oo B ■ n ■ ■ B d o B e b
THE TRIBUNAL AID I
1228 Montlieu Avenue '
i f Post Office Box 921 Jt'bone [919] 885-6519]
High Point, N. C. 2 7261 i
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Black Perspectives by carl t. rowam
At the Embassy of Iran been too outspoken against South Africa. Hs
only reason for replacing Easum, the
Secretary said, was that some time ago he
realized he had no African policy and no Latin
American policy, and he wanted to “shake up
both bureaus from top to bottom.”
“An incredibly honest admission,” I said to
myself.
While the shakeup has been moving along
in Latin America, Kissinger said he felt
especially bad that Africa had been neglected
- mostly because he had been too busy
dealing with China, the Soviet Union and the
Middle East to give Africa proper attention.
Kissinger said that he first offered the job of
assistant secretary for Africa to John
Rinehart, a black officer who has recently
been ambassador to Nigeria and has been
named assistant secretary of state for public
affairs. Rinehart turned down the Africa post
on grounds that he didn’t think a black officer
ought to take on that job, Kissinger said.
The secretary said he then turned to Davis,
whom he regards as one of the finest men in
the foreign service. He said it never occurred
to him that Davis would be pilloried because
he served in Chile because “Davis did nothing
wrong” during the period when the Marxist
regime of Salvador Allende was overthrown.
Just as Kissinger began the dialogue with
remarkable candor in saying he disliked what I
had written (most bureaucrats would never
admit they had even read it), he was frank in
admitting that “the whole thing was handled
badly.” He conceded he and his aides should
have been more aware of African paranoia
WASHINGTON
the other evening I sat down to dinner with the
uneasy realization that only the dainty wife of
Rep. James Symington separated me from
Henry Kissinger.
Not much protection, considering that I had
just written a column and done a radio-TV
commentary that were sharply critical of
Kissinger.
(Why is it I always get seated next to
someone I’ve just given a journalistic karate
chop?)
Kissinger wasted not one second in
attempting to upbraid me for criticizing his
insistence on making Nathaniel Davis head of
African policy — even over the objections of
just about every black African foreign
minister. Kissinger challenged me for saying
that he had lost his cool in writing a bitter
letter denouncing the African ministers for
publicly criticizing his choice of Davis, our
former ambassador to Chile.
Not exactly being a shrinking violet myself,
there followed an hour of confrontation vastly
different from the chit-chat one ususally must
suffer at embassy dinners.
“I am obligated to defend Davis,”
Kissinger argued. “The integrity of the
Foreign Service is at stake. If I withdrew
Davis’s name now he would become
unacceptable in most countries of the world
and the career of an excellent man would be
ruined.”
Kissinger denied reports in the New York
Times and elsewhere that he sought to replace
Donald Easum with Davis because Easum had
TO BE EQUAL
by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
where anything that smacks of CIA
intervention” is concerned. He conceded that
if his goal was a bureau shakeup and the
institution of a realistic policy toward Africa,
then he should have called in the An’ican
ambassadors and told them this. He should
have said to them: “Beside me is Nathaniel
Davis. He is no ogre. No CIA assassin. Just a
good, tough officer who will end the era of
neglect of Africa.” Such a briefing could have
headed off that unprecedented meeting in
Addis Ababa where the ministers in the
Organization of African Unity tried, in effect,
to declare a Washington-based State
Department officer persona non grata.
Kissinger wound up that dinner
confrontation with a decision to ask his deputy
(Kissinger left for the Mideast the next day) to
meet with all the African ambassadors and
explain to them what the Davis appointment
was supposed to do. And when he gets back,
he says, he personally wants to say to the
ambassadors: “Watch us for a year. If Davis
and I haven’t made great progress in relations
with Africa, then criticize us.”
Though the gesture comes late, it is right.
And it takes a special measure of
statesmanship for Kissinger to make it in the
wake of all the criticism he has suffered. It will
take the same high statesmanship for African
ministers to say: “Fair enough. We don’t
want Davis’s scalp. We want a positive policy
toward Africa. We’ll take your word, and we’ll
judge Davis - and you - by what he does.”
It just might be that something good and
decent for everybody can come out of what has
been an avoidable diplomatic mess.
Pay UiiLiTy Bitts HeRE
One of last year’s most popular
movies was “Death Wish,” about
a man who becomes a one-man
■ vTgilante ‘ squad, killing and
maiming criminals, lying in wait
for them, and in general, playing a
Superman role in defense of public
safety.
The film’s popularity tells us a
lot about the fear of crime today.
Crime films have always offered
fantasy, escape, and delusions of
righteous power but never before
has there been a movie that
resulted in such a lust for blood on
the part of huge audiences.
Many people left the theatre
willing to set aside civilized
notions of trial and due process,
enthusiastically backing the vigi
lante approach of executing
law-breakers on the spot.
This illustrates the danger that
the public’s fear of crime may
result in increased toleration for
vigilante action, for police
excesses, and finally, for a
strong-arm police state.
We can see some of this in the
widespread trend toward use of
lethal weaponry by some police
departments. As if .38 caliber
revolvers aren’t enough, new,
more powerful weapons are being
issued and some policemen want
higher caliber weapons besides.
A most dangerous aspect of this
urban arms race is the new
popularity of dumdum bullets
which rip and tear, leaving
horrible wounds and which cause
death or permanent maiming
where ordinary bullets inflict less
serious wounds.
In fact, the dumdums are so
extremely vicious that they are
banned from use in warefare by
international conventions which
the United States has signed. So
we are in the logically
incomprehensible situation of
refusing to use these bullets
against enemies in wartime, but
condome their use by police
officers here at home.
While some police spokesmen
are insisting on adopting these
and other unnecessarily lethal
weapons, some states are
considering action to make
dumdums illegal. I don’t under
stand why the federal govern
ment, which bans them from its
war arsenal, can’t ban them from
the home-front as well.
This is not a matter of coddling
criminals, or being “soft on
crime.” It is the vitally important
matter of establishing a rule of law
and a moral posture on the part of
the state that encourages respect
for the law.
Some people may think that
highly-publicized crime can only
be stopped by “unleashing” cops
and giving them more dangerous
weaponry, but such a course is
more likely to result in serious
abuses of police power, escalation
of criminals’ weaponry, more
harm to innocent people, and even
a higher crime rate.
Brazil offers a good example of
such a cycle. After the murder of a
popular police chief back in 1964,
policemen organized “Death
Squads” that murdered known
gangsters in retribution. The
murder binge has continued, with
documented cases of convicts
dragged from their cells to be
executed, petty thieves killed, and
inevitably, many victims of
mistkane identity, personal
grudges, or jealousy.
What started as a crusade
against crime and the red tape of
the courts wound up as a reign of
terror by police officers in some
cities. It is hard now for people to
tell the difference between
law-breakers and lawmen. And
crime rates are still rising.
But that couldn’t happen here.
Or could it? A Maine police officer
was recently brought up on
charges of trying to organize a
death squad to kill criminals. A
Long Island man was subjected to
a search of his house without a
warrant and to personal abuse by
police officers looking for a man
he’d never even heard of.
A scandal buried by the news of
Watergate last year dealt with
narcotics raids in which federal
police smashed into homes
without warrants, waved guns
under people’s noses, wrecked
rooms, and then left, admitting
they had the wrong houses.
With headlines about abuses by
CIA and FBI operatives, unautho
rized wiretaps, disregard of civil
rights, and other abuses by
agencies sworn to uphold the law,
I wouldn’t be too trusting of police
who claim they need more power
or far-out weapons.
Crime can be brought under
control without recourse to
internationally-outlawed weapon
ry, abuse of civil liberties, or
turning law officers into execu
tioners.
iV/i/ car c/e a/or
/rte cr on/*iy car,
TMngs You Should Know
Anta/^
father of HEROESl,
ABOUT 600 AD
.Ugly,FLAT-NOSED a black, born aslave^ he
BECAME THE GREATEST SOLDIER AND POET OF
JH E orient/- R eve red by 355.000.0 n n Mn .
HAMMEDANS Of WHOM MOHAMMED SAIO/'HE
IS THE ONLY BEDOUIN 1 EVER ADMIRED..."/
HE BECAME A SOLDIER AT AGE I5S0 DISTINGUISH
ING HIMSELF IN BATTLE THAT HE WASSET FREE/
EXPERTS FIND HIS POETRY EQUAL TO THAT Of'
HOMER, VIRGIL AND TASSO/
Artist's conception at left