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pact: 4 THE TRIBUNAL AID WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1975 EDITORIALS *You*re A Part Of The Solution^ Or You're A Part Of The Problem m mi IF Tit flltCI'J UE NIT UWHI Tll$t If TIE UPEI’S . BSERVATIONS By SANDRA HIU Black Perspective's BY CASL T. ROWAN According to an Associated Press story in last Tuesday’s Greensboro Daily News, a Raleigh District Court Judge convicted a Raleigh man for “defacing” his 1975 N.C. auto license plate by putting tape over the "First in Freedom” slogan. This ruling came despite advice from the state attorney general’s office to drop such cases. The attorney general had issued an opinion on April 14 advising the district attorney in Durham County to drop a similar case because of the constitutional question, the story said. The story stated that Walter Williams, III, a black, said in an interview that a white Smithfield policeman stopped him and asked him about the tape. According to the story, Williams then explained that he didn’t believe that the state offered equal freedom for blacks, after which he was given a ticket with a speeding charge added on it. All this happened in Smithfield, alias Klan Country. The story said that Williams said he was not speeding, and that while he was explaining the tape, the policeman told him if he didn’t like the slogan he ought to move. The Civil Liberties Union contends that the right to tape over the slogan as a means of showing disagreement is part of the freedom of speech guarantee in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitition. The CLU is sponsoring Williams in his appeal of the conviction. These incidents could have been avoided, thus saving the taxpayers and the courts money and time, if drivers had been given the choice of whether or not they wanted to sport the slogah on their license plates. The slogan is merely a bicentennial advertisement, and has little to do with the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles and its operation. After all the slogan refers to the state’s claim that the first declaration of independence from England was signed in Charlotte by local citizens in May 1775 -- a slightly insignificant claim to many who also note that the state was one of those to secede from the Union when freedom for blacks became the question. That the citizens of the state of N.C. were of the first to demand freedom for themselves while at the same time denying freedom to others, is no worthy declaration. A close examination of the implications of the slogan reveals that the slogan besides from being a matter of opinion may be an outright lie. If as Williams said, the policeman who stopped him added the speeding charge after Williams expressed his disagreement with the slogan, N.C.’s claim of having any association with freedom is a farce. In this supposed age of equality, it seems unusual to see judicial punishment used to intimidate those with opinions contrary to the establishment. This incident brings back memories of those past days, when speaking our minds also meant losing our jobs, physical punishment, being terrorized, imprisoned, sometimes, losing our lives. In the past few months in the state of North Carolina, a recreation director has been fired, a black inmate continued to be harrased because of his plans to marry a white woman, a young black lady is on trial for murder, rape cases involving black men and white women continue to send black men to Death Row. Somewhere along the line, one begins to wonder if justice doesn't have two eyes both of which see white as right, and stare a warning for blacks to gel back, or else. The "or else" as we have seen, takes many forms, is sometimes very obvious, and al other times, is so very subtle, that it’s hard to put your finger on it, And it makes you wonder, just how blind justice really is. THE TRIBUNAL AID 1228 Montlieu Avenue Post Office Box 921 Phone [919] 885-6519 High Point, N. C. 27261 Published Every Wednesday by Triad Publications, Inc. Mailed Subscription Rate $5.00 Per Year Albert A. Campbell Managing Editor Jean M. White Secretary John Williams Advertising ASHEBORO——————Vanessa Cross 625-4950 GREENSBORO _,I.ulIa Jessup 299-4402 KERNERSVILLE —Mozelle Warren 993-4657 LEXINGTON Jessie Wood 246-6521 REIDSVILLE. — ___ — --Sandra Hill 349-5229 SALISBURY.— Kd> Banks 279-7016 STOKESDALE______ Shelia Kh:” ^2^7 THOMASVILLE— —1^““' farabee 476-4730 Kelly Hoover 476-7472 WINSTON-SALEM-_-..Velnia Hopkins 725-1442 Second-Class Postage Paid at High Point, N.C. JPoOOPOOOBOOOOOOCOOOOOCSOOOgI WASHINGTON - It is as though the gods have decreed that the United States and several other countries must stumble into violent conflict over energy. The Shah of Iran says that the petroleum exporting countries will raise prices again this fall. A hike of $2 a barrel is generally expected. That assertion by the Shah will strike his customers as consummate greed, for they emphasize the fact that Iran’s foreign earnings from oil in 1974 exceeded those for all the previous 65 years combined. All that proves, say the Iranians, is that their oil went for a pittance in all those other 65 years. Still, it is a stone in the craws of most world leaders that the oil exporting (OPEC) countries had a trade surplus of $97 billion last year, whereas the industrialized countries suffered a deficit of $67 billion and the poor nations, which were hurt the most, went into debt another $26 billion. When her good friends quadrupled oil prices, India’s development program was set back a quarter century, and the world’s second most populous nation now faces possible bankruptcy when the time comes to repay the loans India has had to have just to stay aloat. Yet, while dozens of other countries are truly suffering because of OPEC pricing policies, it is the United States that persists in rattling off rhetoric about military action to secure petroleum. Defense Secretary James R. Schlesin- ger is the latest high-level American to hint at the use of force should the Arabs impose a new oil embargo. He drew a sharp warning from Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading exporter of oil and one of the United States’ closest friends in the Arab world. It is bad enough that Schlesinger should even hint at a military effort to seize oil when we are just emerging from a disgrace in Indochina, where it took us to long to learn that there are stark limitations on the usages of military power. It is dismaying enough that the Defense Secretary should throw out saber-rattling rhetoric just when Americans are counting the casualties from the Mayaguez affair. But it is plain disgusting that this country, which can’t bring itself to adopt any meaningful conservation programs, can’t bring itself to do anything more than talk about energy independence, should be the one to keep raising the issue of warfare over oil. Speaking on "Meet the Press," the Shah zinged us with the observation that since we keep squandering oil almost drunkenly, it must mean that the price really isn’t too high. He said: "I can tell you that if the price of oil, even today, was not low, you would have already developed other sources of energy. ‘‘Why aren’t you doing something in that other field? You have not started to mine your coal mines; you are hesitant in developing your atomic energy resources; your solar energy, not much is being done. This is because they have no incentive in developing other sources of energy.” It has been 18 months since the Arab oil embargo caused those long lines at filling stations, awakening Americans to the reality that we have been consuming far beyond our own resources. But what has this country done to protect itself against another embargo? Nothing but throw out blustering rhetoric about how we are “less likely to be tolerant” of the next embargo. In those 18 months we have been unable to accept rationing, unwilling to accept higher gasoline taxes, reluctant to make any of the hard decisions that might involve a lower level of luxury for those Americans who have grown accustomed to living the good life on somebody else’s resources. And with a presidential election a mere 18 months away, don’t expect either the Congress or the Ford administration to do much that is painful to great masses of Americans. Meanwhile, the OPEC countries will raise oil prices. Europe, Japan and the developing nations will suffer. We will be inconvenienced, which will lead our more thoughtless officials to throw out some more threats. And who knows how soon the jingoists will believe their own rhetoric and actually do something stupid? Copyright 1975 Field Enterprises, Inc. ' WW WANT TO FIGHT CRme BY blacks AGA!N$r BLACKS MUST NOT BBINT/MI' dated;' DR. CHARLES COBB DIRECTOR, COMMISSION FOR EQUAL JUSriCE INSIGHT: For Teens Only by Miller Carter, Jr. TO BE BQUAL Everyone’s hurting in this Depression, but hit hardest are elderly blacks. They don’t have the securities, bank savings and bonds affluent people sock away for a rainy day, and few have ever worked in the kinds of jobs that allowed them to plan a comfortable retirement. In fact, they were explicitly barred from jobs that carry decent pensions and other retirement benefits. All most of them are social security checks, other government payments including supplementary Supplementary Security Income (SSI), or earnings. That’s not enough in these days of sky-rocketing prices. Stories of old folks buying pet food because it’s cheaper indicate the extent of their hardship. SSI payments are less than half of what the federal government estimates as a moderate standard of living for a retired couple. They’re even below the poverty level in most places. Most older blacks are poor or close enough to being very poor to feel the pinch badly. And with growing unemployment, financial help from children is drying up too. The thing to remember about the black elderly is that they are survivors. Most of them survived the Jim Crow system and low-paying, low-status jobs, and now they’ve got to try to survive further indignities instead of enjoying well-earn ed retirement years. Compared with older whites, elderly blacks have less education, fewer financial resources, more have chronic health problems, live in substandard housing and have less access to private and public resources available to the aged. They are survivors in a literal sense, too. Most ot their contemporaries have passed on. The life expectancy for black males actually declined in the 1960s. from 61.1 years to 60.1 years. This means the typical black man w ill never live to collect social security benefits, deductions for which were taken out of his measly paycheck all through his working years. Black women live fewer years than do by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. BxMoth* DiMetgr Urban LngM whites — the typical black women lives to an age of 69.3 years, while white women can expect to live to 75.6 years. These life expectancy figures have given rise to suggestions that instead of limiting social security payments to those 65 and over (with many getting payments starting at age 62), a system of differential age eligibility should be instituted. Under such a system the population would be broken down by subgroups and those subgroups, such as black men, whose life expectancy is below the national standard for social security eligibility, could begin to college at earlier ages. Such life expectancy tables could be computed regularly, with eligibility limits moved up or down depending on the actuarial figures. Other groups in our society, including Native Americans and many Spanish-speaking peoples, have low life expectancy and it seems only fair that such persons should get back money they’ve been paying for retirement. It’s an interesting idea that certainly deserves further exploration. It might even spur better health care efforts by the government, and that should be a major item on the agenda for helping old folks. They pay premiums for medical care, but much of their costs. like over-the-counter drugs and remedies, arc never covered. They would be among the prime beneficiaries of a national health system that delivered quality health services for all. Our society has a reputation for being a "throwaway" society; everything is disposable and we'd rather replace something than fix it. Unfortunately, that applies to people too, and our seniors art- victims of the throw-away meniality that shuffles the into invisibility. Until ours came along, every society honored its old folks and measured its humanity by the way it cared for those whose past sacrifices entitled them to the comforts of dignified old age. It's a sad commentary ihat contemporary America so brutally violates the commandment to honor its older citizens. Like a newborn baby who is very sensitive to light and loud sound, a lot of people are extremely sensitive. But unlike the newborn child, we react totally differently. You would be really shocked to see how people react to something as simple as a little touch. With a simple touch, some people actually get mad! Of course you've seen it happen plenty of times. How many times have you accidentally been bumped info by someone at parties? How do you react? Some people say, "Hey, you'd better watch out!” Even when the bump was accidental. You can also see a mad expression on someone’s face sometimes when you accidentally touch them. 1 know that when a black mistakenly runs into a while person at school, at one time or another, that white person gives you a dirty look. This doesn’t happen only with mixed races but with people who are of the same race. Young and old alike, people just don't like to be close. How many times have you sat next to someone and that persons slides over; tries to move further away from you? People don't spread a disease just from touching. At least not unless they are sitting on top of you and have a very contageous disease. A touch means something different to different people. For instance, a man touching a woman could mean lo\c between the two; or a man touching another man could mean hate. Touches range anywhere from a hit with your fist to a gentle, loving stroke. Just the same as words, a touch can show different feelings and emotions. This is one of the problems that this world has now. People are afraid of one another. This problem holds true especially between the mixed (black and white) races. People are afraid that if they get to know someone of another race they will start to like them. And when you act friendly with someone of a different race, your own people will look down on you as an "Uncle Tom" or (if whites like the blacks) a "Nigger Lover". It’s not that people don’ like different races because of what they know, or think they know, but because of what they might find out. They might find out that "Niggers/Honkies” can be good friends, also. There is only one way I can think of to help get this world in better shape and get people friendlier. That is to reach out and touch a hand; and make a friend, if you can. Whether it be by shaking a hand or hugging someone and telling (hem you want to be a friend. If you touch someone, his skin color won't rub off on you. "There is nothing to fear but fear itself.'' A touch can be what you make it. You can make an enemy with a touch or you can make a friend. Since we all probably have enough enemies, try to make a friend. Thought For This Week: Love is a miracic trom God and a gift to man. Use it, don't misuse it. Peter Salem The ex-slave hero of the battle of bunker HIuL,OFWHOM OANIEL WEBSTER SAIO: "THE SHOT OF SAI.EM FLASHED ACCROSSTHE SUN OF VICTORY “I during the WHOLE WAR OF IN DEPENDENCE. A total OF NEARLY ^000 NEGROES SERVED VALIANT LY AND MANY WERE REWARDED WITH RELEASE FROM SLAVERY!
The Tribunal Aid (High Point, N.C.)
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May 28, 1975, edition 1
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