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The Three Powers
Man has three kinds of power.
Each is independent in its nature,
and each has its own laws and
composition. But the sources of
their formation are the same.
The first power is what is called
physical power. Its quantity and
quality depend on the structure
and tissues of the human ma
chine.
The second power is called psy
chic power. Its quality depends on
a man’s thinking tenter and the
material it contains. What is
called “will” and other similar
things are functions of this power.
The third is called moral power.
It depends on education and he
redity.
The first two can easily be
changed, for they are easily
formed. Moral power, on the other
hand, is very hard to change, for it
takes a long time to form.
If a man has common sense and
sound logic, any action may
change his opinion and his “will.”
But changing his nature, that is,
his moral makeup, needs pro
longed pressure.
All three powers are material.
Their quantity and quality de
pend on the quantity and quality
of that which produces them. A
man has more physical power if
he has more muscles. For ex
ample, A can lift more than B. The
same applies to psychic power—it
depends on the amount of mate
rial and data a man has.
In the same way, a man can
have greater moral power if the
conditions of his life have in
cluded influences of many ideas,
religion and feeling. Thus, in
order to change something, one
must live a long time.
Moral and psychic power are
also relative. It is often said, for
instance, that man can change.
But what he is, what he has been
created by nature, he will remain.
So, as in the case of physical
strength, man cannot change; all
he can do is to accumulate force if
he becomes healthy.
Thus we see that the producer
of energy cannot be changed; he
will remain the same, but it is
possible to increase the product.
All three powers can be increased
by economy and by right expendi
ture. If we learn this, it will be an
achievement.
Off The Record
BY GROVER BAILEY
Managing Editor
Kacial prejudice, hate and divorce are
the major concerns of today’s youth, and
African-American children bear most of
the burden, misjudged by people they
don’t know and questioning if they are
loved at home. Along with this we are
seeing a rising national tide where Afri
can-American, Hispanic American,
Asian-Americans and native American
children are caught in a deluge of racial
violence.
No one is born a racist, but the long
history of this social malady continues to
weave its heinous patterns deeper and
deeper into the psyche of America. We
hate because we fear what we do not
understand. And in that resides the nega
tives in our education system—a distilla
tion of Manifest Destiny—where Europe
ans believe in a god-given right to colonize
this continent from sea to sea for self
preservation.
Racism is generated and sustained
through methods that engender social
conditioning, beginning with the family
and branching into tributaries of social
institutions and the education system
where children and students are exposed;
to this dangerous, debilitating disorder at
an early age.
Therefore, we have the black men ir:
chains, the natives of this country at th<i
edge of extinction with rampant suicid<<
and disease at a place called home on thi i
reservations. “Thou shalt not kill; thoi ]
shalt not steal; love thy neighbor as thy
self.” It’s easier to hate than understand.
Faith in public schools is fading fast as
drugs, violence, bureaucratic nonsense
and ill-educated students emerge from
the classrooms. We must urge a radical
reconception of public education with a
new ethnicity immediately.
The first restitution must begin with
the natives called Indians in our text
books where the 19th century American
tradition of disseminating myths and
misrepresentations of cultures and civili
zations remain.
Teachers today must become knowl
edgeable in black studies, multicultural
expansion and conflict resolution. We
can’t continue to purge our system of
African-American males ^ith discipli
nary policies because of the lack of cul
tural awareness on behalf of poli
cymakers. What good does it do to have
African-American males on the outside
looking in? The education system needs
to develop more effective ways of working
with African-American students.
African-Americans resent being mis
judged by people who don’t know them
because of some mythical tale passed
down through generations that Africa is
savage, voodoo and the transported black
today is not too developed mentally as
defined in the texts of racist genetic schol
ars and educators.
Dr. Bob Wentz, superintendent of the
Wake County Public School System,
should ensure that black studies and
athnic awareness are incorporated in the
:urricula. As a society we can ill afford to
ieny the gravity of the problem of racism,
jarticularly in education.
Dr. Wentz should work to encourage
more effective strategies to find a cure for
this systemic disorder. He can begin with,
his principals and teachers studying
multicultural expansion and studying
new black awareness.
How about a warning
on condoms?
Somewhere today, I’m sure, the
Devil is laughing himself silly. Hu
manity’s oldest enemy has actually
managed to bring things to a point
where various municipalities and
charitable organizations are handing
out fresh needles to drug addicts, and
New York City’s public schools have
begun giving free condoms to high
school students on request.
I understand the rationale, of
course. Unprotected sex and the use
of unclean needles when injecting
heroin are the two principal avenues
whereby AIDS is spread. Public warn
ings to this effect having proved piti
fully inadequate, the next step (so it is
reasoned) is to make safer practices
as easy as possible. Hence, the free
needles and condoms.
Opponents of these steps insist stu
dents should be told that only sexual
abstinence can guarantee against in
fection by the sexual route, but they
seem to have less to say to hardened
drug users. “Just say no* may be
sound advice to a teen-ager being
tempted by that first marijuana ciga
rette, but it isn’t likely to resonate
very loudly in the deep-fried brain of
a heroin addict.
Still, just how practical would it be
to rely, in the case of sexually active
students, on a recommendation that
they cut otat sex altogether? Anyone
familiar with the world “as it really
is* these days will recognise the gam
ble as a pretty desperate one. In many
areas and levels of society, the peer
pressures on teen-agers to indulge ih
sex are almost overwhelming Total
abstinence is almost unimaginable.
Well then, how about printing a
warning on every condom package,
describing the risks and at least rec
ommending abstinence? Something
like this:
“WARNING: Ten percent of all
condoms fail to give protection
against the transmission of AIDS,
which is incurable and results in can
cer, pneumonia or dementia, and
death. The Surgeon General stresses
that the only sure way to avoid sexual
transmission of the AIDS virus is to
abstain from sexual activity altogeth
er, outside of an initially uninfected
and wholly faithful marriage.’
If we care enough about the lives of
cigarette smokers to insist on printing
comparable warnings on every pack
of cigarettes and in every ad for them,
how can we do less for our teen-agers
when they are faced with the horrors
of a disease that will kill millions of
them before (if ever) it can be halted?
Having made that modest sugges
tion, however, let me disabuse you at
once: It isn’t going to happen. It won’t
happen because there’s a hidden agen
da here that dares not speak its name.
The modern secular mind rejoiced
at the “sexual revolution* of the
1960s. It was, in fact, a logical out
come of the moral relativism that had
inundated the West after the Enlight
enment captured men’s imaginations
and seemed to render God irrelevant.
‘If it feels good, do it’ became the
only guiding principle of millions of
people.
Into this Eden crept the snake of
AIDS. It has put a terrible price on the
Business In The Black
BY CHARLES E. BELLE
MIDDLE CLASS WILL SEE THEIR
TAXES CUT
Inflation is on the decline and that is
good in more ways than one. One of the
first things that individuals will notice in
the new year is lower prices on everything
except healthcare costs. Coming down is
the cost of oil and money, which will make
other items cheaper. The Consumer Price
Index is headed toward 3.5 percent while
the “core” Producer Price Index is trend
ing toward 2.5 percent. That is good news.
The bad news is that unemployment is
rising and running out of control. Con
gress is going to come back from Christ
mas vacation and plans to do something
about the economy. Every elected official
is concerned about the coming election in
November. No more depending on a de
crease in interest rates by the Federal
Reserve Bank or passing “pork barrel”
expenditure bills like the $151 billion
transportation package. People want
immediate intervention into the econ
omy.
The president’s push to lower interest
rates has not worked to get the economy
working again. Aggressive tax reduction
is what both Democrat and Republican
politicians will be pushing for after the
State of the Union flap by the president.
Putting cash in the pockets of the people
who will purchase products and put
money in investments is an idea as well as
a tried and true way to start the economy
going up.
Fiscal policy, the use of government
taxing and spending power, is prime for
use. The monetary policy of the Federal
Reserve System to start the economy by
putting more cash in the economy with
low interest rates has only hurt senior
citizens living off a fixed income and
helped the banks bathing in high credit
card interest charges. Cutting taxes will
allow Congress to pinpoint who exactly
will get a break. Being an entrepreneur
win Dotn neip you and the economy m the
event capital gains taxes are lowered.
Lower taxes on those who will spend more
will make the economy get up and go. A
reintroduction in the right direction of
investment tax credit could help a num
ber of U.S. industries.
Individuals need tax relief and return
on their investments. The call to Con
gress to “do something” is real because we
are in a recession and have been for more
than two years. There is no double dip,
because there never was any upturn
other than in the president’s upper lip.
Reading his lips can ruin a country.
Congress will come to its senses and tax
cuts will come through at its next session.
A Different Voice
BY DOROTHY SHAW-THOMPSON
THERE WENT THE JUDGE
Monday night riding home in my car
with my radio tuned to WLLE’s “Let’s
Talk,” I was impressed by what I heard.
At that point all I knew was there was a
judge on the show who spoke about his
family of origin and his views as to what
creates the problems peculiar to our
community. He listed them as many do:
the breakdown in the family, drugs, the
desegregated system, etc. What sur
prised me was his willingness to ponder
the infusion of drugs into our community.
What surprised me was his willingness to
question the failure of our school system.
I immediately wanted to know who the
judge was. By the time I got home and
called in, another caller was in discourse
with the judge and I had found that it was
Superior Court Judge George Greene on
the air with Prank.
As I listened further, I experienced
again the frustration of our community.
The caller was attempting to give his
experience to the judge toward relevant
interchange concerning the drug conspir
acy, the educational system and the judi
cial system. When this occurred, the
breakdown in communication began. I
believe that this problem evidenced the
difficulty we have in our community in
coming to a solution about the problems.
It is hard, it seems, for some of us to accept
the relevance of the experience of the
victim and when the victim tells his story
we suggest that his explanations are ex
cuses for non-success. What is disturbing
to me is that the judge was so willing to
blame and so unwilling to listen. I was
disturbed because he eloquently listed
the problems. I coul d hear that at least we
were looking at the same mess—we
seemed to have the same idea of how it
came to be that way, but he seemed to shy
away from giving a full impact of respon
sibility to those whose power produces
the problem.
In my opinion, this constitutes the dif
ficulty of those who are within a system
and attempting to discern it—being able
to see it clearly. I frankly was in awe that
the judge was unable to hear that our
judicial system is not an equitable, color
blind system. I was even more in awe that
the judge who was so eloquent earlier
suggested that the solution for parents is
to send their children to school, see to it
that they do their homework and keep
them inside until the next day. In addi
tion, he suggested that we need to learn to
be as MORAL as our Caucasian counter
parts???!!!
Surely, judge, you can’t be serious.
What kind of world are we living in when
‘lock up and curfew” is the solution?
What kind of problem-solvers are we
when we critique an educational system
as not being in the best interests of our
youngsters but we resolve that sending
them there and keeping them home is a
resolution toward the problem?
When challenged on this as a solution
by one of the callers, she was later dis
missed as having a problem. Of course
that’s easy to say when one does not want
to hear another’s perspective, but what
was ironic about Judge Greene saying
this was that I have heard others dismiss
his judicial antics and solutions in much
the same way.
i Judge Greene shared the experience of
his daughters and son, their present suc
cesses and particularly, he stated that his
daughters find it difficult to find hus
bands who are not on drugs and equally
educated. I believe he related what they
perceive to be their problem. However,
perceptions are not facts because the kind
of men that they are looking for have not
been found by them does not mean that
they are not there. In addition, because
they have met wi th success does not mean
that their path to success has not been
riddled with the same difficulties and
experiences of those others who have not
“found the rainbow,” at this point What
am I saying in essence? I am saying that
if we as a community seek to resolve
problems—we must broaden our vision
and create an inclusive atmosphere for
all, in terms of having a valid story to tell.
We must be able to tell our story and
recognize that others have stories to tell
as well. We must be able, in my opinion, to
accept the accolades and criticisms of our
perspective and seek to learn from both.
It’s hard but we must also experience that
communication takes a sender and a ;
hearer of the message. It’s hard but some
times we must come down from the lofty 1
bench of our experience and perspective '
and be willing to ponder a different view. 1
sort of sexual conduct that became
popular in many quarters during the
1960s and 70s. The sans-culottes of
the sexual revolution desperately
want to eliminate AIDS — but not at
the cost of their revolution. They long
for an AIDS vaccine precisely so they
can return to the aggressive promis
cuity that spread the disease in the
first place. Meanwhile, they welcome
free condoms as a way of reducing the
risks.
Abstinence, then, is no solution
whatever, as far as these people are
concerned. And I am not talking just
about the usual bohemian types; the
same assertion applies to the worldly
matrons who attend the Phil Donahue
show and snicker audibly at the sexu
al innuendoes.
If you doubt it, suggest my “Warn
ing* and see how far you get.
© 1M1 NEVSPSPnt ENTERPRISE ASSN.
the conservative
ADVOCATE
Bible Thought
They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion
which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the
mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is
round about his people from henceforth even for ever. For
the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the
righteous; least the reighteous put forth their hands unto
iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to
them that are upright in their hearts.
f 1
Psalms 125:1-4
TONY BROWN’S
JOURNAL
BLACK VERSION OF JAPANESE SELF-HELP
There is a lesson to be learned from America’s eco
nomic problems and the prosperity of the Japanese. And
it’s a Japanese lesson: self-help.
The secret is the structure the Japanese use to coordi
nate the resources of the people,
the government and industry. It’s
called the Ministry of Interna
tional Trade and Industry (MITI).
But this phenomenon really
works because Japanese buy from
Japanese.
For almost two years, I have
beek working on a black version of
MITI. I call it the Buy Freedom
900 Network and it will come to
life on Feb. 6. And like the Japa
nese version, it is not a boycott
and it doesn’t depend solely on
just buying from members of your BROWN
group. But it won’t work unless members of a group
primarily support others in their group.
My version is a phone service that will allow us
network people to churches and organizations; people
a s
black media; and media to people—encouraging subscrip
tions to black newspapers on the Buy Freedom 900 Net
work is one example.
After Feb. 6, a network of our radio stations across the
country will conduct the Buy Freedom 900 Opinion Poll of
Black America eveiy week. Each week, people will phone
in their vote. And each week, the rest of America will learn
where blacks stand on any given issue.
As of this date, more than 20 radio stations have
signed up. It costs them nothing, they make money and
they educate the community.
Small black-owned businesses can get a free trial
listing on the Buy Freedom 900 Network where callers
nationwide will be introduced to them on our “talking
yellow pages.” If shoppers want to get a discount and put
their money where it will create jobs for them and their
friends, this is the “network that pays off.”
Both radio stations and businesses can get details at
(212) 575-0876 on this free offer.
(See TONV BROWN, P. 8)
MIND’S* EYE
by Agatha E. Carroo
TELL ME NOW!
As I reflect upon the celebrations, programs, marches
and activities honoring the life and works of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., my thoughts have turned to Dr. King as
a man. As I listened to his works, particularly the “I Have
a Dream” speech, I wondered if we told him what we
thought of him during his life.
I can recount some of his words that conveyed how Dr.
King wanted to be remembered—as a drum major for
justice and peace. Dr. King was designated Time
magazine’s Man of the Year in 1963 and became the
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
In one of his speeches, Dr. King symbolically repre
sented to us that he had been to the mountaintop. Before
his death, he alluded to his mortality and longevity as if
he foresaw his death. He further proclaimed that he had
overcome the fear of death, which in his words, would set
one free.
I just can’t help but wonder whether we told Dr. King
how we viewed him and his works while he was still alive.
The effect of the continuous denigration and degradation,
stress, pressure and emotional and physical abuse might
have been lessened if he truly knew how we felt.
I wonder if his friends and associates and close rela
tives told him how much they cared: Coretta, Abernathy,
Andy Young, Jesse Jackson and others. His parents must
have intimated to him how proud they were of him and his
accomplishments.
Recently, I have been reminded that we all need to tell
persons whom we love how we feel during their lifetime.
Perhaps that’s why award ceremonies are so common.
Family reunions have also provided an opportunity for
honoring mothers, fathers, and grandparents.
I have friends who have lost loved ones to sudden
illnesses and accidents. They often lament the fact that
they never told the stricken person how they felt. It seems
a pity that some of the best times are spent with mothers
whom we have never given a special birthday party or day
of honor.
For Dr. King, our drum major for justice, I hope he
knew how we felt. For our own loved ones, who are alive
and well, we need to be diligent in reminding them of our
love for them. In the spirit of these words, I honor my
mother, Ms. Bertha Bascomb White, who resides in Tus
kegee, Ala., by sharing a poem she wrote in 1936 which so
eloquently captures the essence of my thoughts today:
If with favor you are viewing
Any work that I am doing
If you love me or like me
Tell me now.
Don’t withhold your approbations
Till the Preacher makes orations
As I lie with snowy lilies
on my brow
I don’t care how loud you shout it
I don’t know a thing about it
I don’t know how many teardrops
You have shed.
So if there’s any praises due me,
Now’s the time to slip ’em to me
For I cannot read my tombstone
when I’m dead.
Tell me Now: I love you, Mother Dear!