Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Georgia Bulletin, September 16, 1971
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Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan D.D. J.C.D Publisher
Harry Murphy, Editor
Fr. Janies Maciejewski - Associate Editor
BusIncM Office
756 Wert Peachtree, NW
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Member of the Catholh^Press Associatipn
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
Telephone 875-5536
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, G4. 30830
Send change of address to 756 West Peachtree, NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30308
Published weekly except the second and last weeks
in June, July and August and the last week in December.
At 202 E. Sixth St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
_
The opinions contained in these editorial columns are ____
.. ii — the free expressions of free editors in a free Catholic press. ——•
U.S.A. $5.00
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Foreign $6.50
Housing Decision Wise
We applaud the decision of U.S.
District Judge Newell Edenfield which
ordered Fulton County Commissioners
and others to stop blocking low-income
apartment projects for Boatrock Road
and the Red Oak Community.
The judge wisely noted that when the
commissioners said they wanted only
“nice” housing at the two places, they
meant they didn’t want any poor blacks.
“It is clear that they are not talking
about the physical quality of the
buildings,” he wrote. “The evidence
discloses that the cost per unit of the
Boatrock apartments is $11,200, while
the average cost per unit of all the other
apartments built in Fulton County in
1970 was $9,000.
“This court is constrained to find that
the only objection the county
authorities have to Boatrock and Red
Oak is that the apartments would be
occupied by low-income black tenants.”
We suspected as much all along.
There is a strong tendency to keep the
poor hemmed up in slums. Judge
Edenfield noted that most of Atlanta’s
low-income housing is concentrated
within eight square miles in or near
slums.
Although commissioners have agreed
to cooperate with the Atlanta Housing
Authority in locating projects within the
10-mile wide belt around the city limits
over which AHA has jurisdiction, not a
single unit has ever been built in the
unincorporated area.
“Within the immediate future, unless
drastic changes occur, it is not merely
possible but certain that Atlanta will
become, in essence, a black city with a
solid white perimeter,” the judge wrote.
The Atlanta school system has gone
from 30 to 70 per cent black in 10 years,
he noted, and the AHA goal is to
alleviate this situation and preserve the
city’s future so that both blacks and
whites may live there.
Judge Edenfield also ordered the
commissioners and the AHA to draw up
a list of general areas in Fulton County
and Atlanta in which low-rent housing
would be appropriate.
We think it would be appropriate
wherever the land purchase is
economically feasible.
This business of saturating a particular
section with low-income housing has got
to stop. It is not practical from a
humanitarian or financial viewpoint.
Public services such as schools, street
maintenance and garbage collection tend
to decline in poor areas because their
voices are less likely to be heard by
politicians.
Jobs are more difficult to find nearby
because few businesses have the money
to employ them.
Satellite low-income housing projects
located in all sections of the city and
county, however, could serve as a labor
pool for domestics, laborers and other
skills common among the poor.
Everyone concerned - the poor and
residents of the areas where the housing
is located - would fare better if there
were a more even distribution of these
less fortunates whom we will always
have with us.
-H.M
The 1960’s ‘Baby-Bust’
We note with interest that there was a
“baby-bust” instead of a “baby-boom”
in the decade of the 1960’s, all without
any restrictions being placed on anyone
by the government. ■ ■ • • •
Those who wanted to have babies had
them. Those who didn’t were free to
abstain. All without any of those
proposed laws restricting family size
being in existence.
The Washington Center for
Metropolitan Studies reported that
children under five declined from 20
million in 1960 to 17 million in 1970, a
drop of 15.5 per cent.
pill and a new attitude towards marriage
and large families.
The Church opposes both of the new
developments, but the arguments of the'
forces arrayed against Her are obviously
having their effect.
It should be noted, however, that all
of the debate has taken place in a free
society where each side can espouse its
position and people can adhere to
whichever they choose.
Those believing the doomsayers who
say the earth will someday explode with
people can limit their families sizes to
the extent of their beliefs.
Zero population growth within this
century is a distinct possibility, it added.
There have been two minor drops
previsouly - 1 per cent in 1920’s and 7.9
per cent in the 1930’s but this is the
largest since records began being kept in
1850.
The center noted that this decrease
took place even though adults in the
child-bearing age of 15-34 increased 29
per cent. It attributed the drop to the
Those adhering strictly to the
Church’s position can continue relying
on Rhythm.
Those in-between can go their way.
It’s nice, however, to be free to
choose which position to follow without
government interference.
We hope this will always be the case.
-H.M.
'Agonizing Reappraisal?
Seems as if hardly anybody
reads or remembers the
Scriptures nowadays. Almost
everybody talks about Jesus
Christ, but few there are who
really know much about him.
If he were living among us
in the modern world, he
could get rich collecting
damages in the
courts for
libel, slander,
defamation of
character and
gross misrepre
sentation.
W e were
created in the
image and likeness of God,
but today we try to make
God, in Christ, according to
our own images - or rather
according to our own
prejudices and preferences.
Some of us try to promote
Christ as a revolutionary; but
he was nothing of the kind.
Nobody ever lived who was
more respectful of authority
- even authority misused.
When he was asked abut
tribute to Caesar (whom the
Jews hated) he told his
questioners to give to Caesar
what belongs to Caesar, and
to God what belongs to God.
Mistreated, maligned and
bullied by the Sanhedrin and
JOSEPH BREIG
the servants of the high
priest, he was patient. When
pressed, he expressed with
simple majesty his person and
his mission.
“Art thou the Christ, the
Son of the living God?” the
High Priest demanded to
know. And Jesus replied that
he was; and furthermore,
they would see him coming
on the clouds of heaven to
judge mankind. He stated the
truth simply and mildly; not
in any way did he provoke or
taunt the High Priest, or
attempt to belittle his
position.
Others say that Jesus was a
pacifist; that he came to
teach us that violence is never
justifiable. But he fashioned a
whip and drove the money
changers physically out of the
Temple, upsetting their
tables, scattering their coins,
and shouting at them that
they were profaning the
House of his Father. And is
there anybody alive who can
really think for one moment
that Christ would have stood
by doing nothing if he had
seen somebody torturing a
child?
Some people try to make
Jesus the prophet of the
status quo. They want his
Church, and his bishops and
priests, to be silent about
everything except what the
communists call “pie in the
sky”.
Pie in the sky is mighty
important - “Lay up
treasures in Heaven,” said
Jesus; but there will be no
sky pie for those who care
nothing about justice or
charity to their fellowmen,
especially the poor and the
helpless. “If you did it to one
of these, my least brethren,
you did it to me,” says Jesus.
And so it goes. Of late we
have some people talking as if
Christ, who is God and
therefore all-powerful, cannot
accomplish his mission
without the help of the most
gifted among us.
The Vatican has been
handed a statistical study
compiled by the Institute for
Socio-Religious Studies at the
University of San Francisco.
At one point, the study says,
“The priesthood seems to be
losing some of its most
innovative, - intelligent,
talented, creative and
idealistic members.”
Then we turn to Luke
10:21 and hear Jesus saying,
“I thank you, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because
what you have hidden from
the learned and the clever
you have revealed to the
merest children.”
Jots & Tittles
FATHER JAMES MACIEJEWSKI
I was browsing through some shops in
Atlanta’s Tenth Street area not long ago,
fascinated by the variety of exotic items for
sale.
Amid the incense burners and the water beds
and the anti-establishment posters, I found on
the wall of one shop a beautiful sermonette,
printed on parchment-like paper. According to
the inscription at the bottom, it was found in
Old Saint Paul’s Church in
Baltimore, dated 1692.
I bought the parchment and
hung it in the rectory in
Cedartown. So many
parishioners have enjoyed it.
It contains some good
thoughts for this September
time when all of us again become so much more
busy and feel so many more obligations. It goes
this way:
G’o placidly amid the noise and haste, and
remember what peace there may be in silence.
,4s far as possible without surrender be on good
terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly
and clearly: and listen to others, even the dull
and ignorant: they too have their
story.. .Avoid loud and aggressive persons:
they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare
yourself with others, you may become vain and
bitter: for always there will he greater persons
than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well
as your plans. . .Keep interested in your own
career, however humble: it is a real possession
in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise
caution in your business affairs: for the world is
full of trickery. But let this not blind you to
what virtue there is; many persons strive for
high ideals: and everywhere tije is full of
heroism . . .Be yourself. Especially, do. not feign
affection. Neither be cynical about love: for in
the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is
perennial as the grass. . . Take kindly the
counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the
things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to
sheild you in sudden misfortune. But do not
distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears
are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a
wholesome discipline, be gentle with
yourself. . . You are a child of the universe, no
less than the trees and the stars: you have a
right to be here. And whether or not it is clear
to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it
should.. .Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever
your labors and aspirations: in the noisy
confusion of life keep peace with your
soul. . . With all its shame, drudgery and broken
dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful.
Strive to be happy ...
********
The-lighter-side-of-the-news Department:
Recently the BULLETIN announced the
appointment of four archdiocesan priests to the
post of “defender of the bond.”
The following Sunday one of the priests was
congratulated by a parishioner with a quizzical
expression, who then asked timidly just what
bond it was the priest was defending. It seems
the parishioner believed his pastor had been
assigned some custodial duties over the
archdiocesan treasury!
P.S. We might explain that the “defender of
the bond” is really not an ecclesiastical Brinks
guard. The “bond” he defends is the bond of
matrimony - in a Church legal process before
the diocesan marriage tribunal.
The
Y ardstick
v J
MSGR. GEORGE C. HIGGINS
I have spent Labor Day in a different city
every year, with few exceptions, during the past
quarter of a century. This has provided me with
an opportunity, for whatever it might be worth,
to sample what the local or original press has
had to say during that period about the social
significance or the social meaning of Labor Day
in our (relatively) affluent society.
My recollection is that, over the years, the
local pundits - columnists, editorial writers, et
al - have tended, by and large, to say pretty
much the same thing. That is to say, they have
taken the line that while Labor Day, in an
earlier period in our history, might have served
the useful purpose of dramatizing the plight of
poor and disadvantaged workers, it has long
since become a rather nondescript national
holiday (the last chance to take the kids to the
mountains or the beach before they return to
school) and has lost most of its original
meaning or significance.
This year was no exception, judging, at least,
from my own sampling of San Francisco and
Los Angeles papers over the recent Labor Day
weekend.
As I write this column (in a Los Angeles
hotel) I have in front of me a collection of five
editorials and columns which, with one
exception, are so similar in tone as well as in
content that, for all practical purposes, they
might well have been written by one and the
same person. Their message is two-fold and, it
seems to me, somewhat contradictory: (1) that
the working people of this country in 1971 are
doing quite well for themselves and (2) that the
labor movement, which poses as the champion
of the workingman, has lost its sense of social
mission and is resting comfortably on its
laurels.
For present purposes, I am not concerned
about the latter point. It will be up to the labor
movement to handle that one on its own.
I do think, however, that the first point
(namely that Labor Day has lost its original
meaning because American workers in 1971 are
doing so well for themselves) proves nothing
except that the pundits who mechanically turn
out this kind of stuff every Labor Day are living
in comfortable air conditioned ivory towers and
are simply not aware of what’s going on down
below.
The one exception in my own limited
sampling of West Coast papers over the recent
Labor Day weekend was a column in the Los
Angeles Times by Ernest B. Furgurson. I
assume that Mr. Furgurson, as a nationally
syndicated columnist, is reasonably affluent
and could, if he were so inclined, take refuge in
his own little ivory tower. To his credit,
however, in preparing to write his Labor Day
column, he went to the trouble of doing a little
homework in the sun-baked fields of the San
Joaquin Valley.
He drove from Los Angeles to Delano,
California - the headquarters of the United
Farm Workers Organizing Committee - and
.found, on the.basis.o.f uncomfortable first-hand
experience, that while the word labor “does not
connote the underdog any more, not to most of
us,” it does indeed connote the underdog in the
field of agricultural labor.
“The temperature in the valley,” Mr.
Furgurson reported, “has been up around one
hundred every day this past week. To know
that men are working hard in that heat, and still
trying to win the right to bargain as a union for
things long ago taken for granted by other
workers. . might be a real eye-opener, he
says, for the more affluent members of
established unions who “now that they have
theirs, as the saying goes, are only interested in
adding to it, in the form of boats, second cars,
third TVs and expanding waistlines” and who
couldn’t care less about the plight of farm
workers or other disadvantaged groups of
workers in the so-called marginal industries and
trades.
What Mr. Furgurson says, in this connection,
about farm workers could also be said, of
course, about millions of other
Spanish-speaking workers in a dozen major
cities and, needless to add, about the majority
of Black workers as well. His own concern
about the sad economic plight of these workers
does credit to his sense of justice and equality.
My only criticism of his column is that he
directs all of his fire at the so-called “haves” in
the American labor movement and says nothing
at all about the members of his own profession
(and other professions as well) who are much
better off, from every point of view, than the
majority of blue collar and white collar workers
in the organized industries and trades.
There is no doubt about the fact that
affluence (which, of course, is a relative term)
tempts all of us to ignore the plight of those
less fortunate than ourselves. Many trade
unionists, I am sure, have succumbed to this
temptation, but, as an avid newspaper reader, I
have the impression that well-to-do columnists
and editorial writers tend to be even more
indifferent to the plight of the underdog -- and,
by and large, with much less reason - than is
the average trade unionist.
Mr. Furgurson, let me repeat, is an honorable
exception to this rule. I might add that he
almost single-handedly restored my faith in the
Fourth Estate as I sampled its wares on the
West Coast over the recent Labor Day weekend.