Newspaper Page Text
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 21 No. 15
Thursday, April 14, 1983
$10.00 Per Year
ST. PAUL OF THE CROSS SCHOOL will
celebrate its 25th anniversary with a silver jubilee
Mass offered by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan
April 24 at noon. All members of the archdiocese,
particularly former students and teachers of St.
BY MONSIGNOR NOEL BURTENSHAW
One of Republican Bernard Epton’s campaign
slogans in the Chicago race for mayor was “Epton for
mayor, before it’s too late.” That slogan caused such
an uproar that Mr. Epton quickly withdrew it.
Commentators branded the ad as “racist beyond
belief,” saying “never before have we seen such
bigotry.” .
“Nonsense,” says Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.
“When Maynard Jackson ran for mayor in Atlanta
one of the slogans used against him was ‘Atlanta is
too young to die’. The slogans have been around
before.”
Reached at his office in Atlanta, Mayor Young,
who campaigned in Chicago for Harold Washington,
the Democratic candidate who has become
Chicago’s first black mayor, said the general climate
in the city of Chicago is not racist, it is ethnic. In
Chicago politics, “It is more Polish against Italian
than black against white. You have something like
this in Boston too,” the mayor said.
“I am not saying that racism is not a part of
Chicago’s problems,” said Mayor Young as he took a
moment from appointments in his office to talk
about Chicago. “Dr. King used to say that racism is a
sickness. It must be brought to the surface if we are
to deal with it. Chicago has not dealt with it yet.”
The mayor went on. “When Dr. King went to
Chicago to speak about civil rights in 1966, the
crowds did not merely jeer and insult him. They got
violent. But he was not a politician. They may not
like what a politician says about race, but they expect
him to say it.”
“But too much was said by both sides in the
Chicago race,” said Atlanta’s second black mayor.
“First of all, Washington attacked the Chicago
‘machine’. That was a mistake. Many blacks in that
city were part of the Daly machine. He organized
them, they were not forgotten. What Daly never had
was a relationship to blacks. That never evolved and it
should. Mayor (Jane) Byrne did nothing for that
Paul, are invited to attend the event which will
include a tea reception following the liturgy. St.
Paul of the Cross School opened its doors in
October of 1957 under the direction of the
Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, PA.
evolution either. She ignored them. Jesse Jackson
must get credit for pointing that out. He especially
made a point of it last year during the Chicago
Festival Week.”
The mayor then turned his attention to the
churches in Chicago. “The black churches were the
backbone of Washington’s campaign. Those churches
are not just pro-Washington, they are anti-Jane Byrne
and especially they are anti-Ronald Reagan.”
As Mayor Young mentions the president he sits up
in his chair. “I join them there. We need a Democratic
president next time, because under Reagan blacks
suffer most. When the economy is bad, blacks are the
ones who feel it most. And there is sheer idiocy in
control in Washington, D.C.”
At this point the Mayor returns to the role of the
churches in Chicago. “Cardinal Cody was a good man
in his attitude to blacks but he was not aggressive.
The new Cardinal Bernardin is different. He will be
most aggressive. He will speak out and already has.”
“Look,” says Mayor Young as he struggles with a
point, “some would have us think because of all this
in Chicago that no progress has been made. I don’t
think like that. Of course progress has been made, but
you go to university campuses and you find
frustration. Things are changing too slowly, they
say.”
Ironically, Mayor Young noted that there is less
frustration in some places where less racial and
economic progress has been made. “I have been to
ghettos in South Africa, I have sat with Caesar Chavez
and I have never found anything but satisfaction with
their role,” he said. “I am not saying they have justice
or feel they have it good, but they know what they
must do to be happy and fulfilled. We need more of
that. We get frustrated and are willing to quit too
quickly.”
We have another question for the mayor that has a
Chicago connection. Will Jesse Jackson run for
president? “Yes, I think so.” Will Mayor Young
(Continued on page 11)
The Year Of Jubilee
24 Salvadorans Find
Haven In Comer, Ga.
BY GRETCHEN REISER
On a clear March night, some miles outside Athens,
Georgia, there are no city lights to diminish the brightness
of the stars.
Car headlights point up and down as the vehicle rattles
along on a good, but unpaved road into the woods. A few
lighted buildings are visible, but the darkness is so deep
that it’s necessary, once outside the car, to take careful
steps to feel the way to the doorway. The only sounds are
those of a country night.
Inside the building, a dozen or so people are gathered:
After a full day of English lessons and other work, they
have consented to answer a newspaper reporter’s
questions.
Onel, a handsome young husband and father,
introduces people and helps to translate English into
Spanish. The questions, awkwardly phrased, just touch
the surface of the odyssey these people have known.
When did you leave El Salvador? Were you caught in the
fighting? How did you get to the United States? Did you
leave family behind? What do you hope for your future?
Three extended families are seated around the room.
Onel, his wife, Estella, their seven-month-old daughter and
his mother; a beautiful young woman, Maria Elena,
holding two of her three young sons; and an older man,
Narcizo Flores, his son, two nephews and a cousin,
Carmen.
They are some of the 24 Salvadorans living temporarily
in the care of Jubilee Partners, a Christian community
established on 260 acres of land in Comer, Ga. It is the
first secure haven they have known in years.
As Onel translated, a brief picture emerged of families
separated and caught in the crossfire of violence in the
Central American country of El Salvador. Onel and Estella
spoke of six people in an aunt’s family killed. They left
their young daughter behind with Estella’s father when
they fled El Salvador because they did not have enough
money to bring her with them. The Flores family talked
about being caught in their home in the crossfire of
fighting between guerrillas and government forces. One
daughter was wounded. Another family member had been
killed. Narcizo’s wife had stayed behind to care for her
parents who did not want to leave the country.
Either on foot or traveling by bus they had arrived in
Mexico and eventually entered the United States. In the
southwestern United States, Central American refugees
are arriving continuously as violence in the region
continues and escalates. The United States has refused to
recognize them as political refugees, so if they enter the
country illegally seeking political asylum they are subject
to arrest and deportation.
The question of their status has aroused growing
concern among church groups and agencies working with
refugees. The United Nations Commission for Refugees
has designated all Salvadorans outside their country as
political refugees. The Brownsville, Texas prelate, Bishop
John J. Fitzpatrick, in whose diocese many Central
American refugees seek shelter, has asked President
Reagan to grant political asylum or amnesty to the
Salvadorans while the Central American violence
continues. Some U.S. church groups have risked fines and
imprisonment to offer sanctuary to refugees who entered
the country illegally.
However, the Salvadorans living in rural Georgia are
part of a highly unusual approach to the growing concern.
They are staying with the Jubilee community on an
interim basis, on the condition that they will be accepted
(Continued on page 7)
Mayor Young: Racism Only Part Of Chicago Election