Newspaper Page Text
April 13, 1978
Maroon Tiger
Page 11
The Eaves/Jackson Deal
by Karl Robinson
Atlanta is in the midst of one
of the most controversial is
sues that has hit the Jackson
administration—the police
cheating scandal. While I can
not say that ex-Public Safety
Commissioner A. Reginald
Eaves is guilty I am not going
to write him off as being totally
innocent either. I am well
aware of the media’s attempt
to discredit Black leadership,
but when has the media been
“light” on Black leadership?
Ever since there was a Black
man the white man has been
led to think that we were
inferior and especially now
that we live in the 20th century
and with all the technology
that we have invented, the
“lynching” still has not
stopped—it Jias merely
changed forms. The disturbing
factor in the entire issue
regarding Eaves is the flow of
information and the responses
of people—mainly Blacks.
Black people have a history of
allowing emotions to control
them. From a personal
standpoint, I think
emotionalism is inevitable
when one really submits
himself to the living God. God
does touch people and give
them a good feeling and puts a
song in their hearts, but
emotions do not cancel out
reason. So why does Reginald
Eaves appeal to people’s
emotions as he has so ably
demonstrated during the time
before and after his dismissal;
obviously he wants a certain
response and he gets it. In a
recent meeting with members
of the Morehouse Chapter of
the S.C-L.C. and a represen
tative of the Jackson ad
ministration (who was a ’76
graduate of Morehouse) he
mentioned that there was little
or no pressure from the white
community (power structure)
in ousting Eaves. If Eaves
contends that he is innocent,
which this writer would like to
believe, then why must he
allow such a fuss to spread
throughout the Black com
munity? The newspaper’s job
is to report what is happening
in the community whether it be
good or bad—and as far as I
am concerned, they did just
that. Wasn’t the media at
Wheat Street Baptist Church,
Ebenezer Baptist Church, and
at all rallies which were in
favor of Eaves? Yes! You may
not, as I sometimes do, agree
with how the news is reported
but when again have things
been fair to us?
Yes, the editorials were one
sided, but the fact remains that
A. Reginald Eaves became a
media figure and did little to|
suppress it. Sure they never did
like Eaves—and probably
never will, but why must a
man cry wolf and appeal to
people’s emotions and stir
things up against an ad
ministration that has a chief
executive like Mayor Jackson
who has suffered the same
kind of abuse as he. There is a
certain amount of respect and
blind trust that men must
instill in other men and Eaves
really, in my opinion, did an
overkill on the issue which is to
this day not resolved. Just
because a man’s skin is black
does not mean that he is for
Black people, even if he
graduates from Morehouse!
And surely, by the same
token, any well-meaning
public official must instill in
people the politics of reason,
and trust and love if people are
to make decisions based on suf-
ficient and well-sifted
evidence. The fate of A.
Reginald Eaves has yet to
come, but the process he em
ployed was sad and it is
dangerous to the entire Black
race. I am no newcomer like
many of you to the political
realities that beset us; many of
us have learned at an early age
that while we want to fight the
system, we want to fight the
right things and not be led as
tray by rhetoric. I wish I had
the answer, but none exist. Liv
ing a life is like walking a thin
line in mid-air; we must be
careful! We must be very
careful.
There are many bright, young, job-seeking graduates out
there, today. The competition is so heavy, a good mind,
a degree and a neatly-typed resume won t guarantee a
corporate position with any real responsibility or growth
potential.
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Meet our standards and in four months at Officer Candidate
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So check out the real job situation. Then compare it with
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