Newspaper Page Text
8A
NOVEMBER 8, 2001
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Freedom to vote
Use it or lose it
e congratulate
the winners of
Tuesday’s elec
tions and wag a finger at
that 77 percent of the vot
ers who could not remem
ber the way to the polls.
First of all, the winners.
Most of the candidates
fought a good fight and
should be commended for
their interest in public ser
vice.
And then there are the
losers.
Not those men who threw
their hats in the ring and
exposed themselves to pub
lic scrutiny, even ridicule,
for a desire to hold office
for whatever reason. We
are talking about those
men and women who failed
to work up the motivation
to drag their carcasses to
the polls and punch holes
in a little card. Only 23
percent of registered vot
ers went o the polls on
Nov. 6, and that is sorry.
Just plain sorry.
One of the most popular
excuses, ranking right up
there with “I didn’t have
time,” was "I have been so
distraught by the Sept. 11
bombings that I just
couldn’t bring myself to
think about such a petty
thing as choosing my local
leaders, the people who will
make the decisions that
will ultimately affect my
quality of life here in this
fair city.”
Flapdoodle. If anything,
when someone rams a jet
airplane into one of the
most important buildings
in your country, killing
thousands of your fellow
Federalizing airport
security is not right path
Americans are notorious
for taking things for
granted. Prior to Sept. 11,
airport security was one of
those things.
Funny thing is, we may
have been taking something
for granted that wasn’t even
there to begin with. Now
people are panicking and,
in their haste to remedy the
problem, may be bypassing
it all together.
One possible solution that
has been bouncing around
in the arena of public opin
ion is to federalize the ser
vice. Sounds good. Might
even look good. But would
it be necessarily better than
what is currently in place?
The answer is no.
Augusta
Focus
Since 1981
A Walker Group
Publication
1143 Laney Walker Blvd.
Sales/Admin.
Tonya Posey
Jerome Turner
Production/Graphics
Dennis Williams
Samuel Daniels
William Lucas
Americans, you should
become that much more
eager to get out there and
make yourselves heard.
It is not that paving this
or that road in Augusta
is as important as the
security of the country.
But it’s not about roads
and whether or not
George Kolb has to put a
county sticker on his car.
It’s about protecting our
freedoms. And protecting
our freedoms is about
more than just building
up the military and rush
ing out to play war. It is
about exercising our
seemingly inconsequen
tial freedoms as often as
possible sothat they don’t
atrophy from disuse.
Yes, voting, that hor
rible, inconvenient chore
of riding to the polls and
standing in line, is a free
dom. You say you don’t
vote because the system
stinks and the candidates
are no good? Well, you
should be glad you’re try
ing to find the cream
among the clueless, and
not staging a deadly revo
lution against a blood
thirsty tyrant.
Ifwedon’t maintain the
freedoms that our ances
tors fought for, some
times even against each
other, then we will lose
them.
Some of you will get a
chance at redemption on
Nov. 27, when District 5
will hold a runoff elec
tion. You will have two
men to choose from. Make
the best choice you can.
Instead of turning over
airport security to an al
ready scattered federal gov
ernment, airports need to
simply concentrate on get
ting the best peopletodothe
job. Offer better salaries. Go
after people trained in dif
fusing potentially danger
ous situations.
Give them guns.
It’s a simple solution.
The days when airport se
curity meant simply
checking a bag and say
ing, “Sorry, you lose,” are
over. The days when it
could mean disarming an
educated, highly skilled
terrorist are here.
We need to trainour pro
tectors accordingly.
Charles W. Walker
Publisher
Frederick Benjamin
Managing Editor
News/Features
RhondadJones
Copy Desk
Lillian Wan
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GUEST COMMENTARY By Ralph B. Noble
Closing the racial
ur society, particularly in these new and different times,
will need all of the collective productivity of its citizenry
to meet the growing challenges of this new century. We
all know that a community’s, state’s, or nation’s pro
ductivity is directly related to its ability to provide a quality
education, be it traditional, vocational, or technical, for the
majority of its citizens regardless of creed, color, religious
background or socioeconomic status. However, by all mea
surements we utilize to test student achievement — SAT,
NAEP, CRCT, and Stanford Achievement Tests —the differ
ence in scores between white middle class students and other
groups is large. It is referred to most often as a gap. In reality,
it is more of a chasm. Just look at the latest available figures.
SAT 2001:
African American: 852
Hispanic: 955
White: 1,027.
Percent of students meeting
or exceeding CRCT Stan
dards in English/Language
Arts in eighth grade:
African American: 55
Hispanic: 46
White: 78
This disaggregated test data allows us to look into the heart
ofthisinequality, and, subsequently, we must find the political
will to resolve this ongoing tragedy. Fortunately, there is
much we doknow about the achievement chasm. We know that
the chasm is not based on innate ability. We know that family
income levels account for a substantial portion of the problem.
TO BE EQUAL By Hugh B. Price
Travel ban on Cuba is hypocritical
conflict between the
Bush administration
and Congress over
travel to Cuba once
again brings tolight the hypo
critical policies of the U.S.
government. President Bush
has called for stricter enforce
ment of the 39-year-old eco
nomicembargo against Cuba,
and the U.S. Treasury De
partment is willingly comply
ing by stepping up efforts to
punish Americans who spend
money in Cuba in violation of
U.S. law. On the other hand,
somemembers of Congressare
now attemptingtoend theban.
One obvious question, of
course, is: Why is the U.S.
government controlling what
the American people do with
their own money?
One answer !IIJ.S. officials
give is that such control will
help oust Fidel Castro from
power. Hope springs eternal,
but aren’t four decades of fail
ure powerful.circumstantial
evidence that embargoes do
not always achieve their pur
ported end? ’
Another answer is that if
Americans were allowed to
spend money in Cuba, they
NAEP 2000 Fourth Grade
Mathematics, percentage
below basic:
African American: 62
Hispanic: 57
White: 25
Average national percentile
rank in the Stanford 9 by third
graders in reading:
African American: 29
Hispanic: 22
White: 59
would be supporting a tyran
nical communist regime. Oh,
does that mean that commu
nism and tyranny in China,
where Americans are permit
ted to spend their money, has
disappeared?
Moreover, not every Ameri
can is prohibited from spend
ing money in Cuba. Cuban-
Americans are permitted to
send money to Cubanrelatives
and totravel toCubaand spend
money there. And the Trea
sury Department gives special
licenses to some Americans
that permit them to spend
money in Cuba. Why does
money spent in Cuba without
U.S. government permission
support communist tyranny
while money spent with such
permission doesn’t?
But of course, all this avoids
the much more fundamental
question that every American
should have been asking for
the past 40 years: Under what
moral avthority does any gov
ernment control what its citi
zens do with their own money
and their own travel plans?
Isn’t government control
over economic and monetary
activity a central element of a
achievement gap
Weknow the chasm is present when children begin school. We
know it widens as students advance in grade levels. And we*
know that it can be closed, as it was significantly during the
1970 s and 80s.
We also know many of the solutions and have begun imple
menting them in Georgia. We know that reduced class size is
critical and that all schools must be safe, clean, modern places
tolearn. We know that quality teachers make a difference and
that extra time for instructional planning must he made
available and funded. We know that high expectations for all
students are amust and that early intervention where needed
is crucial. We know that equity in resources and targeted
resource use are vital. We know that improved instruction for
non-English speaking students is a major factor. And last, but
not least, we know that clear standards, effectively communi
cated to students, parents, teachers, and the community,
enable achievement.
Closing the achievement chasm, however, is a task that
cannot be accomplished by our schools alone. We must have the
participation of the majority of our citizens outside of our
schools if we are to succeed. Statistics show that students who
read everyday for fun score 21 points higher on the NAEP
Fourth Grade Reading Assessment than those never or hardly
ever read. They also indicated that students who do one hour
of homework each night in fourth grade scored an amazing 50
points higher on NAEP than those who did not do their
homework. The bottom line is that children who are read to at
an early age learn to read much more easily. Parents, business
people, educators, and politicians all have a stake in the success
of our students. While education reform has had many contro
versies in Georgia, we cannot allow those controversies to
sway us from our goal. Erasing the achievement chasm is too
important to Georgia’s future. ‘
It will take the collective commitment of our entire commu
nity to close the achievement gap. We must support our
See ACHIEVEMENT GAP, page 9A
socialist economic system? For
example, in Cuba, the govern
ment prohibitsitscitizens from
freely traveling to the United
States and prevents them from
freely disposing of the limited
funds that the state permits
them to acquire. Cubans are
prohibited from owning busi
nesses, and just about every
oneworksforthe state. (Imag
ine that — one giant Postal
Service employing practically
everyone in society!) !
After the termination of the
Soviet subsidies in the early
19905, in order to avert a fam
inea few Cubans were permit
ted to become self-employed
uponreceiving a government
issued license, whereupon they
wereimmediately subjected to
income taxation to ensure that
theydidn’tbecometoo wealthy.
(Almost sounds like the Demo
cratic Party platform, doesn’t
it?)
How is such control by the
Cuban government over the
economic affairs of its citizens
different in principle from the
U.S. government’s control
over travel and disposition of
funds by U.S. citizens? Yes,
it’s true that the U.S. govern-
ment doesn’t directly ban
travel to Cubabut instead only
prevents Americans from
spending money there. But
isn’t that just a hypocritical
sham that enables the U.S.
government to profess a su
perficial devotion to people’s
right to travel while effectively
accomplishing the same result
that the Cuban government
accomplishes with its more
direct controls? Make no mis
take about it: Both govern
ments — Cuban and U.S. —
fiercely maintain that a proper
role of government is to con
trol where its citizens go and
what they do with their own
money.
Not only has Fidel Castro
outlasted every U.S. president
since 1960, despite the U.S.
embargo (an embargo that he
was effectively able to blame
for his country’s economic
woes), he hasalsomaneuvered
the U.S. government into ex
ercising the same type of eco
nomic controls that he exer
cises over the Cuban people.
That’s why Castro’s victory
over U.S. officials for the past
See TRAVEL BAN, page 9A