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pinion
What Shall
We Dos?
Our community is cnce again grieving the loss of one
of our youth as a result of violence. Moreover, once we
get past the grief, we will no doubt feel outrage. What we
do at that point will be the biggest issue facing our com
munity in the coming months.
Gang violence and youth violence — that victimizes
not just those involved as victims of the crime, but the
entire community — is out of control. We find it ridicu
lous that in a city as educated, affluent and compact as
Augusta there is a myriad of gang shootings and murders.
Yet we are now looking at other places to point the fin
ger and place the blame. What is tantamount to every
thing is that we need to look at ourselves.
Community leaders have attempted to address the vio
lence through numerous workshops, task forces and
training within the schools. Nevertheless, from our van
tage point, it is not working. This is a grave community
concern and must be addressed on a larger scale.
It starts at home and ultimately; it’s the parents’ respon
sibility to raise their children to respect themselves and
everyone else. The recent violence at a local nightclub is
only one incident in many that have happen not only all
over this city but are also repeated all over this country.
Yet locals around are trying to point their fingers and say
close ‘them’ down. That is not the answer however.
There was no one trying to close down the mall when
they have numerous incidents of theft and other criminal
acts on record. No one has tried to close down the high
ways and byways as people have driven on them drunk
and crashed into other motorists and pedestrians. In
addition, I do not recall any talks about dosing down
Virginia Tech when a gunman went on a rampage and
murdered numerous people.
I know thar all of these incidents have their own par
ticular weight and effect on people. 1 also know that all
of these events are unfortunate yet, the type of training
one gets at home, in most cases, follows them a long
way.
There's always going to be bad guys out there. Besides,
many of the criminals wreaking havoc on our commu
nity are coming from right inside our community. All the
same, that doesnt mean we can' try to quell the violence
right here, teaching tolerance to our young people and
making sure that we all are headed in the same direction
as a community.
AUGUSTA FOCUS
~' Article of Analysis and Interpretation
Don’t let the green grass fool you
Many black folk from across the
length and breadth of this country
were devastated recentdy when the
Supreme Court of the United States
of America, operating as the protec
tor of rights gr a couple oF white
plaindiffs in Louisville, Kentucky
and Seattle, Washington, rendered a
decision that said, in effect, that race
could not be used in the assignment
of students in Xublic schooE This
was the same decision that it made
in 1954 with the Brown vs the
Board of Education decision ban
ninisegxegation in schools, de facto
or de jure. The most recent court
decision was rendered for a different
reason than it was fifty-three years
Hunger in America
About six blocks west of the
White House, I spotted a man
recently who appeared to be in
his late 40s or early 50s rum
maging through a garbage bin,
apparently in search of food.
Seconds later, I saw him look
through to a second pile of
trash. That’s when I made a
sharp turn, hopped out of my
car, and gave him a S2O bill.
“Brother, you don’t have to do
that,” T said. On the edge of
tears, he thanked me and head
ed for a nearby store.
I am not recounting this
story to receive a pat on the
back or because I think I've
done something noble. Rather,
[ am sharing it because it is a
scene that is repeated thou
sands of times each day.
Because we almost have to step
over homeless people to enter a
downtown business establish
ment or we have perfected the
art of seeing and not seeing at
the same time, we choose to
ignore the suffering that sur
rounds us.
ago. The Boards of Education in
Louisville and Seattle were gjdvocat—
ing using race to promote diversity,
:fioblgg strategy giat is resisted by
intolerant people...
Even with the Brown decision
and all of the efforts made by social
architects, resistance to integration is
now, and has always been strong in
this country, sEecnally in the South.
One has to look no further than the
suburbs of most cities — havens of
white flight — to see the unmistak
able housing pattern. A retinue of
whites has gotten the pattern down
Lo an art fgé-xhn llt is the l;iUbjea of
ousin ooli o and
other s%cnal even;i;’ gßay rgharles
Y
Geor!fl! Curry
I am embarrassed to admit that
I was not always so quick to
come to the aid of my fellow
citizens. Yes, I donate to sever
al charities and tithe on
Sundays, but I, too, had
become somewhat immune -
actually, insensitive — to some
suffering of the homeless. But
a young child in St. Louis
changed that. 1 was with
Lillian Villars, whom I was
dating at the time, and her
daughter, April, who must
have been about 9 or 10 years
old.
We were riding down North
would have no problem discerning
the phenomenon. Nat King Cole
and other artists of his time i
enced it. Crosses were bumfi on
their lawns to signal white resist
ance. It is in the very fiber of con
servative America. It is the lynchpin
of their family values. Actually, it is
considered a religion of sorts.
What seems to be as entrenched
in the psyche of Blacks is that the
Court’s recent decision is the end of
the world. They sadly believe that
they must be in the presence of
whites to learn. That menuality is
pitful and very, very flawed. Blacks
Sec Girass, page 15
Kingshighway when April
noticed a man pulling a white
plastic cup from a garbage bin
and drinking the contents.
“Look at that,” April said in
disbelief. “We ought to give
him something.” Without
thinking, I replied, “We can’t
help every person on the
street.” April persisted, “But
he’s eating out of a garbage
can.” Point well-taken. We
pulled over and gave the man
some money. I thanked April
for restoring my humanity.
After 11 years as a reporter
for the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch, I joined the Chicago
slibune, setving a 8 a
Washington correspondent
and later New York bureau
chief. I was leaving my office
in the old New York Daily News
building on East 42nd Street
late one rainy night when I saw
a couple going through a huge
pile of garbage in plastic bags
on the edge of a curb. This
See America, page 18