Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review October 29,1983
Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Wanda Johnson General Manager/Advertising Dir.
Diane CarswellCirculation Manager
Yvonne Dayßeporter
Rev. R.E. Donaldson Religion Editor
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator
Charles Beale Jenkins County Correspondent
Mrs. Fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara WestMcDuffie County Correspondent
Mrs. Ileen Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Wilbert Allen Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Aj j r byColumnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey Sports Writer
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando Hamlett Photographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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Going Places
King holiday huge step
by Philip Waring
A mighty step has been reached
with the passing of the M.L. King
Holiday bill. I
Even, so, we fijF
still have miles
to go before
reaching the 1| ■RM
Promised Land. : '
Warm con- ■'
gratuiations to
Mrs. C.S. ■ M
King, the countless persons and
groups who helped and to the U.S.
House and Senate. It was an
elderly Baptist minister who said
“The mills of the gods may grind
slowly, but the grind exceedingly
fair.”
And so it is with the case of the
late J. Edgar Hoover who tried his
level best to ruin Dr. King. The
volumes of research coupled with
testimony by fair-minded retired
FBI agents “put egg stains in the
Hoover reputation which will
never be removed. And so the
grinding process continues ex
ceedingly fair.
A local friend asked “What can
Voice From The Wilderness
Being used
by Marva Stewart
Ah, life! During the course of
human events and at some point in
your life, you
will be used. i ,
At some point I
when you least
expect it the I
vultures will be rafPMIRHQp
gnawing at
your neck, at . , 4 ~
your pocket- w
book, or at your so-called status.
1 call this the “Gimme Syn
drome” or “I am going to use your
until I make a complete fool out of
you.” When Black people play this
game, the game becomes quite in
teresting and colorful.
Some Blacks feel that if a
brother or sister “has arrived,”
(that is, if that individual has been
successful), then that individual
should help them “to arrive.”
Agreeably, there is nothing wrong
with lending a helping hand, but
usually our brothers grab the hand
and then the whole body and
squeeze them dry before they
release them.
If the following has never hap
pened to you, don’t worry, for the
vultures will call you:
Instant Friends: These pests are
not only colorful characters but
they have a lot of nerve. For in
stance, I think they scan the local
newspapers to find their Black vic
tims or prey. And if you are that
poor soul, get ready for an un
believable telephone conversation.
Now just imagine a complete
stranger calls “you” and asks
“you” how “you” may help him!
Vague Acquaintances: This
vulture ignored you years ago
when you were struggling to suc
ceed. You might have been in high
school or college and this in
dividual saw you, but he didn’t
recognize or acknowledge your
presence on earth. Now here it is
ten or twenty years later and you
are “cooling out” in your office
and this bloodsucker from the past
drops by for a visit. Usually
though this vague acquaintance
will invite you to join him for lun
ch. You know what the greetings
Page 4
we do in Augusta to get the most
mileage out of the new holiday ob
servance?” One observation
which I would make is this. Now
that it is October why could we not
ask the heads of the NAACP,
Paine College, our key churches
and civic groups such as SCLC and
others to “touch base” and coor
dinate programs to be held on
January 15 and thereabouts.
During four of the five years
since I’ve noticed some serious
overlapping and conflicts of
program dates. While the large
cities in the north such as New
York, Chicago or Washington
with their hundreds of thousands
of Blacks might accomodate
several programs, our com
munities like Augusta, Macon or
Savannah could ill afford it. We
need to make the most effective
use of the Dr. M.L. King Holiday
in 1984 and when it becomes legal
in 1986. There’s much yet to be
done.
Warm congratulations to Dean
James E. Carter 111 on his well
see Huge step, page 3
will be —“Hello, old buddy.”
Family and Friends: Obviously
these are the dangerous ones.
These vultures are extremely
treacherous because they know
you, and they will use every vein in
your body. They will want a favor
or a helping hand because “I’m
your cousin or uncle,” or “you
remember that time when I help
you t 0...?” This is one of the rare
times when you think that
genocide or friendocide wouldn’t
be such a bad idea. Just teasing.
The whole point is these people
want you to be a fool. If you are a
successful person or if you are
making a decent living, these
people want you to make them
successful or make them rich or
famous or something. Your suc
cess becomes their success; your
political appointment becomes
their politick appointment. The
point is you will be the loser.
'lf you help them, they won’t ap
preciate that help. Remember they
probably won’t like you so if all of
your fame and fortunes should
fade, they will fade. If you get sick
or become broke, tough luck.
Read bloodsuckers for what they
are. They do not and will not ever
care for you.
Message for the Users
This message should help all of
you “free-hearted” souls to rid
yourselves of those pests.
In the words of one of my
colleagues: Ain’t nothing I can do
to help you or me! Don’t call me at
all! No I can’t fix a ticket! No, I
can’t get you appointed to the
mayor’s board for whatever! No, 1
can’t introduce, you to the mayor
or his maid! No, I can’t get you a
discount at the free clinic! No, I
can’t donate any money to the
Association to Aid the Under
sexed! No, I can’t help you! No, I
won’t help you, so don’t call me.
Excuse me, I’ll be right back after I
answer the telephone. I’m back.
That was a bald-headed man. He
wanted to know if I knew a place
where he could get a discount
Gericurl! Yes, he wanted to
Gericurl his scalp and eyebrows.
No, No, No!
BLACK RESOURCES IHC.
WHAT GOES AROUND...
To Ite Equid
Fair housing demands cooperation
by John E. Jacob
Housing discrimination is a
widespread blight that occurs
despite the
existence of I
federal, state
and local laws
making it W
illegal. Still,
three out of I
four Black
homeseekers are «
likely to en
counter discrimination when they
search for housing.
The result is that de facto
segregation pervades most com
munities. Even many well meaning
white people are not sufficiently
aware of how entrenched housing
discrimination is, and how it
shapes people’s lives and com
munities.
Many think the absence of
Blacks from their shopping cen
ters, schools and neighborhoods is
simply a matter of economics or
personal choice. The more
sophisticated understand that it is
more often a matter of design; the
result of long-standing practices
and present-day illegal actions by
segments of the real estate in
dustry.
But that’s far from the whole
story. Realtors blame community
attitudes for the persistence of
housing discrimination. Some will
admit that illegal practices occur
routinely, but insist that those
practices are forced upon them by
the communities they serve.
So it may be that the strong en
forcement provisions that need to
be a part of fair housing laws may
not be enough.
Walking With Dignity
City's future slipped past?
by Al Irby
The city officials of Augusta let
the possible future of the city slip
through their fIMF
fingers or was M
it their pocket
books?
They were Mt P*!
negligent in
their fore sight '
and concern,
especially of
the city’s population growth. They
were so greedy for the current ur
ban-removal “pork barrel”
program, that it seemed as if they
were prone to chase the Black city
dwellers to the confines of the
rustic suburbs.
That life-style was new to the
uprooted Black populace, but they
adapted quickly and went about
integrating the heretofore lilly
white suburbian apartments and
living complexes.
That migration away from the
city by Blacks en masse was just
what the city fathers had dream, of
making the Council more white
and masculine, because at that
time the city panel was a con
trolling ‘male club.’
Maybe this sordid intransigent
blinded our city officials to the
emerging significance of inner-city
malls. Philadelphia is just one of
the many cities to join the inner
city parade of rejuvenation and big
Congress is considering
measures to put teeth into the
feeble enforcement section of the
Fair Housing Act of 1968. The two
major proposals—one offered by
the Administration and the other
by a bipartisan group of
Congressmen—would go far in
eliminating much of the present
discrimination.
But alongside strong enfor
cement provisions, there must also
be mechanisms that pierce the
barriers of public tolerance for
discrimination and marshall com
munities behind fair housing.
Housing discrimination is in
part a law enforcement problem.
And that is where most of the
public debate has focused—on
how to enforce the law.
But there’s more to it than that.
After all, it is estimated that there
are over two million specific in
stances of suspected law breaking
through illegal housing
discrimination. But only 5,000 of
those ever reach the complaint
stage. So the inescapable con
clusion is that attitudes need to be
changed, along with stricter enfor
cement procedures.
The Fair Housing Act itself con
tains provisions for fair housing
promotion. It mandates programs
of education, conciliation and
voluntary compliance. And it
requires all government agencies to
administer programs “in a manner
affirmatively to further” fair
housing.
A lot more could be done on
those two fronts to stimulate af
firmative support for fair housing.
To secure voluntary compliance,
the Department of Housing and
Urban Development has signed
bucks. The City of Brotherly Love
just recently opened its $l2O
million expansion of what is called
“The Gallery,” one of the largest
shopping malls in the nation. The
Gallery, which includes three
department stores and 225
restaurants and specialty shops, is
considered one of the more suc
cessful urban retail centers. These
centers began to crop up in the
mid-1870s to lure suburban shop
pers back downtown.
The first phase of the Gallery,
developed by Rouse Co. opened in
1977. Its sales per square foot
reportedly are 50 percent cheaper
than the national average. Rouse
has other inner-city downtown
shopping centers under construc
tion in Washington, D.C., Denver
and St. Louis.
Plans have been announced by
Rouse and others for retail
redevelopment in more than a
dozen other downtowns, including
Boston, Chicago, Richmond and
Detroit. The trend is most certainly
to urban inner-cities. It seemed as
if some body wanted downtown
Augusta to died. We invited the
two malls to situate outside our
urban area.
N on-Sexist Bible
The National Council of Chur
ches has stirred up a hornet nest
again by unveiling its controversial
Bible with “sexist” language
voluntary affirmative marketing
agreements with industry trade
organizations. Unfortunately,
some of these have been seen more
as peace treaties than as honest
commitments to expand housing
opportunities. They are bilateral
treaties between government and
the industry, and do not actively
involve the communities whose at
ttudes encourage discriminatory
practices.
HUD’s major education effort is
an annual April conference on fair
housing. But most of the attendees
are the convert—the practitioners
of fair housing—not the violators.
HUD can and should do a lot
more on the education and volun
tary compliance front. It is a
necessary support mechanism for
whatever strong enforcement
measures are ultimately passed by
the Congress.
One way it could act positively is
to revive the long-dormant plan
called New Horizons. This is a
program tying together the
education, conciliation, voluntary
compliance and program ad
ministration requirements of the
law.
And it joins those to com
munity-wide planning and
strategic actions for fair housing,
Along with HUD monitoring. In
stalling an effective New Horizons
program on a local and regional
basis would go a long way toward
ensuring compliance with the law.
It is simply not enough to stress
the enforcement side of complian
ce. Enforcement has to be joined
by vigorous promotion of fair
housing and changed comimunity
attitudes.
edited out boldly. Rev. Jerry
Falwell and his fundamentalists
are raging mad, by calling this
sacrilegious act "rewriting the
Bible”—but feminists are dancing
in the streets. The 192 page In
clusive Language Lectionary is in
tended for optional use in Sunday
worship beginning Nov. 27. Words
like “man” and “mankind” are
altered and descriptions of God
will change too—in passages
“King” will become “Sovereign.”
“Calling God ‘Father’ all of these
years, people think of God as
male,’’ says Carol Fouke,
spokeswoman for the council,
whose 32 Protestant and Orthodox
denominations total 40.7 million
members. “But ‘Father’ is a
methaphor for God”—who could
be referred to as “father and
mother.”
“It is intellectual hanky
panky,” argues Paige Patterson
president of Dallas’ Criswell Cen
ter for Bibical Studies. “God
believed in the equality of the sexes
when he created them—but he still
chose to speak in the Bible of God
as ‘Him.’” Other faiths use non
sexist language in some prayer
books, hymns and rites. “On
Mother’s Day, we took the song
‘Faith of Our Fathers’ and invited
them to insert ‘Our Mother,”’ says
the Rev. Kelly Bender of Coun
see Future, page 5
The Mayor Comments
Halloween
can be safe
by Edward M. Mclntyre
The safety of our children is
always utmost in our minds and
with the
Halloween tricks
of recent years, JKM
we all are ap
prehensive a
bout sending
our children
out trick or z A
treating. ,-gggr jB
It is an oc
casion for our children which
should be filled with safe and hap
py moments. It should be a time of
laughter and fun.
Therefore, I would like to invite
all of you to bring your children to
the Mayor’s Second Annual Haun
ted House and Halloween Festival
and share some wholesome fun
with them.
This year’s Haunted House
promises to be even better than last
year’s. A local radio station will be
hosting the Haunted House again.
Last year’s event brought
thousands of you out and we hope
to see even more of you this year.
A variety of music will be played
for your listening pleasure by three
different bands. There will be lots
of witches, goblins and ghosts and
all sorts of Halloween creatures to
entertain you. I will be there for a
very special funeral procession for
Count Dracula and ribbon cutting
ceremony to open the doors of the
Haunted House.
Participating store merchants
will have stickers on their window
to indicate that they have treats for
the trick or treaters.
The fun will begin at 12:45 p.m.
and last until 6 p.m. at the
Davison’s Building, 864 Broad
Street, on Saturday, October 29.
Again this year, there will be no
admission fee.
Come see how much fun we’re
having downtown!
Civil Rights Journal
Racism
is sin
by Dr. Charles E. Cobb
During a recent broadcast of
Tony Brown’s Journal, a national
syndicated talk p \ M
show, the Rev. .
Jerry Falwell ‘
leader of the
so-called Moral
Majority talked ■
about racism I
in his own life adV, .
and the life of .
the nation. JK ;
The Rev. Falwell is well known
for his ultra-conservative view
points on a variety of issues.
However, this was the first time
Falwell addressed the issue of
racism.
Admitting to having been on the
wrong side of the race issue for
many years, he now recognizes the
error of his ways. He now claims
that racism is not a “matter of skin
but a matter of sin.” He says that
he feels most people are naturally
prejudiced which can only be
corrected by a personal encounter
with Christ, as was his own.
Although Falwell’s conser
vative political views are for the
most part at variance with those of
the nation’s Black and minority
communities, he feels that there is
room for coalition around such
issues as pornography and
homosexuality and that political
differences should not mean
spiritual separation.
It is interesting to hear the
nation’s archbishop of conser
vatism espousing a view held by
Black religious leaders for years.
Love and justice have long been
the central theme within the Black
church, even to the point of
causing discord within the Black
community itself.
Rev. Falwell’s views concerning
a Black presidential candidate were
most intriguing. A staunch
Republican and supporter of the
President, Falwell believes a Black
presidential candidate will force
the liberal Democrats to “put up
or shut up.”
When queried about this
position simply being a ploy to
secure the Reagan position by
splitting Black votes, he suggested
that Mr. Reagan might not be the
Republican candidate.
Falwell’s current position
on race and politics represents an
admitted departure from an earlier
position. We have previously
asked the question; can a leopard
change his spots? In the case of
Rev. Jerry Falwell there is a begin
ning.