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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 "THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW (USPS 887 820) is published weekly for sll per year in the county and sl2 per year out of the county. Second-class postage paid at Augusta, Ga. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW, P.O. Box 2123, Augusta, Ga. 30903-2123.” AMALGAMATED National Advertising Representative PUBLISHERS, INC. ■*» 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.