Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review April 28, 1984
Mallory K. MillertderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Theresa Minor Administrative assistant/Reporter
Juanita BealOffice Manager
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. Been Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Wilbert Allen Columnist
Roosevelt Green•....., Columnist
Al i r byColumnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey. Sports Writer
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando HamlettPhotographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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Going Places
Masters champion
credits Black caddy
by Philip Waring
There are some good items in the
news. The 1984 Masters golf win-
ner gave full
and well deser
ved credit to
the back up
support to his
caddy, Carl
Jackson. This
is especially
significant
k
with the unfortunate decreasing
use of Black caddies at the
Augusta National.
Another item from New Orleans
where representatives of 20 dif
ferent denominations or units of
Black church groups met to plan
for a joint economic program. We
understand that plans were laid for
a national bank and a credit union.
This should provide dramatic
assistance to more than twenty
million Black church goers. I wan
ted to repeat this good news again
because it is a “first,” a giant
break through in self-help.
It will represent more business
and expansion of religious struc
tures and activities. Assistance can
be given by Black real estate firms,
insurance companies and com
munications media. Funds will
The Mayor Comments
Laney-Walker
slated for
Register
by Edward M. Mclntyre
The city recently applied to the
Department of Natural Resources
for a $2,700
grant which, if
awarded, will
be used to
complete the
work necessary
for the
Laney-Walker
Neighborhood
— w W'
National Register Nomination.
I know that many of you share
my interest in having a National
Register designation for the Laney-
Walker Neighborhood. This
designation is an essential element
in the economic revitalization and
residential stabilization of this
historically contributing com
munity.
If the grant is awarded, the
project will be supervised by the
Mayor’s Office for Economic
Development and directed by
Historic Augusta, Inc. Once again
we will experience the working
together of the private and public
sectors on a community project.
Some community volunteers will
also be working on the project.
We as a community have
demonstrated to those around us
that we are interested in perserving
our heritage while at the same time
moving our city forward. The city
offers various incentives to owners
of qualifying projects such as
facade grants and tax abatements.
Augusta is a city which is richly
blessed with historic buildings and
areas and owes much of its
uniqueness to them. Their
restoration and use adds greatly to
Augusta’s appeal and charm.
Page 4
therefore be more likely to remain
within the local community.
Another item of good news:
Several Jewish agencies will team
up with civil rights groups in
taking another crack at the Klan-
Nazi hate group which murdered
five people in Greensboro, N.C.
Potpurri
Did you see how USA Today
(national daily with 1.2 million cir
culation) gave Jesse Jackson
favorable front page treatment
along with an excellent editorial?
The Georgia Gazette in Savannah,
Ga., and a weekly, received a
Puzilizer award for excellence in
editorals. The journal is liberal and
highlighted discrimination against
women, a legal system and other
areas of concern
Please respond when you hear
from NAACP chief Ben Hooks.
That organization, like hundreds
of other groups, institutions,
business firms, and churches, has a
serious cash flow problem. Mem
bership dues and other income are
in sight and will be on schedule. It
is our oldest Civil Rights group
and has done much to bring
freedom to not only Blacks, but to
all Americans.
Walking With Dignity
Angola grieving and suffering
by Al Irby
Nearly eight years independence,
Angola’s socialist-type gover-
K **** 1
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nment is still
struggling to
repair its
ravages of war.
Since coming
to power with
Cuban and
Soviet military
assistance in
November 1975, the ruling
Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has
been caught up in civil war with the
so-call independence
fighters—former allies—who did
not win a place in the government.
The rebel forces of the National
Union for the Total Independence
of Angola (UNITA) are active in
the southern, central, and western
parts of the country. The National
Front for the Liberation of Angola
(FNLA) reportedly has begun to
assert itself again in the north. And
on the economic front, the country
has not yet recovered from the
massive exodus of white Por
tuguese skilled labor and investors
which began with Angola’s in
dependence.
Although the Angolan and
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Civil Rights Journal
Reagan’s false concern
by Charles Cobb
We have been watching the vigor
with which the Reagan Ad
ministration has hounded the
parents of Baby Doe.
You’ll recall, this is the case of
the Long Island baby who was
born brain damaged and with
multiple birth defects.
The parents decided against the
use of extraordinary life-saving
techniques.
President Reagan decided that
this was an issue through which he
could strenghten support within
the conservative anti-abortion
block. He therefore set his Attor
ney General’s office on the already
beleaguered family, instituting a
court suit to gain access to their
hospital records. The Attorney
General claimed they were doing
this to insure that the rights of the
child were protected.
Let us just examine the concern
President Reagan has shown for
the rights of children in the past.
According to the Children’s
Defense Fund, 700,000 poor
children were thrown off the
South African government appear
to have agreed to a cease-fire, there
is a threat of incursions by South
African forces similar to those
carried out in the latter half of
1981 and early 1982 against
Namibian nationalist fighters
based in Angola. These conflicts
have obliged Angola to spend
nearly two-thirds of its revenue on
defense, including some of the
exorbitant costs of maintaining
Cuba’s military expeditionary for
ce.
As far as the MPLA authorities
are concerned, South Africa
represent the principal obstacle to
a peaceful settlement in Namibia,
and ultimately, in Angola.
Without South African support,
MPLA leaders say, the UNITA
rebels would be unble to continue
there “bandit” activities against
the government.
Angolan Foreign Minister Paulo
Jorge has repeatedly condemned
the Reagn administration’s con
cept of so-called “linkage” in ad
dressing this region’s problems. He
says it is “unacceptable” and
“makes no sense at all” to link any
South African troop withdrawal
from Namibia with a Cuban with
drawal from Angola. Nevertheless.
Mr. Jorge has never quite closed
the door on such a solution. Nor
AFDC and Medicaid rolls in one
year alone as a result of Reagan’s
new restrictions. Os those children
cut off, 44 percent had no health
care coverage. As a result, when
these children become sick, their
parents often delay taking them to
a doctor until their condition
becomes so grave that
hospitalization becomes the only
alternative.
Then there’s the issue of pre
natal care. The Reagan Ad
ministration has made drastic cuts
in this area, making pre-natal care
almost an impossibility for poor
women in several states.
As a result, infant mortality
rates have increased in 11 states;
and for non-white infants, the
death rates have increased in 13
states. This is because babies born
to women receiving late or no pre
natal care are three times more
likely to die in infancy than those
receiving early care.
Then there’s the matter of the
school breakfast and lunch
programs. For many poor children
these school meals are the only
has he totally dismissed the efforts
of the Western “contact group”
(the United States, Britan, West
Germany, France, and Canada),
which is trying to find a solution
acceptable to all combatants.
Angolain representatives met twice
since December with a South
African delegation in Cape Verde
to discuss these issues. A third
meeting is being contemplated.
A promising development is the
frequent talks between the United
Stats and Angolan officials, even
though the two countries have no
diplomatic relations. A
knowledgeable source says talks
are “hardly moving at all for the
moment,” but there is a
willingness to continue. In fact,
Jorge met with Secretary of State
George Shultz in New York while
attending a Security Council
session on Namibia.
From the United State’s
viewpoint, UNITA should be
regarded as a legitmate political
representative of the Angolan
people, just as the MPLA is (Both
groups fought for independence
from Portugal, but the MPLA
grabbed power in 1975 with Cuban
military assistance.)
The Reagan administration ap-
ones which consistently provide
the needed nutrition. This
program, too, has felt the
gruesome effects of the Reagan
axe.
And, directly related the Baby
Doe case, the Council for Excep
tional Children in Virginia informs
us that a handicapped child is sup
posed to receive 40 percent of the
average allotted nationally to the
non-handicapped child. Well, in
1980, that percentage was not 40
percent, but 12 percent, and this
year that percentage went down to
a mere 8 percent because of
President Reagan’s cutbacks.
Representative Henry A. Wax
man, Democrat from California,
said it best. Referring to the Ad
ministration’s program cuts he
angrily stated, “This record is in
defensible. President Reagan can
not claim to be ‘pro-life’ and cut
every program to keep babies
alive.” This is a statement which
even the so-called pro-life forces
should keep in mind come Novem
ber.
pears morally to support the
rebels, but the 1976 “Clark amen
dment” blocks any United States
military aid to UNITA. Luanda
has always maintained that it will
politely ask the Cubans to leave
once the South African military
menace has been eliminated.
Although the MPLA leadership
categorically dismisses any
suggestions of working out a
political deal with UNITA.
European diplomatic sources
maintain that Luanda moderated
have been cultivating discreet con
tacts with the rebels. “The MPLA
hard-liners are still the ones calling
the shots,” a West European
analyst says, “but there are a
growing number of people in the
Angolan government who realize
that UNITA is a force that cannot
be dismissed and if there is going
to be an end to the country’s
problems, then the rebels will have
to be given a participatory role.
“The MPLA has a love-hate
relationship with South Africa
even as it chastises UNITA for
taking military support from
South Africa. Roughly 90 percent
of Angola’s trade within Africa is
with South Africa. South Africa,
the United States, and the Soviet
Union all have vested interest in
Angola’s political future.
To Be Equal
Poverty
is on
the rise
by John E. Jacob
Any way you look at the num
bers, poverty is on the rise.
Just a few
years ago, in
1979, there was
26 million poor
Americans. By
1982, the poor
had increased
to 34.4 million.
Current esti-
** I
who
mates of the poor place the num
ber well over 35 million.
Why the jump? Simple. Two
recessions in that three-year period
between 1979 and 1982, one of
them deep enough to qualify for
Depression status if there were a
fair economic labelling law in ef
fect.
Still, there are those who argue
the numbers of the poor are in
flated. That’s the view of leading
officials in the Administration who
claim that the poverty figures in
clude only people whose cash in
comes fall below the poverty line.
They say that the value of
federal non-cash benefits should be
added to cash income in defining
poverty. Put a dollar figure on a
family’s subsidized housing, its
food stamps and its Medicaid
benefits, and the numbers of the
poor would be much smaller.
To me, that’s playing with num
bers. It bears no relation to reality,
and none to determining who is
poor.
Most of those benefits —medical
assistance, for example—flow
directly to doctors and hospitals,
not to poor people. It is just
ridiculous to say that a poor per
son is no longer poor because a
stay in the hospital boosts his in
come by the amount the gover
nment pays the hospital and the
doctors.
The same reasoning makes it
foolish to add housing subsidies to
the incomes of the poor. If the
government pays a developer a
subsidy to build low-income
housing, does that make the tenan
ts less poor?
It is interesting that the same
people who are so anxious to find
specious ways to juggle numbers
and definitions to increase the in
comes of poor people and thus
define them out of poverty, show
no such inclination to add the
value to federal benefits to the
non-poor.
After all, if it is right to reason
that all aid be included in income
why restrict the game to poor
people. How about adding the
value of interest deductions and
depreciation deductions to in
comes of the affluent?
Doing that would widen the
statistical gap between the poor
and the affluent, and it would
make visible the immense subsidies
that flow to the better-off, often at
the expense of the needy.
But the critics of the conven
tional method of counting the
poor—by cash income alone—are
now powerful enough to get their
way. They had the Census Bureau
calculate the numbers of the poor
using alternative methods that in
cluded the value of federal non
cash benefits.
And guess what—even by
juggling the definitions of the
poor, it turns out that poverty is
rising and that some 9 million
people became poor over the 1979-
1982 period!
The numbers-crunching exercise
does reduce the total poverty
figure, but not significantly. And
one reason is that the savage cuts
in those federal benefit programs
meant that fewer poor people
received aid, and that the aid was
not sufficient to lift the recipients
above the poverty line.
For Blacks, poverty jumped
an astounding 44 percent in the
three-year period when including
benefits, and fifteen percent when
including only cash income.
That tells us a number of things.
First, that the federal program cuts
have had a disproportionate im
pact on Blacks and on Black
families. And second, that the
numbers juggling backfired. In
stead of showing less of a rise in
Black poverty, they show a sharply
greater increase.
We’re still waiting for the policy
makers to re-enter the real world,
where hunger and poverty are on
their shameless rise and where
policies to deal with that problem
are in the deep freeze.