Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review October 13,1984
Mallory K. MillerrderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker • Assistant to the Publisher
Georgene Hatcher-Seabrook.General Manager
Rev. R.E. Donaldsoi 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
Linda Starks Andrews Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
A] i r by•Columnist
Philip Waring-Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey....,Sports Writer
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando Hamlett Photographer
Roscoe Williams; Photographer
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Who am I?
One of the most crucial, or
determinative, questions that a
person might ask himself or herself
is “Who am I?”
One’s self-preception or self
estimate is the basis for all other
feelings we have about others and
about life itself. A person who
has a positive and tempered self
view will always tend to look at
others and see all of life in positive
and creative terms. That is the
ideal toward which all persons
should strive.
Problems come into this process
of establishing in our own minds
just who we are from a variety of
sources. They may arise, for
example, from our families.
The sad but deeply realistic fact
is that most children come into the
world involved with some degree
of compromise. Many children,
perhaps most, come because of ac
cidents. They were not planned
for, and so they come through or
appear as interruptions or as
lovely inconveniences, at best.
In many households, children
are pawns. They are used to com
pensate for the frustrations of
parents to be like dolls with
whom one or both parents might
play, or they are manipulated to
hopefully become what their
parents or guardians feel that they
themselves might have become but
could not become.
All through life, all kinds of for
ces tend to work against our
becoming as young, growing
and budding persons the
Civil Rights Journal
Let them eat
jelly beans
by Charles E. Cobb
The absurd has reached new
heights this election year, as was
evident in 3 recent news events.
First there
was President
Reagan’s decl
aration of
National Drug
Abuse Educat
ion and Pre
vention Week.
Then we had the appearance by
David Stockman, director of the
administration’s Office of
Management and Budget, before
the House Ways and Means Com
mittee.
And, last but not least, there was
the visit by the President to the
Washington, D.C. home of a
young Black boy.
Now the absurdity of these 3
seemingly unrelated incidents may
not be apparent at first, but let’s
examine them more closely.
The President said, in announ
cing the Drug Prevention Week,
that volunteers who work in drug
programs “Can save a generation
and help preserve its promise and
hope”. The key word here is
“hope”.
For hope is a quality in mighty
small supply among today’s Black
teenagers. August figures show a
42 percent unemployment rate for
Black teenagers as compared to
only 16 percent unemployment
among white teens.
But, more interested in image
than issues, President Reagan’s
answer to drug abuse is to name a
week for it. This is good election
year campaigning.
Page 4
uniquely developed best persons
that ideally we might be.
Adulthood merely compounds
the identity-related problems of
our childhood years. The world
simply will not let us alone to
shape and to unfold our own lives
in our own way.
But what we all need to know is
that there is nothing devastating
or at least irretrievably wrong
with whatever the world may do or
seek to do with us.
What is essentially important
during every day of our lives is
how we feel about ourselves.
The childhood fantasies of our
being royalty need to be adhered to
and then to mature into deep-down
royal thinking and royal ways. If
we really know that we are the best
and never let the spirit of doub
ting take hold in this regard
what others say and try to do will
never ever cause our heads to bow.
A king or a queen shows a com
passionate sense of caring concern
in the face of the weaknesses and
the misconceptions of others.
They never leave their royal posts
or positions, even when wearing
civilian clothes. A commoner’s
clothes or cottage or apartment
will not change the character of
its royal inhabitants. So it must be
with us.
When it comes to answering the
self-imposed question, then, as to
just who or what we happen to be,
we never falter or hesitate in saying
to and within ourselves “I am a king
See Who A m I? Page 3
However, it does little to
alleviate the hopelessness and
poverty which continues to spawn
the massive drug addiction in poor
communities.
And this brings us to the second
event - the testimony by David
Stockman. Stockman, you may
remember, popularized the idea of
a trickle down of wealth from the
rich to the poor.
But Stockman’s analysis seems
to have gone awry because the
Census Bureau reported last mon
th that 1 million more Americans
were plunged into poverty in 1983
alone. This rate was the highest it
had been in 18 years.
In addition, a July study for the
Congressional Reference Service
showed hat 560,000 people had
fallen below the poverty line as a
direct result of the Reagan Ad
ministration budget cuts. So much
for Stockman’s theories...and so
much for Mr. Reagan’s airy
promises.
But they don’t call President
Reagan “The Teflon President”
for nothing. Assuming that no
criticism will stick to him and
avoiding any discussion of the
issues, the President has based his
entire campaign on media events.
One such event was his visit to
the home of a 7-year old Black
with whom he has corresponded.
At the end of the visit, Mr. Reagan
and wife Nancy presented the
young boy with a jar of jelly beans.
We hope this young child holds
on to his jelly beans. For there are
many in America today who would
tell him that jelly beans are aboul
all he can expect from this ad
ministration.
WARNING!
ILLITERACY IS HAZARDOUS
TO YOUR
'WEALTH/
To Be Equal
Day care needs unmet
by John E. Jacob
One of the big issues neither
presidential candidate is talking
about is the unmet need for expan
ded day care services.
The mothers i
of over half of
all children
aged six and
under work
outside the
home, and too
many of their
i
nearly ten million youngsters are
not adequately cared for because
of the death of quality day care
programs.
While affluent parents can af
ford day care and nursery school
facilities, low-income families
cannot.
The limited number of programs
run by churches and community
social welfare institutions is far
below the level needed to satisfy
the demand, and deep cuts in
federal subsidies for such
programs have severely worsened
the situation.
In 1981, Congress cut S7OO
million out of a key federal social
sendee program and dropped
requirements that earmarked fun
ds for day care services. Since
then, state and federal funds for
child care for low-income families
have been cut by 14 percent.
The United States is now the
Removing Ignorance
We are forever condemning
students who read below their
grade level, can’t add or subtract,
and know nothing about the
sciences. Our schools have become
the whipping boy because we are
forever blaming anybody,
everybody for the shortcomings in
our society. While there might be
grounds for criticism, often we are
criticizing the wrong person, even
though it gives us some con
solation. The real culprit is our
selves.
We as adults, like our students,
can’t read, don’t read, cannot add,
subtract, multiply nor divide. We
know nothing about science,
politics, religion, business,
morality or important issues that
face our society. We depend on
radio and television to entertain us
and as adults we do nothing to
enlighten, to inform and to
educate ourselves. Thus as adults,
we are as guilty as our children of
gross ignorance. The tragic part
of the situation is that our
only major industrial nation
without a nationally subsidized
child care system, and it is even
cutting back on the limited
available programs in the face of
increasing needs.
The spotlight thrown on day
care by child molestation scandals
in some centers had led to a debate
about licensing child care prociders
and regulating day care centers.
But the debate should not be
limited to preventing isolated cases
of child abuse. It should be
broadened to include the role of
subsidized child care services as an
integral part of national policies
designed to strengthen families and
nurture children.
Day care should be seen as
means of maximizing children’s
development and potential.
There is plenty of evidence,
especially from studies of the Head
Start program, that early
childhood education makes a real
positive impact on children.
One such study reported on 123
poor Black children in Michigan.
It followed them for 22 years, and
proves the benefits to society from
quality preschool programs. The
study compares children who were
in preschool programs with others
from the same background who
were not.
Two-thirds of the children in the
ignorance rubs off on our children,
who absorb and perpetuate our
ignorance.
To prevent the reader’s wrath, I
wish to define ignorance. Ignoran
ce means lacking in knowledge or
education, uninformed or
unaware, resulting in your
behavior being suspect from your
lack of knowledge or education.
There is no shame in not knowing
or being ignorant, the shame is in
staying ignorant with no intention
of trying to remove your ignorance
and become knowledgeable.
By keeping up-to-date on what
ishappening in America and the
world, the wealth of information
found in good books, good
magazines, good newspapers and
newsletters, there is no need for
not knowing what we should
know. We seek entertainment to
please us and sustain our ignorance
but never do we spend any effort
to obtain information to enable us
to cope with the many problems we
face daily. Not that we should ab-
program graduated from high
school compared with less than
half of the others. Three out of
five were employed, compared
with only a third of the others.
Two out of five enrolled in college
or a post secondary school com
pared with only one out of five in
the control group.
The people who had been in the
preschool program as children also
had far fewer arrests, half as many
teenage pregnancies and were
much less likely to be on welfare
than those who were not in the
preschool program.
The demonstrated positive effec
ts of Head Start have helped it sur
vive the heavy budget cuts felt by
other social service programs, but
even so, Head Start serves less than
one out of five eligible children.
A comprehensive nationwide
child care program will not happen
all at once. It will probably evolve
from a number of developments,
including the necessary expansion
of Head Start and similar
programs.
But as the growing need for
quality child care programs impact
on public policies, it is essential
that parental and community in
volvement be an integral part of
institutionalized child care
programs. Without that necessary
element, such programs will just
amount to warehousing kids.
sorb all information we are ex
posed to, but to examine such in-,
formation to see if it is revelant,
accurate or enabling us to improve
ourselves. It is just as bad to
believe everything we read as it is
to eat everything we are offered.
Good judgement must be used to
see if the information is accurate,
up-to-date, useful and can be used
to remove our ignorance.
A great philosopher once said,
“there are only three classes of
people in all the world -a very
small minority which makes things
happen, a somewhat larger
minority which watches things
happen, and the vast majority of
people who never know what hap
pened”. It all happens because the
vast majority of Americans,
students and adults lay idle, suffer
many inconveniences because they
were not informed and did not
know what was happening.
Even the television series
“What’s Happening” has not
stimulated adults and students to
See Ignorance Page 2
Walking with dignity
Black
colleges
struggle
by Al Irby
North Carolina’s A&T and
Georgia’s Paine College are among
the naiton’s 103 historically Black
VP
- - Ajb
colleges j
schools establi- |
shed specifical-1
ly to educate |
Blacks. Today I
they are often I
challenged to |
prove they still •
have a place in
an education system that no longer
sanctions segregration.
Black colleges are also struggling
to shed the stigma of inferiority
they acquired during the years of
so-called “seperate but equal”
schooling.
Despite these schools
achievements, most face a finan
cial pinch, and falling enrollments.
The credibility of Black colleges
was bolstered, however, in a
report: (“Participation of Recent
Black College Graduates in the
Labor Market and in Graduate
Education.”) by Joan C. Baratz
and Myra Ficklen, published in
May 1983 by the Educational
Policy Research Institute. The
report concludes that a degree
from a Black college “is not a
deterrent to employment oppor
tunities.
The data in this study clearly
support the role of Black colleges
and universitites in enhancing op
portunities for Black Americans.
Inspite of their achievements,
however, nearly all Black colleges
are short of money in all categories
budgets, endownments, capital
funds, scholarships, and student
loans. The state-supported Black
colleges face an added dilemma
how to register more white studen
ts.
In 19 states such enrollment is
mandated by a federal court con
sent decree (Adams vs Bell), filed
originally in 1972 as Adams vs
Richardson), which requires those
states to equalize the quality of
Black and white campuses and to
bring more courses that can serve
all students to the Black campuses.
Os the estimated 1.1 million
Black students attending the
nation’s colleges, only 20 percent
are enrolled in Black colleges. The
colleges award 40 percent of the
undergraduate degrees earned by
Blacks, however. Their basic
competition comes, not from
mainstream universities and
colleges, but from two-year
colleges and new urban institutions
such as the University of the
District of Columbia.
Over the last decade the number
of traditionally Black colleges has
dropped from 117 to 103, 82 of
which are fully accredited. Several
schools have closed during the past
three decades because of a lack of
money, of facilities, or of the kind
of curriculum needed to attract
students. Others have merged.
Still others have become
predominantly white.
“When I ask you how you’re
doing, don’t tell me about a 1.9
grade point average (on a 4.0 scale)
I want to hear of nothing less than
2.6. And I would shout and
rejoice if you told me about your
3.9 average.” Chancellor Edward
B. Fort issues that kind of
challenge to the 5900 students at
North Carolina’s (A&T) in Green
sboro.
Further south, at our own Paine
College Sasha Callender, a
student from New York City, tells
her meanful story: “My life is tur
ned around because of Paine
College —by the way, the talented
Miss Callender became an honor
student, president of the student
government in her junior year, also
an actress-director, and a summer
missionary fund-raiser in her
United Methodist Church Black
College Fund.
Black colleges are also struggling
to shed the stigma of inferiority
that was labeled upon them during
the years of the so-called “separate
but equal schooling for Blacks in
the South.”
By the way, old-timer football fans
of Augusta will retrospect with a
big smile, when I link Paine with
A&T. Their minds will certainly
,go back to Paine’s fame airborne
pig-skin circus “Waller to Cun
ningham.” They defeated A&T
twice, and even threw fear into the
hears to Ric. Roberts’ might
stalwarts of Clark University of
Atlanta. That was the greatest
passing combination in the
Southeast.