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The Augusta News-Review November 24,1984
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LINKS CELEBRATE LINK WEEK—Five charter members
of the Augusta Chapter, Links Inc., were recognized during
Link Week for their 27 years of service to the organization.
Seated is Link Margaret Barrington and standing are (left'
to right), Link Majorie Carter and Dollie Russell. The two
other charter members not pictures are Links Louise Laney
and Hattie Hornsby.
Black women fail to
take initiative on health
You’ve probably heard the old
football cliche that the best defense
is a good offense. Now I don’t
pretend to be an authority on
football, but I have been thinking
about that saying and how it applies
to health care.
The lack of affordable, regular,
adequate health care for Black
women and children in America is
Harlems 'Cotten Club'
in paperback
The Cotton Club. It was the
hottest spot in Harlem. It was the
wellspring of the best Black
musical and theatrical talent this
country ever had. It was the sym
bol of the Jazz Age and New York
in its heyday. It was for “whites
only.”
THE COTTON CLUB, Jim
Haskins’ pictoral hisitory of the
celebrated nightspot(paperback;
$9.95), is the book that inspired
the long-awaited major motion pic
ture when it was first published in
1977.
The film with a fascinating
hisotry of its own, took Francis
Ford Coppola six years to com
plete. It was co-written by Mario
Puzo (The Godfather) and Pulitzer
prize winner William Kennedy
(Ironweed). Robert Evans (Love
Story) produced it, and Richard
Gere (An Officer and a Gen
tleman) stars along with Gregory
Hines and Diane Lane.
Now in trade paperback, Jim
Haskins’ THE COTTON CLUB
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CORINNA BURRIS, daughter of Sgt. & Mrs. Johnnie D.
Burris is one of the more than 2 thousand Richmond County
4-H Club members whose programs and camp benefit from
the sale of Celebrity Cusine II cookbooks.
4-H Club sponsor
‘Celebrity Cuisine’
The 2nd annual Richmond
County 4-H Club’s “Celebrity
Cuisine” is set for Dec. 4, at 7
p.m. at the Juliam Smith Casino.
Seven area celebrities will
prepare their favorit dishes which
will be given asdoor prizes.
The admission charge, $5, in
cludes a copy of the Celebrity
Cuisine II cookbook featuring
Page 2
a national disgrace, and the entire
consumer movement for better
health care seems to have passed
right by a lot of Black women.
Maybe it is because our lives are
so caught up with basic survival
that we think we have no time to
take care of our health or maybe it
is because we are just plain scared
of our bodies.
We hestitate to take the offen-
tells the story behind the famous
club with over 125 vintage photos
and a text that place the Cotton
Club in historical perspective—the
product of an era that saw
Prohibition, Depression, and war.
It was a time when Harlem was
flashy, sassy, chic, cool—the place
to be for celebrities like Jimmy
Durante, Ethel Merman, Irving
Berlin, Fred Astaire, Noel
Coward, Earl Wilson, Jack John
son, Florenz Ziegfield, and Mayor
Jimmy Walker.
The place where performers like
Lena Horne,Cab Calloway, Duke
Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill
“Bojangles” Robinson, Ethel
Waters, and Louis Armstrong
graced the stage.
The place where high-life
mingled with low-life, where
violence inevitably erupted and
mobsters like Owney “The Killer”
Madden controlled the action.
Everybody who mattered flocked
to see such acts as Whyte’s
Maniacs, Snake Hips Tucker and
Williams & Walker.
recipies trom CSRA personalities
and nationally-known celebrities.
Gary Coleman, Glen Campbell,
Kenny Rogers, Tom Selleck, and
many others.
Proceeds from the sale of the
cookbooks go to the Richmond
County 4-H Club and will help’
support activities for more than
2,000 area 4-H’ers.
Collection bullies: know your rights
FROM COSMOPOLITAN
Collection agencies that call
consumers bums, threaten phony
legal action or use the telephone as
a weapon are breaking the law.
Federal law protects people
from a wide range of abuses, ac
cording to an article in the
November issue of Cosmopolitan,
and knowing your rights can
protect you from collection bullies.
“Some of the most extreme cases
we see involve actual threats of
violence,” said Diane Conner,
staff attorney for the Credit Prac
tices Division of the Federal Trade
Commission.
“Children have been told over the
phone, “Tell your parents they’re
going to jail tomorrow if we don’t
get the money.’ We’ve also heard
about collection agencies trying to
add on illegal fees of up to 100 per
cent of the original debt.”
Here are some guidelines to
which collecting techniques are
legal and which are not, but
remember that calling off the
collection agency does not cancel
the debt.
Telephone calls at unusual times
or to unusual places. Repeated
dunning calls during the same day
( or calls late at night without reason
or permission are illegal under the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Calls at work. These are not
considered harassment if work is
the most convenient place for you
to receive calls, attorney Conner
said, but she added, “If the collec
tion agent knows your employer
does not allow you to receive per
sonal calls at work, of if you’ve
asked not to be contacted there,
then it would be a violation.”
Calls to third parties. “We
sive on health care. We don’t
pracitce preventive medicine. We
wait until conditions become
serious before we seek care. We
allow ourselves to be passive
patients, not health care con
sumers.
I met a young woman the other
day who is a certified nurse mid
wife. Unlike the granny midwives
of old, this woman is a college
educated, registered nurse with
special training in maternal and
child health care.
In her practice, she sees what
happens when Black women fqil to
take the initiative on health, uften
they neglect their bodies.
She said that many Black
women ignore their health until
they absolutely have to seek help.
“I see many pregnant women who
have never been to a doctor.
Women come in during their third
trimester, (the last three months of
pregnancy), instead of seeking
prenatal care as soon as they
suspect they are pregnant. The
results can be disastrous and ex
pensive.”
It is clear even to the casual ob
server that women who do not
receive adequate prenatal care are
at risk and so their babies. While
we must continue to insist on an
increase in public health expen
ditures for prenatal care, we must
also encourage women to take ad
vantage of all the health care ser
vices and information already
available to them.
The young midwife tells me that
myths about childbirth are all the
information many Black women
have about their bodies. Women
still turn to their friends and their
hairdressers for advice on health
care. They rely heavily on over
the-counter remedies which may
treat the symptoms but not the
causes of conditions.
If this lack of information affec
ted only women, it would be bad
enough. Unfortunately, children
who grow up in households where
there is no communication about
nutrition, preventive medicine,
and reproductive health continue a
vicious cycle.
As a people, we cannot afford
poor health habits. As mothers,
we pass them on to our"children.
As Black women, we have an ex
traordinary responsibility to do all
we can to diminish rather than in
crease the handicaps under which
we must struggle.
When you go to the doctor or
when you take your children, be
prepaid with a list of things you
want to discuss. Let your doctor
know that you intend to be in
vovled in your care. If you have
health insurance or are on
Medicaid, know what it covers
before you need it. If you don’t
have health insurance, don’t be
embarrassed to ask how much
your care will cost.
Pay attention to your body. Be
aware of food and activities that
cause you problems. Remember:
your health and your family’s
health cannot be ignored without
dangerous consequences.
frequently hear a collection agent
has called an employer, or perhaps
a neighbor, and left an urgent
message’ that the consumer should
call Such-and-Such Collection
Agency 'regarding payment of a
debt,” said Bill McDonough, an
FTC staff attorney.
“The only possible motive
would be to embarrass the con
sumer into paying the debt quickly
before more people know. That’s
not legitimate, and it’s against the
law.”
Abusive, obscene or threatening
language. Name calling, threats
Keep your eyes B f
the numbers and . S / i
watch the savings //C
add up. A W / I
Learning how to read your &S / g
electric meter can really be worth f- K y
money to you. And it’s as easy to
do as reading the speedometer in a.
a car. Once you know how, you
can watch the amount of electricity
you use daily and control it. W z '
To get a free brochure on how »
to read your electric meter. yKw- ; K ;|q ?
call or stop by your local ■ 'CC a HJ| W|
Georgia Power office.
Plugged Into Savings. wtnwffi Q <- rgfe O
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C 1984 Georgia Power 1 —'
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Tell us, are we
kidding ourselves?
VCfe believe your palate is sensitive enough to taste the extra smoothness
that O.EC. gains by aging longer Are we kidding ourselves?
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I yourselves. There's a big differ- B - B-vB
ence and I can taste it. O.EC. is so
snuxxh tasting I can even drink it
neat. So keep on aging it longer
than the others! JF*
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yourselves. Whisky 7 is whisky and I aged 3 years B
just can’t appreciate the difference... , I
I but perhaps I should try’ O.EC.
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Vfe take the extra time to make the Original Fine Canadian.
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if you care to cast your ballot, send to; Schenley Canada Inc , 1 Salaherry, Valleyfield, Canada J6T2G9
IMPORTED IN THE BOTTLE FROM CANADA. 80 AND 86 8 PROOF SCHENLEY DISTILLERS CO . NY. NY C 1984
If they occur in a telephone con
versation, end the conversation
immediately.
Misleading threats of legal ac
tion. It is illegal to make false
threats of legal action or to use
papers designed to look like of
ficial documents of a government
agency or court of law.
Other abusive behavior.
Congress, aware of the infinite
ingenuity of debt collecors, added
to the debt collection law a
prohibition against any
“harassing, opressive and abusive
conduct.’
The first line of defense of vic-
tims of illegal debt collection prac
tices would be to request in writing
that all contact with the collection
agency cease, reports the article in
Cosmopolitan. If harassment con
tinues, the next step would be to
contact your state consumer
protection agency. Finally, the
victim can sue.
Willard Ogburn, deputy director
of the National Consumer Law
Center, said lawsuits not only
compensate the consumer, but
“the public interest is served as
collection agencies learn that
violating consumer protection laws
can be very expensive.”