Appointees hold
lttle promise
Double-talk abo
C tel" A.. t Sr. roots. You'll see. He did the di memories of the bloody
WASHINGTON, DC bad to do to win. It a prag- struggle I to' achieve the-
(NNPA) - or Blacks, dis- matic thing. It's not a Black &anchK, said they would vote
enchanted with the Demoaats thing.anymore.lt had nothiDg to Republican. After the cam­
and . 0 re now Ioo� . t- do with race," they chonsed. paiga, however, it was learned
fully at the GOP, President- Wanna bet? These thatonlysixperoentofthemac- .
elect George Bush dropped the gentle�n apparently never, tually did .
other dreaded shoe. He named . heard of George W ee, the The Machiavellian Baker,
Lee Atwater, top cam� 'Alabama "popu&t·, when othro a rock and hides his
aide to be chairman of the beaten in his first race for elec- hand",' more diffiwh to come
Republican National Commit- live office by a rabble rousiDg to terms with. His touch wil be'
tee. oppooent 0 opeDly appealed discerned by close observers in
The first shoe was the ap- tor ee, flatly'declared: "He out- the .kinds of policies the State
pointment of James Baker, his nigered IDe. It 't happen Dept. will project His track
smilingly affable but chillingly again.· And it didn't. And record is not encouraging. As
sinister cam� manager, to nobody "outniggered" chief of staff of the OvaIOflice,
the pr�stigious position of Baku/Atwater and, where the he did nothing to encour ge
Secretary of State. The Pre i- buck fmally stops, their boss Reagan to meet with traditional
dent-elect now has in place the George Bush. Black leaders, a Reagan polky
bookends of his highly success- Atwater h s said he will continued after Baker left to be­
ful campaign strategy - the reach for Blac support but rome Secretary of the Treasure,
super cool pragmatic policy doesn't say ow. Ann Huer, a From the past performances
framer and the gungho pi dog hite member of the D. C. of these tWo men, Blacks, and
implementer. A. kinder more Republican Committee, id 25 much of America, don't have
gentle America, as promised by per cent of Bush's D.C. vote much in the way of inspiring
President-elect Bush,' ahead? came from Blac . She also nature to 100 forward to. From
Most Americans are aware quoted the Los Angeles Tunes a cold prison �II in pretoria
of Atwater and his promise to as stating that Bush received 18 where he is awaiting sentence
hang "Willie Horton around per cent Black support after convict in on charges of
Dub . , neck" in an unabashed Linda Williams, senior treason, South Africa leader
scorched earth racist campaign. political policy analyst of the Mosiuoa.Lekota cautioned fel-
But mos Americans are not Joint Center For Political low Blac Africans in their
aware that it was the personable Studies, a Black Capitol Hill I struggle to be free to refuse to
Baker who shaped and/or ap- think tank, challenged that permit hatred of the white op­
proved this policy. Robert assertion. She declared: "The pressor to tum "our organiza­
Teeter and Craig L. Fuller, Los Angeles Times' the. only tions into racialist monsters of
Bush's co-directors of trans i- one that had that 18 per cent the future" ..
tion, wer� part of it, but those fwgure, all the other post-elec- "A ·political IDOYeDlCnt," he
o bow po most the weight tion polls hovered around 9 Per oouaseled, "cannot bequea� to
for the dirty, racist campaigning cent" Blac Bush support. society a ch cteristic it does
on the shoulders of Baker and . The troubling thing now is not itself possess."
Atwater. there are so many disaffected From lhtir records, then,
Some Black Republican ac- Black voters in the hustings. what characteristics. can we
quaintanees pooh-poo ed my Williams said 16 per cent young honestly expect the Baker/At­
alarm at the Atwater appoint- Blacks,. particular the under water tandem to "bequeath" us
ment "He's in the hot seat now. 30-year-olds,ltough, cynical, from their respective public of-
His role will have to, be ex- 'pragmatic largely college- lfices? ,I . I
panded from his Southern trained BU PPIES Iwho 'have
By Marl W' ht EdeI a
If we adults really want to
help prevent teen pregnancy, we
have to stop talking out of both
sides of our mouths about sex.
Teenagers are bright, percep-­
tive people, and they know when
they are getting mixed signals
from adults. Here are just a few
examples:
- We tell our girls to be
chaste, and our boys to score.
Girls generaUy fee more hesita­
tion about early sex than boys
do. But the red- light· are
flashing at girls aU too often fails
to stop them &om having sex
before they are ready, and in­
stead stops them from making
sure they have birth control
before they do. And the green
light we flash at boys makes it
very unlikely that they will d lay
sexual activity. Teens of both
exes need a yellow light: a
strong caution from adult
about the ris and consequen­
ces of too-early sexual activity.
- We tell our teens one
. thing, and do another. Teens
have. not cornered the market
on irresponsib e behavior.
I
Often, adult men in their early
twenties are the fathers of I
teenage gir Is' babies. Adu ts
have helped to spread sexually­
transmitted dise_jses. Adult
men by the millionShave walked
away from their child support
responsibilities. We adults have
to clean liP our act before e
can speak with authority to our
children.
� We bemoan the teen preg­
nancy problem, but deny that
our own children could be
having sex. Most Black adults
will admit that our community,
like our natio as a whole, has a
serious teen pregnancy
problem. But too often, we fail
to face up to that problemwhen
sex'
't confronts us in our own
omes. Many parents avoid dis­
cussing sex or birth control with
their children in the mistaken
fear that thi, will "encourage"
their childten to have sex. They
look the other way even when
they sec clear signs that their
children have become sexually
active. Denying to ourselves and
'others that our children may be
having sex - as 86 percent of all
Black teenage boys and 59 per­
cent of all Black teenage girls do
by age 18 - will not help our
ung people avoid the negative
consequences of too-early preg­
nancy and parenthood. But in­
itiating honest, open, two-way
communication can.
For almo t all of us, sex is a
difficult and uncomfortable
subject. But w cannot be effec­
. tive fighters against teen preg­
nancy and parenthood until we
learn to talk straight to our sons
. and OUI daughters.
Marian Wright Edleman is
President of the Chidlren's
Defense Fund, a national voice
for c ildren.
I t
or ow'sj I1s
I . age" workers wi !Boike rom-
F, petition tough for . age group
even if job flel expand To
make our rk f or competi­
tive e must be prepared to
educate and trai them effec-
lively.
To help our tion invest .
the future, I recen y introduced
legislation to strengthen anti­
job disaimin lion by feder I
contractors and to create an
S850 milliOn per year education
improvement fund to help train
the nation's workforce for the
next century. In the very near fu-
I ture, women and minorities will
comprise a m jority of t entrY
level workforce. When this day
arrives, we will be faced with a
severe crisi unless we work
today to provide proper educa­
tion and job training for young
peopl .
It is intended that the educa­
tion fund, fin red by an assess­
ment levied again t aU fed ral
contractor , (at on alf of one
percent of he contr ct amount)
would be used to prepare
women and minorities for
careers in fi Ids they have been
previously excluded from, such
as engineering and chemistry. It
will also address thC1 shortage of
minority teachers. I
As Tomorrows Jobs points
out, the Caste growing occupa­
tions wiU be (he ones that re­
quire more education. We will
employ 46% more natural, com­
puter and math cienti ts than
we do now. Engineer, account­
ants, Iawy rs, ur 5, managers,
and technician will a 0 be in
great demand. We must begin
the task of preparing our wor
force now, so w can respond to _
the challenge of 'Tomorrows
Jobs" .
hat difficult to
kills will be in
'demand in th next decade for
young people in purs it of a
career job. J forecast isn't
a perfect scie ce, and sudden
.rceessi ns can throw even the
most optimis job scenario's
out of the win ow. But a PUbli­
cation issue by the U.S.
Department 0 Labor can help
give you an dea about job
trends in the s ahead,
Entitled T morro�s Jobs,
the publicat on co siders
population gro and Change,
new technol es, and current
availability of rtain skills, to
predict where j opportunities
will be in the n 10 to 15 years.
Changes in the population
and work for have an impact
on empl ymen Due to the cur­
rent low birth r te and ilie aging
of the baby m generation,
the fastest gr ing segments of"
tHe population are the middl -
aged and elder y. This popula­
tion will eat re outsid the
home, purch se more in­
surance, and equire a great
deal more heal care they get
older. This ope's up a number
0(. job possib lities in these
areas,
�The number of workers be­
een 16 and 24 years of age will
decline into die id-90's, so jo
. traditionally h Id by this age
group should b more plentiful
As peopl ret e earlier, the
number of 01 r workers will
also decline, By the year 2,CXX>, 3
out of 4 workers will be between
25 and 54 year of age. This high
. proportion of "prime ing