.....
Opinion/Commentary/ Editoriats. Letters
Po
By
Black major.ity is the goa
golan troops b eked by their
Cuban allie battered South
African force nd bl ted
their l cursio iDto soYeriegn
ADgolan terrrilory in the b ttle
'of CuitoqunaUale. The defeMed
S African troops witDGrew
a d South Africa ed for
peace.
Recently the world wit­
neued the historic picture-of
Sam UIIlO, President the
Sout West African People's
Organization (S.W.A.P.O.),
kissing t ground of his native
land upon his ret n to Namibia
after thirty years in exile.
The liberation struggle has
produced . victory which- has
paved the way for free elections;
elections which S.W.A.P.O. is
expected to win.
With S.W.A.P.O.'s ascen­
sion to power, the people will be
able to control their own des­
tiny. The illegal racist minority
regime in South Africa has suf­
fered yet another defeat; and
now is compelled to retreat to
the confines of South Africa it­
self where it must face the stark
reality of the growing demand
credible odds, the power of the
people is prevailing.
It is necessary to caution,
however, that power seeks to
preserve itself at aU costs. And
so it will be with the regime in
South Africa, Having failed to
brutalize the people into sub­
mission through the rein of ter­
ror unleashed under the state of
emergency, the regime will next
seek to employ co-optation, and
divide and conquer strategies to
achieve an accommodation
. which is most favorable to its
own intere t.
That in erest is plain and
simple - to maintain maximum
control ver the gold,
diamonds, uranium, copper, -
platinum, nickle, chrome,
tungsten - the land, resources,
and wealth.
The regime's first ploy will
be to mako a few superOuo
changes in order to preserve
this vital interest.
Hence the barriers of apart­
heid or egregation are already
being gradually removed.
Total integration is likely to
be a reality in the not too distant
The note African-
Am�rican boliti nist and
freedo� fighter Frederic
. Douglass once rned t t
"power concedes nothing
without demand, it DeVer
and it DCYer will .
Throughout h
African regio
before the 01a!4_bl
mined de����li
As the su-uggae r;
reaches its eli ic p
may be useful to remind 1-
ves that the re a1 in the
region is power, the
to control land reso
the interest of '-�C)I)Ic.�
In South Afri in P ular,
the fight is not for integration,
but for· Blac Power (Blac
majority rule). .. the
illegal regime in uth Africa
fears most, and . (i ught fier­
cely to prevent thro ut the
regio . The final countdown on
this hCino regime, ho ver, is
clearly underw .
The winds of' change are
blowing briskly throughout tbe
outhern Africa region. An-
future, as the minority regime
see s to pacify the Black
majority by wiping out the laws
which have heaped indignities
on Blac people for decades in
their own land.
Even inter-racial dating and
marriage, the most dread im­
ages of social relations from th
per pective of the
segregationists, will soon come
to be tolerated.
What wiU be 'viewed in-
tolerable .and unacceptable is
integration into reaJ political
nd economic power. The
regime will try virtually anything
to cling to power.
The recent release of Walter
Sisulu and ven other political
prisoners was timed to for tall
further call for sanctions
within the Briti h Common­
wealth. It is not secret that the
"liberal" new President F.W. de
Klerk and others within the
regime also hoped tbat the
release of the political
pri ioners would create a plit
within A. .C. between the
older leaders, and the leader­
ship which has emerged during
Co 8
�:�:�:�:��i:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:}�:::::�:�:::�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:���:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:��:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:::�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�§�:�:�:��:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:��:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�:�
Our civic duty:
. .
IIbl always amazed and dis­
turbed by tlie number of people
who do no vote or stay in touch
with their elected officials, yet
claim to care about our children
and community. W en asked to
contact a re presentative about
given issue, they respond by
dmitting that they do not even
mo. who their representatives
are. If you don't even 00 who
they are, you prob bly have ab­
solutely no idea of what your
school board and city council
members, your representatives
and sen tors, are doing in your
name.
This problem cuts across all
egments of our commnnity.
Otherwise phisticated people
seem to assume that local, ate,
I
f Bl ck majority rule. South
Africa is increasingly isolated.
The massive unending strug­
gle by liberation forces inside
South Africa, the tightening vise
of worldwide economic sanc­
tions, and the pervasive pre -
sure of unfavorable world
public opinion is forcing change
in South Africa - the last bas­
tion of white supremacist ideol­
ogy and rule on the African
continent. Despite the regime's
boast to the contrary, sanctions
ha had a telling effect as has
the constant instability caused
by strikes, mass protests,
boycotts and armed struggle.
The "outlawed" African Nation­
al Congress will not die. In the
face of the regime's awesome
military arsenal, against in-
Holding elected offiCials accountable
and federal officials will simply .
know the right thing to do, even
if w do not tell them what we.
do or do not want. Well they
better remember Frederick
Douglass's advice that "Power
conceded nothing without a
demand. It never has and it
never wiU."
Our failure to communicate
with those we have elected is
particularly hard on our
. children who suffered $10 bil­
lion in budget cuts during the
Reagan years. Corporations,
public institutions, industries
and powerful interest groups all
hire full-time professional lob­
byists to register their concerns.
Even more significantly,
many donate large sums of
CHILD
WATCH
So people argue y �
lack of involvement on the part
of Black Americans should be
executed because we are rela­
tive newcomers to the political
proces . Such commentators
argue that it is unfair to com­
pare us with other group that
have long-established political
contacts, because the 24 years
since the 1965 passage of the
Voting RIghts Act is only slight-
1y longer than a generation and
we need more time to political-
. Iy mature.
I disagree. There is no excuse
for our not voting. Two hundred
years have passed since the
ratification of a Constitution
that excluded our ancestors
from citizenship. More than one
hundred and twenty years have
passed since the 14th and 15th
amendments were supposed to
have assured us equal protec­
tion and the right to vote. The
fact that we have only been able
to freely exercise our voitng
rights for 24 years should make
us more not less inclined to par­
ticipate than others.
Every single office holder ex­
pects to hear from their con­
stituents, and equates silence
with apathy. If we are to fulfill
our responsibility to our
children and the Black com­
munity, . and repay the debt
owed to all those who struggled
for voting rights, we must get
more involved in the
governmental process.
In
e
By Co man Augu F.
HaWlWls
According to the U.S.
Bureau of the Census the gap
between the rich and poor in
our nation has increased over
the last decade.
This inequity is further
. manifested by persons who live
in ubstandard and violent
living environments; have in­
adequate acce s to health care; .
and poor educational or
employment skills to break out
of their despair. The tragedy is
that this human neglect con­
tinues worldwide, in both.
developed and developing
countries.
money to candidates, some­
times to both candidates in
political campaigns in order to
ensure that their -interests are
kept in mind. Almost every
major industry has formed
political action committees
(PACS) to provide campaign
contributions and assure
protection of corporate inter­
ests.
ing in the health of 0
In the global community, so­
cial welfare has been neglected
at the expense of weapons as
world military expenditures
continue to grow at record
levels. An interesting and prob­
ing book entitled "World
Military and Social Expendi­
tures", by Ruth Sivard, provides
an eye opening account of how
many nations neglect the wel­
fare of their citizens.
As we review our own
budgetary priorities in this na­
tion, the worldwide data from
this boo shold help all of us
reflect and consider what our
commitment to social welfare
should be at home. For ex-
ample:
The chances of dying from
social neglect (malnutrition and
preventable disease) are 33
times greater than the chances'
of dying in war.
The U.S. and U.S.S.R., first
in the world in military power,
rank 17th and 45 among all na­
tions in their infant mortality
rates.
Six times a much public re­
search money goes for research
on weapon as for research on
health protection '
Every minute 15 children in
the world die for want of essen­
tial food and inexpensive vac­
cines, and every minute the
world's military machine takes
another S1,900,OOO from the
publilc treasury.
Everyone recognizes the
need for a sound national
defense. But we keep things in
proper perspective. Perhaps
President Eisenhower, a
military porfessional, said it
best when he stated, "The
problem in. defen e is how far
you can go without destroying
from within what you are trying
to defend from without."
Destroying from within.
These are haunting words to
think about. However, this is
precisely what our nation is
doing when we fail to invest in
programs which improve
educational opportunity for
. poor children, or provide affor­
dable health care and decent
huusing.
In past news columns, I have
harp d on the issue about the
need to invest in the Women's,
Infant and Children (WI )
Pr gram, Head tart and other
c st effective pro rams. We
need to inve t to the level where
every woman and child who are
eligible for the e programs
receive these vital service .
I am tired of bearing ab ut
individuals who play politics
with children, profess to b on
Continued on P 8