J
VIEWS
EDITORIAL
Olymp c
nd Will
d
Thom
•
OU C re
needed for community economic
cvelopmen to enerate decent jo
to lleviate poverty. '
Communitie mu t be em­
powered to m ke the critical
deci ion bout the type of
economic options which are com­
p tible with their nee .
R ourcestoinsurea21 tcentury
quality educaiton in the public
school m t Iso be a top priority.
Community ho pital nd health
care cen rsm t be re-opened. And
there m t be major investment in
ho ing habilitation and new bosu­
Ing const ction under the direction
of community enterprises controlled
by community re iden .
Regrettably, neither George Bush
and the Republicans or the naf nat
Democratic Party are likely to adopt
and campaign for a Domestic Mar­
shall Plan.
Ron Dan�1s sen as President
0/ tM IMtitute lor' Community Or­
ganzation and Development in
Youngstown, Ohio. He may be con­
tDeted at (216) 746-5747.
READERS WRITE
There is mu h boolalaboo over the nomination of Clarence
Thom to the Supreme Court seat held so nobly by J nee Thurgood
rshall.
The Thomas nomination, like the rest of tbe Re gan-Bush P:
pointments reflect a lowering of tand rds. J J c on it be t.
The Dan Quayle and Tbomases illustrate, Je e ay , the lowering
of st ndards. Bush has set the hurdle so low, midgets can cale them.
If black kin and the Black experience is a qualification for the
courts, then there are millions of potential justices out there. Every
time you meet a Bl c man, just call him J tice.
Th alligator tears hed by Thomas before the Senate hearing
over the racial inj tices utTered by hi grandparen w painful to
hear beca e th tal were bared for the wrong n. The telling
of hi grandparen ' p in an ult to the millio upon nilllioDl
of Blec folk who have died, sutTered pain and humiliation, indig­
nities, I of opportunities bees of American partheid. To dwell
upon that uffering in the pursuit of personal political ambition i to
employ the ame tactics B h ed in calling on Willie Horton to get
help him get elected.
It's ing omeone else' pain for personal profit. It' tiding to
office on the blood of others. And it is cheap and insulting. Like J e
say , mental and moral midgets can now run and win.
B�ck to ba ic : adequate
funding, community control
Governor John Engler is reportedly about to release what is being
hailed a dramatically revolutionary education plan. It promises to
reward educational success and punish failure.
This at a time when controversy broil over the Detroit public
schools Male Academies, launched with the intent of reversing the
"failures" of Black male tuden .
The failure of the public schoQI system is a hot topic of debate.
But' it has been for at least three decades. The only changes on the
school scene are the teady increases in the numbers dropping out
and falling back.
By law, students must go to school until they are 16 years old.
Such law, in theory, guarantee a public educated suffiCiently to
carry on a democratic form of government.
As the statistics of educational succe have diminished, so have
the number of voters declined and the number of new paper readers
dropped. The only numbers soaring besides the Uliteracy rate • are
tbe crime tatistics.
All the carrot and stick plans Engler and his staff devise and the
legislature adopts, all the gimmicks the school system can concoct
will do no good unless there is committment to MiChigan's kids.
That committment will require a complete turn around in the
values of this society. When one football professional is paid more
than a building-full of teachers, there is something not right. Cor­
porate executives cash $18 million paychecks while demanding that
local school districts give up tax funds due on their factories, (done
of course, in the 'name of creating jobs.)
As lottery revenue rise, politicians slyly shift educational dollars
to pet projects including Commerce Department business enhance­
ment programs (who contributes to political campaigns after all?
Certa,inly not school kids).
E erywhere you look, everyone's talking out of both sides of their
mouths when it comes to education.
Since pollnctans, corporations and society seem hell bent on
taking care of their own needs while paying lip service to schools,
parents and concerned cit need to rise up, and silence the pious
platitudes by getting down to the basics. .
It will take a massive effort to provide a real education to all of
the children of Michigan, It will mean as focused an effort as
providing one-on-one, teacher to student for some kids. It will mean
providing breakfast in some cases, after-school tutoring in others,
health care for some, emotional guidance for others. It means ul­
timately showing the kids that someone cares.
To accomplish that we see only one route. Parents and community
must take control of their local school budget, personnel and cur­
riculum.
color re fo to u t lik "the
re ched of the earth."
Wh t I the re po of the
vemment to thi State of Emer-
ency? Priv te inv to re cram-
bling to rebuild war tom Kuw it with
tbc clive encoura ement of the U.S.
government.
And leadin democra like Le
Alpin and Richard Oephardt are
promoting t id a of kin money
out of the defense budget to send
$3-5 billion in aid to the Soviet
Union to . t that country with cur­
rent "emer ency."
TIlE UBLIC CHOOLS
become the p erve of poor, un­
derfunded, inadeq tely equipped,
and 0 erin a Iy inferior eel
don.
The hou ing inventory i
dilapidated nd trained by over­
crowding due to acute housing
hortages.
Hospitals and community health
Ie VE mstobe
the mell of profits in what i poten-
tially a vast new market for U.S.
corporate Intere .
Leading Democra also pressed
to put the Republican ponsored Free
Whyar w
10 Ing our Ideal ?
The Africans in these
U.S.A. are becoming 1 ofan
Idealistic people. Up 10 now
we have believed that all
things are of the mind or spirit.
We had no physical world.
Meaning, were not eeing
things as tbey are. The beauti­
ful has been taken from our
lives; the so-called, good life is
said to be inful.
We are still on the planta­
tion, slave labor, cheap labor is
with us today.
I do not know how we can
help ourselves because if there
are two people, there are two
philosophers.
We seem to be happy to be
at odds. Even when we cannot
feed or dress ourselves we
blame each other.
. It becomes a game. It's
alright that we take from each
other.
The sad part i that nobody
is able to make it work any
other way. We take one step
up and somebody pulls us
back.
According to the law of
civilization there i no reason
for it to happen this way. For
u to be still talking civil
rights, some one mu t be
making new law.
-J. Brownl
Hlghllnd Plrk
Benjamin F.
Chavl. Jr.
"
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�Ut\Ca
Vo\Jc.�!!
� moral imperatives are evident. A
united demand from people
throughout the nation.baa to be heard
by all politiciam. It is however a sad
commentary that the "health" of the
nation han to be reduced to politics.
, Access to health care for all per­
sons in this nation is a matter of
politics. It is also matter of
economics. But, fundamentally it it
a matter of morality aDd j uee,
No one should be denied health
care for any reason. Racial dis­
c:d.miDatiOD should have DOt place in
dcclcUDa ceess aDd the delivery of
bealtb care.
Health cer
crt
ri
e
•
"
By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR.
The Ameriam Medical Auocla­
tion has once again con.firmed that
racism continues to playa significant
role in the plraling national bcalth
care crisis. The Journal of the
American Medical Association
recently stated, "Access to basic
medical care for all of our inhabitants
is still not a reality in this country.
There are many reasons for this, not
the least of which is long taDdlng,
systematic, institutionalized racial
discrimination. "' ' . ,
The AMA found racial dis­
crimination in the nation's health
care system to be particularly true in
regard to Afri� Americans and
Hi panics. As e stated before,
the situation in many African
American comm ties goes beyond
being deicrlbed "inadequate" or
"insufficient" health care delivery.
The truth j that for many in the
AfriClliAme� amunUDity health
THE RISING INFANT mor­
tality rate in the African American
community is directly related to noD­
accessible and non-emtent health
care systems. We must place this
i ue at the top of the political agenda
in the upcoming 1992 national elee­
tions. We must call for a National
Health Care Policy which forbids ra­
cial discrimination and dramatically
increas�s cOlDlD�ty access to
health care.
We join with the American Medi­
cal Association in concluding, "It is
no longer cceptable morally, ethi­
cally, or economically for so many of
our people to be medically uniDswed
or seriously underiDslm:d. We can
sol this problem. We need only
clear-cut objectives and proper or-
anization of our resources. Have
we now the national will and leader­
hi 1"
P ,
President Busb clearly not ex-
erted leaderlblp on this Yet,
care access and dellvery i "non-ex-
i tent." '
It is interesting that the AMA
stxased, "It is not a coilicidence that
tbe United States of America and the
RepubliC of South Afrlca - the only
t 0 developed, Indu trialized
countries that do have access to basic
health care - also are the only two
such countries that have within their
boIders ubstantial numbers of un­
dereserved people who are different
ethnically from the controlling
group."
At first there were ome medical
researchers for the AMA who con­
�ended that poverty w the major
discriminating factor in limiting ac­
cess to health care. Yet, the current
researoh e%pOSed a pattem of racial
discrim1natiOD that eDt beyond
limitatio of poverty. We DOte and
thank the AMA for confirming what
many in the African American com­
munity kDo is "painfully true." ,