EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA'S MINORITY VOICE - SINCE 1987WEEK OF MARCH 22 - MARCH 31, 1995The death penalty canTt stop violent crime, the American people canLast week New York State Gov-ernor George Pataki signed a deathpenalty bill, restoring capital pun-ishment after nearly 20 years. Thiswas Governor PatakiTs big cam-paign promise"to make New Yorktougher on came by making themost heinous murders punishableby death._ ItTs certainly true that more andmore people"white and Black"have come tobelieve that the deathpenalty could be an effective mea-sure in combating crime. Eventhough the statistics prove thatthe death penalty is in no way adeterrent, it has become morepopular as a osolution.? Why? Inmy view, it is because most peoplefeel powerless in the face of risingcrime and violence and the deathpenalty seems like something to dothat might make a difference. ItisnTt. But the politicians have deftlycapitalized on the publicTs fear andanger at being so impotent. Manybelieve support for the death pen-alty was a key to PatakiTs victoryover Mario Cuomo in New York.Andon anational level, the Demo-crat-sponsored Clinton Crime Bill,which passed last year with Re-publican support, identified 60 newcrimes for which Americans couldMARCHERS DEMONSTRATE against racism, injustice and/or racism andiPitt County Schools bus driver.The Truth about WelfareSocial programs to shore up thesingle household are badly needed.It was welfare policy that broke upthe poor Black home to begin with,since you could not be married orindeed have a man showing if youwanted to get assistance. So thepoor Black woman had to get rid ofher man in order to save herselfand her children. In almost a con-tinuation of mating practicesstarted during slavery, Black mengot used to coming in the backdoor. Even now, most healthywomen on welfare have a man, butheTs hiding.While the average Black womancan stretch a dollar, there is noway anyone can hope to survive onthe money welfare gives out. ItTsimpossible, and the welfare sys-tem knows it, thatTs what makesthis situation such a horrible scam.Anyone with an ounce of humandignity is forced to become an out-law in order to survive. The bigbucks go to pay administratorsand bureaucrats; it does not go tothe poor.If the system were at least hon-est, they would just state - thiscannot meet all your needs. Therest you will have to hustle on yourown, but at least you'll have medi-cal care for yourself and your kids,and part of the rent and help withthe food bill. That would be honestand fair.' Instead, they try to make peoplethink they are giving all thismoney. Andif you try to help your-self by working a little job or atottage industry, or you have helpIs rea'». Everyone"those on the receiv-ing end and those whose taxes payfor it"agrees that the welfare sys-tem isnTt working. The system isdegrading, inefficient and top-heavy. Much of the hundreds ofBillions of dollars that the federalgovernment spends each year onwelfare never reaches people inneed, Some surveys indicate thateee to 80% of it winds up in thehands of the bureaucrats and pov-erty professionals.i But while the current welfaresystem is a disaster, most Ameri-8 believe that the country canTtjt turn men and women withoutbs or other means of support outSac!. 4from a friend or father of the child,oreven aman whois not the fatherof the child, you're a WelfareQueen, a cheat, this and that. ItTsridiculous. The figures paid to re-cipients across the country is solow as to be embarrassing. Thereis never enough to eat, not enoughto pay even low rents. A room is$100 a week in New York. A per-son on home relief gets just $215 amonth rent. Where can you life for$215 a month? a park bench? Awoman with three children gets$375.Fathers already kick in So thefather of a child kicks in the differ-ence, pays for the babyTs clothes,toys, etc. Food stamps are a bighelp and need to be increased, notstopped. They run out in threeweeks, 80 more money is kicked infor food. A nice TV set. The familycanTt go anywhere. No babysitter.Ifthe single mother is lucky enoughto have a good relationship withher mother, it helps.If the man were to declare him-self, the woman would be cut off ofwelfare and he canTt carry thewhole burden by himself. with thelittle help she gets, plus his littlemoney, they just about make it.ThatTs whatTs really going on. Andif you say, well, poor Whites donTthave it so good, they get farm sub-sidies, food stamps, own a truck ora car, and the only difference isperhaps a White woman may nothustle as much as a black woman,who is not lazy and rather rest-less,In fact, a single woman in herwelfare reform pon the streets. Most Americansbelieve that children"all chil-dren"must have food toeat. That'stT ae program was origi-nally established 60 years ago aspart of the Social Security Act.Still, the outcry for reform per.sists, Some have pointed out howpolitically motivated that. outcryis. On my television show thisweek, my guest, the Reverend AlSharpton, notedTthat while Con-gress was Willing to bail out theavings and Loan companies tothe tune of $400 billion, many ofour elected officials are obsessedwith cutting welfare, Most of theproposals being put forward, both~&be executed. Both parties use thedeath penalty issue as a politicalfootball, but have no real solu-tions for stopping crime and vio-lence or for changing the condi-tions which produce them.While I am completely sympa-thetic to the lack of trust in liberalsolutions (prison rehabilitationhas been one of the most monu-mental social policy failures ofthis century), I do not believe thatcapital punishmentis the answer.I have always opposed the deathpenalty and still do.-Study afterstudy proves conclusively thatcapital punishment does not actas a deterrent to murder or anyother violent crime. But the deathpenalty does have a huge impacton the Black community. Thanksto racist nature of the Americanjudicial system, no white personhas ever been executed for killinga Black person. Moreover, a dis-proportionately high number ofthose on Death Row are men ofcolor. In many ways the African_American community was con-demned to death long ago. En-demic poverty, unemployment,poor education, drugs and the day-to-day abuse and violence of rac-ism are built into American soci-ety.Ironically, the rise of violentcrime and the increased popular-ity of the death penalty share asimilar cause: powerlessness. Un-able to make a life for themselvesdue to economic, social and/or psy-chological instability, and power-less to change these conditions,some turn to violent crimes. Un-able to get the government to setthe country on a developmentalpath, and powerless to change thegovernment, more and moreAmericans support non-solutionslike the death penalty. The seri-ous question in dealing with thepervasive problem of violent crimeis how to get the country on adevelopmental path " economi-cally, socially, psychologically andculturally. The popularity of thedeath penalty, and the willing-ness of politicians of both partiesto put it forth as a genuine solu-tion in spite of the fact thatitisnTt,is just one more indicator thatunder the present political ar-rangements, there is no such pathto development. You and I andother ordinary Americans are go-ing to have to to create it. Andwe're going to have to restructurethe political arrangement in orderto do so.|ee Seensup20s, not right away but after awhile, would rather dump the babyon someone reliable, like hermother, and find herself a job. Thejob quest is only undermined bydrugs, or low self-esteem and nodecent clothes to wear.Buy if the woman has two ormore children, she might as wellstay home, because the costs ofbabysitting, and amount of moneyneeded to feed and cloth, say, threekids, plus loss of health care, makethe proposition too costly.There are some Critics are rightabout some women who sit up andhave kids while on welfare. Butmost of these women are not usu-ally teenagers. They are olderwomen who prefer staying at homeand, in fact, rarely go out except toshop. They may have the fatherright there, unless heTs mean orviolent, or they may be ratherlonely and the children are therelittle friends. There is often aneighborTs child or two, or thechildof a young girl whois struggling inthe mix.Unless there are drugs or alco-hol involved, these women arequite useful. They often bake orsell cakes or pies, cook hearty mealsfor the children and provide sta-bility for their neighborhoods. Andmany of their children end up incollege.The truth is, for all the talkabout family values, America isnot family or child-oriented.Nothing in America makes iteasy for singles or couples to raisea family.from Newt GingrichTs Republicansand Bill ClintonTs Democrats, talkabout replacing owelfare? withoworkfare.? The Republican planoutlined recently by CongressmanE. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-FL), echoingthe reforms page last year byPresident Clinton, would requirethat after two years on welfarepeople take jobs or become part ofsome work program. But neitherthe Republicans nor the Demo-crats have addressed the criticalquestions: What jobs? What pro-grams? Who would Bey for thesework programs? And how wouldcuts in welfare spending affect theoverall marioport of Angelo Fori { tdham, former officer of the crenville Police Department, and Bill Worthington, formerStaff Photo: Jim RouseCongress endorses oPartners forfreedom, Expo T95"North Carolina Congressional :leaders recently pledged their fullsupport to farmers, small busi-ness owners and the tobacco andagriculture industries.oIn North Carolina our greatestasset is our people, this Expo isdesigned to generate awarenessfor ourindustries and bring peopletogether to learn more about prob-lems associated with small busi-ness, farmers and North Carolinaindustries to seek solutions tothese problems through a unitedeffort, said Dean Rouse, Co-Chair-man of the Partners For Free-dom,- Expo.? .The Partners For Freedom,Expo "95 will consist of two parts,an Exhibition and Convention.The exhibition will have a widevariety of exhibitors from through-out the United States promotingtheir goods and services. The Ex-hibition will be a three day eventbeginning on March 28-30, 1995.The Expo will be open to the publicand feature ofree admission andentertainment.? Several organiza-tions and companies like SprintCellular, Jefferson-Pilot InsuranceCompany, Carolina Greenhouses,NC Emu Association and NC PilotAssociation will hold presentationson center stage. T he conventionwill be a two day event beginningon March 29-30. Siminar topicswill include a diversity of topics tosupport small business owners,convenience stores, farmers, andNorth Carolina industries. Na-tional and prominent leaders willteach seminars to help those inattendance. The event will con-clude with a oFreedom Banquetand Celebration Dinner? on March30. The convention is open to thepublic and anyone may attend.There is a registration fee andspace is limited.Some of the invited guest willinclude Senator Bob Dole (SenateMajority Leader), CongressmanNewt Gingrich(Speaker of theHouse), Congressman Thomas J.Bliley(Chr./Sub on Health & Envi-ronment), Congressman Pat Rob-erts (Chr./House Agriculture Com-mittee) and Mr. Rush Limbaugh,talk show host.For more information on exhibitspace or to register for convention,please call 919/569-7171. Partialproceeds will be distributed to theNC FFA Foundation and NC Co-operative Extension Service.Fulani says new Theory ofDevelopment will Cure ViolenceWell-known African Americandevelopmental psychologist andpolitical activist Dr. Lenora B.Fulani says that a recently dis-_covered theory of human develop-ment holds significant promisefor curing violence and other so-cial ills. But, she adds, this theo-retical breakthrough is not re-ceiving the recognition it deservesfor narrow political reasons.oFor 20 years, my colleague Dr.These questions are being posedby economists and labor expertswho criticize both the Democraticand Republican proposals. In arecent article in the Wall StreetJournal, these economists arguedthat the proposed restructuring ofwelfare could increase the povertyrate from the current 13% of thepopulation to as much as 22%, andthat the reduction of per capitaincome could have a negativeoripple effect? on poorer urban andrural areas of the country. Laborexperts have noted that theeconomy will have difficulty ab-sorbing millions of workers with-out skills or job experience.nae ce eeFred Newman has been workingwith developmental theorists,clinical practitioners, educatorsand researchers including myselfto create a practical theoreticalapproach to human development,which insists that development canbe re-initiated at any age,? saysDr. Fulani. oHis results are ex-tremely encouraging. The actualprograms that have been devel-oped based on this approach areossible?The real question is: Can wecreate an economic arrangementwhich takes millions of people offwelfare and brings them into thework force in ways that foster thegrowth and development of boththe economy and the people whoselives will be profoundly affected bythis shift?In my opinion, there is no evi-dence that the government canroduce serious and workable so-utions to these spin Govern-ment has simply become too con-trolled by Democratic and Repub-lican politicking to come up withreal solutions capable of movingthe country forward. Until we take¢the most effective ITve ever seen indealing with youth violence, teenpregnancy, educational failures,learning disabilities, and emo-tional pain.oHowever, these results appar-ently pose a serious threat to thepsychological and educational es-tablishments, and to the multi-care of that problem, there is noway out of social, economic andpolitical gridlock, no possibility ofreforming the welfare system, andno chance of setting the stage forabona fide economic expansion. Ifthe process is opened to thepeople"through term limits, ini-tiative and referendum, recall, theelimination of PACs, ballot accessandelection reform"if we can cre-ate real democracy in America,then I am very confident that theAmerican people can find humaneand developmental solutions to thefailure of the welfare system, andPm the other problems we face to-ay.