COMMENTSEditorialCredo of the Black PressThe Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from racialand natural antagonisms when it accords to every person, regardless of race,color or creed, full human rights. Hating no person, fearing no person in thefirm belief that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.RememberingThe government is pulling out allstops in commemorating a particularmilestone this year, and it has quitea few observers in the communityperplexed.It has been 40 years"to the day"since President Dwight D. Eisen-hower called out federal troops toenforce a court ruling that said, es-sentially, that Jim Crow in publicschools was illegal.The government, as we said, is go-ing all out. A crumbling service sta-tion across the street from CentralHigh School in Little Rock, Ark. hasbeen hastily refurbished into a omu-seum? of sorts detailing the historicevents.The school has been fixed up, and averitable festival of programs hasbeen set for the entire week, includ-ing President Bill ClintonTs trium-phal return to his home state to de-liver what he hopes will be anotherdefining speech on the future of racerelations in this country.The effort is doubly ironic. Thegovernment, at all levels, despite itspublic pronouncements, pretty muchignored that particular milestone formany years.It was not a particularly well-keptsecret that almost nobody in govern-ment"either on the state or nationallevels"looked on that particularomilestone? with fond recollection.Eisenhower himself was particu-larly chagrined at the role he wasforced to play. He grew up with seg-regation like everyone else of histime, and assumed, with most whiteAmericans, that it was the waythings ought to be.There has been an undercurrent ofthat feeling since then in the halls ofgovernment from the local town hallto the halls of Congress.It seems that, though they couldnTtargue with either the legality or themorality of that decision, whitepeople didnTt remember fondly theday when they were forced to mingleThe Milestonewith their black brothers and sisters.So it is ironic that now, 40 yearslater, there is suddenly such a dra-matic push to publicize this ogreatturning point? in American history.Those cynics who suggest that it isprobably an effort on the part of Wil-liam Jefferson Clinton to push hisnewfound quest to bring the races inAmerica together, while at the sametime taking attention away from hismore publicized foibles, are probablynot too far off base.The irony continues, though, inthat, after all this time, black folkshave fallen out of love with that par-ticular milestone.They recognize that, as turningpoints go, the events in Little Rockthat September morning are moresymbolism than anything else.Little changed, either there oranywhere else, for black folks. In-stead of being segregated in differ-ent schools, black kids in manyplaces are segregated in their ownospecial? classrooms inside predomi-nantly white schools.Of course, there are the many in-ner-city systems where whiteflight? has made all-black schools areality once again. In fact, there aremany places across the countrywhere that reality never changed.Then there are those who willpoint out that this omilestone? wasmore of a omillstone? around thenecks of black children.With the loss of teachers who be-lieved in their ability and caredwhether they succeeded (since theywere the future of their own race),black kids fell farther and farther be-hind as integration took hold.Still, a milestone is a milestone,and a turning point, if a symbolicone, was definitely created in LittleRock that day.So the country will be remember-ing those events this week.How many will be celebrating"onboth sides"is debatable.Investing in the FutureoInvest in the future? is a much-used phrase nowadays. Any time anew program is launched, a newstrategy devised, and it needs oursupport, that phrase comes out in aheartbeat.It is appropriate in any number ofcases. But there is one group that isputting it literally into practice.Actually, there are more than one.They are springing up all across thecountry. They are African-Americaninvestment clubs, and they are mak-ing the transition from consumers tocapitalists, from spectators to play-ers, that most of us only dream ofmaking.It has been said that the differencebetween a rich man and a poor manis that a poor man works for hismoney, and a rich manTs moneyworks for him.That is literally true. Once youhave enough capital, you can begininvesting it"which is different fromspending it. eeThe difference is that when youspend your money, you use up whatyou buy with it. Shoes, clothes, auto-mobiles, even electronic equipment,all depreciate in value, and eventu-ally break down.But if you use some of that samemoney to buy stocks, bonds, real es-tate, and the like, and you chooseyour purchases wisely, the value ofyour purchase will increase, and willkeep increasing as time progresses.That is called investment. And it iswhat has traditionally marked thedifference between the black com-munity and the mainstream commu-nity.To be sure, most of those in themainstream community donTt invest,either. Very few people in our soci-ety know how to use their know-howand skills to make their money workfor them.But the fact is, historically, almostall of those few have been in thewhite community. Our forefathersnever had enough: money to savemore than one week at a time, so in-vestment was a skill they neitherlearned nor needed to learn.But these groups across the coun-try are changing that. One group inDurham, in particular, New Free-dom Investment Club, is makingwaves and being noticed.They took a very modest invest-ment, and in a few years, haveturned it into a $100,000 nest eggthat keeps growing by leaps andbounds.They have about as many mem-bers"2l"as they want, but theysee no reason why more groups canTtdo what they have done.Neither do we. In our pages in thenear future, you will be reading moreabout how we can take our futureinto our own hands, Stay tuned!A ship traveling through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to thePacific actually goes from northwest to southeast.UAIN'T NOTHIN LiKe = MyA cur oF HoT COFFEE By):Fb GET YOUR DAY 60)N 'REGARDLESS OF WHATYOu LINE MIXED IN yours,ITS STILL COFFEE, RIGHT?SOME DRINK IT DARK*»-Bur Tf PREFER MINESWITA LOTS OF CREAMEAND A TouCcH OF SUEAR.A scwonverwiar be,ABA TiceR woons mixes I |i IN HIS? /? {Looking In TheMirror CanSolve A LotOf ProblemsBY TREY BANKHEAD@In recent weeks, ITve been having a lot of problems. Oneof the biggest ones has concerned my job. ;For those who donTt know, ITm a Communications teacherat a local school that has a primarily Black population. ITvealways considered myself to be an excellent teacher. Eventhough I havenTt taught for very long, in the past two years,1 have taught in The Oakwood (private) School, Pitt CountyMental Health, several schools in the Pitt County Schoolsystem, Pitt Community College, and the Right Step Acad-emy Charter school. Not bad experience for only two years,huh? Still, in all that time, I had never doubted by teachingabilities. Give me a child who WANTS to learn, I thought,and I will teach that child! No, I had never doubted myteaching ability...Until recently.I first realized that I was having problems when someonemy wife and [ had just met asked me what | do for a living.Rather then give the smiling, proud response of oITm ateacher,?, I actually hesitated. It surprised me; Why was | nolonger proud to be a teacher?I started looking around for the cause. | was having prob-lems keeping order in my classes. Students constantly chal-lenged me physically, and seemed to have no respect for myauthority as their teacher. Those students whom I could tellwanted to learn were frustrated by the constant distractionsof the unruly kids in the classes. My wife made it evenclearer: oI never hear you talk about anything GOOD aboutyour day anymore. EverythingTs always so negative.?That shook me! I mean, I have always found teaching tobe an emotional roller coaster ride. A thrill a minute, neverknowing exactly what would happen next, only that it wouldbe worth the experience. To me, seeing that sudden look ofcomprehension in a studentTs eyes always made the struggleto get through to the kids worthwhile. But, recently, ITd lostthat thrill. I no longer looked forward to each day at school.Instead, I dreaded getting up in the morning.I'll admit it: I started blaming my lack of enjoyment ofteaching on the kids. I thought, oHow can I teach them whenmost of them did not want to learn? WhatTs the point?? Myconfidence slipped, and with it went my effectiveness in theclassroom. Any order in the classroom became replaced bychaos. My temper grew shorter, and little things that neverbothered me before now grated on my nerves. My wifestopped asking me about my day, afraid of what new prob-lem had cropped up, or what frustration I had. I startedavoiding my coworkers, afraid I'd start snapping at them!Now I know why the majority of all teachers quit beforethey reach the three-year mark.My coworkers were great: they kept trying to draw meout, to get me to talk about what was bothering me, but howcould 1? THEY werenTt fighting for control of the classesevery day. My supervisor made many great suggestions onhow to be more effective, but I did not listen. I had hit thepoint where I had almost stopped caring. I started lookingaround at other fields of employment, convinced that becom-ing a teacher had been the worst mistake of my life. I evengot as far as updating my resume.Then, one morning, my wife suggested that I needed toochange my perspective on the kids.? She said that I wasletting my ofrustration poison my opinion of them, and of myjob.? So, for her, I promised that, for that one day, I wouldtry to look at things fresh.It made a HUGE difference!Not only could I see how badly my faith in the kids haderoded, I could see how badly my faith in MYSELF hadslipped, too! And, because of that, the kids were starting tolose their faith in me, as well. I started noticing little thingsthat were causing confusion for the kids. Their understand-ing of the material I was presenting was imperfect, and IhadnTt noticed. The kids moods had started to match mine,and the oI donTt care? attitude was becoming more common.The next time my supervisor wanted to talk with me, Ilistened. She pointed out several things I could do to be moreeffective. ITve actually taken what sheTs said and used it toplan for the rest of the semester. Budgeting my time so thatI donTt feel pressured all of the time had helped a great deal.Planning everything in advance also keeps the stress down.This week, I'll be observing other teachers in the classroomsof another school, noting differences in style, and asking foradvice.You see, sometimes, when everything seems to be collaps-ing around you, itTs not anyoneTs fault but your own. If youTrenot willing to look at yourself, look into yourself, then you'llnever solve the problem. It will keep coming back again andagain, each time hitting you harder until you give up. ItTsvery easy to look around and point out the flaws in otherpeople. But it takes a great deal of strength to look insideyourself and find your OWN flaws.So now, when I get up in the morning, I look at myself inthe mirror and ask myself: oWhat can I do today to maketoday a better day than yesterday?? ITm still surprised by thenumber of answers I come up with.SERVING THE COMMUNITY INSTEAD OF SERVINGTIMEBy Marian Wright EdelmanChildwotchWith the number of legal scrapes that Chuck Lewis expe-rienced as a young man growing up in Southern California,he could easily have wound up serving a jail term instead ofserving his community.oBut God saw fit to give me a chance at a better life,?says Chuck, now a sergeant for the federal GovernmentPrinting Office Police in Washington, D.C.As a boy, Chuck often spent his school days running thestreets and his evenings stealing hubcaps and getting intoother mischief. Before long he landed in front of a judgewhose patience had almost run out but who gave him onemore chance.Chuck packed his bags and headed for the Army. Therehe met people who believed in him and taught him self-discipline. He served in Vietnam and joined the military po-lice, discovering it was far more productive to help youngrecruits steer clear of trouble than locking them up afterthey crossed the line. It was a lesson that heTs been applyingthroughout his more than 40 years in law enforcement.oWe have to catch these kids between ages six and 13,and make a positive difference in their lives,? says Chuck, amember of the Black Police Association and president of theFraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 2 in D.C. oITve learnedthat many of the kids who get into trouble are a lot like Iwas as a kid. Most of the time they just need a secondchance, somebody to believe in them. I understand that someyoung people are violent and need to be separated from therest of society for a time, but most of them are not violentoffenders.oEverybody seems to be talking about trying more chil-dren as adults, but we have to remember that they are stillkids. It sure makes more sense to treat them with love andget them involved in something constructive and meaningfulbefore they get into trouble.?Chuck is right. Studies have shown trying children inadult courts does not deter criminal behavior. A new studyin Florida, for example, found that those young people triedas adults committed new crimes sooner after their releasefrom prison, and perpetrated more serious and violentcrimes than those tried as juveniles. ThatTs because adultcourts and adult prison lack the education, counseling andtreatment that help offenders rehabilitate themselves.Rather, adult jails are crime schools where young convictslearn from the worst possible role models"hardened crimi-nals.This fall the U.S. Senate will vote on a bill, S.10, whichcould mean more children than ever being thrown into adultprisons. The House already has passed an equally harshcompanion bill, H.R. 3. We must act now to protect childrenfrom being trampled by gutless politicians seeking to provethey are otough on crime? by voting for harsher punishmentsagainst young offenders.Call your senators. Tell them that we mustnTt allow chil-dren to be tried in adult courts and thrown into adult prisonwhere they will only learn to become better criminals; to besubjected to harassment, assault, and rape and face in-creased risk of suicide. Tell them that we must invest inintervention and prevention on the front end and do some-thing to stop the flow of guns into our childrenTs communi-ties and homes. And if our children are unfortunate enoughto land in court, tell your senators to make sure children geta juvenile court process and thé kind of education and psy-chological treatment that will help them lead productivelives.oNot only does imprisonment rob too many youths of achance for a better life,? Chuck says, obut it robs society ofthe benefit of their potential good. I will always think of thekind of life I might be leading right now if I didnTt get theopportunity to start over.?