From: pssres12@ucs.usl.edu (Vignes Gerard M)
Subject: Re: Clinton's Disrespect For Jessee Jackson
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern La., Lafayette
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 11:50:31 GMT

In article <14shf4INN155@agate.berkeley.edu> ph111-bx@violet.berkeley.edu (;;;;7202) writes:
>Too much emphasis is given to political representation and not enough to
>economic power.  Black people control much of the Oakland city government,
>the school board and its teachers and administration.  And yet the murder
>rate is heading for a record year.  Changing the color of government isn't
>the answer.  The organizational energy and drive that achieved this should
>much more be focused on developing local indigenous business and economic
>self-sufficiency.  Success here provides the real role model for young
>people and the hope that they can succeed.  Political power follows from
>economic power, not the other way around.

	What you're saying is true, and in fact,
	your ideas are essentialy those of the famous
	African American scientist Booker T. Washington.

	I probably have these names totally confused :-{
		*** Somebody please help me ***
	I am definitely not a history major :-)

	But Washington also privately agreed with his contemporary
	George Washington Carver that African Americans must,
	more importantly, achieve political power
	through favorable legislation and the ballot.
	Only then would African Americans be assured
	that the fruits of their labor would not be denied them.


>Though this is highly unlikely to ever happen, another solution to many
>of our problems is simply birth control.  With the invention of the
>Norplant device, conception can now be prevented for five years with just
>one implant.  The government should pay for, and parents encourage all
>girls on reaching puberty to get a ten year implant (if there is one).
>In the unlikely event the child should actually desire to have a child
>while a teenager, the government should pay for the device's removal at
>her request.  If virtually all teen pregnancies could be eliminated, and,
>in fact, if women could only become pregnant out of desire to have a child,
>a vast number of our social problems could be controlled and solved.
>Nurturing, loving parents are the greatest influence and role model any
>child could hope for and the best chance they have to succeed.  Though,
>people who have children by accident often become good parents, the desire
>to have a family would seem to be the best predictor of parental success.
>And there just aren't enough good teachers and social workers to go around
>to provide a surrogate role for those parents who fail.

	Teenage pregnancy, like drugs,
	is a serious problem for America and especially
	for African Americans trapped in our inner cities.

	But neither are the first and biggest problem,
	the problem, in fact, of which those two are merely symptoms:

		The # 1 Problem is Lack of Opportunity.

	For how can people who "don't belong" have any sense
	of self-worth or even self-preservation?

							Gerard Vignes


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