Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 August 1968 — Page 15

SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1968

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAGE FIFTEEN

Editorials IRS 100 percent wage seizure unconstitutional The right of the Internal Revenue Service to attach 100 percent of a person's wages for non payment of Federal income taxes is being challenged in Federal court in California. California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) brought the class action suit in May on behalf of Elisa Beltran, 35, a Spanish-speaking lettuce picker from Salanis. She is totally illiterate in English separated from her -husband and the sole support of her two school-age children. She faces eviction, loss of her job, car and furniture and ultimately starvation, the suit contends, because IRS has attached all of her weekly wages of $50 to $70 for an unpaid tax bill she believed to be less than $200. She contends the tax bill resulted from computational errors and that part of it may have been paid by her estranged husband; nevertheless, he had offered to pay installments over a period of time, and did pay one full paycheck, $75. The IRS however, without notice, proceeded to attach 1 00 percent of her wages for two successive weeks. To avoid an attachment the third week, Mrs. Beltran sent IRS $53 of her paycheck, retaining $3 to purchase six boxes of tortillas and one can of beans for herself and her children, according to the suit. Internal Revenue is the only agency, public or private in the United States which is permitted to seize 100 percent of a persons wages. Every state prohibits the 100 percent levy. The House of Representatives at the request of President Johnson recently passed a bill allowing a maximum seven percent levy by private creditors on the first $100 of weekly wages earned by anyone in any state. A U.S. Department of Labor survey has found that 100,000 to 300,000 persons each year are fired from their jobs because of wage levies. In the slums of the 10 largest American cities, the survey showed, wage levies has o greater detrimental effect on employment than police records, and are a key grievance of minority groups. The 100 percent levy of IRS violates the involuntary servitude provisions of the 13th Amendment and the prohibition against the taking of property without due process of law in the 5th Amendment.

Nixon, Agnew write off the Negro vote "Who is Spiro T. Agnew?" Few persons in any of the other 49 states had heard of the Governor of Maryland, now the Republican candidate for vice president hand-picked by Presidential Nominee Richard Milhous Nixon as his running mate in his second try for the presidency. ^ A two-year governor, 49 years old, his only other major political office has been as chief executive of Baltimore County. A lawyer and son of a Greek-born immigrant, his name had been foreshorten to Agnew from Anagnostopoulos shortly after he was born. Elected governor of Maryland, with strong Negro support, in a race that turned almost solely upon the open housing issue strongly opposed by his Democratic opponent, Agnew stood out as a liberal but since has taken a hard line on race, crime, Viet Nam and state's rights. This facet of his philosophy scarcely was lost upon, the South—or Nixon. This of course is part of the reason for the spontaneous poor planned and ill-fated rump move to attempt to swing Republican convention delegates to another candidate but George Romney of Michigan was the only one they could interest. It is expected that Agnew, who came to notional attention only a week before the convention with his prououncement that "All looters should be shot," will lend his main support to Nixon's emphasis upon the "law and order" issue, which with Viet Nam is expected to be the basis on which he campaigns for the first time in six years, the first in eight years for a •national office and 18 years since he won elective office on his own. Agnew has declared flatly that "no civil rights can be achieved without restoration of order and abandoning the condoning of civil disobedience." Throughout he has argued that the Negro by hard work and obedience to the law, can pull himself into the kind life that a second-generation Greek-Americon has attained. Already it is becoming apparent that Republican strategy of a Nixon-Agnew team will be to seek out the votes of conservative whites, angry over the Negro's demands for equal rights, while at the same time writing off the Negro vote.

Remember! "Crime hos its heroes, ERROR HAS ITS MARTYRS: Of true zeal onq false, vvhot VAIN JUDGES WE ARE! FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET (Voltaire) 1604-1778

The columns of The Recorder (voice of the peoplal are open to all readers of the community, state or on the national level to present their opinions on the total of human interests or activities. Please confine your comment to 500 words or less. We reserve the right to edit copy, particularly in regards to 'academic fact (Encyclopedia Britannica, etc.)" All copy must positively include the name and address of person or persons submitting the same However, these will not necessarily be published.

THE POOR FAMILIES OF MISS. NEED CLOTHING — WONT YOU PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY MAIL TO

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To Be Equal

by WHITNEY li. YOUNG. jK.

What price backlash?

Our Readers Write

One national political convention is over and another is about to start, and race is proving to be an important issue for both parties. But while concerned people are trying to gather support for an attack on poverty and urban problems, the backlashers are growing more vocal. We see some of this backlash sentiment in some speeches and interviews - people who can't seem to bring themselves to support anything that benefits Negroes, even when it benefits whites as well. What backlashers don't realize is that in supporting the cause of “keeping the Negro in his place," they are harming themselves. I'm not talking about the obvious fact that the coming of justice will bring an end to urban unrest. I’m talking about the obvious benefits for all people by improving the lot of black citizens. Efforts to eradicate poverty from our midst will benefit the majority of poor people who are white. Replacing the slums with decent housing will put white workers on jobs as well as black workers. Improving the schools and the health facilities will help white kids to learn, and save the lives of white babies as well as black. Clrtswa V-vl r»o_

legated to the lowest rung of the economic ladder they suffer most from unemployment, bad housing, and bad schools. But make no mistake about it, there are more poor whites than there are poor blacks, and white people stand to benefit from reforms even more than do black people. Alabama stands as a monument to anyone who feels an impulse to yield tobacklashand wants to see where it can lead. I’m picking that state because one of its former governors is running around the country making converts of people as far north as Wisconsin and Connecticut. But Alabama is a good place to look if you want to see how much it costs to keep black people down and to keep federal anti-poverty programs to a minimum. The average Alabamian m akes about 90percent less than other people in the U.S.The state spends about 50 per cent less on its schools than the average for the country. Nearly half of Alabama’s young men who are called up for the draft flunk in on literacy or health grounds. The state is near the bottom of the standings in many areas of income, health and education. The only thing it leads the coun-

try in is in certain decease rates. One of the factors in this dismal showing has to betheoverwhelming desire to maintain white supremacy even if it means taking part in dozens of programs which will benefit everyone - black or white. Even if white supremacy was a good thing — and it couldn't be a worse ideal for people to have - such statistics prove that it isn’t worthwhile. There has to be a better way to organize society than to have all elements of community life organized around the goal of keeping black citizens from equal opportunities andequalachleve"'ments. When people of all races can work and live together in mutual respect, all people benefit. Fear of diversity, fear of losing status, fear of someone else just because they are of a different color, is pitiful. It doesn’t make sense; it costs too much. It keeps all people down. I hope that all who listen to the message of fear and hate, think long and hard about how much they are willing to pay for the dubious privilege of trying to supress black people. I can’t imagine any thinking person deciding that prejudice Is worth the cost.

Recorder reader presents will take views on “black power” ggrg gf mother Jockie Robinson Says:

To The Editor The Recorder Dear Sir: After reading in The Recorder articles concerning“black power” and what it means locally, I would like to point out some opposite views to the “black power" advocates. Since not one per cent of Negro people over our land are in sympathy with the “black power" all of the others should also be heard from. Seemingly, the middle class and some others are being criticized for not financing the “Black Power" program. This Is another reason why we should have a vote. In one article it was charged that Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael and Whitney Young are national “black power" leaders. Elsewhere, it has been said that “birds of a feather flock together." Recently in a speech in Mobile, Ala., Carmichael was reported as telling Negro people to “buy guns and go out into the streets...killing white people...or again...Negroes had done a good job in Cleveland... killing three white policemen. Well, I would say that the middle class Negro people, or any others imbued with the spirit of human dignity, will ever advocate the destruction of any racial group. Nor have they elected or designated any leaders with authority to speak in such terms. There are many Negro people

over our land, taxpayers and Christian people who portray all the manners of exemplary citizens by any yardstick. However, some ministers are leaving the pulpit to march in the streets. People are asked to boycott foodstores, merchandise stores and other business places where we work. The flares of violence, looting and burning continue. These things seem to indicate that “black power” advocates are out to destroy the Negro group and not build it up. Today, or heretofore, they have not had anything to offer but confusion and more destruction. However, more often than not the Negro homemaker of our community, state and over the land is for law and order and is a supporter of law effforcement agencies or officials on all levels. He is not going to bow to any radical group teaching race hatred no matter who are its leaders. White friends of Negro people have done more and are still doing more for Negro people than any of the “Carmichaels" have done while advocating violence or conflict and strife. They(C ar m ichaels) and“black power" advocates are calling for the destruction of the white race and doing themselves a disservice, yet another sector of the Negro people have seen the handwriting on the wall and will govern itself accordingly. Mrs. H.T.

State abortion law would ’soil’ doctors: reader

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following poem was submitted for publication by Willis Stigger, who resides at McKenzie Nursing Home, 2926 N. Capitol). *** Why am I so weak and weary? See how faint my heated breath All around me seems darkness Tell me, comrades, is this death? Ah! How well I know your answer To my fate I meakly bow, If you'll only tell me truly Who will take care of mother now? Who will comfort her in sorrow? Who will dry the fallen tear? Gently smooth the wrinkled •forehead Who will whisper words of cheer? Even now I think I see her Kneeling, praying for me! How can I leave her in her anguish? Who will take care of mother now? Let this knap sack be my pillow And my mantle be the sky, Hasten, comrades, to the battle I will like a soldier die. Soon with angels I’ll be marching With bright laurels on my brow I have for my country fallen Who will take care of mother now?

Behavior of

To The Editor: A doctor (OB. GYN) from a large Indiana university city came before the committeethai is studying the question of liberalizing abortion and pleaded for the “right and privilege" to “kill unborn human life," saying his concern was for the mother. I listened for almost two hours to his testimony. He was sincere, concerned and he tried to be objective, but was not. What I have said above is the most I can sincerely say for him. I so wish that he woulij think over the argument he presented there and give it a hard careful examination. Doctors like this terrify me. When a women goes to have her baby delivered, she accepts, usually without question, what her doctor tells her. If her baby does not live and he gives a reason she will accept his explanation because she trusts that he did all that was humanly possible to save It. She has a right to expect that he has the interest of the baby at heart, equal to the interest he has in her health, and desire for survival. This doctor was shockingly naive. He says one woman a week asks him to soil his hands to kill the baby they are expecting. These women say they will do some desperate thing, or they cry and plead and carry on to thepoint that they cause him great confusion and anxiety. These cruel women are “ upsetting this area of specialty here in Indiana, destroying it for normal women who need so desperately to have confidence in their OB. ; GYN. I will never believe that the same doctor will “lovingly" save a baby for one woman and feel nothing in the killing

of another woman's baby. Those hands must be either sacred or they are “soiled.” OB. GYN. and all doctors must make up their minds which it will be. Indiana women have a right to know! It is said, some women gp out of the state to have an abortion. Is the day coming when the normal women will have to go out of the state or even country to see a doctor she is positive she can trust? Indiana women must speak out! There is a saying: “All the world can become evil... ghe good need only do nothing!" Mrs. William Rosner

TOYS SHOULD OFFER A CHALLENGE A listless tot may not be suffering from the heat and sun of summer — he may have outgrown his toys! According to Playskool Research, a child needs and wants to learn while playing. Toys which are too young have no appeal for him, offering no challenge to his imagination. Toys especially created for his age and his educational development will capture his interest, making him an alert, happy child — all summer long.

INTEREST RATE UP The recently Increased 6.75% interest rate on VA guaranteed and direct home loans can remain in effect until October 1969, according to the Veterans Administration.

youths on bus is criticized To The Editor: I've been putting off writing to you about racial incidents that are occurring on the College bus because I don't know what good it would do and you might get the wrong impression. However, since the matter is so important it's worth a try. What's happening very simply is that colored teenagers are either taunting white people or in some cases actually starting up. Being an abstract liberal I try to be tolerant but it’s very difficult. Last Sunday one of the teenagers sitting behind me threw my hat off. The first time I still thought it was accidental but not the second time. Being Jewish I’m sensitive about my hat being thrown off (although not for religious reasons). But at least in my case I could go home and try to figure out why they started up. On the other hand there are a lot • of white people who don’t* want to understand. Recently somebody has been pasting anti-Semitic and antiNegro statements in the outside phone booths. Robert Gordon of the Anti-Defamation League informed me that he thinks this is the work of the White National Socialist Party. This is really the American Nazi Party. I don't think these teenagers on the College bus have any idea of the danger that these whites pose. Norman Wolkoff 643 Fort Wayne

Nixon candidacy imperils America

By JACKIE ROBINSON It is no longer a secret that I was immobilized by a heart attack just a few weeks back and this is the reason this column did not appear in several issues of the newspapers around the country which normally carry it. First, I want to say that I have been deeply touched and made to feel a very real sense of humble gratitude for all those who have utilized various methods of wishing me well. It is when you are sick or in trouble that you find out how many wonderful people there are in a world that sometimes seems to have gone mad with illness and trouble of a social kind . My doctors would not permit me to attend the Republican National Convention and I suppose it was all for the best. That convention and the result — the nomination ofRichard Nixon are signs of the sick and troubled

signs. It was a white folks affair and the once Grand Old Party’s new caretakers, under Richard Nixon, leaned over backwards to give Dixie some Southern Comfort. How sickening it was to hear Strom Thurmond, an arrogant little racebaiter, declaring that Mr. Nixon had promised him and the Deep South veto power over the choice of a vice-presidential candidate. And, on the morning after the nomination, how nauseating it was to see Bo Callaway of Georgia and Thurmond on the TODAY show, virtually calling the shots for Mr. Nixon’s new reign over the Republican Party. Make no mistake about it, America Is in peril. The talk from the backlashers about not tolerating violence means nothing. Black people are not afraid to die and there are hundreds of thousands of young black people who would rather make a last-

uitch stand for freedom in the ghettos of thoh cities than In the jungles of Viet Nam. The li-ly-white nature of theGOPconvention will come back to haunt it and I predict-and I can hf lp this prediction to come true, count on me, heart trouble or not, to do so - that the same humiliating whipping that wc gave Goldwater will be repeated against Mr. Nixon. It is incredible that the GOP could be so insensible and so stupid as to not wish to take advantage of the willingness of a man of Nelson Rockefeller's quality and courage to carry their standard. They deserved the mantheygot-a double-talk-er, a two-time loser, an adjustable man with a convertible conscience - Richard Nixon. But black people do not deserve this nor does America. The Republican Party has told the black man to go to hell. I offer to them a similar invitation. (ANP Feature)

low class Negro blasted by middle class’ mom

I read an article in The Recorder July 20 written by Mrs. Martin. Subj.: “Black mothers unite for local action." The writer of the article is asking that anybody Interested contact her. I am a mother interested in the unity of the Negro race although I am not black, yet I am a Negro and I think it is an insult to call all Negroes black when they are not black. There are many first class citizens in the Negro race. There are middle class Negroes, upper class and the professional class and there Is also the low class Negro. The white race also is made up of different classes and they don't deny it. Everyone black or white must earn respect by his owm actions. I am one of the middle class Negro mothers and I am Interested In uniting for the benefit of our race and since I believe in obeying the laws of the land I wouldn't be interested In theRapBrowns, Carmichaels and any other racist as a leader. They are and have been a disgrace to the welfare of the Negro race and we the middle class or upper class would never unite behind anyone who teaches race hatred. Furthermore, we haven't elected any leader. We are able to decide for ourselves the things that are best for us and our children. We are organized against the Carmichaels and Rap Browns and any self-styled Negro leaders that are Communist infiltrated. We are American citizens and are against the overthrow of our government by any means. Burning, looting and stealing is being taught by the low class Negroes. Destroying the white race, or even trying is ridiculous as many wonderful people as there are in the white race. We are the majority and we shall overcome. We are organized against the radicals whoever they are. We are not teaching our children to buy guns or > make bombs.We support our po-

lice also. We feel that laws were made for Negroes to obey also. We complain about police brutality, yet we bury our heads in the sand, while low class Negroes rob, steal, loot and burn. Yes, I am an interested mother of three children. They've never been arrested. They work for their living. They are also members of the church. Mrs. Martin states in her article that her views will bring harassment on her by the white power structure, but I doubt they will even give her views any thought because the middle class and upper class white men know that there are too many law abiding, God-fearing Negroes to stoop to any brainwashing by Carmichael and any of his sympathizers. I agree they can cause some good people, Negroes and whites, to be killed as they have done in the past, yet in every case the Negroes lost the battle because there were more Negroes who lost their lives than whites. And it will continue to be that way. We also have a dream that whatsoever a man sows he shall also reap. The person who lives by the sword shall die by the same rule. We've been criti-

cized by the radicals for not financing their brainwashed cliques, but we have, news for them. When they are being mov/ed down by machine guns because of their disobedience, we still will be minding our own business. We had an example in Washington a few weeks ago of civil disoebdeince in the name of Negro rights. It was the biggest disgrace that Washington has ever had and also the bigbest on the Negroes in jail. They were brainwashed by socalled Negro leaders. The Negro leaders received thousands of dollars and the brainwashed Negroes received jail sentences and were told to go home when the sentences ended. It is time for the Negroes to stop burying their heads in the sand and blaming the Whiteman for his disobedience and acknowledge that the Negro is his worse enemy. No one profits by disobedience of the laws of the land. Let us stop pulling the roof in on our own heads and pulling the rug from under our feet. Let us try to make amends for our many past mistakes and we will be a race that is proud of our goals. Mrs. R.L.

NAACP name should be changed: reader

To The Editor: I urge you to do all you can within your editorial powers to bring about a change in the name, the symbol, and the concept of the present NAACP to the new name, National Association for the Education of the Colored People (NAECP) There can be no further advancement of the colored people as an ethnic group except it be by the education of the various segments of the Negro

race nationally and internationnally. Such a movement will unquestionably receive the divine and public sanction and approval it deserves.

ELIMINATE REQUIREMENTS The Veterans Administration may authorize and expedite naturalization of alien veterans by eliminating certain requirements.