Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 January 1982 — Page 9

Editorials and Opinions

"Power concedes nothing without o demopd — it never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you've found oiit the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. This will continue until

they resist, either with words or blows or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by ’He endurance of those whom they oppress. ' —Frederick Douglas^

TNI WOtAMAFOUS RICOffDCR PAGE 9 SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1912

It Seems to me By LUTHER HICKS Litany for a New Year

NNPA FEATURE COPING

Or. Charles W. Faulkner

BLACK COHMVHITIES THAT CARE ABOUT THE BLACK FUTURE,SHOULD HELP IMPOSE ORDER UHERE NEEDED.

Test yourself for stress The story is widely told of the young man who felt that he was the coolest, calmest and most relaxed person alive. He died from a massive heart attack that resulted from the enormous amount of stress that had built up within him without his knowledge. Stress reveals itself in many unusual ways such as through irritability, tension, skin rashes, constipation, strokes, forgetfullness, compulsive eating or smoking and heart attacks. The list is endless. However, there is often no outward manifestation of stress until the accumulated stress results in a major physical setback. Some people are stress collectors. Their life styles bring about stress, their personal insecurities create stress that eventually destroys them. Are you one of those people? Are you stress prone? Is destructive stress building up within you without you'" knowledge? Are you headed for a heart attack or a stroke? The following Stress Test will provide answers to the above questions. Take this test and determine if you should modify your life style in order to use stress positively and constructively. Evaluate yourself ‘by indicating how frequently you respond to the situations below. Your rating scale is: 10 - ALWAYS 7 - OFTEN 4 - SOMETIMES 1 - NEVER 1. Do you have the urge to compete with people with whom you come into contact? 2. Do you refrain from participating in tasks that you feel will cause failure or criticism for yourself? 3. Do you become easily bored? 4. Do you lie awake in bed worrying about your problems? *_ 5. Are you emotionally crushed when criticized? 6. Do you daydream? 7. Do you constantly relive negative experiences by criticizing the action that you took in a certain situation? 8. After a pressure filled situation such as a test or an interview has passed is it difficult to bring yourself back to a normal state of relaxation? 9. Do you feel constantly under stress? 10. Are you irritable, easily angered and argumentative? 11. Do you think that losing your job would ruin your life? 12. Do you strive to avoid excitement in your life? 13. Do you find your leisure time boring? 14. Do you consider your life a disappointment? 15. Do you feel that there are more obstacles than challenges in your life? Total Your score Rate yourself: If your score is below 15: You are a person who fears stress and seeks security. If your score is 15 - 59; You are a normal person who uses rx stress constructively. ' \ If your score is 60 - 99; Stress is a significant part of your life and you are almost stress prone. If your score is 100 or more; You are a person who is prone to stress that could have destructive consequences. You should seek assistance for controlling your stress. Tips to cope with stress in my next column.

Business In Black

Bv Charles E. Relic

Strategy for 1982

On August 4, 1981, Congress passed the most comprehensive revision of the Internal Revenue Code since it was amended in 1954. The Economic Recovery Act of 1981 is the largest tax reduction legislation in the history of the country. A conscious and conspicuous effort to reduce the federal income tax burdens on indivi duals and businesses. The bigger the better. Hence, the Act hopes to create additional capital in the private sector to aid in revitalizing the American economy. Among its many provisions, the bill includes significantly reduced rates on capital gains and income taxes for people; faster depreciaton write-offs for equipment, plant and other real estate; and major redue lions in the estate and gift tax laws. Like money from heaven for those in high income tax brackets. But wait there is more. The Economic Recovery Act will impact everyone who pays taxes in one way or another and will significantly alter indivi dual investment strategies and financial planning. Mainly because there are numerous and far reaching fundamental changes in the Federal tax code. A consider able number of the new provi sions requires a person to take positive action in order to take fall advantage of the new rules. New markets will open up for people who never thought about or depended on financial or investment advice. L&enlly, forcing people to seek help and guidance m order to take advantage of newly created

LEADER: OGod, the City, for people to live and work and to know one another. Congregation: Help us to love the Metropolis. LEADER: 0 God who lives in tenaments who goes to segregated schools who is beaten in precincts, who is unemployed. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who hangs on street corners, who tastes the grace of cheap wine and the sting of the needle.

Congregation: Help us to touch you. LEADER: 0 God, who is pregnant without husband, who is child without parent, who has no place to plan. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who can’t read nor write, who is on welfare and who is treated as if you’re not human. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who lives

Public's view of prisoners blown out of proportion

An Independent View from Capitol Hill

BY HON. GUS SAVAGE First Black journalist ever elected to Congress

The first year in Congress

due to the economic changes created by the passage of President Reagan’s sponsored Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. First, defer.income into future years. Second, accelerate deductions into earlier years. Third, avoid short-term gains in 1981. Fourth, buy full-taxable dividend public utilities common stock and reinvest the stock dividends in the company. Fifth, this year is a perfect year to swap municipal bonds. Sixth, discount bonds, those selling below their face value, have become much more at tractive for investment, from high corporate grade, the strongest bonds with the best ability to pay off on the due date down to the low grade corporate bonds, those thought to have a lesser ability to pay off at face value when due. but which often pay a much higher cash interest rate for the same amount of money. Seven, take another look at and reassess tax exempt earnings vs. taxable investment returns. Eight, tax shelters generating large write offs in 1981 are particularly attractive. Nine, the new lower capital gains rate is extremely favor able for investments in the stock market, especially in the growth stock area. Ten. Investment ^Retirement Accounts (IRA’s) are for everyone. Naturally. each of these ten strategies and ideas should be discussed with your individual accountant or a tax attorney. A tax man or attorney is not needed if you are not working. In which ease, one should be as worried as the worker who does not alter lus financial year to conform to the^aew plan. People

Now that I have come to the end of my first year as a Member of the House of Representatives, I would like to share with our many readers across the nation what we view as some of our major accomplishments. In various oral and written statements, I have described myself as a legislator, educator, communicator, mitiator, and, at times, an ag : tator. We will touch upon activities that fall within these categories, although some may overlap. LEGISLATOR We have introduced two bills to aid minority and small business, another to assist job-seekers who use mass transit, and a package of five bills to honor former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. We have proposed a total of 10 bills, and still pending are a 40 page enterprise zones bill and another measure that would provide relief for persons who are out of work and cannot make mortgage payments on loans insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. If enacted, the legislation would prohibit fore closure up to 36 months,

ment.

We have co-sponsored more than 50 bills and resolutions. Among these are a bill to extend the authorization of youth training and employment programs, to authorize intensive and remedial education programs for youths, and for other purposes; a bill to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to prohibit military assis lance under the Act, and to prohibit sales or credits under the Arms Export Control Act, to El Salvador; and a bill to prohibit discrimination in insurance on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. I co-sponsored a concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should not invite officials of the Republic of South Africa to visit until apartheid is ended. EDUCATOR Our Workshop on Economic Development was well-recei-ved by participants during the . 11th annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend in September. The Waokaagtea Pout, in its Sept. 26 edition, quoted two participants who said this workshop illustrated the best of what could be accomplished over the weekend. We also conducted a Workshop of Mass Transporta tion. My workshops were signi in all income brackets who fail to take notice and play by the new game rules, win be on a sure mud to rum by Reagan’s

ficant in that they marked the first time that Caucus work shops moved beyond traditional “Black only” problem areas. We convened the first hearing of the House Small Business Committee in Chicago on July 18. Some 25 area minority entrepreneurs testified. Directing the hearing was Con gressman Barren J. Mitchell of Maryland, committee chairman. Federal procurement, policy, and participation were main topics of our “Minority at the Crossroads” business conference on June 27 at Chicago State University. COMMUNICATOR We are quite pleased with the response to our weekly column now appearing in approximately 100 newspapers, members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association; and our weekly radio show, aired by three stations in Chicago and carried ii> newscasts of the 100-member station National Black Network. We have sent to our constituents three eight-page, tabloid newspapers, one two-page newsletter, and special mailings. We frequently send out news releases to Chicago and, depending on the magnitude of the subject, to media outlets across the nation. INITIATOR AND AGITATOR On Reagan’s Case We are quite proud of our role in assisting some 350 laid-off workers of Wisconsin Steel Mill gain their pension benefits under the Rule of 65. On April 9, 150 of these workers and members of their suffering families came to Washington at my invitation to lobby before Congress and bring their plight to the attention of Reagan Administration

officials.

Leaders of the Save Our Jobs Committee met in my office with officials of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). Incidentally, EDA is still trying to sell the defunct steel facility. Some 3,500 steelworkers lost their jobs when the mill, located in my district, went bankrupt on March 27, 1980. 8.000 Calumet Jobs We are still keeping our eyes on the negotiations between the Norfolk and Western Railway and the trustee and receiver for the bankrupt and shutdown Rock Island Rail road, owner of the old Pullman freight line which serves the Calumet industrial complex, one of the nation’s largest. While we were instrumental in getting the Federal Railway Administration to rescind its order to shutdown the hue. and the Interstate Commerce Com

of its temporary order allowing N&W to continue operations, we are hopeful that this matter can be brought to a successful conclusion between the parties involved. Our major concern is the 8,000 jobs that must be saved in an already economically depressed area. Unemployment in the area is approximately 18.5 percent. “Solidarity Day” We were successful in getting 39 other members of the House of Representatives to support the AFL-CIO-spon-sores “Solidarity Day” on Sept. 19, in Washington, D. C. National civil rights and women’s groups joined with labor organizations in a massive demonstration to protest the Reagan Administration’s “assault on social programs." In addition to a “Dear Colleague” letter sent to my fellow Members of the House, I walked in the front line with leaders of the march down (’/onstitution Avenue. Voting Rights Our remarks on the House floor in support of extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were picked up by the ABC TV network in its “Good Morning, America" show on the day following the debate. The House passed the measure to extend this important Act. OTHER HIGHLIGHTS Tour of Africa We were part of a sevenmember congressional delegation which spent 18 days in six African countries. This factfinding mission took me to Nigeria, Angola, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Somalia, and racist South Africa. Awards in 1981 We have been honored by a number of organizations this year. Both the Evanston. 111. NAACP and the Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches have named me “F’reshman Congressman of the Year’’. The Chicago South Chamber of Commerce presented me with its “Achiever of the Year" award, and the Cook County Bar Association gave me its “President Award” for 1981.

SUtRTA MITT-TIME CAMXR. Learn a valuable skill which will turn into a good part-time job in the Army Reserve If takes just one weekend a month with your local Reserve unit and two weeks each year at an Army post (after some initial training) You can earn over $1.100 your first year Army Reserve skill training could even prepare you for a related civilian job Call your Army Reserve representafive, in the Yelkrw Pages under "Recruiting "

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MAIL

To the editor: The dominant view in the public’s opinion of prisoners seems to be one that regards them as “innately evil and violent prone,” therefore they should be kept locked aWay “where they can’t injure innocent citizens.’’ Unfortunately such concepts are further substantiated when prisoners rape and kill each other; take guards hostage and burn down cell houses, etc, Inceasingly damage is done to the already degraded character of prisoners when prisoncrats and hard-line legislators, who help shape public opinion, are able to capitalize on such violence to strengthen their own posture, one that usually emanates from the “lock ’em up and throw away the key" attitude. Lauding “public demand” they say; “Rapes, killings and riots that are precipitated by criminal minded agitators at prisons are concrete examples of why we can’t allow violent criminal elements free to run the streets and terrorize our community and business.” Contrary to such popularized opinions, however, is the ever remaining fact that deadly living conditions and the lack of constructive programs has a lot to do with the hostility that exist between individual prisoners, groups of prisoners, on the one hand; and prisoners and prisoncrats on the other; as well as with how ex-prisoners will conduct themselves upon return to society. For instance, within the past six months four killings have taken place at the Indiana State Prison. Several more prisoners have been seriously injured with homemade weapons, and narrowly escaped death. One of these killings involved a case of rape/attempted rape, respectively, led by a group of prisoners who were able to maneuver their way past the weak security here. At a time when they should have been “key” locked in their cells, but for the carelessness of the four to twelve shift, these men were not running the ranges seeking someone upon whom to release pent up sexual desires. Having not found anyone to willingly accommodate them, at knife point they proceeded to forcefuly molest a prisoner whom they considered to be a pushover. After the rape had occurred the poor victim pleaded with prison officials to move him to another cell house. But failing to heed the urgency of the matter the officials claim they were unable to move him right then (a request that has been granted in less urgent insances). and that if he felt unsafe he should check into “self-lock-up" until they could relocate him. The victim (Jack Burnett) did check into “self-lock-up” as advised. A few days after he was let back out into general population one of the assailants who had been with the party that raped him approached him again, with a knife, and threatened to make Burnett his “kid”, a word used to describe homosexuals who are dependent upon someone to buy them cigaretes, etc., in exchange for sexual favors. This time, however, a brutal knife fight occurred as the victim had no intentions nor desire to give up his manhood. In the aftermath of it all one prisoner is dead, and the rape victim (Jack Burnett) is waiting to be arraigned on "first degree” murder charges handed down by the Grand Jury. This is indeed an ugly picture. And the question before us now, “Is Jack Burnett to be blamed for defending bis life and manhood?” remains to be answered. What do you think? We think that the fault Kes with I.S.P. prisoncrats in some respects, and in others, with the entire Indiana Department of ('orroctions. Obviously there is inadequate security here that allows rapes to occur in the first; and for Must ngmU to occur ma yimh sneh ultimate eondniwons an "death" for the unfortunate, R is the ohtigation ef L8.P.

prisoncrats (Warden, Administrators, etc.) to provide a safe and secure environment for prisoners. On a more broader scale, the Indiana Department of (Corrections is to share the blame because of its naivete in refusing to follow the examples set by other states who, displaying a degree of analytic insight, have established a conjugal visiting system for t)eir prisoners. Among other things, “conjugal visits” would lessen the percentage of homosexuality, and vicious rapes. The other three killings, one of which involved a black and a white that nearly sparked a racial confrontation, involved prisoners who were idel and/or who had no constructive way of releasing built up pressures, tensions and hostilities. Undoubtedly, constructive “rehabilitative” programs to accommodate the entire prison population would do wonders to eliminate, or at least to alleviate the tensions and hostilities among prisoners. In the absence of such worthy programs prisoners will find other, less constructive, outlets for their tension and hostility. And what about those of us who will be coming back to society? If prisons don’t provide prisoners with “rehabilitative” programs, then, how could they possibly be reformed? Without having been taught a trade of some kind that will enable them to play an active role in the productive process, then, quite naturally they won’t have anything to offer society upon return. Of course with the new Indiana Penal Code of 197there is no need to create rehabilitative programs for convicted criminals, since they won’t be coming back to society for a very long time, and some never again. This is the posture assumed by many of Indiana's legislators who are increasingly pushing through laws requiring stiffer sentences. And while in midst of all this hysteria about “money needed” to construct new prison and jails, very little attention is given to the need to renovate the one that already exist so as to make them more befitting to house human beings. Contrary to popular sentiments, all prisoners are not insensitive beings. In fact some of us at Indiana’s prisons have shown a great deal of concern for the welfare of others with our efforts to initiate progressive prisoner controlled organizations; for instance, ’’Anti-rape society” and/or ‘‘Prisoners for a better life” would be programs designed by prisoners to help themselves overcome the stumbling blocks that so often lead to imprisonment. Unfortunately prisoners have witness all out efforts to prevent them from creating such programs in their interest, and in the interest of society. We think, or rather we know that unless something is immediately done to upgrade the degraded and deadly conditions that exist hee, and to create constructive programs to accomodate the whole prison population, not just to prepare prisoners for society if and when they do return but also to make interpersonal relations within prisons more socialable, then, there will be many more senseless killings and brutal rapes, and increased homosexuality and there will he many more rebellions to protest these “life threatening” conditions, and consequently more men (such as the Michigan City Eight who were indicted on charges stemming from the April 27 1980 rebellion at Indiana State Prison) to stand trial out of a need for (Warden) Jack Duckworth and company to exemplify what will happen to those who do challenge prison conditions, on the one hand, and on the other, a need to assure the poMk that “we have everything under control here.” ICDJB) Joseph C, Dickerson

and no one knows his name and who knows that he is nobody. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who pays too much for rent for a lousey apartment because he speaks Spanish. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who is cold in the slums of winter, whose playmates are rats--four-legged ones who live with you and two-legged ones who imprison you. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who is old and lives on a few dollars a month in one crummy room and seldom gets outside. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who lives in the projects of Federal, State and City indifference. Congregation: Help us to know you. ( LEADER: 0 God, who is fifteen in the sixth grade. Congregation: Help us to touch you. LEADER: 0 God, who is three and whose belly aches in hunger. Congregation: Help us to touch you. LEADER: 0 God, who sleeps in the bed with his four brothers and sisters, and who cries and no one hears him. Congregation: Help us to touch you. LEADER: 0 God, who holds tight to the hem of mother's dress, whose eyes are empty, whose tears are large and whose face is dirty. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who was laid off last week and can’t pay the rent nor feed the kids. Congregation: Help us to be with you. LEADER: 0 God, who is a bum, a chisler, who is lazy, because people say you are when you don't work and you can’t find a job. Congregation: Help us to be with you. LEADER: 0 God, whose job at the factory is gone because the factory closed and left the city. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who smells and has no place to bathe, Congregation: Help us to be with you. LEADER: 0 God. who waits in the clinic for four hours to be healed. Congregation: Help us to touch you. LEADER: 0 God, who moves every four to six months to another address in the city. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who is chased by the cops, who sits in jail for seven months with no charges brought, waiting for the Grand Jury, and no money for bail. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God, who works all day, who feeds and cares for her children at night and dreams of better days, and is alone, Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: O God, whose belly is huge and whose clothes burst with the new life. Congregation: Help us to know you.LEADER: 0 God. who is without power, voiceless, who has no share in his destiny. Congregation: Help us to join you. LEADER: 0 God. who is overwhelmed by the indifference and apathy and status quo of so many who are good, Christian and in church on Sunday. Congregation: Help us to know you. LEADER: 0 God. who still is. Congregation: Help us to be. LEADER: O God. who v in joining together has new hope and incentive and new creation. Congregation: Help us to join you. L£AD£R:0 God. who is all men. Congregation: Help us to love you. LEADER: O God, the City, Congregation; We need you. LEADER: 0 God. the City, Congregation: We love you. It seems to me that we must get to know you. Amen!

state Prison

Contused? Reed 9m tm meiructon*—mafcas doing your return aaaier and teeter*