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From: mat@hou5e.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: A Flame at Affirmative Action
Message-ID: <558@hou5e.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-Jun-83 00:42:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou5e.558
Posted: Tue Jun 14 00:42:21 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jun-83 16:15:39 EDT
References: trw-unix.303
Lines: 60


	Look, to put it bluntly, we've all got to start somewhere.  If
	you continue to keep a significant portion of society in the economic
	cellar, sooner or later they're gonna get sick and tired of it.  And
	somehow the bandaid [This is a trademark, folks ... MAT] of AAP on
	the wound of oppression is far better than the misery, squalor, and
	perhaps violence that wound could cause.

	Besides that, all we really want is a chance at your society.

					jobe

Let me fill you in on a side of the AAP/EEO business that you probably didn't
see.  Billions of dollars were and are spent on paperwork to comply with
the regulations.  Where it is impossible to comply (ie,the job requires skills
equated with, say, three years experience or a college degree, and there aren't
enough ``protected class'' people within 300 miles to fill them) billions
more were spent in court battles that often turned into circuses where attorneys
and judges could show off their wisdom by making or proposing truly outrageous
decisions.  And the problem of not enough PC people can occur easily.  Women
are counted as bodies just like men in the EEO rules, but many more women than
men stay home or work part time.

Those gigabucks could better have been spent on inner-city and rural ghetto
education.  They could have helped thousands of economically and historically
disadvantaged people get through college.  They could have allowed the easing
of property taxes on minority businesses that remained and employed in the
inner city.  Remember, the legal system is nothing but overhead.  The (small)
firm I used to work for took in several million dollars a year consulting for
lawyers.  The lawyers often employed several such firms.  The lawyers earned
a great deal of money themselves.  And the firms that could not hire under
the rules could not expand and withered -- just as the economy was heading
toward one of the most persistant recession/inflation periods of recent history.


Who benefited?

I don't argue that people who come from depressed backgrounds
shouldn't have an extra shot, or a better shot, than they would otherwise
receive.  I don't think that body counting and pushing paper is the way to do
it.

Oh, and if inner city police forces were now to be beefed up, and if money
were spent on block associations, crimewatch programs, counselling for those
who have only seen violence as a solution to problems, and credit and financial
planning aid, how much better off would we ALL be?

My father's business is located in a poorer area of Brooklyn.  Since the
iron shop has been there (about 7 years now), there have been two murders
on the block.  These were not muggings, but family quarrels.   The people
involved have only known anger and violence as solutions.  How can we hope that
they will take places of responsibility in our society.  OUR society, jobe --
not white society or black society, but yours and mine.  If it is too late
for the adults of 53rd street, have we a chance at reaching the children?

(now let's start a flame on busing for racial integration ...)


					Mark Terribile
					Duke fo DeNet