Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Carolina News African-American from page A1 Spencer said that change in the de- “One can only kn6w these things on partment under his direction is possible, ly while intimately involved in the daily “I am sure the program has been con- life of a program. Then those things need stantly changing over the last three ing change begin to suggest themselves.” decades, so change is inevitable,” Spencer When Spencer begins his duties at the said. African-American Studies Department “I cannot say specifically what changes in July, he will replace Dianne Johnson, might occur under my leadership,” he who has served as the interim director of said. the department. Rally from page A1 Husser said Husser said he thinks the flag contro versy could hinder recruitment for both athletics and academics at USC. Douglas Wilson, president of the USC chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in August that the university’s chapter would support the statewide and nation al NAACP chapters in their quest for a boycott of state industries. Wilson said USC’s NAACP didn’t go as a single group, but they were there. “A lot of people’s opinions were heard,” Wilson said. He said he believes the rally could make removing the flag come sooner. The King Day at the Dome was men tioned Monday on National Public Radio news. Martin Luther King III was quot ed on the program as saying: “The flag is a terrible symbol that brings a lot of neg ative eneigy.” “And while we believe the flag has an appropriate place, it just does not belong on top of the Capitol because it is not a sign of unification,” King said. The King Day at the Dome rally was held one week after .6,000 supporters of the Confederate flag marched to the State house for the Southern Heritage Cele bration 2000. YOUR heritagi IS MY SLAVERY YOUR i HERITAGE IS MY SLAVERY Amy Gouloing Photo Editor (Left to right) Carolyn Tatum, Will Mathis and Eddie Holms came from Chattanooga, Tenn. to participate in the King Day at the Dome rally. 'Root Causes' lecture series continues by Shannon Ullery Staff Writer The “Root Causes of Poverty” lecture series continued Tuesday in the Russell House Theater. Tuesday’s lecture, entitled “Reaching the Poor: Building Partnerships With Fam ilies in Persistent Poverty,” featured guest speakers and the Fourth World Move ment/USA, an international organization committed to helping the poor. Carl Egner, co-director of the Fourth World Movement/USA, and Angela Evo sevic, program coordinator of the organi zation’s New Orleans office, were the guest speakers. Egner and Evosevic each gave testi monials of eyewitness accounts to those living in poverty and testified to the in justice and isolation felt by the poverty stricken. Evosevic described those living in poverty as “persons with insufficient or lack of income, homelessness, unsafe en vironments and a lack of social and polit ical participation in society along with iso lation from the community.” Evosevic spoke of the Fourth World Movement’s attempt to reach the poor est members of society by participating in the community activities and living near or in communities where poverty occurs. “Close proximity enables us to un derstand the individual totality of pover ty and see how the families view suc cesses,” Evosevic said. Other projects performed by the Fourth World Mpvement included pro moting education in the communities through street libraries held outside to en courage attendance of those who would normally feel isolated. These libraries promote literacy through the use of storytellers, puppet theaters, and the participation of parents. Street libraries also establish broken links with society and bring many differ ent backgrounds together that otherwise would be separated. The Fourth World Movement was founded in Paris in 1957 by Father Joseph Wresinski, a priest who grew up in pover ty Father Wesinski provided a camp out side of Paris for homeless families, and from this the Fourth World Movement grew internationally. Today the organization is involved with individuals and organizations in more than 119 countries. They are devoted to those in need of shelter, and other basic life necessities. The Fourth World Movement is fund ed primarily through individual contribu tions along with money from some pri vate foundations. Communities must first invite the or ganization into their community before any actions can be taken. Once the organization has agreed to take on a particular community, members of the particular community also become members of the Fourth World Movement. , “Mutual understanding and trust of community members and organization workers help successes to then occur in the community,” Evosevic said. Poverty strikes people in many dif ferent cultures all over the world. The Fourth World Movement is doing their best to help those who have already been stricken. The “Root Causes of Poverty” lecture series is sponsored by USC’s Institute for Families in Society, the Duke Endowment, the Sister’s of Charity Foundation and the South Carolina Department of Social Ser- i vices. The next lecture in the series will be held on February 15, at 3:00 P.M. For more information, call USC’s Institute for Families in Society at 777-5510. Drug czar sneaks anti-drug message into prime time by Joanne Jacobs College Press Exchange After a six-month investigation, the online magazine Salon (www.salon.com) has reported that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is finan cially compensating networks for inserting its anti-drug message into prime-time programming. It’s payola for propaganda. In late 1997, Congress funded a five-year, $ 1 billion anti-drug media campaign, demanding that broadcast ers provide one free ad for every ad paid for by the government. Regular ad sales were slow, so the five ma jor networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and WB — went along. But the buy-one, get-one-free deal quickly soured when e-commerce exploded, writes Daniel Forbes for Salon. Dot-com advertisers were willing to pay full price for the time networks were giving away to community service ads. In the spring of 1988, a payola deal was struck: The networks would turn selected sitcoms and dramas into anti-drug commercials. In exchange, they’d get back some of the ad time they owed the government and be able to resell it. Most networks have been sending a copy of anti drug scripts to the drug czar’s office for approval or rewrit ing, according to Salon. In most cases, writers and pro ducers didn’t know their network bosses had sold script control. The May 19 episode of “Smart Guy,” a WB sitcom about a 10-year-old genius in high school, is an example, Forbes reported. A WB executive requested a drugs or drinking script, so the producer revived a previously rejected script in which the main character, T.J., drinks beer to impress two popular older boys at a party. It showed T.J. get ting drunk, acting stupidly, spilling soda on a girl he want ed to impress, suffering a hangover and getting in trou ble with Dad. The drug czar’s consultants insisted that the older boys couldn’t be portrayed as popular or cool. They were turned into clownish losers; T.J. recalled one was in the “slow reading class.” Their beer drinking was moved from the main par ty to a utility room to suggest shameful secrecy. T.J. was required to take a dose of the “anti-drug,” a heart-to-heart talk with his father. By contrast, no deal was struck with “Bufiy the Vam pire Slayer,” which features a college freshman who bat tles adolescent angst and the ubiquitous spawn of Sa tan. The drug message wasn’t “on-strategy,” according to a drug policy officer who nixed the script. “It was oth erworldly nonsense, very abstract and not like real-life kids taking drugs.” Bully’s struggle against the soullessness of her peers is very relevant to the choices young people face. But subtlety is not the strong suit of the anti-drug cam paign. While the drug czar’s office claims to want realis tic portrayals of substance abuse, they really mean 100 percent negative portrayals, even if those don’t ring true. In real life, drinkers are sometimes popular and cool, and don’t hide in the utility room at parties. Fast readers experiment with drugs out of curiosity — they’ve heard so much about it in drug ed — and usually don’t be come addicMfc w The realms people use drugs and alcohol are com plex; the consequences vary depending on the person and the drug. “On strategy” is off reality. Prime-time TV isn’t promoting drugs, according to a Mediascope study released last week by the drug czar’s office. Only a few episodes show illicit drug use, and nearly all show negative consequences, the study found. Underage smoking and drinking also is rare, though adult drinking is often portrayed as — horrors! — “a posi tive experience.”