Editor’s Note:
Forty years seems like a long time in the state of this state and this country, and while so much has changed, so much has remained the same.
In going over the archives of the New York Amsterdam News, I came across an op-ed by Basil Paterson, written exactly 40 years ago. At that point in time, he was a former state senator running for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket.
As you can see from below, the issues that we faced then are almost identical to the issues we face today. We need to heed Paterson’s call from four decades ago because if we do not do something immediately, we will forever be in danger of losing everything.
-ELINOR TATUM, Publisher and Editor in Chief
From the Amsterdam News archives
A sick session in Albany
By BASIL PATERSON
The 1971 Legislature has done its thing.
From the opening session to the final, frenetic days, state lawmakers once again demonstrated their continuing insensitivity to the needs of the people by slicing the vital budgetary allotment that so many Black, Puerto Rican and other poor depend up on for basic survival. Despite the many warnings of the plight faced by the poor and marginal income families, the 1971 legislative leadership plowed ahead on its cruel and disastrous course.
Lest anyone be confused, it is important that we recognize what this legislative session represented. The regressive measures passed by the forces of reaction were a reaffirmation of the hard-line policy initiated in 1969. In that session, the New York State Legislature invoked massive cuts in education, welfare and Medicaid. Those cuts were so unjust and so unrealistic that, subsequently, emergency state funds had to be used to restore minimum service and, in some cases, to forestall tragic consequences.
The hard-liners kept their guns holstered in 1970…it was an election year! But this year, they again came out blazing:
* In the face of rapidly rising prices, they again slashed welfare payments…by 10 percent.
* Reduced Medicaid benefits to the poor.
* Increased the regressive sales tax while refusing to impose progressive income taxes on higher income people.
* Refused to permit a vote to be taken on a pension plan (already approved by New York City) that affects the largest number of minority employees in the state.
* Removed rent control from New York City apartments while adding rent control to protect upstate communities.
* Tied the hands of the New York City Board of Education to prevent more equitable enrollment of Blacks and Puerto Ricans in special high schools (Music & Art, Bronx Science, Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech).
The latter two measures manifestly demonstrate the blatant hypocrisy of the Legislature. Home rule is a sacrosanct term in Albany…until sacred cows are threatened! New York City will be decontrolled (for the benefit of landlords) without its consent and against its will. Under the education bill, the New York City Board of Education will not be allowed to experiment in seeking to improve the quality of education for all its pupils.
What must be understood, clearly, is that what happens in 1969 and 1971 will go on. The end of victimizing the poor and the powerless is nowhere in sight. When funds are needed to balance a budget, the pruning knife will continue to be wielded in those areas where the least resistance is anticipated.
Let us not confuse loud voices with effective resistance. Public officials have found they can weather the rhetoric. The time has long since passed when threats, invective or even mass rallies can gain substantive response from the New York State Legislature…unless this protest comes forth from an organized, disciplined, effective political constituency.
One need not accept the system as it exists, nor even participate in it. But if we wish to change it, there are probably only two viable alternatives: the carbine and pipe bomb of violence or the kind of committed political involvement that does more than elect individuals, but becomes a vehicle for the advancement of a community.
It sometimes requires a hard, realistic analysis of community needs and the determination of the most effective method by which these needs can be satisfied. Wishing won’t make it so. Political power will!
Mr. Paterson is a former state senator and the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.