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Letters to *\e editor
Byhalia teacher's firing 'black day' for education
Another "black dav" for Mississippi Education.
Competent and conscientious Mississippi tcachers have again been shown by not so subtle example that if they try to do a professional and proper job of teaching, it may be harmful to their career and even their welfare. It has been demonstrated again that ?those who go along get along."
I am referring to Catherine Robbins, Byhalia High School s 1988 STAR teacher, who was professional enough and had the courage to refuse to go along with the herd and did not give passing grades to 11 seniors who didn't deserve them. As a reward for her dedication, this teacher was informed by Superintendent I^awrcnce Autry of the Marshall County School District lhat her contract would not be renewed for the next school year. This decision was in no way related to the controversy deriving from her failure to give in and pass undeserving students, according to the sujxrintendent.
The decision not to renew the contract of Ms. Robbins may have been coincidental to the controversy arising from her failure to pass these students, but how many teachers will be intimidated in the future when they have to decide whether to give or not to give a passing grade to an undeserving student?
According to news stories, the Mississippi Association of Educators reported spending more than $53,000 lobbying the Mississippi Legislature to obtain an average increase of $3,802 for the state's 25.000 tcachers - this to be shared equally by the incompetent and unprofessional as well as the competent and professional. I haven?t seen that the MAE has spoken one word in the defense of Ms Robbins, much less spent $ 1 in her behalf. Somehow, there seems to be an inequality here.
C.H. MOORE Cleveland
Lauds courage, integrity of Catherine Robbins
I would like to make two points regarding the May 31 article headlined "Byhalia teacher fails 11 despite threats on life."
First, I am afraid that you have put the wrong subject with the right verb: Someone did fail, but it was not the teacher {as far as I can tell). It was the teacher who set the standards, and the students who failed to meet them. Let's make sure that we place proper blaine.
Second. 1 applaud the teacher, Catherine Robbins. for her stand. If a couple of my high school teachers had taken similar stands, I may have had a later start on college, but it also may have awakened me earlier to the real world ? that is, that employers and colleges set standards, quotas and deadlines that they expect to be met, and a high school senior should be prepared to meet such challenges.
lX*spile being ''passed" as a high school senior wit hout meeting reasonable standards. I've done OK, but I struggled in college ? especially early on ? because I feel I was ill prepared.
ALAN L. CAUSEY ____________________________________Jackson
Raps report on meeting of genealogical society
In reference to the National Genealogical Society conference that was held on the Mississippi Gulf Coast recently. I agree completely with the letter (? ?Genealogists dealing in the living, not dead' ") you published May 8 from Mahlon S. Post of Bolton.
So many people worked so hard to make this conference a success to show what our state and Gulf Coast have to offer and to try to promote business.
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Letters to the l.dilor The Clarion-Ledger Jackson Daily News P.O. Box 40 Jackson, Miss. 3920?
Anne Anderson and her staff at the L.W. Anderson Library worked so hard to have this conference, and your paj>er gave her no credit whatsoever!
These conferences are planned two to three years in advance. Many people didn't think the stale or its citizens were capable of having such a conference, due to stories they had heard or read. We all worked long and hard to prove how great it could be. Even the weather was perfect.
Then your staff writer Joe Rogers and your paper proved how far we still have to go to erase the opinion of ignorance and stupidity.
Mississippi has many things to be proud of ? good schools, the Mississippi State Department of Archives and History and the L.W. Anderson Library, which has grown so much since its beginning a few years ago.
Mr. Rogers gives the impression that we still have one-room schoolhouses.
ALLIE L. BARGER New Orleans. La.
'Dead duck' dig at Bush provokes rejoinder
Well. I see lhat Sen. Edward Kennedy has described George Rush as a ?dead duck."
It takes one to recognize one.
TULLIUS BRADY Brookhaven
Judges Lott winner of debate with Dowdy
James Ricketts supplied a fine list of issues in his coverage of the debate between Wayne Dowdy and Trent I^ott on June 3. However, he utterly failed to answer the question usually of greatest concern to voters: Who won?
A desire for even-handed coverage should no more obscure political wins and losses than it should the score of a football game. Whether we
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like it or not. voters rely on non-issues more often than issues to decide who they choose for office. Sound information and analysis, beyond the unsurprising revelation that the candidates disagree on each others? records, is necessary.
My own opinion of the winner relied upon cach
candidate s audience rapport, speed of thought, command of the issues and facts and oratorical ability. These are the same criteria I have used to judge national intercollegiate debates (most recently, the spring Ivy league Debate at Columbia University). It seems that the audience, which was from across the state, agreed with me; in every category. Trent Lott won ? hands down.
STEVESHEPPARD Picayune
Wants cause of death omitted in obituaries
The West Rankin Chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons adopted a resolution at their June 6 meeting requesting that The. Clarion-Iscdger and Jackson Daily News refrain from mentioning the cause of death in your obituaries. We feel that this is a personal matter and should not be mentioned in the paper.
MRS. THOMAS W. GRAVES Secretary West Rankin Chapter, AARP Richland
Evers said duped in hosting UNITA official
___I was appalled when I read in one of our local papers that Mayor Charles Evers had let one of South Africa's constituents. Jonas Savimbi, dupe him into hosting Savimbi's tentative fund-rais-ing trip to Mississippi. It is appalling because Mayor Evers should have done his homework.
Savimbi formed the Union for Total Independence in Africa (UNITA). The Mozambican National Resistance (MNR or Rcnamo) catnc lo the South Africans through Ian Smith?s Rhodesian intelligence services.
Both groups have surfaced in the United States claiming to be liberation movements. South Africa has cloaked them with an acceptable label by calling them freedom fighters. The reality is that the war waged by South Africa's surrogates ? UNITA and Rcnamo ? has been particularly cruel.
It is well documented that since the late 1970s South Africa has attacked Angola continuously either directly or indirectly through military and financial support of UNITA. These attacks are estimated to have cost Angola 60,000 lives, and $12 billion in damages.
Destabilization is a combination of economic and military weapons. Both tactics are used on Mozambique. However. South Africa docs not enjoy the economic leverage over Angola as il does over other nations in southern Africa.
South Africa used destabilization to preoccupy the governments of Mozambique and Angola. This curtailed concrete support from South Africans opposing apartheid. It drains off resources and creates a picture of chaotic majority-ruled nations. A successful majority-ruled state would undermine the basic tenets of apartheid.
Angola, being in the position that it is, multiracial. majority ruled and Marxist, presents S threat to apartheid, which makes it politically dangerous. If Angola were allowed to succecd, it would destroy the ideological foundation of apartheid capitalism in South Africa.
Further, if UNITA and/or Renamo?should share or acquire power, apartheid would then have ?friends" within the regimes of Angola and Mozambique.
Had M.ivor Evers read a "tidbit" of information on South Africa, he would have been cognizant of these facts
THELMA SIMS DUKES Jackson
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