The Bermuda Recorder

              saturday march 24 1973 the bermuda recorder page eleve m ack board members what about this generation complex world we are continually being told that the world is becom ing more and more compli cated and that it is impor tant to keep up but our elementary and secondary school systems continue to ignore two of the most im portant aspects of prepara tion for a future as effective adults how to exist in the market-place and how to judge our political and judi cial institutions the following is the text of a speech delivered by dr paul a de la chevo tiere at the 12th annual banquet of the senior b missionary society of allen temple a.m.e church young people are away from home the strengths and weaknesses of the home are soon revealed it is my opi nion that some parents have been so anxious to anticipate every difficulty their chil dren might face and to shield them from all the mis takes they themselves made when they were young that they over-protect them the parental roof cannot be in definitely extended and par ents cannot always be at hand for reference and rein forcement the point of the plaintiff's nose turity and of being loved in continued from page 1 the black community assess ed his position i'm not the type to sit in a corner and be just a symbol or a rubber stamp or to be quiet he said ing former government ap pointed officials rober r , c weaver first black cabinet member former secretary of housing now sits on the boards of bowery savings bank nyc and metropolitan life insurance company t torney hobart taylor first black director of the export import bank is on the boards of aetna variable annuity life insurance co great at lantic & pacific tea co standard oil oi ohio and westinghouse electric corp lawyer clifford alexander former chairman of the eeoc serves on the board of pennsylvania power & light leading black spite of their mistakes some companies mean business freedom the young people of today show unmistakable signs of when every man has a right to do as he likes we have not freedom but li cense and the end of that sort of thing is not an or dered society but anarchy being something less than happy about the kind of world their elders have be queathed them and it is sometimes difficult to blame them for their attitude some of their elders clearly dem onstrate that they are not only incapable of creating a decent environment but are decidedly heavy-handed and even malicious in their atti tudes towards young people the caliber of blacks who have been selected to the boards of directors offer some significance as to the direction most corporations have point ed all are talented with cre dentials for who's who in america but many have been noted for their civil rights activity black voter registration and political edu cation selective patronage and often activity in areas accompanied by controversy another philadelphian civil rights lawyer and corporate william t coleman jr . elected to the boards of first pan american world airways penn mutual life insurance and western saving fund society said he would not represent a company that dis criminated mr coleman em phasized that he would repre sent those people who are trying to do the right thing the banquet sponsored under the patronage of rev hewly hinds and mrs hinds was held at the southampton princess re cently yet we still continue to babble about freedom as if it were freedom from rather than freedom to as there is a dangerous belief abroad that whatever the self determines is right and good must be right and good — no matter what the circumstances what the re sults or what the implica tions this self-directed philosphy removes the ne cessity of so-called respon sible behaviour from the in dividual nietsche put it we make a cardinal mistake when we think of freedom as simply being let alone there is really no point in freedom if we do not use it to serve oth ers oxford's eminent profes sor a d lindsay has re marked conceiving freedom as being let alone we gra dually come to think our duty to others consist in letting them alone one of the favourite occu pations of those of us who have lost our youth is to criti cize the young our me mories are short or curious ly biased and the impression our criticisms give is that when we were young we wore haloes — perhaps slightly askew now the criti cism of the present gener ation by an earlier gener ation is nothing new indeed one of the oldest pieces of writing extant dates from egypt about 2.000 b.c and goes like this — alas times are not what they used to be children no longer obey their parents and everyone wants to write about it unless young people are encouraged to think for themselves and are given responsibility in the home commensurate with their age and their capacity they will be inadequately equipped when they step outside the family circle young people should be encouraged in the home to think for them selves to make as many de cisions for themselves as they can reasonably be ex pected to make and to act on these decisions and to take the consequences for them we do them a grave dis service when we run and put a pillow under them to cush ion their fall most young people today are searching for causes with which they can identify they want to make their own decisions in areas which con cern them most intimately such as modes of private life and the terms of reference under which they attend in stitutions of learning they are challenging — often in bi zarre fashion — the concepts which with the help of properly constituted author ity have brought so much hate deprivation and suffer ing and what does the adult world do invariably it hides under the wings of offi cial repression when it should be questioning ar guing and debating the issues in open forum as they arise normally association with controversy as regards the race issue would serve as major obstacles toward get ting inside the boasdrooms but many industrial establish ments are trading traditional ist concepts to cope with real istic challenges many areas tapped the progressive chase man hattan bank was among the first corporations to elect a black to its board thomas a wood president of twa leas ing corp and the noted wash ington d.c attorney patricia r harris chase manhattan made another move this ye ir which opened eyes in the busi ness world the bank placed university of notre dame president the rev theodore m hesburgh on its board father hesburgh is white but he became known as an un comprising foe of racism as chairman of the federal com mission on civil rights businessmen it is also encouraging that boards of directors now recog nize successful black business men first pennsylvania bank corp and magnovox co elected henry g parks president of parks sausages inc w t grant selected asa t spaulding former president and chairman of the billion dollar north caroli na mutural life insurance co twentieth century fox has john h johnson head of the johnson publishing empire ebony jet black world black stars certainly it is time for a new morality to make itself felt but not the kind that so many of the blind mouths of today are shouting at us what our society desperately needs is self-discipline but surely it is axiomatic that no home and no society can hope to endure if free dom in the sense of let them alone is stressed and an individual's obligation ig nored when rights are emphasized and duties for gotten we are in for a bad time companies pick activists movers in january 1971 general motors corporation the world's largest announced the appointment of the rev lein h sullivan founder and chairman of the opportunities industrialization centers inc and internationally noted for his black economic improve ment programmes to its dis tinguished board of directors while america particularly self-discipline is of course hardly a popular virtue where doing your thing is the logical result of permis siveness there is tremendous resistance to any kind of con trol and the kind of control that comes from within is the most difficult to create and sustain but what about this gener ation it has been said so often that what is wrong with young people is what is wrong with families and that there are no deliquent juve niles only deliquent parents not a few of us are getting just a little tired of such oft repeated remarks which are no more than half-truths every boy and girl coming to maturity needs to ex perience a very considerable measure of independence to experience the results of in dependent thought and ac tion whether those results are pleasant or unpleasant when they demand freedom with the cry i'm a big girl or i'm a big boy now let them have their freedom within the limits of prudence and let them discover that a big girl or a big boy has to take the rough with the smooth parental guidance it is however a half-truth and a dangerous half-truth that the problems of this gen eration can all be laid at the door of parents it is not le gitimate to excuse all sorts of questionable conduct on the part of young people on the ground that their parents have let them down it is definitely questionable to give in to young people on the ground that their parents have let them down/it is definitely questionable to give young people the im pression that their bad be haviour should be excused because of their parents shortcomings that there are parental shortcomings goes without saying that there ought to be adolescent res ponsibility also needs to be acknowledged i today's youth the youth of today are bet ter educated than any other generation in history they are constantly examining and analysing themselves and everything around them unfortunately most adults cannot seem to be see be yond the long hair the drugs and the liberal attitude to wards sex they fail to re cognise the revolt of youth against the hypocrisy the in justice and the artificial values of modern society business has had the fore sight to tap some of the lead that is why chemical com fort is such an easy and popular escape from the self and the threatening chal lenges of an abrasive society retiring into vegetable una wareness is a welcome cop out for many individuals unaccustomed to self-dis cipline oba personally i subscribe to these two propositions in part young people do reflect their home training or lack of it parents have primary responsibility the example they set and the precepts they lay down are major fac tors in forming the character of their young people and parents who fail to assume responsibility at the time when their children are of an age to be significantly in fluenced have a great deal to answer for better portraits by lou lutour experience cannot be a teacher if only the pleasant consequences are allowed to operate and the unpleasant consequences are warded off making own let us remember that life consists of making choices what we choose is what we bcome both as individuals and a society the choices we make individually and col lectively will decide the kind of world our children and their children will inhabit this challenge calls for ima gination ingenuity and dar ing service guide planning developing growth and unlimited success . . . . that's what can be said about d parke gibson international inc a new york city based consulting firm that handles domestic and international clients and it is a black-owned and managed firm . . . righ in the downtown area — 475 fifth avenue ... and global portraits is most proud to salute such a firm . . . the image of young people as indifferent and non-in volved clearly is one of the great modern north ameri can myths the fact is that youth has never been more involved than it is today in matters such as hunger war poverty civil rights and the dignity of the individual even bermuda residents can see this involvement — if they look closely enough the involvement of young people in the good and bad aspects of modern society is not al ways publicized but it is pre sent just the same decisions in my sojourn abroad i have found that young people who cope most capably when they are separated from their families are those who have been not only per mitted but encouraged to think and decide for them selves with a very consider able measure of indepen dence to assume responsi bility and to accept the con sequences of their indepen dence and responsibility and to act their age at every stage of their growth in the family circle a guide to better quality selection and service parental above all it calls for men and women with the moral courage to tackle new prob lems in new ways as james russell lowell said responsibility there is a good deal of talk about freedom these days and a lot of it isn't worth very much during the war there was a great deal of talk about the way things ought to be after the war was over and the word freedom came up again and again it seemed then and it seems now on reflection that free dom too often is regarded as simply the right of every man to do as he likes parental responsibility is not something that can be delegated in our extreme business we may think our selves too busy to take time for our children but fathers or mothers who are that busy are too busy and it's about time they took a long quiet sober look at the things which take up their time and drain them of energy principals of the firm are d parke gibson president rod senior consultant ellen hail vice president and treasurer and mary p murray vice president and secretary john b harris is senior associate research raymond s mccann and kendall f wilson are account supervisors and the fine thing about this firm with its efficient staff is that its capabilities include affiliat ed black and spanish-speaking firms in 32 major u.s cities and the caribbean new occasions teach new duties fa for the best um tjjfr dunklfvs fresh & filled milk get away from the tanned taate dunkley's & pioneer dairy time makes ancient good un couth they must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of truth it must be admitted in passing that there is some thing radically wrong with our present educational sys tem when there is no philo sophy in it little religion little sociology and little psychology but i have thought for some time that young people today find their problems unusually acute and press ing not only because of lack of parental control and direc tion but also because there has been too much parental solicitude a hothouse plant has a hard time surviving in a rugged climate when the young people i know who reflect credit on them selves and on their folk when they are on their own are the young people who when with their folk have had the benefit of good ex ample — who have been per mitted to make mistakes and to profit by them who have known the security of being trusted in their imma lo before us gealm her campfires in this connection i am re minded of a celebrated judg ement of thr jreat ameri can jurist 3 -. holmes who when a m,m charged with striking anr.-iher man on the nose demanded haven't i the right to swing my arms replied your right to swing your arms ends at we ourselves must pilgrims be launch our mayflower and steer boldly we emphasize skill in using a wrench or a hair brush or in mixing drinks in order to get a job but we don't spend much time teach ing how to handle life in its other aspects throng the desperate winter sea the management informa tion service includes the gib son report a monthly letter nor attempt the future's portal with the past's blood-rusted key r % on marketing to nonwhite con sumers race relations & in dustry a monthly letter on equal employment opportunity problems programs and prac tices both available by sub scription and in-house and public seminars gibson's book the 30 billion negro mac millan company 1969 311 pages which details develop ment of favourable attitudes and opinions among minority groups is a part of the mis service 1973 harley-davidson proof that freedom isn't an elusive thing because the harley-davidson z-90 is a something you can experience for legal street use or trail your best buy in an extremely practical tangible form of freedom experience z-90 reedom machine 1973 z-90 free delivery made especially for bermuda basic price 540.00 i i xeiefmuiie i — - the firm which recently added international to its cor porate name to reflect both its current and expanding scope including general clients nas had a continuing growth pat tern clients of d parke gib son international inc include avon products inc govern ment of bermuda brown and williamson tobacco corp co lonial pen insurance co co lumbia pictures combustion engineering inc cpm pro grammes inc family com munications inc the b f goodrich company gulf oil corporation government of guyana as well as special projects for amtrak merk sharp & dohme and scandina vian airline system / / jr*^^**\\\\\ww f p wmz - i _____**- . t 4m . % ' a l_j b^v b sr5 * v^h i ■ ••—• r ww & m la#ik«*l bl a_aii 1 jll b - sr * l _________ l_______b b ________ 1 k 3 jfcj&jr^^^w^p_p__ip a inm t^b ""** k ' -^ fl p b , - r zjm ii jb l pf*n cjs^b - * _._____■ i fc__5 r woodlawn supermarket hog bay level bomenet cyclist gibson credits other public relations firms and advertising agencies for much of the t'rm's success and dpi often works in concert with them their fine recommendations of us and their cooperation in what ever assignments we are given has often resulted in the best possible job for the client and preludes any friction he said when looking tor par parts why not start where there i * larsre variety f partg and accessories for all popnlar cycle leslie w wilson — cycle shop it can easily be said that d p gibson international inr is truly including a wonderfui job of human relations in its services and such always brings development growth through planning & right ac ion and success unlimited union street hamilton crockwells enterprises middle road warwick