Show i i vJ i i i vV i AMA i v 1 i 1 i If It Seems To Me ny By Joseph n. n Roberts i i i i j 1111 1 1 11 1 1 The Supreme Court evidently I doesn't believe in the Horatio Alger story anymore Its ruling upholding a decision of the U US U.S. S. S Court of Appeals regarding a It Chicago housing project hits at the very heart of the American promise that people in our free enterprise system can better themselves through their own efforts As a consequence t 0 of the ruling the door is now open for forced of f the poor with the not so poor until after taxes No longer can Jimmy Carters Carter's ethnic purity be guaranteed any neighborhood Those who have labored long and hard scrimped and saved and mortgaged their futures to buy a house in a a quiet suburban suburban suburban ban residential area area may soon find a subsidized federally low rent housing project being built next door CAN IT be the learned men of law on the Supreme Court and the US U.S. Court of Appeals have become so emotionally involved with social reform that they have lost all reason The asinine statement issued by the would lead one to believe so Speaking as if it took its text from sociology rather than law the Court proclaimed We must not sentence our poor our underprivileged our minorities to the the jobless slums of the ghettoes and thereby forever trap them in the vicious cycle of poverty which can an only lead to lives of crime and violence What utter nonsense nonsense Nobody is sentenced to remain forever in poverty If this is still the land of oC opportunity and andI I think it is in spite of the efforts of the socialists to eliminate the free enterprise system then poverty is not necessarily a permanent condition If they have the gumption t to do so so the poor are free to walk walkout out of oC the jobless slums shims and find honest employment elsewhere They can work and save just like the rest of us and eventually ll move to a better neighborhood It may not be e easy sy but it is eer certainly certainly not impossible I dare say that many who now now enjoy comfortable homes in reside residential tI 1 sections sections n started r I their married lives in a cheap apartment over I a store t re or In somebody's garage Also I U think it Is extremely unfair to the honest people Inthe in inthe inthe the slums who are struggling to maintain their dignity and self respect to Imply that they live lives of crime and violence simply because they are poor I thought the simplistic belief that poverty causes crime had been refuted long ago It should have been The evidence is overwhelming that all kinds of people in all economic levels of society commit crimes for a variety of reasons but generally they commit crimes because they want to not because cause they have to It is justas just justas as as ridiculous ridiculous' to say everybody living in the slums is a criminal as it is to say everybody living in the suburbs is not THE TIIE MOST illogical aspect of the decision however is the assumption that the economic condition of the poor will be improved by putting them Into low rent housing in the midst of more affluent residential areas People do not derive their income Income income in In- come from when they live but where th they y work What solace will the underprivileged minorities gain from moving their poverty from the jobless slums s to the jobless suburbs Wont Won't the contrast in their standards of oC living with those enjoyed by their more affluent neighbors only increase their misery If H the Court thinks it has ruled in favor of improving race relations it is as wrong here as asit asit asit it has been in ruling for forced busing Building little ghettoes in residential areas areas can only underline the differences between the underprivileged and the privileged and stir resentment in both FREE AND STRONG We can can remember the past with flags and parades and fireworks fireworks fireworks fire fire- works as President Adams envisioned envisioned envisioned en en- in th the first summer of our independence but to honor the past we must hand I this magnificent experiment in self- self government on to future gen- gen rations free and an strong ng Gerald R. R Ford |