OCR Text |
Show Apply discrimination to right past wrongs? We can't recall a time in recent re-cent history when so many proposals pro-posals to amend the U.S. Constitution Con-stitution were being tossed around. Most prominent, of course, is the so-called Equal Rights amendment. Others relate re-late to imposition of a budget ceiling, mandating a balanced budget, and prohibiting abortions except in certain instances. The intent of these proposals is to achieve what certain segments seg-ments of the population feel is needful for our time, to remedy seeming inequities and accomplish accom-plish by amendment what governmental gover-nmental decisions, court rulings and existing statutes have not done. NOW ADD ANOTHER proposed propo-sed amendment to the list the Equal Protection amendment. Introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), it is intended to "restore "re-store an impartial and colorblind color-blind government already provided provi-ded by the Fourteenth amendment amend-ment and the 1964 Civil Rights act. . ." The target is the government's program of affirmative action under which 10 percent of federal public works funds are reserved for minority contractors. This form of racial quota was upheld by the Supreme court's July 2 Fullilove vs. Klutznick decision. In his effort, Senator Hatch is striking at the concept that past wrongs of racial discrimination should be redressed by reversing that discrimination, by imposing a new form of racial bias to compensate for those former inequities. in-equities. This attitude is rooted in the philosophy that two wrongs do make a right. "IT IS A RADICAL departure from the genius of the American Constitution, because it denies that all are entitled to the equal protection of the laws, and says instead that what you get depends de-pends on who you are," Hatch argues. He is right. Racial quotas are not fair. This clearly is a case of the pendulum having over-swung over-swung its desired arc. It's unfortunate unfor-tunate we've reached the point that a constitutional amendment is perceived as necessary to substantiate sub-stantiate it. |