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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 15, 1983
PAGE 7
was offered a job in his trade as an electrician and has the Sab
bath and holy days off. Thank you all, and above all we thank God
for intervening on his behalf.
Mr. & Mrs. G.K. {Hazleton, PA)
After hearing your sermon at the first of the year, I realized
there were things I needed to do. I went job hunting again and in
no time found one. I now work when I can and do not have
to
worry
about getting off for the holy days because I schedule my own
hours. Now isn't that the kind of job to have?
A.O. (Jonesboro, CA)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
ON THE WORLD SCENE
CHICAGO ELECTION; THE "AIDS" SUPER-EPIDEMIC America's second largest city
now has joined Los Angeles, Detroit and about 210 other cities, large and
small, with having a black mayor. It was inevitable, given the massive
black influx into Chicago from the South since the end of World war II and
subsequent population growth.
Blacks now comprise roughly 40% of the
city's population.
The victory by former U.S. Congressman Harold Washington was accomplished
by an unprecedented voter registration drive and election-day turnout in
the inner city black wards, where he received almost 100% bloc support. But
Washington needed--and received--heavy support from Chicago's growing His
panic community and enough (nearly half) of the crucial white liberal pro-·
fessional vote to put him over. (Washington's opponent, Republican Bernard
Epton himself is a white liberal, which made it difficult fo-r Chicago's
conservative white ethnic groups, such as the Irish and Poles, to vote for
him.) Washington received about 20% of the total white vote.
The election has implications for both the Democratic and Republican
parties on the national level. Increasingly, the Democratic Party is be
coming a coalition of blacks, Hispanics and white liberals coupled with
labor union leadership. Blacks, in fact, are now the party's base. The
Republicans, on the other hand, are becoming a "white only" party, depend
ing upon traditionally Democratic white blue-collar cross-over votes at
election time. Current polls show almost no strength for President Reagan
among blacks--as opposed to 1960 when Republican candidate Richard Nixon
garnered nearly a third of black votes.
Mr. Washington's victory in the campaign was achieved despite his allegedly
questionable background. On the day before the April 12 election, the WALL
STREET JOURNAL commented:
The prospect of a Washington victory has electrified and united
blacks of all walks of life and neighborhoods. "There's only one
issue for the voters in my ward this year," says black alderman
William Barnett: "The chance to have a black mayor."
Mr. Washington's legal record has.••received considerable pub
licity. In 1972, he was briefly jailed after being convicted of
failing to file income tax forms for four years, and in 1970 he
was suspended from legal practice after failing to provide ser
vices that five clients had already paid for. Today he frankly
admits his mistakes.•..