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O cto b e r 13,1999
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STAFF
P
u b l is h e r
Charles Washington
E
d it o r
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
C
E
opy
d it o r
Joy Ramos
B
u s in e s s
M
anager
Big Growth Rate In U.S. Rural Areas
In 1 9 9 0 s
C
o n t r ib u t in g
W
r it e r
Richard Luccetti
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D E A D L IN E S
F O R A L L S U B M I T T E D M A T E R IA L S :
• i
Jesse Ventura
Can Dish It Out:
Gary Ann Taylor
farms themselves are pressured
to move further out, because the
land becomes so valuable. The
trend toward rural living also has
its environmental effects. Sep­
tic sanitation systems in many
rural counties are overburdened,
while the influx of new residents
created new pressures on the
fragile ecosystem. In recre­
ational and retirem ent places
known for their water views of
rivers and lakes, wetlands are
usually nearby, and too much
building can disrupt them. Rec­
reational and retirement coun­
ties were the fastest growing of
all rural counties, according to
the report.
On our Way to Beautiful
An In sp iratio n al C om m en­
tary on L ife , C u ltu re and
PoliticsB y Y olanda Y o u n g lf
W e’d All Just L isten ed To
Our M others(N N PA ) —
My g o o d f r i e n d , G us
J o h n s o n , l is t e n e d to h is
m other and lan d ed the c a ­
re e r o f a life tim e . He was
su p p o se to be on his w ay to
law school w ith the re s t o f
the su ck ers at H ow ard U n i­
v e rs ity , but a c o n v e rs a tio n
w ith his m o th er ch a n g ed all
th a t. The sum m er b e fo re his
s e n io r y e a r , e v e r y t h i n g
ch an g ed . A c c o rd in g to G us,
“ I was p a rtic ip a tin g in the
Boys C lu b ’s m e n to rin g p ro ­
gram . I sp en t a day w ith a
law y e r, and at the end o f
the day, I knew I d id n ’t w ant
to be a la w y e r.” A fte r c o n ­
fid in g th is to his m o th e r,
she o ffe re d som e w ords o f
w isd o m th a t h a v e s ta y e d
w ith Gus to th is day. “ My
mom sa id , ‘ Son, w h a te v er
you d o , m ake su re i t ’ s
so m eth in g th at you jum p out
the bed in the m o rn in g to
do, and if you had to , y o u ’d
do it for f r e e .’ T hat was the
d e fin in g m om ent o f my life
b e c au se it got me th in k in g
in an e n t i r e l y d i f f e r e n t
w a y .’’’In ste a d o f f illin g his
days w ith the h o rro rs o f law
firm b i ll a b l e h o u r s , G us
time. Were Governor Ventura’s
remarks controversial? Of course
they were. He’s a controversial
man. The American people can
handle controversial? Of course
they were. He’s a controversial
man. The American people can
handle controversy. We don’t
have to protect the American
people or the Reform Party from
controversy. The Am erican
people are grownups. They can
listen to divergent ideas on all
kinds of issues and make their
own choices. They don’t need to
be babied. They can handle it. A
big part of the media spin is that
Ventura’s remarks show that all
the Reform Party does is attract
nuts. It’s that all the media likes
to cover are people they can de­
pict as nuts. We actually attract
decent people all over this coun­
try that want to do something about
political corruption, and Reform
has succeeded sufficiently to at­
tract all kinds of folks. We’ve
elected a governor of an impor­
tant state. We are the major mi­
nor party in the United States of
America. We’ve only been in ex­
istence for two years, but we’re in
the competition for 2000. We’re
a third party movement with stay­
ing power
Jesse Ventura is a very honest
man. He says what’s on his mind
and that is refreshing. Do I be­
lieve exactly what he believes?
No. But that’s hardly the issue.
The real question in the whole
furor over Ventura’s interview
with Playboy is whether or not
the American people can handle
honesty. I think they can. There’s
been a big controversy over his
remarks about he Tailhook inci­
dent, and everywhere I go people
ask me about it. Here’s what I tell
them. I do not think that men
should act out in sexually hurtful
ways. I am completely opposed
to that. What Governor Ventura
was saying is his comments is
that he can understand how men
who have been trained to carry
out what you might call “less hu­
manistic” activities find them­
selves carrying over those “less
than humanistic” activities to so­
cial situations. Do I condone that?
Absolutely not. Can I understand
that? Do I see the point that Gov­
ernor Ventura was trying to make?
I do, indeed. But I have to add
that, as a woman, I have been most
offended by men who give the
illusion or have a veneer of being
politically correct, but do brutal
and abusive things at the same
cially e-mail and the Internet have
made it less necessary for people
to work in an office five days a
week.Rural areas have also at­
tracted an increasing number of
retirees who are seeking more
relaxed lifestyles and lower tax
rates, the report said. And, as
more people moved to the coun­
try, new jobs such as plumbers,
carpenters and home-care occu­
pations, have been created. The
policy
im plications
of
déconcentration are far-reaching.
New plants and homes in rural
areas are putting more farmland
out of production. With people
moving into rural areas, farm­
land gets fragmented and the
also made cities and many sub­
urbs less attractive, according to
the report. At the same time, im­
provements in transportation and
road systems, as well as advances
in communications technology
made it possible for people to
consider moving and working in
rural areas.Critical to the new
“déconcentration” trend were
technological innovations, par­
ticularly in communications and
transportation. New roads and air­
ports — and the improvement of
the existing transportation infra­
structure — have made rural ar­
eas much more accessible to
commuters, while new commu­
nications technologies, espe-
lation — or 216 million people
— live in cities or nearby sub­
urbs, according to the report. His­
torically, metropolitan areas have
attracted large numbers of rural
dwellers and immigrants as manu­
facturing, business and service
companies have replaced agricul­
ture and mining as the main
sources of employment. These
same businesses initially set up
plants in rural areas in the south­
ern part of the country, where
labor and other productions costs
were substantially less. A lot of
industries that move to rural ar­
eas need the wage differential in
order to stay in the U.S., Crime
and environmental degradation
By Jim LobeW ASHING! ON
(IPS) — The population of most
rural areas in the United States
grew steadily during the past de­
cade as a result of advances in
transportation and technology
and changes in the country’s de­
mographics, according to a new
report released by Washington-
based Population Reference Bu­
reau (PRB). Rural areas gained
almost four million additional
residents between 1990 and mid-
1998. That is an increase of more
than seven percent. The United
States has been a predominantly
metropolitan nation since the
early 20th century. And today,
nearly 80 percent of the US popu­
firm b i ll a b l e h o u r s , G us
g ets to liv e out an e x te n ­
sion o f his c h ild h o o d . As a
s p o r t s c o m m e n ta t o r an d
p la y -b y -p la y a n n o u n c er for
CBS S p o rts, J o h n s o n ’s days
are fille d w ith the e x c ite ­
m en t and e u p h o ria th a t
c o u ld o n ly c o m e fro m
w a tc h in g N FL F o o t b a ll ,
M a rc h M a d n e s s , or th e
O lym pics. Gus alw ays loved
s p o rts. On his high school
b a s k e tb a ll team je rs e y , he
w ore hom etow n g rea t Isiah
T h o m a s ’ n u m b er 11. “ My
dad ( A u g u s tin e J o h n s o n )
use to lay the flo o r at Cobo
H all fo r th e D e tro it P is ­
to n s. He w as a f a c ilitie s
w o rk e r, so I got a chance to
w hen I was a kid to go down
t h e r e . ” G us c o u n ts th e
O ly m p ic s
a n d m e e tin g
B ry an t G um bel as the b ig ­
g est th in g s to happen to him
so far. “ To see this c o lle c ­
tion o f a th le te s that a re n ’t
g e ttin g p aid , com peting in
these o b scu re sp o rts in the
W in ter O lym pics. To see the
p a ssio n and love they have
for w hat th e y ’re doing. N ot
only b ecau se i t ’s th e ir sport
but also because th e y ’re re p ­
re s e n tin g th e ir c o u n try . To
see the dram a th at unfolds
and to be a p a rt o f th at and
be the voice th at b ro ad casts
those sto rie s was the h ig h ­
lig h t o f not only my ca re e r,
but my lif e .”
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