European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 06, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes sunday october 6, 1985 Carl Rowan air travel getting riskier while Faa covers up i ask you to Bear with me for another column about the declining safety of air travel in this country. I wine again no because we narrowly averted Iraq cd at National Airport in Washington when one air controller sent an Eastern airlines Boeing 727 with 175 Peute aboard Down the runway for a Takeoff while ant her controller cleared a helicopter to Fly into the path of the Airliner. I write again not because the Federal Avia Ion administration told the Media the truth you can l hide much when a Jel with Abc s David Hart Man and lbs s Terence Smith aboard almost runs into the Poto Mac River trying to Avert a collision and relieved a controller of her duties. I write because in recent Days i have received Tele phone Calls from air controllers and others from Cali fornia to Maryland telling me thai the Faa is Stone will my covering up the magnitude of problems that could be solved if Only the people and the Congress were told the truth. I u Riik because rep. James l. Oberstar d-minn., chairman of the investigations and oversight subcommittee of the House Public works and transportation committee has called me to say the margin of safety is diminished. This la serious business. We arc Only a couple of accidents away from having the Public lose total Confidence in our  Cape. Henry Duffy president of the air line pilots association told a congressional hearing there Are some people who believe Hal punishment is the Only thing thai corrects the system. We believe openness corrects the system. We have got to know what the problems Are and if people Are going to hide the prob lems fearing punishment then they Are never going to be  controllers say that important errors Are subjectively ignored by regional officials who know Hal if nothing hits the fan within 15 Day the laps of conversation Between controllers and pilots will be destroyed. I a brass refuse to admin what recent congressional hearings have made Clear that the current air traffic control system is being run by people far less qualified Chiin was the Case in 1981 when president Reagan fired 11.500 striking controllers. Oberstar earlier wrote that the air control system abounds with the same flaws and inefficiencies which prevailed at the time of the  Obj mar whom i do not know personally thanked me for bringing inc nation s attention to inc severity of the problems within the airline  he was refer ring to a column Hal i wrote at the end of August a David Broder of r a. Via belts. The Captain has turned Mothe no Enine column that Drew something less than thanks from Donald e. Engin the Faa administrator. Engin assailed me for offering no proof of my allegation that a lot of controllers arc overworked. Some Are incompetent and some arc drinking and using drugs on the  but in his very next paragraph Engin boasted thai Faa is implementing the Best available rehabilitation  if the Faa has no boots or drug problem what is it rehabilitating controllers from overdoses of coca cola classic controllers not overworked of Crosiar s committee issued a report in August saying our hearings have found that All Loo often the men and women at the controls of our air traffic system arc pushed beyond their tolerance for stress and  this report was signed by 11 democrats and eight republicans with no dissent says Oberstar. What is wrong Oberstar says it s the Faa system. There is an encrusted bureaucracy at Faa he explained. Bureaucracies Don t admit failure. That bureaucracy is beginning to devour Engen. But my Over sight committee will not be devoured. We Are going to stay on them until they change for the  All of us who Fly had better Hope that Oberstar and his committee succeed. To Newi America san Vicale it Jesse runs alone the democrats Are in trouble the unspoken Assumption among most of those involved in the Effort to reshape the democratic party after two successive landslide presidential defeats is we be got the Blacks let s concentrate on getting More whiles. They Don l put it that crudely of course. They prefer to talk about getting Back in the mainstream or erasing the special interest  but there arc few democratic leaders who arc unaware of the implications of the racial polarisation in the Jimmy Carter and Waller f. Mondale votes. Both those men got More than 9 out of 10 Blacks to vote for them but gained the support of fewer than 4 out of 10 Whites. As a result they were wiped out in 1980 and 1984 by Ronald Reagan. As they prepare for 1986 and 1988, the emphasis among inc democrats is clearly on improving their acceptability to Middle class while voters by demonstrating their concern about budget deficits a Strong efficient defense retirement benefits and Tan burdens. While most democrats arc Busy courting the straying while voters from yuppies to hard pressed Farmers there is growing intellectual and political dissent among Blacks. In the past few weeks there has been substantial discussion among Black poll icons and almost none among Whites about one striking finding from a Survey of Black voters taken before the 1984 election. That Survey showed that 59 percent of the 1,150 Rispon deals said thai if Jesse l. Jackson had decided to run As an Independent in november of 1984, they would have sup ported him against Mondale and Reagan. This astonishing response if carried Oul would have left Mondale with less than one third of the popular vote. And it makes a Republican a shoo in in 1988, if Jackson decides to run As an  next Lime commented rep. Mickey Leland a Texas the chairman of the congressional Black caucus and a 1984 Mondale supporter. Jackson is of course saying nothing about his 1988 plans and he is the key. Three fourths of the Blacks surveyed rejected the idea of a sep aral Black parly As an abstraction while a heavy majority said they would Fol Low Jackson As an Independent presidential candidate. The knowledge thai perhaps 6 million of the 10 million Black voters were ready to follow Jackson out of the democratic party and might be again certainly casts a different Light on the Infra party policy debates. The key finding from the National Black election study was reported by Shirley half Hill and Ronald Brown of the University of Michigan Institute for so Cial research in a recent bulletin of the congressional Black caucus foundation. The Lack of notice it Drew from while democratic parly leaders is an indication of inc parly s pc occupy lion with the Pursuit of Lur cd off White voters. Bui it is also evidence to Many Blacks of a growing Gulf Between the parly leadership and inc democrats most Loyal constituency. Leland. Who Calls himself very much of a democratic parly insider and loyalist says it s harder and harder to defend Hal position to people outside the party when the democratic party just docs not show any leadership on Black people s  the National Survey indicated thai Jackson s support was  among younger and Beiler educated Blacks the ones who Are sure to be inc political activists of the nex.1 decade or More. One of Ihm William Nelson jr., of Ohio stale University told a panel on Black politics at the recent american political science association convention that Black leaders have been forced to reassess i hair relationship with the democratic  As he put it the democrats have decided that Black leaders should be shunned. They blame us for Whites rejecting the democratic  while conceding that no organisation base exists for a Black third party. Nelson said Hal he exp Clad to see Many More Black politicians pursue a new policy of pragmatism seeking goals that arc not dependent nonwhite support " agreeing Thomas e. Cavanagh. A specialist in Black politics at the National research Council said in a recent paper that More Blacks will run As independents in local races in the South in order to avoid the demo cratic Runoff primaries which have been a target of Jackson s complaints. Success for some of those campaigns would obviously add to the Crudi Billy of a Jack son Independent candidacy in 1988. As Cavanagh pointed out the Rel alive advantages and disadvantages for Blacks working entirely within the democratic party will continue to Divide Black political elites along generational lines and to pit Black electoral and party leaders dependent on White cons Titu pm and financial support against indigenous Community and religious leaders who played a key networking Rolein the Jackson  the overlooked finding that 59 percent of the Black voters would have followed Jackson out of the democratic party in 1984 cannot be ignored by demo cratic leaders forever. C Wmk Englon Post