EXTENSIONS of REMARKS November 30, 1970 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS

39194 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS November 30, 1970 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS OPERATION CORNERSTONE to 80 percent) of its time in community to find a glass or dish, if you require such organization, similar to the Office of Eco niceties. If you're tired, you may be able nomic Opportunity's Community Action Pro to talk your way into flopping for a while on HON. JOHN R. RARICK gram-type activities. We came away with the one of the bunk beds covered by mattresses feeling that the participant portion of the which resemble WWI Red Cross litters. OF LOUISIANA project is primarily a device invented to pro Randy Reynalds, a likable nineteen-year IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES vide an economic base for the community old drop-out, flopped down six months ago, Wednesday, November 25,1970 organization acti vities. These activities, ac and is still around. Now a Cornerstone staft' cording to our observation, have t aken the member, he receives room and board for Mr. RARICK. Mr. Speaker, Corner form of non-constructive attacks on local, varied chores such as carrying out garbage, stone, HUD's controversial training pro st ate, and Federal programs and/ or agencles painting the house, or acting as guide for gram in Atlanta, Ga., is a classic dis operating in the neighborhood. The key participants who come to the Project from question which we feel you should be alerted various Federal agencies. grace in waste and wanton misdirection to is: Does the Department of Housing and of taxpayer's dollars under the excuse Urban Development wish to subsidize a HUNDREDS OF VOLUNTEERS of helping poor and unfortunate. group that devotes 70 or more percent of its Hundreds of volunteers have come to Proj Even officials at HUD are concerned time to community organization-type ac ect Cornerstone in Atlanta since it was over continued subsidizing of revolu tivities that are in direct confiict and com founded in 1966, for two-week seminars. tionary fronts providing an economic petition with OEO and Model Cities programs Hopefully, they will learn what it's like to base for community organization activi in the area? Please understand that we do be a poor black American struggling to stay ties to attack the American people and not desire to destroy citizen opposition to alive in a ghetto. Agencies such as HUD, public/HUD programs (as if that were pos HEW, Commerce and Labor send employees plot destruction of our country. sible). We do, however, question the advis to introduce policy-making bureaucrats to I include several memorandums from ability of having taxpayers subsidize this what it's like looking up from the bottom. HUD officials and a story about "Corner opposition under the guise of an employee Every day, 97 Love Street is crowded with stone" by E. H. Rothschild from the training/education program. 10 or 12 volunteers and three or four Corner January 1970 edition of Challenge, pub As you are already aware, a number of our stone staft'. Neighborhood children and adults lication of HUD, Washington, D.C., at colleagues enthusiastically support all as seem to be drawn to the house and the this point: pects of the Cornerstone Project. We do not. friendly inhabitants. It takes a few days for We believe that the project presents only a middle-class white newcomer to adjust to U.S. GOVERNMENT MEMORANDUM one point of view, is not well managed, and the cultural shock and lack of conveniences. (Confidential) is non-constructively involved in community Privacy, which most of us enjoy and take for DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING organization activities. Its continuance as a granted in our own homes, doesn't exist in a AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, HUD funded employee training project house with one bathroom, two overcrowded October 15, 1969. should be subject to serious question. bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and front To: Richard C. VanDusen, Under Secretary. In view of the fact that the Cornerstone porch. But once settled, your attention is From: Cornerst one Participants Listed Project has both its supporters and detrac drawn away from yourself as you participate Below. tors, we feel that it would be highly desir in the group activities. Subject: The Cornerstone Project-Some able for you to examine the Cornerstone pro "DO IT YOURSELF" BREAKFAST Reservations. gram as a participant so that you could ar A typical day at Project Cornerstone starts The purpose of t his memorandum is to rive at your own opinion as to its worth. However, we recognize that more important with a "do it yourself" breakfast. Afterward call to your at tention several reservations the group, dressed in casual attire, trudges which we, as Cornerstone participants, be matters compete for your time. We would, therefore, recommend that you request a up Love Street for a visit that may take it lieve severely detract from what might oth to the Mayor's office or a neighborhood bar. erwise be a useful training experience for person to attend Cornerstone whose impar Brief trips to the emergency ward at Grady Departmental staff. tiality you have come to respect and to pro Memorial Hospital, the Model Cities Agency, The first and most important criticism is vide you with a report on the merits and/or the Southside Comprehensive Health Center the extreme bias built int o the Cornerstone demerits of the project. We strongly urge and Juvenile Court permitted our group to program. The Cornerstone st aft', representing that such action be taken before HUD en observe first-hand how various Governmental one viewpoint, places every neighborhood gages in any long-term training arrange programs and services were being dispensed. problem into a preconceived radical ideologi ment with Cornerstone and before you move cal framework. We do not think it is an ex to further encourage Departmental staft' to Questions begin to get pointed after a day aggeration to say that the Cornerstone pro participate in the project. or two and pat answers are not left unchal gram is designed to force the participant lenged very long. After lunch,· discussions We appreciate the opportunity to make may last into the afternoon when partici into a radical or "New Leftist" ideological these views known to you and we would mold. We submit t hat it is extremely diffi pants once again go off to have a look at some be happy to provide you with any additional other aspect of ghetto life. cult for participants to arrive at objective i.nformation or be of service in any way. conclusions in such an unobjective atmos None of the activity is tightly structured RICHARD LEHMANN. and this leaves great opportunity for initia phere. We should like to make clear that our LEE RUDD. criticism is not of the staft' members' per tive and personal search for both problems MARGARET L. LINDSAY. ·and answers. The intended course of a day's sonal opinions, that is their own business. CHARLES K. MATHENY. Rather, we object to the extension of these EDWARD WISE. activity can change drastically from sunup opinions into every facet of the program to sundown. without giving due, indeed any, considera Evenings, the project house comes alive as tion to opposing points of view. [From Challenge, publication of U.S. Dept. various speakers from organizations like the Our second-criticism is directed at the cost of Housing and Urban Development, Wash Southern Christian Leadership Conference of the service (previously $150, now $300 per ington, D.C., January 1970] (SCLC), Student Non-Violent Coordinating person) as compared with the staft' time and CORNERSTONE-FACE TO FACE WITH POVERTY Committee (SNCC), Tenants Union For Fair energies devoted to putting together a qual (By E. H. Rothschild) ness (TUFF), or a representative from the ity program for participants. The Corner Mayor's office speak and exchange views in stone staft' now consists of six or seven peo Rickety green wooden steps that lead up to ple. However, it appeared to us that the time the porch of 97 Love Street give little clue what frequently turns out to be a rough and of only two people was devoted to the pro that this 60-year-old frame house is head tumble verbal confrontation. quarters for Project Cornerstone. There is gram while the remainder of the staft' was Those who take issue with a topic can ex no sign on the door. The house is like hun either not working or engaged in "commu pect plenty of give and take. Conversations dreds of others that line the mostly unpaved get intense as the guts of emotional issues nity organization" (see below) activities. streets in the Summerhill ghetto of Atlanta. While the "loose-knit," "open-ended," "un such as racism are cut open and spill out for Once inside however, the similarity ends. all to examine. structured," approach that was taken in It matters little to Kelly Kidd, dungaree-clad planning activities has been praised by some Project Director, whether you are a mayor, TIME TO "BUG OUT" participants, we feel that these words are GS-18, or a. drunk who has stumbled into After a few days it's impossible not to begin euphemisms for "mismanagement" and that the dark living room. Pretenses and creden examining your own hates and prejudices. the term "mismanagement" would more tials carry no importance here. This is the time to pack up and "bug out" aptly describe the current Cornerstone sit If you're hungry, you'll probably be di unless you are willing and prepared to come uation. rected toward the kitchen. If you can find face to face with the fact that your own be Our third criticism is that the sta.ft' ap something to eat, you'll have to move the liefs are being questioned by none other than pears to be spending a large percentage (70 plle of dirty pots and pans filling the sink you.

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