Forty Years Ago This Week: The Colorado Black Caucus invited Thelma Duggin, special assistant to the president in the Office of Public Liaison, to speak at their monthly meeting regarding the Reagan administration’s concerning cuts to programs that provided services for minorities.

Duggin, one of just a few Black members of the administration, had said that the programs were cut because they no longer served the poor and instead increased the federal deficit and fueled inflation.

She went on to criticize the Black Congressional Caucus stating, “Its members are supposed to define what problems are facing Blacks and help initiate legislation to solve them. Instead, the caucus complained about the administration’s domestic policies. If you always hang your head, you’ll never see the sun.”

Arguing that Blacks across the United States, “must stop banging our heads against the wall over the cuts in social programs,” Duggins said they should instead begin to identify problems in their communities and implement the programs necessary to solve them “and help each other help themselves.”

Sen. Regis Groff, D-Denver, took issue with Duggins’s remarks, firing back that the most positive effect that Reaganomics would have on the Black community would be an increased awareness of the effect of politics and economics on their lives.

“The bulk of the Black middle class,” said Groff, “works for the government and already are beginning to feel the effects of Reagan’s budget cuts which have forced the departments and agencies they worked for to cut staff and curtail services. The next group to be hurt in the Black community will be the working poor.”

Groff said that the Reagan administration “believes government should exist for the sake of business – a policy that would not help the majority of Black businessmen engaged in small business.”

In a maverick move, Fred Coe, chairman of the Colorado Black Republicans, argued that the Black community shouldn’t support “this or any other administration,” but rather, “… become more political and seek to elect candidates who are willing to talk to us about how to deal with problems that concern Blacks and all minorities.”

Coe said that the president was attempting to “un-government government” and that the task of the Black community was to take advantage of the shifts in policy to make it work in their favor.

Nick Walker, member of the Colorado Black Republican Council, agreed it was possible to give Reaganomics a chance.

“We have qualified Blacks who can compete in the private sector,” Walker said. “It’s the responsibility of people like Duggin to alert the Black community to the possible opportunities and advise them … it will require education. We must make people aware of what we can do to help ourselves.”

Twenty Years Ago: Sen. Penfield Tate, D-Denver, spoke to The Colorado Statesman about his concerns with Gov. Bill Owens’s creation of the Colorado Office of Preparedness and Security by executive order.

“We were in session in September and October,” Tate said, “and we were led to believe that nothing urgent was needed to prepare for a terrorist attack. Just two days before announcing the creation of the new office, Gov. Owens told the Joint Budget Committee that he planned to make recommendations to the legislature in January about preparing the state to protect public health and safety, but said again that urgent action was unnecessary.”

Tate argued that Owens had legal questions to answer as he “can’t just move personnel and make appropriations.”

In a responding press statement released by the governor’s office, the three-person office was explained as an effort to bring structure and planning and preparedness in the event of a terrorist threat or attack in the state.

Tate argued that no clear directive had been released and that it was an executive order without a clear plan.

“I think we either need to do something real or have a debate in the legislative session,” Tate said. “I don’t have a specific solution but I think we should take our lead from the feds as other states are doing and not rush to action.”

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Gazette.