Page 2 The Skanner January 25, 2017
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Melanie Sevcenko
Reporter
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2016
MERIT
AWARD
WINNER
The Skanner Newspaper, es-
tablished in October 1975, is a
weekly publication, published
every Wednesday by IMM Publi-
cations Inc.
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P.O. Box 5455
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Opinion
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Why Can’t the Supreme Court Continue with Eight Justices?
I
n March 2016 former Pres-
ident Obama nominated
Judge Merrick Garland
to the US Supreme Court.
Judge Garland is well respect-
ed and serves as chief judge of
the Appeals Court of the Dis-
trict of Columbia. Yet despite
past bipartisan support this
nonpartisan judge was re-
fused a hearing in Congress.
Republican leaders decid-
“
Bernie
Foster
Publisher
Court has been operating for
nearly a year with eight mem-
bers instead of nine and as far
Court.
It is not without precedent.
In fact the Supreme Court was
originally made up of six jus-
tices and at different points
in time has been composed
of seven, 10 and nine justices.
FDR wanted as many as 15 jus-
tices, but Congress, which sets
the number refused to agree.
With its current eight mem-
bers the Supreme Court has
ruled that univer-
sities may consider
race among other
factors in their ad-
missions process.
The
court
also
struck down uncon-
stitutional abortion
restrictions in Texas and up-
held a decision restricting
gun ownership for perpetra-
tors of domestic violence.
The Supreme Court has
The Supreme Court was originally made
up of six justices and at different points
in time has been composed of seven, 10
and nine justices
ed to block Judge Garland’s
appointment simply because
he was nominated by former
President Obama.
As a result the Supreme
as we can see it has worked
well. Now Democrats should
continue what the Republi-
cans started and push to keep
an eight-justice Supreme
done well with eight jus-
tices — and if another jus-
tice should leave the court
we have no doubt it will also
work well with seven mem-
bers. So why can’t the court
continue to work with its cur-
rent eight justices.
Democrats are outnum-
bered in both the Senate and
the House for at least the
next four years, so they don’t
have a lot of power in this
Congress. Nevertheless they
can fight to keep the Supreme
Court impartial by opposing
any new Supreme Court ap-
pointments.
Sen. Mitch McConnell and
his friends have demonstrat-
ed that the eight-justice court
will work. So let’s stick with
it for the next session of Con-
gress.
What do you think?
Don’t Be Confused About Vanport
M
ore than 370 people
signed a petition at
The Skanner Founda-
tion’s annual Martin
Luther King Jr Breakfast say-
ing that Delta Park should be
renamed Vanport after the
town that was destroyed in
the great Vanport Flood of
1948.
The Skanner News has been
at the forefront of efforts to
commemorate the Vanport
Flood, through the North
Portland Multimedia Train-
ing Center, a project of The
Skanner Foundation.
The Skanner has support-
ed public screenings of The
Wake of Vanport, produced
by the North Portland Multi-
media Training Center, which
included interviews with
flood survivors.
The Skanner News also wel-
comes the contributions of
Vanport Mosaic, a separate
community project that is
producing a festival in May
2017 focused on the Vanport
stories. We have had many
calls confusing our work with
theirs. We want to emphasize
that while they started out
working through The Skan-
ner Foundation, they are now
a completely separate orga-
nization with no affiliation to
The Skanner News. We wish
them well.
The next screening of The
Skanner Foundation’s Wake
of Vanport will be held March
2017. Subscribe to our break-
ing news and events email to
learn more at www.theskan-
ner.com. To sign an online
petition to change the name
of Delta Park to Vanport, go to
www.change.org/p/portland-
parks-recreation-change-del-
ta-park-s-name-to-vanport.
To Be Equal: Assessing President Obama’s Impact and Legacy
T
hroughout our histo-
ry, the National Urban
League has taken seri-
ously our responsibility
to hold the President of the
United States accountable to
the needs of urban America
and communities of color.
During the Great Depression,
Executive Secretary Eugene
Kinckle Jones served on Pres-
ident Franklin Delano Roo-
sevelt’s “Black Cabinet.” Les-
ter Granger, who headed the
League during World War II,
is among those credited with
persuading President Harry
Truman to desegregate the
Armed Forces. Whitney M.
Young advised presidents
John F. Kennedy and Lyndon
Johnson and was instrumen-
tal in the passage of the land-
mark Civil Rights Act. Urban
League Presidents Vernon
Jordan, John Jacob and Hugh
Price continued our engage-
ment with the Presidents with
whom they served to further
the work of civil rights and
secure support for Urban
League programs.
The first African Ameri-
can Presidency naturally has
held special significance for
the National Urban League.
In recognition of Obama’s
unique place in American
history, we set out to create
a comprehensive analysis of
Marc H.
Morial
National
Urban
League
his two terms, which we re-
leased earlier this week to
great national interest.
Any evaluation of the
“
ter off than you were four
years ago?” In this instance,
the question is, “Is the nation
better off than it was eight
years ago?” And, “Is Black
America better off than it was
eight years ago?” The answer
to both questions is, unequiv-
ocally, “Yes.”
President Obama is leaving
office with an approval rating
even higher than Reagan’s,
exceeded only by Presidents
Black Americans felt both the
pride of President Obama’s accom-
plishments and the pain when it
was clear his opponents sought to
diminish a great American
Obama administration must
first recognize that he inher-
ited the worst economy since
the Great Depression, and
was faced with Congressional
opposition
unprecedented
in its intensity and sinister
nature. Both his accomplish-
ments and his failures must
be evaluated against those
conditions.
In creating our scorecard,
the National Urban League
harkened back to the famous
question Ronald Reagan
asked the nation during his
sole debate against President
Jimmy Carter: “Are you bet-
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight
Eisenhower and Bill Clinton.
During Obama’s presiden-
cy, the economy has added 15
million new jobs, and the job-
less rate has dropped from 7.6
percent to 4.7 percent — and
from 12.7 percent to 7.8 per-
cent for African Americans.
The high school graduation
rate for African Americans
has increased from 66.1 per-
cent to 75 percent. There are
614,000 fewer long-term un-
employed. Wages are up 3.4
percent. More than 16 million
Americans who were unin-
sured now have health care
coverage, with the uninsured
rate for African Americans
cut by more than half.
Barack Obama’s passion and
steady hand made a huge dif-
ference in charting a progres-
sive course and positively im-
pacted the lives of ordinary
Americans. Black Americans
felt both the pride of his ac-
complishments and the pain
when it was clear his oppo-
nents sought to diminish a
great American..
While we scored many of
the administration’s achieve-
ments with our highest rat-
ing, “Superior,” President
Obama’s tenure as a whole
had shortcomings, due to
some notable missed oppor-
tunities and outright failures,
such as the economic devel-
opment of urban centers, gun
violence and the foreclosure
rate and bank closure rate
in communities of color and
low-income neighborhoods.
On these and other issues,
we rated the Obama adminis-
tration “Fair” or “Poor.” Our
evaluation springs from a
consideration of his accom-
plishments balanced against
the conditions under which
he served. The National Ur-
ban League has given the
Obama Administration an
overall rating of “Excellent,”
our second-highest rating.