Black vote
threatened
PORT LA N D /O B SERVER Thursday April 22, 1971
The N o rth w e s t’s Best W e e k ly
A Black O w n e d Publication
Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, 2726 N.E. Union
Ave., Portland, Oregon, 97212.
Subscription rates: 60 cents per month by carrier, $5.00 per year;
$6.00 per year by mail in Tri-County area; $6.25 per year by mail mi Burt»
Tri-County area. Phone 2 8 2 - 0 9 2 9
ALFRED LEE HENDERSON. Publisher and Editor
Editor comment
Censorship
lesser of two evils
More than 20 M ississippi
gistration of a ll voters— actions
which c iv il rights organizations
say w ill effectively disenfran­
chise thousands of black voters.
Registration campaigners say
they w ill not be able, lie tween
gubernatorial
election
in
November to place anything like
the number of blacks on the book
who were registered in the five
years following passage of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. D r.
Aaron Henry, chairman of the
M ississippi Freedom Demo­
cra tic Party, has asked the U.S.
Department of Justice to nullify
the re -re gistratio ns. In
the
state as a whole, 67.7 per cent of
eligible blacks were registered
last fa ll, compared with 92.2 per
cent of eligible whites.
Opinions on Calley
verdict circu H spect
I he My L a i Massacre story the Calley courtm artlal . . . We
which exploded across the front think this is healthy. America
pages of newspapers in 1969 and in effect is in one of those trau­
brought the 1970 P ulitzer P rize matic moments of self-examina­
fo r international
reporting to tion typical only of those who
and periodically use
Seymour M . Hersh, got even are free
more headlines, editorials, and their feedom."
public reaction coverage follow­
ing the verdict of guilty in the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS: “ Many
court m artial of L t. W illiam L . have agreed that L t. W illiam L .
C a lle y jjr.
Calley was wrongfully convicted,
Hersh, a free-lance reporter but theirreasons divide them into
at the time he got a tip on the warring camps. . . . One group
My L a i case, conducted his long believes that Calley did what he
investigation with financial help fe lt he had to do fo r the protect-
Recently, less than two blocks off a small Oregon main down­
town street, a sordid little establishment was open fo r business.
And, according to witnesses, the news spread rapidly among the
young people of the community. They came running to this grim y
little hole in the w all.
What was fo r sale? Pornography-rotten, repulsive pornography
in every conceivable form ; simported film s , and books and maga­
zines, pictures and narratives. An outraged father who operates
a business nearby called.
What, he demanded, can I do?
But the police operate with v iritu a lly tied hands when it comes
to violations of decency. The SupremeCourt, time and time a-
gain, has upheld the filth y hands of thepomographers. Unless a
publication o r a fiim can be proved to possess no “ redeeming
social value“ whatsoever, it must not-said the Court be banned
from distribution by law or ordinance. To do so, contends the
C ourt, would be “ censorship.”
If that is so, perhaps what the country needs just now is a
heavy dose of the lesser of two e vils. Maybe society needs to
exercise some control-som e censorship, if you please-over the
deluge of filth ro llin g upon the country. It's at least worth
the gamble to find out whether the traditions of free speech and
free press w ill re a lly come turn bling down just because we re­
fuse to perm it greasy panderers to show d irty movies to children
fo r p ro fit or to swap filth y lite ra tu re and pictures to kids fo r their
allowance money.
E very new statistic brings a reminder that the country is m ora-
ly sick. The incredible increase in veneral disease, the start­
ling rise in illegitim ate births, the sinking m orality of society
in gen eral-if these do not tell us something, then we’ re beyond
saving as a republic.
We asxed a prominent judge about the problem the other day
He is a decent, well-intentioned man. He doesn’ t like the trend
any more than anybody else. But he shrugged: Who w ill set the
standards, he asked-the sheriff? He was begging the questions,
of course, and admitted it.
The point is that the “ sheriff” would set “ the standards” a
great deal higher than they presently are, fo r now there are no
standards! We are living in an age of anything goes. A civilized
society w ill not live very long on such a basis.
Scarcely a day passes that the news does not report another ex­
ample of the so-called “ new sexuality” that is sweeping the coun­
try . Young people have been persuaded that “ acceptable behavior.,
is anything they want todo so increasing numbers choose to crawl
in m oral gutters in the mistaken belief that they are doing some­
thing new.
There’ s nothing new about it. The whole stretch of human his­
tory is the story of mankind’ s struggle to become something more
than an animal. The worst purveyor of today’ s filth and obscen­
ity hasn t thought of anything that hadn’t been thought of 3,000 y rs.
ago by the priestesses of A starte. They were curious, yellow
then, too. Having history as our guide, one wonders if today
society isn’ t ju st yellow , period.
The trouble, as human history cle a rly reveals, is that the
and serenity to be found along such a route, man would never have
messed around with the TenCommandments. But man learned,
the hard way, that he needed re stra in ts- and, perhaps, a bit
of censorship. He realize that he was below the angels- but
he found that he ju st wasn’ t happy in the barnyard.
The angry Oregon father who operates his business not fa r
from the new pornography shop in downtown Oregon has a good
question when he asks: What can I do? He alone probably can
do nothing. But he and others like him, joining together, ra is­
ing cain togehter, mught just make the grade. They might cause
the hands of the police to be untied, and the judges to convict
some of the polluters of the mind who are now trafficking their
wares. Nothing can be lost by trying.
TELL OUR ADVERTISERS YOU SAW
THEIR AD IN THE PORTLAND OBSERVER
[ATTENTION
BILL'S BARGAINS
ANNOUNCES
A NEW LOW
CREDIT plan
Model
Cities
•zr cm . lîÿ ut fino ftu
*
The
Model C ities
Agency
co rd ia lly extends an invitation to from the Stern Fund for Investi­ felt he had to do fo r the protec­
you o r a representative of your gation Reporting. His work won tion of
his troops . . . The
Agency to attend a no host In te r-
several other Journalism awards other group believes that the en­
Agency luncheon.
and he turned out a book, “ My tire nation tears the guilt that
With the m yriad of programs in L a i 4” , which was syndicated. has teen thrust on Calley . . .
just the Model
Neighborhood
A random sampling of editorial It would be too bad if either side
alone, I hope you agree with us opinion in the fir s t days after carried the day-or i f the Am er­
that a meeting with all who serve the verdict and sentencing of L t. ican people got hung up on such
in the area would be useful to ex­ Calley follows:
an issue.”
change ideas, and learn what
other are doing in the field. We MIAMI HERALD: “ Seldom in the
Cash and Maxey's
plan to compile a brochure of memory of the editor of this
all Model Neighborhood services newspaper has a public issue
Barber Shop
and agencies from the people who provoked such a response from
the
American
people
as
the
mass­
attend. The date is as follows:
4603*1 N. W illiam * Avenue
Date: A p ril 22, 1971 ive explosion of opeinion about
Phone 2 8 4 -5 1 8 8
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 p.m.
Place: The
Managers
N .E . 10th and
A lbert Street
Guest Speaker: M r.C ha rles R.
Jordan D ire cto r
Model
C ities
Agency
Please c a llM rs .W a lk e ro rM r.
Mack at 288-8261 extension
37
o r 38 to confirm attendance. We
hope to see you there.
Black
city editor
Red White & Blue
WILLIAM A. HILLIARD
W illiam A, H illia rd received
national publicity and recognition
las week in E d ito r and Publisher
magazine. E d itor and Publisher
is a weekly magazine with spot
news and features about news­
papers,advertisers and agencies.
H illia rd is a good example fo r
young Blacks that it can be done
by working within the system. He
started work fo r the Portland
Oregonian as a copy boy in 1952.
Today he is the C ity E d ito r.
Bill's Bargains
1. NO IN T E R E S T
2. NO C R E D IT
CHECKED. A LL
YOU N E E D TO
Q U A L IF Y IS TH E
A B IL IT Y TO PAY .
3. WE C A R R Y OUR
OWN C O N T R A C T S .
4904 N.E.
UNION
2 8 7 -2 1 1 0
Thrift Store
NOW OPEN
Formerly Kienows
New and Used Clothing
and
Household Items
3038 N.E. Union