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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1972)
Page 2 H id d en ta x e s : W h e re th e buck re a lly stops Ron Hendren IN W A S H IN G T O N MU5T I O TOGETHERFUR FULL AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT. Portland/O bserver Thursday A p ril 6, 1972 The N o rth w « » '» Be*» W eekly A Black O w ned Publication Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, 21 N. killin g sw o rth , Portland, Oregon 97217 Subscription $5.25 per year in Tri-C ounty area by m ail, rk it- side the Tri-County area - $0.00 per year by m ail. Phone 283-2480. M ailing address - P. o . Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208. ALFRED LEE HENDERSt \ , P ublisher/E ditor Verna L. Henderson Asst. Publisher/business manage* Helen Hendrix I N P A Personnel and Production Manager Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing o* rep utation oi person, firm o r co* poration, u hich may appear in the Portland observer w ill be cheerfully corrected upon being brought to the attention of the E d ito r. Do you know why you are shooting at me? 1 am not the enemy! PMSC is fo r poor people too. Poor people can make decisions1 W hy deseg reg atio n The ’s m oves s lo w ly in US Desk ALFRED By D r. LEE HENDERSON Why not now, Dr. Blanchard Over a year ago when Superintendent of Schools Robert Blanchard announced his school plan it included decentraliza tion with Advisory committees fo r each area. The members of the committees were to be chosen by a committee appointed by the School Board. There was protest from blacks who feel the members should be selected by the community rather than by the school board. D r. Blanchard's reply was that there was not time to work out a satisfactory method whereby the community could select its own representatives. Now a year has passed and many of the original appointees w ill soon have served their term . The School Board is requesting applications fo r appointment to the second term . Isn’ t a year long enough to have found a method fo r com munity selection? With a special school election to be held May 23rd, couldn’ t these candidates have been added to the ballot so the people would have a voice in their selection? If the Public Schools are going to talk about decentralization and local control, then some movement should be made in that direction. F irs t, allow the peop'e to choose the com mittees, then give them more power. Perhaps then the schools could interest the public enough to get th e ir udgets approved. But as long as the people are left out of the education process they w ill not be inclined to suffer the additional tax burden that quality education brings. REGISTER by April 23rd so YOU can Vote! A la m e d a T h e a te r i the cry of i ÍRGEI 'fato Soldiers a doming Soon, in A p ril Benjamin E . Mays It w i l l be 18 years May 17, 1972 since the United States Supreme Court declared seg regation in the public school unconstitutional. The schools of the nation are not thorough (Continued from page I) ly desegregated. In spots, de believe otherwise is to telieve segregation is working well but in all of the large cities of in “ A lice in Wonderland.” Am erica there are schools Many people w ill lose th e ir that are all black o r v irtu a lly jobs1 Second, the proposal stated that there were dupli all black and all white o r v irtu a lly all white. Therearem any cations in some of the same reasons fo r this: programs at PMSC ami Model 1. In 1954, we did not have C itie s. That suggestion is strong national leaders.Pres one of conjecture ami not of ident Eisenhower did not be lieve in the decision by virtue of the fact that he made no comments after the decision was handed down. 2. Since 1968, we have had an administration which does not fa v o r busing in o rder to achieve racial balance. The 5. Then there is the social I resident cannot tbe wholly fear. A m ajornum ber of white blameless fo r the turm oil that parents a r e afraid that their the country is in today over daughters, in a desegregated busing. school, w ill meet black boys 3. The housing pattern in socially which may lead to in t h i s country is largely a pat term arriage. This fear is ad tern of segregation. There are mitted by only a few whites but no large citie s in America I believe it lurks in the hearts where you w ill find white peo of m illio n s. L en w o o d G .D a v is ple and black people living to 6. We blacks may not want fact and is a misnomer. Be gether in most of the residen to admit this, but I think it can cause what is not taken into tial areas. As beautiful as At be substantiated all over th e lanta, Ga. is, it is a highly seg country. There is more vi consideration is that even regated c ity , residentially. olence among black elemen though both PMSC ami Model White people s till believe tary and high school students C ities are offering s im ila r in the old myth - that if they than there is among white ele programs they are not. I repeat, they are not klent.cal. live in the neighborhood w it h mentary and high school stu blacks, the neighborhood w ill dents. As a result of black Furtherm ore, both programs serve different areas ol the run down, the community w ill students carrying dangerous deteriorate and property value weapons, the percentage of city, different clienteles, d if white students ca rrying weap ferent functions and many d if w ill decline. There is evidence ferent program s. Therelore, galor to refute t h i s myth but ons is on the increase. white people, most of them, These are problems which it is impossible toconsolidate telieve it. So until we get open every community needs to by* programs that do not housing and until we disperse face. The community needs to duplicate each other but com low -incom e housing through try to design programs to plement one another. T h ird , it concluded (e rro out the central city and the bring black and white students sutwrbs, we are going to have and black and white teachers neously) that Citizen p a rtici pation w ill be greater and loser together. d i f f i c u l t ie s can continue to occur at the most basic neighborhood level The Observer’ s official position is expressed only in its Pub and more citizens can be o r lish e r's Column (T he Observation Post) and the E d ito r’ s Desk. ganized to participate. Also Any other m aterial throughout the paper is the opinion of the in there w ill be a citizen’ s board dividual w rite r or subm itter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the observer . advisory to the County Com m issioners. To believe that SOUL SOLDIER W E fU O H N S O N • LINCOLNJjILPATRICK • ROBERT DoQUI ■0TIS M n 0" ' « sa T romcro • mT MicHEiLf — . iMf i w « f cosenos w’lîn am i.e9terd' y’ Tüday and T°morrow” su">? by jo e “ Today’ s C huckle", about the welfare doll is unfortun ate humor. “ There Is a new doll on the market called the w elfaredoll. You wind it up and it doesn’ t w ork,” (Oregonian, March 31) This type of attitudwal hu m or furthers common m is conceptions about welfare re cipients. These misconcep tions not only malign the vic tim s of poverty but hinder the social w oikers who laborw ith d iffic u lty and devotion to make the present inadequate welfare system work. A recent L.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare Report (A ^ ril |97|) disclosed the following facts: Suspected incidents offraud among welfare recipients oc cu r in less than four-tenths of one percent. Less than one per cent of welfare recipients are able- bodied unemployed males. Recipients comprise: C hil dren 55J%; Blind and Disab led !5.6%;Mothersl8.6%; Aged 15.f%; Able-bodied Fathers o .% . The largest racial group a- mong welfare fam ilies is white (49%). The typical welfare fam ily has a mother and three child- The birth rate fo r welfare fam ilies, l*ke_tbe birth rate fo r the geneial population, is dropping. The m a jo rity of welfare fam ilies are embarrassed by, and discontented with, wel fa re . The m a jo rity want to, and do, move off the ro lls . The average fa m ily takes 23 months to overcome its prob lems. Typical payments for an ad ditional child is $35. a month, hardly enough tocover the cost of rearing an additional child. In all but f o u r States,wel fare payments are below the poverty level of $3,972 per year, fo r a fam ily of four. The m ajority of our Na tion's working poor are in eligible fo r assistance uraier the present welfare system. Attitudes which foster con ceptions that welfare recip ients are lazy, cheats o r chis- e le rs a re uninformed and camaging. We need to foster attitudes which properly care fo r de pendent children, the aged, the blind, the handicapped, the jobless, the unskilled; then we w ill find solutions to the welfare ro lls which grow and grow when our country is e- conomically more affluent than at any time in history. Welfare reform is every one's concern if America is to be a great country, and Americans a g r e a t people. Hut Congressman W ilbur M ills (l)-A rk .), chairman of the powerful House Ways ami Means Committee, remains skeptical. "B o th ilie taxes (VAT ami property) are had,’ ’ he lias said, "b u t I ’ ve got to evaluate which Is worse.” Value added taxes are most prevalent In Eurupean coun- ti lea. A ll Common Market nations employ one, amt Ui France the rate is 23percent. But most Western European Countries have lieen unable to use the Income tax as a p ri mary source of revenue. Income tax evasion iscommon In tlwse countries ami many Europeans regard it as an a rt. Compliance In the United States, on the other hural, is high. If VAT Is ultim ately re commended fo r this country. It w ill te die fir s t time in our nation’ s history that a national sales tax has been proposed by a P resident or seriously consklered by Con gress. Such a prospect cannot be pleasing to e ither, much less to dw public which must pay I ’ncleSain’ sever-grow liw b ills . Human Resources citizen participation is work ing effectively umler our pre sent system of government one must be naive and sui te ring fo r paranoia anathema. The system does not really take citizens wishes seriously because citizens are ' ’ power le s s ." Citizens have no real power only advisory |>ower which do not make laws. Ihe system is stiuctuied so that the average citizen has to go through so much red tape, hearings, meetings, ami more meetings, that he becomes very dissipate ami extremely fru stra te d . And that is the way the system wants it to be. Therefore to calk about c iti zen participation as an ef fective force to bring about change in the C ity Government and work within the existing system is a la rk . P a rt 11 of "A Bureau of Human Resuuices fo r P o rt land?’ ’ w ill appearneu week. ” M y w h o le fa m ily reads] The P o rtlan d O b s e rv e r” Ihe observe, goes („ great |ellglhs ,<e leRi)eis i ’ * ’"**“ *. “ * • tro m all over the globe as well toiportaat local hipis-iungs. You can Ilie aware of vital Issues and how they affect you. Sell it! I ' ,VJlllNe ■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■onia | yarn •ubot nption, » „j tm < c zvzv i > 5 .0 0 for 5 2 isSUSAS Portland Observe. P.O. Box 3137 Portland, Diegon 97208 Name _______ Address with a P-O Person-to-Person Want Ad Call 283-2487 ________________ State 8. Z i p ------------------------------------------------------- Apt. if a n y- — T e l--------------___ _________ _______ During this transitional per iod toward refor m, m illions of Americans are impoverished ami suffering ; we best not chuckle about th e ir plight. SUPPORT Ellis H . Casson Sincerely, Rev. Cordon Dickey St. Andrew’ s Church 806 N. E , Alberta fo r Soledad Brothers On Match 27, 1972, seven months after the premeditated m urder of Soledad Brother, Ceorge Jackson, White Su- prem ists acquitted the two surviving Soledad Brothers, John Clutchette ami Fleeta D rum gtt who were charged along with George Jackson fo r the m urder of a White guard in Monterey ( lounty. The acquittal of th e s e two B rothers, as th e White Su- prem ists see it, w ill ta k e Black Peoples’ minds off of tie San Quentin incident wherein Geor ge Jackson was murdered as lie supposedly t r i e d toes- cape. Why wasn’ t there consider ation fo r acquittals fo r a l l three of tl«Soledad Brothers? Was George J ickson * threat to t he White Suprerrusts ami th e ir vicious means of author ity? Think about it. Shirley A . Taggart <'bxc,v.. ■ |« n a ll ext.., charge m u.. Letters to the Editor W elfare doll E ditor: y > mg public schools. As long as the housing pattern is as it is, desegregation w ill not exist without busing and at the pre sent busing is a campaign is sue. Then, there is social fear. The few white people who would remain in the neighbor hood with blacks, w orry about what th e ir friends w ill think if they continue to live among blacks. •». White people, I believe most of them, believe that if th e ir children go to school with blacks, the achievement level of th e irch ild re n w ill he lower ed. There is evidence to show that this is not true. The evi dence also reveals that the achievement level of blacks increases in a desegregated school and no damage is done to the achievement level of whites. Thus (lie consuitierwould bear the entire burden of what is essentially a hkklen sales tax. What makes VAT particu la rly objectionable to many is that It hits the low ami nisidle income wage-earner hardest. Every lam lly must buy loud. Clothing ami other essentials, amt it is from the sale of these Items that the bulk of the $16 b illion would come. Although the Presklent said he w ill not suppurt a value adiled tax “ unless the formula can he lound to * emove tta regressive features” , the White House has steadfastly maintained a positive attitude towanl VAT during its period of study by adm inistration ex perts. la x credits ami rebates, exemptions fo r basic neces sities ami higher taxes fo r " lu x u rie s " are among the ways reportedly lie mg con sidered to help neutralize VAT’ s regressiveness. This, combined with leduetions in state ami local propeny taxes, might result in a net tax sav- mgs fo r fam ilies earning umler $20,000, according to VA I proponents. While Americans have felt the sting of many form s of taxes, we have Ixren fortunate at least In avoiding the addi tional burden of a national sales tax. But don’ t hold yout breath: one may 1« on the way next year. In the wake of state supreme court decisions prohibiting the use ol property taxes to pay fo r education, the White House announcal it is considering a $16 b illion “ value added tax” to help in school financing. VA 1, as it is called, is a com plicate! concept with which the federal government has toyed as fa r back as 1941. Simply stated, it is a tax which would be levied and col lect»! at each stage of an item ’ s production, all the way Horn the growth of wlie.it to the sale of bread In local supermarkets. A t each step the tax would be passed along in the form ol higher prices to the next manufacturer in the production process. But as with all taxes, the buck stops ultim ately with tie ixib lic, in this case to the tune of a 3 (lercent increase in the cost of all goods bought. C ity Council # 1 P le a s e f ill in Name and m ail to d a y ! Phone Address City Zip Occupation Date I wish to support Ellis Casson (or City Commissioner □ 1 would like to contribute □ $5 00 □ I pledge $ Count on me to □ □ □ □ n $ 1 0 00 □ $25 00 n $ 5 0 00 per □ Provide office Ring doorbells, canvass equip or services Make telephone calls Hold a coffee □ Other Register voters □ (month, quarter) Special skills I can otter □ Research, writing □ Art work □ Organizational □ Other P a id fo r b y _ C itiz e n s fo r Casson C o m m itte e , P a u l B. B e n d e r, T re a s u re r P O . Box 1 2 3 , P o r tla n d „
