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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1972)
Innis calls for two - party system Portland/Observer Thursday, September 7, 1972 Pa^e 3 Body and Fender Repair M c it reasonable shop in town By Roy Innis (From hia add re as to tha Nat ional Republican Convention Platform Committee on Aug ust 17 in Mlarnl.) In this last moving complex technological world H are la little time left for Blacks to take a cold, lard-nosed ap proach to politic». F o r too long we lave iaen spectators watching powetlessly as Ha pendulum of fats swung leis urely (»tween the two major parties. We rejoiced when old Abe Lincoln freed Ha slaves — and Blacks were Republican» for the next 60 years. I hen a- long came F . D . R. who pro mised us a bowl of aoup and • crust of bread and we swung to Ha Democratic par ty . Immigration names black investigator On» of die tup investigators In tie U.S. Immigration and Naturalization service la Kel logg If. Whlttlck, who lea hel|»d break aome of tie tougleat fraud cases involving aliens. I he 44-year-old Whlttlck Is die highest ranking of 16 Wack Investigators of tie service, an agency of the U.S. Depart ment of Justice. In New York, where le was an Investigator for eight years. Whldlck was credited with completing re a d y 900 fraud cases In which aliens were Illegally seeking to le - come permanent residents of d e United States. one of d e major cases Whlttlck broke Involved a New York man who arranged for some 500 aliens to m arryU ,S . citizens solely for the jairpose of giving the al e n s ile tight to remain in this country. Each alien paid $600 for the a r rangement. To Be Equal eral» or H a ir ''la m a " . We are not liberals - liberalism occur» In a state of affluence- whet lave we to be liberal /Itb? Job», perhaps? Mon- y? Power? T la thing tla t we must be liberal about and with Is our* Jlgnlty1 And Hat dignity dic tates Hat we must (»long tone one man or to his party! That we must be available for pro position! 7 hat we must nego tiate and targaln lor powerl That we must, above all - 1« men, self-determined men taking our place In American annals with Hie proud dignity H a t marks Hie place of Hie Iris h , Hie Anglo-Saxon, the Italian, Hie Jew I We must settle for nothing less. You lave beard us talk about "equality" - tla t most neb ulous ol all conditions - what did we mean? Equal to what? H a t I am your equal I lave no doubt! f l a t you grant me equal rights la what is Inques- Uonl Equal rights as indiv iduals! Equal rights to ag gregate oui strength Hius con verting our resources into dollars in our own commun And nearly every Black since has been virtually born Into the |»rry captive to an automatic Inheritance onto tie Democratic plantation. I bus, Blacks lave Iaen de nied Hist very basic right which las Iaen guaranteed to all Americana: thedemocrst- 1c process; Hie American way; Hie two [arty system, (jt has always Iaen one [arty or Hie o tla r for Blacks, almost ities. as II an unpublished deal lad Four years ago, before you Iaen made letween the two gentlemen, | called for a new parties to take turn» at token contract to le written letween ism I j Blacks and whites in America Exclusive blame cannot le Hat called for a guaranteed placed on He Democratic quota Involvement m U« Party for fostering and nur American system based on turing plantation, hip-pocket JUr numbers. Today HieDem- politics. 7 le Republicans °crats are moving in tlia td lr- must stare a major portion ol actlon. guilt for offering no escape« What about you? no choice; no alternative to 11* case fora minority ¡«o - Hie often patronizing solutions nle to comprise a majority proffered up from well-m ean mrnewhere is a sound case, ing blurry-eyed lite ra ls . nd where else but in those Black (aople a re not com ommunltlea in which 1 lacks mitted non-negotiably to lib ow exist as m ajorities. I he greatest threat to us Is tie dismantling of cxir commun ities, tu r homes, our schools, Hat which will doom us for ever Into Hie lonely confines of minorItyness; Hie lonely con fines of segregation; Hie lone ly confines of powerlessness! Based on popular myth, we may 1« able to our-people- poiulate you In a few years. H a t falling, we must re organize politically so that we comprise an effective m ajor ity someplace, somehow, sometime. 1 here las been a lot of talk recently about Blacks selling out to the Democrat and Re- publlcan Parties . . . much of Hie talk, 1 confess, has m erit Many of my brother» hav settled for tinsel when they could lave gotten gold; tin when Hey should lave asked for silver; molasses when honey was just a sniff away. We must set our sites on digger Hilngs, our dreams w orld. T ell him that 30 m il lion Black people are wait ing: Waiting for him to utter the magic words of freedom; waiting for him to offer an alternative; waiting for him to make available the two party system to black Americans for He firs t tim e' Can J support Richard M U - house Nixon? W ill President Nixon make K possible fo r 30 million blacks to look his way In 1972? Gentlemen, | submit tie choice Is his! Carlos 287-8 529 2 6 0 9 N, Vancouver Ave. Portland, Oregon day care mothers VEP starts vote drive John Lewis, executive directo r of tie Voter Educa tion Project, Inc. (V E P ), and must tecome visions. We Georgia State Representative must not seek only He right to Julian Bond, a VEP board sit next to whites in H e ir member, spearleaded a non- schools; we must now demand partisian voter registration the right to operate our registration drive through schools! We must not only South Carolina. ask for your jobs, we must T ie drive, coordinated by seek tie economic ownership South Carolina VEP D irector of our communities. I will Calvin H a rris , is designed revet sell out for tinsel, tin or to stimulate interest in voter molasses nor w ill I sell out registration among blacks and for JO pieces of silver. other m inorities throughout the state. But, 1 will sell outfordecent schools lo r Black children' Activities during the three I w ill sell out for proper med day tour included rallies, ical care for our elderly! 1 mass meetings, and speeches w ill sell out for an end to at high schools, colleges, and drugs In tie black community churches; and door-to-door I will sell out for He right canvassing of neighborhoods of black leople to le a self- to en^ourace voting a/e blacks determined |eople who ! ad not registered to do Carry t!e message lack to so. Special attention was y us le a d e r, M r . N ix o r . t 'e focused on tie newly enfran most powerful man in He chised IS to 21 year olds. CARE FOR BABIES IN YOUR HOME. $3-50 a child per day AMA Family D a y /N ig h t Care 4 6 3 5 N.E. 9th 288-5091 by Vernon E . Jordan. J r . Thia year's election could le ore of tie most crucial of tie century, an election in which decisions w ill le made that could affect tie course dds nation takes for d e next decade or so, tut millions of citizens w ill le robbed of dieir right to |» r tic lj» te In die vital electoral process tle t affects d e ir lives. This is because d e right to vote lias leen burdened try complicated andcumheraome registration procedures tliat, in effect, exclude poor (eople and m lnoiities from tie bal lot. T ie Suuth has always leen pointed to as tie legion tliat kept black ¡eople from voting, l i e landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped to change that, although some (a rts of tie South still set up road blocks. hut a lew research study liy the Nstlonal I rian League, "Abridging tie Right to Vote," shows tliat many n o rd e m and western com munities are just as reluc tant to encourage full citizen ¡artic ija tio n in elections to day, as die South lias teen historically. It la well known tliat d e ie Is a sm aller voter turnout for American elections tian for those of other Western countries. T ie popular ex planation for this has always stressed voter apathy, lu t It la now apparent tliat tie real reason Is the external Im pedimenta placed In tie path of many peuple. These te rrie rs are es pecially significant In tie In rer-c ity and in sm aller metropolitan areas. Resi dency requirements ate among the most effective means of keeping citizens away from the polling booth. Some .13 states have rules requiring one year's resi dence In the state before one can vote, and inoat states have die same one year rule for residence in the county or Hie precinct. It is well known that we are die moat mobile country In the world, but election of ficials still cling to resi dency requirements more suited to the old New Eng land town meeting style of government. It Is clear drat .«ich unreasonable resiliency requirements prevent m il lions from voting and fall disproportionately upon m i nority groups dial liave high mobility tales w ld iln states or cities, I he registration process Itself is a formidable Iw rrie r to voting. |n marry states, registration ends two months or more lefo re Hie elctlona— btat is. well («fore He pu blicity of tie campaigns sti mulates voter Interest. | many states, registration ends * e ll lefore tie prim aries, cutting even more potential voters from d e rolls. Most year-round registra tion offices are only open from 9 to 5, thus effectively preventing working people and die poor from registering. Not many people are willing or able to lose a day’ s pay to register. Many cities open temporary registration of fices with evening or week- erxl hours fo r a limited ¡e riix l, Ixit these are open for only a lew days and dieir Is so I idle publicity drat most people never even know about them. Since registration offices are located "dowtown’’- - f a r from II« gletto, distance la an effective b a rrie r as w ell. Few cities liave really at tempted to open temporary offices in Hie ghetto during registration jerlo ds, utilize mobile units and neighborhood registrars, or make other ef forts to reach potential black votera. Literacy tests, long used against blacks In the South, a te now used In some stales, Including liberal ones like New York, to keep Spanish-speak ing citizens and some blacks .fro m registering. And many states t a r convicted felons from the (allo t, a rule that la said to lesult in disquali fying mote tlian 1.5 million people, many of wboae con victions were for relatively triv ia l offenses. There are plenty of other a d m in is tr a tiv e regula tions and local laws tliat keep people out of the system when Hiey should la used to In clude them In. It looks like the biggest reason not enough citizens participate in the system Itself. SUPPORT YOUR ADVERTISERS With Ron Hendren A YOUNG VIEW OF W A SH IN G TO N THE FIRST VOTE, THE BEST VOTE, OUTDOOR STORES, AND THE LAST WORD By Ron Hendren W A SH IN G TO N Of all the political ab surdities which have emerged from Ihe camps o f both major political parlies in this Presidential election year, one which must surely rank near the (op is the Republican's goal, proclaimed at Miami Beach, o f winning the youth vote No other block of potential voters garnered so much attention from the President and his advisors at Miami as "those o f you who will be voting for the first time this November." That's the way Mr Nixon pul it, followed by his fervent hope that those in Ihe 18-10-24 age bracket could later say that "your first vote was your best.” I f being best means being Republican and it seems reasonable to conclude that is whal the President had in mind it just isn't likely to happen, even if American involvement in the Indochina war is concluded before the election. And that is the one issue which, if resolved in time, might swing a significant number of youth votes to the Republican column The facl is, according io every major poll, that the preponderance o f those registering for the first time to vote in a national election are registering as Demo crats. A Newsweek poll conducted by George Gallup several weeks ago indi cated that 48 percent of new voters would sign on as Democrats while only 22 percent would go Republican. That estimate is now proving conservative. But party labels don’t mean much among most young voters, and the factors deciding where the youth vote will go this year will likely be issues and personalities. True, those young people gathered in Miami Beach to support President Nixon seem Republican enough From their ivy league suits and villager dresses to their enthusiastic, always-on-cue huzzas, they indeed presented a spectacle of which their Republican parents and Republican grandparents and Republican great-grand parents could justifiably be proud But studies show that young people who vote the way their parents do are oddities or collectors items, depending on your per spective In any event, they are rare. And the President was certainly within his prerogatives to suggest that his toe- every-line cheering section represented "the best o f American youth." But he is way o ff base indeed if his campaign for re-election intends to stem, even in part, from the fantasy that the sons and daughters of the upper-iiuudle-class .. serenaded him in Miami are representative of the 25 million eligible new voters this year. In Ihe last week of a recent five-week voter registration drive in the President's own home ground -southern California 12,664 new voters were registered. O f these, more than 9,000 were in the l8-to-22 age bracket A1I but five regis tered at Democrats. Now. Mr Nixon has Family consistently experienced certain troubles in his home state, and California has not by any means proven an index of ihe nation's pulse But five new Republicans out of 9.000 new voters should be cause for at least a minimum of concern and re-evaluation at the Committee for Ihe Re-election of the President A l the same tune, by no means is the 1972 youth vote in Senator McGovern's pocket Much both about him and his positions on key issues remains cloudy to date Moreover, registration is one thing and voting is another Polls and census studies indicate that while some 65 per cent o f the newly-enfranchised 25 million will register before November, only 42 per cent are likely to take the trouble to vote. Although voting should he high among students, this group represents only aboul seven million of the new crop of voters Biggest by far are Ihe nearly 14 million wage-earning young people, and these pose the pollsters' trickiest question. No one knows how many of the “non students". as the voter registration people term them (a thoughtlessly demeaning phrase no one in his right mind would have approved), will actually make it to the polls For my money, 1 believe that a high percentage o f youths who take the trouble to register will vote, and that they will for the most part vote Democratic. Part o f this conclusion is based on the impressive goals consistently being met by the vinous voter registration drives, efforts which are likely to be equally effective come November and the drive to get out the vote Moreover, the issues and personalities of 1972 are as clear-cut and meaningful as I hey have been since I9p 4 The sharp divisions they reflect, I believe, will overcome the cynicism about all politicians which has rightly been called the only common political thread among young people And ihe youth vote will be important. Youth specialist Steven V. Roberts o f the New York lim es has predicted that if half of the 25 million vote in November, and o f two-thirds of these vote Demo cratic, President Nixon could lose eighl states he earned in 1968, among them California, Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio. Should that happen, he will likely lose the election. A far-fetched speculation at thLs stage o f the game, to be sure, but hardly more far-fetched than the Disneyland fantasy which masqueraded in the guise o f a convention in Miami. If the Republicans persist in campaigning from Ihe wonder land stage they have set, the President's hope about the first vote being the best could prove to be the hardest words any politician in recent times has been forced to eat. 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