f
t
PORTLAND
^•1. S No
2
OBSER1/ER
Portland, Oregon
Thuraday, November 13, 1975
I Or per ropy
Douglas leaves court
ANGOLA'S PRESIDENT. DM AOOSTINHO NETO
On November 11th. the
former W r it African Portuguese colony of Angola became inde,M-ndent. Moto, the
MP1.A head, waa elected a» Angola's first president
but independence is not yet
certain. (See page 3)
.1 ustice William 0 . Douglas, long
known as the liberal conscience of the
country, has resigned from the position
he has held in the United States Supreme
Court for the last thirty six years.
Douglas, who has been ill and absent
from the bench much of the time since
last April, was believed to be attempting
to postpone his retirement until after the
1976 elections in the hope that Gerald
Ford would no longer be the President of
the United States Douglas' resignation
opens the way lor Ford's first appoint
merit to the Supreme Court and it is
expected that he will follow Richard
Nixon’s example in appointing conserva
tives to the court.
Douglas, who is from the State of
Washington is seventy seven years old.
Douglas was a controversial figure on
the court, often being the lone dissenter
when he believed derisions interfered
with personal freedom. Two impeach
ment attempts were made against him,
the last being led by President Ford who
was then a Congressman
Douglas, as a member of the "W arren
Court" was a strong proponent of the civil
rights and the eoual application of justice
Freedom of speech was one of his
greatest concerns. Along with the late
Hugo I,. Black, he dissented from many
derisions that permitted governmental
investigation and punishment of unor
thodnx views.
Douglas wrote:
“Free speech the glory of our system
of government
should not be sacrificed
"Going to Pot”
by Roy Harvey
(Drugs in Portland
continuing in the
series. I
"If you’re a rat, there's virtually
nothing wrong with pot,” one North
Portland high school teacher said More
often than not. there exists an ambivalent
attitude about marijuana Robert Scott
of the Special Investigations Divisions
(S ID ) of the Portland Police outlines the
law
Ron Kalmoto. Jefferson High
School vice principal ventures a cautious
“no" to both the use and legality of the
drug The majority of educators shrug
their shoulders, and refer to the
prohibition laws that didn't work...' But
the questions of marijuana use demands a
more holistic approach
Five states have legalized (in varying
degrees) the use of the Marijuana Ore
gon is one of those states: it is legal to
have under an ounce, but neither to buy
or sell the drug The sale of marijuana
supports a good number of herion habits
in Portland
Twenty five other states
have legislation (tending to 'decriminalize'
cannabis use. Pot is the most commonly
used drug in North Portland, "less
psychodelic’ drugs, more grass" said one
agent with the Portland public school
security department
Colonial societies have their drugs,
often used consciously for colonial
domination: opium by the British in
China, ganja and bhang in India: kif in
Morocco: Jaggs in South Africa, and
hashish and bhang in East Africa
and
so on Cannabis sativa L. hao been used
for about 5000 years. Researchers note
that hashish Ithe more potent form of the
weed) "does not affect simple learning in
rats, but does decrease aggressiveness..."
This 'aggressiveness' is just the quality
moat feared in the subject population of a
colonial government. The most damning
biological evidence against the use of
marijuana is its interference "with the
retrieval of information from the im
mediate memory storage, so (hat persons
high on the drug have a difficulty
remembering what happened in the past
few seconds."
With few exceptions, experts have
called the use of cannabis a 'victimless
crime.' One of the pot lobbyists. Dr.
William McClothin of R A N D Corporation
defends the legalizing of marijuana by-
noting that users are characterized by a
"lessening concern for status, competi
tion. material possessions and other
pursuits of an achievement oriented
society, they are less prone to be
assertive or to make a strong commit
ment . prolonged use leads to a more
passive personality."
The anonymous Black high school
teacher maintains that McClolhin's rea
sons for the use of the drug are the best
reasons against it: "Even beyond any
'social control' use of drugs, the orients
tion of youth toward any kind of drugs is
indicative of a generally decaying social
fabric: no jobs, no future
no reason is
sensuously felt that there is a real future
so grass becomes an alternative to real
development. Kids move into the cult of
drugs The only thing the legalizing of
grass will do is to remove the secretive
aspect of the cult, but the cult itself can
only be more consuming It is addictive
psychologically. Academic performance?
“Detail concentration is maybe better
but aggressive intellectual pursuit? It's
less
Grass heightens ones' ability to
entertain trivia " The teacher said that
not many ed"cators are going to speak
out on this, for two reasons: one is that
empiricism prevails as opposed to a
gestault holistic approach to such prob
lems. and two: speaking out on anything
controversial is not going to enhance your
job security.
As one methadone maintained addict.
Dennis, asked w hy he became hooked on
herion said. “I was smokin' dope, going
nowhere, donin' nothing'
and along
came Horse..."
on anything less than plain and objective
proof of danger that the evil advocated is
imminent. .. Our faith should be that our
people will never give support to these
advocates of revolution, so long as we
remain loyal to the purpose for which our
nation was founded.”
Douglas' resignation brings to an end
the era in which so many gains were
made in personal liberties and freedom
In recent years, since President Nixon's
appointees have become a majority of the
court, the trend has been away from
those freedoms and toward governmental
restrictions of rights.
Douglas was appointed to the Supreme
Court in 1939 by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
He was chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Commission at
the time
Chief J ustice Warren E. Borger said of
Douglas' retirement, that it ends a career
that spanned the service of five chief
justices “and sets a record that may
never be equaled."
Paul Cook was recently appointed by First National Bank of Oregon to be Vice
President and manager of the Gateway Branch
AFSC protests new aid ruling
Approximately seventy five persons
stood in the wind and rain on the steps of
the Federal Court House Monday noon to
protest a federal ruling against the
continuation of humanitarian aid to
Vietnam and to announce that in spite of
danger of prosecution, the shipments will
continue.
Portland was one of thirty cities in
which members and supporters of the
American Friends Service Committee
demonstrated against the federal gov­
ernment's ban on humanitarian aid to
Vietnam
AFSC has sought licenses to ship such
items as yarn, fishnets, agricultural
implements to South Vietnam and
wood screw making machines for use by
war handicapped people in a cooperative
workshop in Hanoi. A license is required
for shipment to Vietnam, under the
Trading with the Enemy Act. the
purpose of which is to prevent the sale of
war materials to nations seen as enemies
of the United States.
Spokesmen for AFSC. which shipped
humanitarian aid to Vietnam during the
war, with government approval, believe
Robert M. Smith presents his letter of complicity to U. S. Attorney Sidney Lezak.
the current ban to be part of United
States policy of isolating Vietnam,
being denied The Administration now
pat« are liable for prosecution. Michael
refusal to begin diplomatic relations,
claims that these items are "economic"
W ells l H i chairman of the local AFSC
keeping it out of the United Nations, and
rather than "humanitarian" aid
groups said AFSC believes the prosecu
refusing to carry out the article of the
Approximately 150 persons from the
tion of the thousands of persons involved
peace agreements railing for United
Portland area have signed statements of
is unlikely but that the national board
States aid to reconstruction.
complicity and made contributions for the
and officers of AFSC w ill undoubtedly be
AFSC has been sending humanitarian
purchases of aid materials, opening
prosecuted.
aid to all parts of Vietnam since 1963. and
themselves to federal prosecution The
in 1973. while the war was still in process,
statements were presented to U n ited *
Complicity forms and information are
received licenses for fishnets and agricul
States Attorney Sidney Lezak on Mon
availabl, at the AFSC office. 4312
tural equipment identical to those now
day
Although all persons who partici
Southeast Stark. 235 3954.
The $600 Billion Welfare Boondoggle
by Roy Harvey
While politicians and the press are
sharpening their knives fbr an attack on
the welfare program and welfare reci
pienta (food stamps, etc.), one of the
biggest welfare projects in history is in
the making, critics say. They call it the
"JfiOO billion boondoggle."
D r William Harris, head of the Black
Studies program at Portland State
University, along with physicists at Reed
and Portland State University, is among
thoae critics. The energy projects as
outlined by the Project Independence
"will shovel poor people into those jobs
digging coal and the like it would be the
welfare and the unemployed people."
A society oriented toward actual
progress is dedicated to the gradual
abolishment manual labor in favor of
mental labor.
Technological progress
frees humanity from labor intensive
modes of production. Critics of Project
Independence (the energy project as
sociated with Vice President Rocke
feller’s Domestic Council) say that
opposite of progress is inherent in that
'boondoggle' Further, they say, Project
Independence is linked to the Humphry
Hawkins Rill, which will “shovel poor
people into" anachronistic energy jobs:
"digging coal and the like."
Dr. Harris received his BA and MA in
physics (Howard University, 1964, Uni
versity of Dayton, 1966).
Following
graduation, he worked at Monsano
Research Corporation doing classified
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) work
in nuclear fission. Harris war a research
nuclear physicist. From 1966 to 1966 he
worked in a more administrative rapacity
in the administering of AEC contracts
with universities and construction firms
in the Pacific Northwest, then went to
Battelle Northwest
also at Richland.
Washington
working in the area of
testing and storing nuclear (fission)
wastes "It used to bother me. learning
(hat zinc 65 (a nuclear pollutant) was
found thirty miles out in the Pacific
I
knew that came down through the
Columbia River."
Though he's not kept up with scientific
developments. Harris is critical of the
Energy Research and Development Ad
ministration (ERDA which replaced the
AEC) action of phasing out of most fusion
experimentation.
"A t this moment,"
Harris says, "we aren't in that much of a
pinch for energy, hut given the lark of
full scale program, especially for fusion,
we will be." One aspect of the ERD A
approach that especially repulses him is
the stalling on a serious commitment to
such programs "until the price for energy
gets high enough."
Fusion energy will be provided when a
mixture of deuterium and tritium , heavy
isotopes of hydrogen, is maintained at a
temperature of 50 to 100 million degrees
Centigrade and at a very extreme
density.
Under these conditions the
deuterium tritium forms a gas like soup,
called a plasma. Fusion is the energy
process of the sun. There is virtually an
inexhaustible source of energy, contained
in the ocean. The new energy authority,
E R D A , will have shut down most
government sponsored research facilities
in fusion by J anuary, 1976.
Dr. Rudi Nussbaum of the Portland
State University physics department
voiced similar criticisms: "It is the vested
interests, the big energy and construe
tion companies involved in fission that
have put thin subsidy together.
The
companies (like Westinghouse, General
Electric. Bechtel Corporation) didn't have
to (>ay for the basic research, nor risk any
of their own money. The question is not
one of science, but one of a political
nature
" It ’s both a political and a
scientific question," says Harris
"A
number of approaches to energy have to
lie kept open fusion is most important."
Dr. Davis of Reed's physics department
concurred with the two: "it’s welfare
thi • whole approach in the last decade or
more has been to phase out science, in
favor of support technology and en­
gineering. Science is in a bad wav."
D r Harris was one of those 'phased
out' (in a way) of science
into
administration.
Harris went back to
school to pick up a P h .I) in urban
planning at the University of Washing
ton. "I miss the nicities of being a scien­
tist, solving discrete problems. It was
less challenging
the rewards were
simpler it's a lot easier to get a reward
Colleagues can agree that an answer is a
reasonable answer. But in social science
that's not possible,
In academia, the
name of the game is to find the limit, then
push it."
It is precisely such 'discrete problems'
that scientists are given to solve. One of
the main problems in science is the lack of
freedom
or trust
within socially
defined parameters. For example, this
approach: here is a problem, we need
energy. What will it cost us (society) to
achieve the necessary amount of energy?
How fast, how much money? This was
roughly the approach taken in the
Manhattan Project that developed the
breakthroughs in nuclear fission.
There, is considerable opposition to the
Energy Independence Authority (E IA )
and Project Independence in the works.
Senator J ohn Tunney (California Demo­
crat) is "organizing for an increased
United States fusion effort to replace the
nation's costly Fission program of the
E IA ."
Tunney has "met with stiff
bureaucratic resistence to his efforts to
learn from ERD A why the United States
is not moving swiftly to develop energy
from nuclear fusion instead of relying on
the dangerous process of nuclear fission."
Tom Braden of the I ain Angeles Times
writes that the "$600 billion project
would underwrite
at the consumer’s
expense and risk the effort of the major
corporations to sink the nation even more
deeply into the nuclear fission method."
According to Braden, west coast defense
contractors are looking for a way to
convert their industries to useful produc
tion, and they see controlled thermonu
clear fusion as essential.
Dr. Harris notes that many people
think such fusion technology would in fact
"put more people out of work " The pro
fusion response to this is that the world's
economic dilemma is most critically
manifested by the scarcity and tight
control (by the Seven Sisters and the
like) of energy. Cheap, abundant, clean
fusion technology will rapidly remove the
impediments to real progress.
Next: the problems of fusion
an
exploration of fusion and other energy
alternatives.
(It is not science alone that is
responsible for technological progress,
but the society as a whole.
Only an
informed populace can make rational
derisions as to what source of energy
modes it must commit itself.
The
Portland Observer thus begins this series
on energy alternatives
and science I
DR W IL L IA M HARRIS