I
Page 2
Portland Observer
Thursday. February 5. 1976
We see the world
through Black eyes
Cut frills first
Elections begin now
The people of Multnomah County ogam face a
serious crisis in the orea of human services —
including health programs.
As usual, the bulk of the money-saving cuts
necessary to balance the county budget will come
out of the social services and health areas. These
savings ore not savings at all, but merely shift the
expenses to welfare or state operated institutions --
hospitals, jails, institutions and mental hospitals. The
bill is greater in the long run and the suffering of the
individual is multiplied.
If the county commissioners are truly interested in
the people they ore elected to serve, they will look to
other areas to save money instead of destroying
what little there is left in the health and social
service agencies.
They could begin by taking a good look at their
own offices and cutting out some of the frills. Each of
the four commissioners — Mosee, Buchanan, Corbett
and Gordon — has a personal aide paid
approximately $25,000 per year. The job descrip
tions of these aides are rather vague — in the eyes of
some, they run errands and do some of the work the
commissioners could be doing. One of the four aides
just happens to be a long-time political campaign
expert.
By eliminating these positions, the Commissioners
could save $100,000, which would save a number of
the essential programs. Much of the $100,000 could
be matched by federal dollars and bring in as much
as $400,000.
The people of Multnomah County are being asked
to sacrifice vital services that can only lead to o
determination of the community's health. The sick,
elderly, disabled, disturbed and youth are asked
(forced) to sacrifice. Let's see a little sacrifice on the
part of our commissioners, too.
The political campaigns of 1976 are beginning to
pick up momentum, with the early contestants
alreody on the campaign trail.
Many important
decisions will be made at the ballot box this year
nationally and locally.
But long before election day arrives many of the
major decisions will have been mode. The time to
get involved is now.
All candidates need help — from making policy
decisions to addressing envelopes. There are many
interesting and important jobs to be done and this is
the way to find out how the system works and to get
into the “ inner circle".
Many of us have believed that the political process
was beyond our reoch, that other people — those
who have connections -- have the only opportunity
to belong. In Oregon, the system is wide open. There
is a place in the Democratic Party for anyone who
wants to participate and we can assume that the
other parties need help, also.
Let's not woit until the day after the election and
ther ,,rumble becans«'’ it did not turn out the way we
wanted.
Auto test unfair
The DEQ test of automobile emissions is currently
under fire. Allegations have been made that the
regulations are applied unfairly, that t,iere are
differences among testing stations, etc. A committee
of legislators has been appointed to .ook into the
matter.
Of further concern is the fact that the requirements
apply only to the metropolitan area and place c
burden on people who live in this area of the state
that is not carried by other Oregon residents. We
wonder if this is constitutional.
It also seems strange that we should sit in lines for
hours, then pay for a test, when we daily see cars
travelling on the streets belching out huge clouds of
smoke and exhaust. Surely even the police can see
that these cars are polluting the air.
oit - backì PAY C A M CENTERS
pQYÉíV'f ?
HOUSING
Co n ^ r v/ Cfl1
PROGRAMS
(
A"
SCHOOL LUNCH
program
'P O V E R T Y O F T E N DE
PRIVES A MAN O F A L I
S P IR IT AN D V IR T U E ,IT
IS H A R D FOR AH EMPTY
STOMACH TO STAND UP
R IG H T."
FRANKLIN
Time to ta k e a firm stand on H u m a n Services, C ounty Comm issioners
P o rtla n d O b server
/
1st Place
(ooaiatuiity Service
O N P A 1973
Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, 2201
North Killmgsworth, Portland. Oregon 97217. Mailing address:
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1st Place
Best Ad Results
O N P A 1973
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5th Place
Best Editorial
N N P A 1973
Second ( lass Postage Paid at Portland. Oregon
A L F R E D L. H E N D E R S O N
M ita r/P u b lis h e r
Soft cop - Hard cop
Two policies toward Angola have
emerged. The left over policy of Kissin
ger remains dominant: mercenaries flood
into Angola to join the C IA backed farces
I ’N IT A and F N L A (who are reported
also to be shooting one another) to stop
the M P L A People's Republic of Angola.
The newer policy is most clearly
advanced by Senator John Tunney
iD C a lif): contain and manipulate the new
government (PR A ) by getting in tough
with the "moderate faction" in the PRA.
Tunney's aide M ark Moran told the New
York Times last week "my impression is
that there are several positions in the
M PLA and that the moderates are in a bit
of a q u a n d ry .th e y need a softening of
Washington's position to legitimise their
own standing in the movement.4, Moran
apparently met with the C IA counter
gang head Savimbi in Lusaka. Zambia
last week, and is scheduled to visit
Luanda this week.
It is throught the extension of loans
through the Agency for International
Development I A ID ) and the World Band
for la b o r intensive self-help (Maoist)
projects "for the lower levels of the
population" that the Harrim an Tunney
group hopes to drive a wedge into the
PRA. I t is unlikely that the Tunney et al
attempt to get hold of the PRA
"moderates" is going too well, in the face
of Kissinger's use of mercenaries against
Kissinger is left to thresten the Third
World msfiosostyle (as he did this week
in Congress): “You’ll get no help from us
unless you vote with us in the U J 1 "
the PRA.
According to the Sunday Telegraph the
C IA has funded recently some $49.2
million in arms and cash to the
F N I.A U N IT A forces, with more money
on its way. The Telegraph also refers to
the C IA conducing some $54 million in
arms etc. and an additional $20 million
“for British Mercenaries in Angola." That
apparently does not include the money
for American and other nationals the C IA
has recruited for Angola
Roy Innia. director of the C IA
rejuvenated CORE, says he can't help it if
his Vietnam vet medical technicians
decide to lay down their needles and pick
up weapons. Other Black C IA recruiters
in D etroit. Washington. D.C.. Philadel
phia. Los Angeles, etc. are also openly
recruiting mercenaries, under the same
thin cover. This stuff is clearly illegal.
Joke
Kissinger was asked last week in
Congress if the U.S. might have provoked
the Soviets into large scple support by
the U.S. giving funds to the F N I.A etc.
Kissinger responded to this by saying
that the money sent to the CIA-created
countergang “was only used for bicycles
and office equipment."
Another Joke
Daniel Moynihan. Kissinger's Tweedle
Dum tw in, was unceremoniously remov
ed from his job as leading mouth.
Mjafce
Syndicated columnist Carl Rowan
rffT tg ia ls - February 4th) touches briefly
on the predicament of the Third W orld in
an article on Jamaica. Jamaica's foreign
reserves were one week ago just $67.2
million • enough to buy two weeks of
imports. The country's unemployment
rate is officially 20% (probably making it
actually about 60% ). The collapse in the
advanced industrial sector has virtually
halted the demand for Jamaica's bauxite,
while the price of sbgar (third largest
foreign exchange earner) dropped from
67 cents to 14 cents a pound. To get
emergency loans from the International
Monetary Fund (IM F ), the IM F demands
fascist austerity. Rowan quotes Jamaica’s
Prime Minister Michael Manley as
enraged: “In order to get balance of
payments assistance. Jamaica must
whack its budget for schools, medical
care and similar programs. I must throw
more of my poor on the dungheap of
destruction in order to get IM F support."
The identical scrapping of the standard
of living of the working population is
going on in Italy which is being turned
into a Third World country. In return for
about $450 million, the IM F is demanding
Italy's politicians scrap social services
and put the unemployed to work in slave
labor projects. Such a program has
gotten no official support, even from pro
fascist groupings, though they are railing
for austerity verbally. W ithin Italy the
Tight to reject austerity is being waged
by the Cefis industrial group (in
opposition to the Agnelli f i a t grouping,
which is allied to the Rockefeller group)
and the Mansini wing of the Italian
Socialist Party (PSI). Again, the Soviets
are sitting on their thumbs, providing no
support for the pro development forces
and capitalist anti-austerity forces who
have cautiously committed themselves to
international development as the solution
to the collapse. In the midst of this, the
U.S. Labor Party's presidential candidate
Lyndon IjiRouche is i n l t aly. to coalesce
the pro-development forces to adopt the
International Development Bank. Debt
moratoria (Italy's debt ia about $14
billion), East West trade, raw materials
for industrial production (with the Third
World, etc.) is the only alternative to
economic collapse
Third World Organizing
The meeting of the Third World
countries in Manila last week failed to
initiate debt cancellation and moratoria
(postponement), but in spite of that
IM F looting policies wore n je rte d
delegate at the conference (Group of T t
Misusing busing in ’76
'xnnm /
. '
1
T h ird W o r ld W ra p u p
The Portland Observer's official position is expressed only in
its Publisher's column (W e See The World Through Black Eyes).
Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the
individual w riter or submitter and does not necessarily reflect
the opinion of the Portland Observer.
Honorable Mention
Herrick Editorial A war
N N A 1973
by Augustus Hawkins
It is not amazing that our Constitution
is one of the most quoted documents in
this nation; what is equally amazing, is
that it also is at times, one of the most
ignored documents.
That is. most
ignored, when it is expedient to do so by
those who don't like the protections the
Constitution guarantees.
A rase in point is the continuing
question of providing equal eductional
opportunity for Black school children, and
developing the proper tools to accomplish
this.
The current furor over busing as one of
the tools for achieving school desegrega
lion, is an exciting example of a prime
issue which affords great emotionalizing,
and very little else, when one is dead set
against recognizing the Constitution as a
yardstick for measuring what is legally
right in this country. In fact, I believe
that a reading of the Constitution is a
"must for those Americans who now want
to back away from the struggle to
desegregate all of our schools.
The Constitution clearly says that a
person's rights must be respected and
protected by law. and that (according to
the Fourteenth Amendment). "No state
shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States; nor shall
any State deprive any person life, liberty,
or property without due process of law.
nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws."
And so is further reference to
segregated education the Supreme Court
on May 17th, 1954, unanimously declared
in the words of its Chief Justice. Earl
W arren that “Separate educational facili
ties are inherently unequal. Therefore,
we hold that the plaintiff and other
similarly situated for whom the actions
have been brought are. by reason of
segregation complained of. deprived of
the equal protection of the laws guaran
teed by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The Constitution, and the Supreme
Court's ruling, clearly supports the right
of every youngster in this country to
receive an education which precludes
educational segregation, whether or not
that segregation is accidental, incidental,
or otherwise forced or enforced.
Schools systems therefore have a legal
mandate to enforce that Court's deci
sions. and all of its subsequent decisions.
Commercial
printing
People who want to play around with
the constitutionally valid right of equal
educational opportunity for all children,
clearly understand what the law means,
what the law implies, and what the law
says to those responsible for its enforce
ment.
President Nixon understood the issues
inherent in the Supreme Court's Brown
decision. Yet because of his («thological
dishonesty, he campaigned in 1972 on an
anti busing platform. Raising the issue
way beyond its importance, he cleverly
prevented the American people from
examining his own bankrupt domestic
and economic policies, and thereby won
the election.
M r. Ford also understands the nature
of the law of this Land as addressing
racist school systems and racist school
policies.
But mark my words, Mr. Ford will hop
on the anti busing band wagon with
appropriate vigor, if he begins to luse in
t.he presidential primaries and fumbles
the 1976 presidential campaign
I t used to be that the flag and
patriotism was the last refuge of thieves
and scoundrels. Busing can be added to
this imfamous list, since it too evokes
irrational defenses and behaviors.
The major Issue in this country today is
jobs, not busing: and jobs will be the
issue in '76 Any presidential candidate
who encourages campaign debates on
busing, does so knowing that he has
nothing of substance to present to the
American electorate.
The American
public, this time, ought to be smart
enough to return any such candidate to
posture
I t might sharpen his smarts for
developing another trade v
non aligned nations) told IPS: “the
international banking system ran no
longer support growth Our proposals
lake this fart as seriously as the needs of
the population of this earth and provide
concrete steps...thip time we must go
beyond pious resolutions."
In spite of that determination. Mexico's
leading spokesman for development was
kept from attending the meeting, and
other arts of sabotage were committed to
isolate the leading Third W orld repre
senUtives. Subsequently Peru has joined
Algeria's call for the restarting of
international production through an
ID B type proposal, which is the content
of the new world economic order. <F
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