Page 2
Portland Observe-
Thursday.
16th. 197«
Prescription drug abuse
We see the world
through Black eyes
NAACP: A time for ssity
The NAACP membership come out m good
numbers and overwhelmingly elected Reverend
John Jockson president The turn out demonstrated
that there is still interest m the NAACP in Portland
Reverend Jackson begins his two year term of
office at a good time. There will be a new mon in the
Wh le House - one pledged to work for humon
rights. There also w 'l be a new national director of
the NAACP - one who is outspoken and vigorous
and reody to leod.
One of the highlights of Jackson's term of office
will be the national convention to be held in Portland
m the summer of 1977 In the meantime, there are
the day to day problems that require hard work and
vigilonce — discrimination m education, |obs,
housing, the courts; police brutolify; etc.
The three men who ran for the presidency ana ost
have pledged their support and their participation.
Each would like to hove served as president, but
each has expressed the opinion that the goals and
obfectives of the NAACP surpass the>r personal
desires.
We recommend that Reverend Jackson top this
enthusiasm and concern by naming these men to his
Executive Board, bringing them and their supporters
into his administration to build the strong and unified
NAACP that is needed in Portland.
Justice not free
Former-Senator Edward Gurney of Florida, who
was indicted for election irregularities, spend a half
million dollars and neorly two years proving his
innocence. In the meantime, he lost his seat in the
United States Senate. Gurney soys this is too high a
price to pay for justice — that if he were still in the
Senate he would introduce legislation to make the
government pay the legal costs of those found not
guilty.
This is something we have been saying for a long
time Anyone con be arrested and tried, but proving
innocence con take a life savings or put a person in
debt for the rest of his life - this besides the publicity
and suspicion that will follow him.
Justice is not free in this rtaherr — ft must be
•bought. The^oils are filled with those who could not
afford the ccBh
Jordan to Supreme Court
There is much speculation over which vabmet post
will be offered *o Texas Representative Barbara
Jordan. We predict that AArs Jordan will not be
selected for the cobinet.
It is well known that U S. Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall has resisted resignation due to his
failing health, hoping to wait out the Nixon-Ford
administration. He hoped a more moderate presi
dent could moke the important appointment of his
successor
We predict that soon after the inauguration of
Jimmy Carter, Justice Marshall will resign and
Barbara Jordan will join the high court.
Another Potat of View
Land disposal in city
Guest Editorial
The Oregonian
Flat, developable, desirable land is at a premium
in Portland. Thus, when two motor owners of such
property are simultaneously considering disposing of
some, public interest considerations may be acute.
This is particularly so when, as in the present
instance, the property owners ore public ogencies -
School District No. 1 and the Oregon Transportation
Commission
The Transportation Commission is seeking odvice
from the City of Portland on guidelines the ogency
might use in disposing of the immense amount of
land in the former Mt. Hood Freeway corridor and in
the abandoned Thurman-Vaughn corridor for 1-505 in
Northwest Portland.
The Portland School Board carefully sought city
input for the guidelines it has developed to govern
release of its surplus land. Those guidelines are on
the School Board's business agenda for December
13th. The district has more than 20 ocres of land in
seven sites that it will consider selling in the
near-term future.
Public ogencies — the Parks Bureau and the
Housing Authority of Portland, for example — have
expressed interest in some of the property. Residents
of an area on S.E. Steele Street hove already
organized to oppose possible sale of surplus school
district land, 3.7 ocres, to the Housing Authority of
Portland for placement of about 30 low-income
apartments.
Focmg a levy election in January, the Schoo<
Board has shown no enthusiasm for getting cought in
the middle of a fight between angry citizens of a
middle-to-upper-middle-mcome neighborhood and
HAP. However, there probobly is no way to avoid the
fight, not should the public policy issues be evoded.
For example, Portland has sought to promote
economic, cultural and racial diversity in its schools.
Simultaneuously, HAP has sought to spread its
low-income housing around the city for a variety of
socially defensible reasons. Therefore, is the public
interest best served if HAP is given first chance at
surplus school "district property in rnidcHe-and-high-
income neighborhoods, when such a course would
promote goals of both groups? Students ore already
given administrative transfers and are bused, for
educational reasons, from poor to more affluent
areas. Is school district land disposal a legitimate
extension of that process?
Questions such as these are only the tip of the
volcano that will erupt when public ogencies try to
toke over surplus public land for low-income housing
projects, jails, half-way houses or any of a variety of
other functions that neighbors believe should be
sited "anywhere but here."
by Yvwaa
Retiring Ccmausstoaer Alexander M.
Schmidt of the Food and Drug Admtni
straUon says be is appalled a t tbe ease
with which physicians overpres.-ribe and
misprescribe drugs that can cause serious
injury
He noted especially the drugs pre
scribed to women, postmenopausal and
other estrogens, amphetamines and
tranqu timers.
A recent survey of 2.500 persons
confirms Schmidt's statement. Fifteen
per cent of the women in contrast to • per
cent of the men w ere using drugs to
control anxiety. T w en ty per cent of the
women but only 8 per cent of the men
used drugs that w ere both sntisaxiety
and sedative.
Eight per cent of the women compared
to 1.5 per cent of the men relied on
stimulants to get them through the day.
Added to that. 4 per cent of women
opposed to 2.6 per cent of the men took
sleeping pills.
D r. Linda A . Fidell reports that though
women make 54 per cent of the visits to
doctors, they get 67 per cent of the
prescriptions for tranquilizers and anti
depressants.
Doctors are men. most often, who have
tremendous responsibility and limited
time They make decisions baaed upon
medical knowledge, social custom and
information furnished by the pharavaceu
ticsl companies.
Pharmaceutical companies advertise
freely to make doctors sware of the drugs
they manufacture.
When we realize that a doctor's post
graduate (duration most often is limited
to the journals and advertnenfbnU that
come across his desk, v e begin to sense
the shifting sands upon which today's
phvsician works.
Fearful'’ Yes indeed
M oreover, doctors' attitudes most
often conform to the predominant social
attitu de of male superiority. They tend to
view women as em otim ai. childlike and
dependent- They most often expect
women to be neurotic, bored and frua
Ira ted.
And further, they do not consider a
woman's time to be especially valuable.
Women are viewed as nonworkers who
have tim e to be sedated.
The difficulty grows when women
accept the male putdown.
A woman strengthens the doctor's
conviction when she accepts him as a
father figure who is not to be questioned.
Oftentimes she fits into the rote of wife
and mother But when the children are
gone and tbe house becomes meaningless.
or when dinner is fixed for a husband who
might not come home, feelings of inade
quacy and depression surface. She has
aches and pains that seem to be symp
toms of disease yet to be diagnosed.
She becomes a bother and an embar
rasswent to busy doctors who are looking
for “real" illnesses which they can treat
successfully The woman gets no gui
dance or honest treatm ent from her
doctor. She gets a pat on the hand, a
prescription for Valium and the doctor's
silent prayer that outside conditions will
change so that he doesn't have to see her
again.
The tragedy compounds when the busy
doctor writes the prescription for the
latest tranquilizer without really listen
■ng The symptoms can be of a serious
illness that needs prompt and decisivd
treatm ent. Yet diagnosis is delayed be '
cause the doctor has responded to a
stereotype, rather than to a human being.
We all know stories of such expert
ences.
Fortunately, more jw-ople recognize the
injustice and waste of masking women's
problems with drugs More women are
going back to work and back to school
More women are going into medicine
The number of women in medical
school has risen from 8 per rent to 20 per
cent. Women doctors ran be expected to
discuss more easily the underlying em o
tions w ith women patients. In themselves
they w ill be evidence of fulfillment which
women are today realizing.
Medical students, both men a n d /
women, arc demanding more considera
non be given to understanding women.
But of more importance, women are
banding together to talk about their
problems and demand that changes be
made.
Women must confront physicians who
are prescribing drugs and demand aceep
table explanations before they take
drugs. When women refuse to continue
the stereotype, then doctors will treat
them as equals and as individuals with
whom they must talk honestly
rather
than merely scribbling a prescription as
they hurry out of the room.
A time for a new realism
A 1 travel around tbe country and talk
to people. especially in tbe Black com
munity, about tbe coming C arter Admin
istration. I'm increasingly disturbed by
what appears to be a lack of realism.
Conscious of the debt owed to the Black
vote by President-elect C arter, too many
people expect miracles to come to pass
after January 20th. Some seriously be
beve their local councilman. who's a nice
fellow, will be named Secretary of State.
Others think they just have to sit back
and w ait until a golden born of plenty is
emptied by Washington, full of money
and programs that w ill end p ro ven y and
discrimination overnight.
It's not going to happen.
This is not tim e for flights of fancy, it's
a tim e for serious thought and developing
strategies to get tbe programs Black
people and all poor people need. And it'« a
tim e fo r a new realism th at helps us
understand the way our government
works and the way w e can influence it.
No m atter how concerned the Presi
dent-elect may be about race relations -
and there's ample evidence that he's very
much concerned about improving it - the
fact remains that once he gets to the
W hite House he w ill lace the immense
political pressures from various groups
that w ili influence his decisions.
And it's very possible that these
pressures and the
mises th at are f a r t of the democratic
process may make it expedient for him to
defer programs of vital importance to
Black people.
So thia is hardly the tune to relax and
wait for the fruits of Black political
support for the C arter candidacy to fall
Instead, it is a time to bring pressure to
bear on the President-elect and tbe key
people around him to make sure that
Cabinet, sub Cabinet and regulatory
agency poets go to appointees who will
favor social reforms
And it's a tim e to prepare program
proposals and public policy positions to
present to tbe new Administration, and
also to start now to build the alliances
that w ill get those proposals passed
The new realism also should recognize
that government action is not enough.
Even if everything Black people want
passes the Administration and Congress,
w e ll still face formidable barriers W e
can't let ourselves fall into the same trap
as in the 1960s when federal activism
resulted in raised expectations followed
by deepened bitterness and frustration.
W e ea n t look to Washington alone
when tbe private sector has so far to go to
satisfy legitimate economic needs. I f we
dump it all on Washington, that just helps
get the private sector off the hook
And Black people have to keep our own
house in order too. Yes. the President
and the Congress have to pass job erea
tion legislation, but realism demands that
the President and the Congress can t go
to the employment centers for us. they
can't take the jo b tra in in g for us. and
they can't learn the skills for us.
Wishful thinking has to give way to a
new realism that understands the need
for exercising our responsibilities to
ourselves and to our communities.
W e've got to organize the Black com
munity to improve the schools our child
ren go to. dean up the neighborhoods we
live in and make our streets safe from
crime again. T hat w ill take help from
Washington and state and local govern
ments in tbe form of funds far education,
housing and community crime proven
tion. but is also requires community
involvement and responsibility.
The public and private sectors ran do
much to remove the structural harriers to
our progress to help end discrimination
and partially compensate for it. and they
o n provide a framework in which M ark
people ran finally bury tberr chains, but
they can't - and won't - do it all.
So Black people, armed with a new
realism that demands the utmost from
government, from the private sector, and
from ourselves, must retain the initiative.
W e did it in the 1960s when our insistent
demands led to the civil rights laws. Now
we must do it in the 1970s by keeping up
the pressure on policy makers, by taking
every opportunity to get the skills and
schooling and jobs w r need, and by
getting our communities together
Black Caucus demands asylum investigation
(Continued from p. 1 cot. 41
of these "mental patients" have been
confined without benefit to due process
and competent and professional medical
diagnosis.
W e have been advised that patients are
responsible for maintenance, have been
used to build some of these institutions,
are subject to non professional sdminis
tenng of anesthesia and relaxing drugs,
the use of shock treatm ent, and most
disturbing that 8000 Black South A fr i
cans have been hired as slave labor to
outside firms on contract to Smith
M itchell & Company.
Such accusations, if borne out. would
constitute violations of the "Supplemen
tary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institu
lions and Practices Similar to Slavery".
TH E
BLACK
enacted on September 25th, 1926. the
"Supplementary Slavery Convention of
1957”. and the Preamble and Articles 13.
55. 56 and 68 of the United Nations
Charter.
The operations of these mental institu
lions also appear to be in violation of the
basic principles of human rights and
freedoms as delineated in the Universal
Declaration of Human Righta. specifically
A rticle 4:"No one shall be held in slavery
or servitude, slavery and the slave trade
shall be prohibited in all their forms."
I t is our considered judgment that
these charges are clearly a m atter of
international concern as evidenced by the
aforementioned charter and conventions
to which our government is a party.
Like you. we believe that the internal
structure of the Republic of South Africa
PRESS—
OUR
FREEDOM
is "incompatible with any concept of
human dignity." lake you. we believe
that "the United States must be true to
its own beliefs."
I t is w ithin this context that we urge to
you investigate these alleged psyrhiatrie
abuses in the Republic of South Africa. If
they are proven accurate, we urge you to
honor your pledge to "bring about peace
ful change, equality of opportunity, and
basic human rights in South Africa.” by
utilizing the moral, political, and econo
mic power of the United Stales of
America to end any such violation of
human righta.
Thank you for your attention to this
m atter
Sincerely.
Vvenae B. Burke
Chairperson
DEPENDS
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Portland O bserver
a
r Á l-
O N P A 1973
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its Publisher's column We See The World Through Black Eyes)
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