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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1977)
Senator Vern Cook has introduced a bill to open the University of Oregon Medical School to individu als who have previously not been able to be admitted. Throughout the history of medicine in this country, the medical profession has been reserved to the privi lodged classes. Until recently quotas kept Jews and other less desirables out and Blacks were rarely admitted to medical schools. In recent years, with affirmative action require ments, some schools have recruited minorities and we have even begun to see Blacks admitted to the University of Oregon Medical School. But numerous criteria that are not relevant to the proctice of medicine are used in the selection process — a process that pulls in the upper and middle classes while ruling out minorities and members of the lower socio-economic class. It is also true that medicine is a lucrative business with 54 per cent of the doctors in Oregon earning between $15,000 and $50,000 in 1975 and thirty-two per cent earning between $50,000 and $150,000. Gone is much of the urge to serve the poor and the disodvantaged, the rural areas and small towns, where the profit is not so great. Senator Cook's bill has two main purposes — to open the Medical School to all qualified applicants and to direct doctors into areas of the state where there is the most need. The bill would provide for minimum requirements for admission to medical school. A lottery would be held to select those who would be admitted from among those who met the minimum qualifications. The medical school would be expanded to educated 920 students, twice the number it does now. Approximately 40 per cent of the graduates of the medical school apply for internships in Oregon. In order to encouroge graduates to remain in Oregon and also to expose them to non-urban areas, all licensed hospitals whould be required to provide internships. The bill would also allow those who are not able to serve an internship because space in a program is not available, to become licenses without this requirement. The final stipulation of the bill is that the student be charged the full cost of his medical education (minus scholarships and grants) and that a portion o f the cost be deferred until after graduation and competion of the internship. Since physicians can anticipate high-incomes, repayment over ten years would not be a problem. However, for each year of practice in Oregon, one half of one year's payment would be excused. For each year spent in an area designated as being under-staffed, a full year's payment would be excused. Senator Cook believes the bill will be an answer to rising fees charged by physicians because it will alleviate the doctor shortage. This bill makes good sense. It not only encourages doctors to remain in Oregon and provides for the education of additional doctors, but it provides an avenue for many students that can become fine doctors but who would not be selected for admission under the present procedures. Inclusion in the profession of more socially conscious persons with less advantaged backgrounds and varied cultural experiences cannot fail to bring more humanity to the field of medicine. S chool B o a rd n e x t? The Congress of the United States has passed and the President has signed the Public Works Employ ment Act of 1977. This project contains a ten per cent set-aside for minority business -- that is, at least ten per cent of the dollar amount must be contracted to minority enterprise. The State of Oregon approved a set-aside program last October and directed all public bodies in the state to promote minority purchasing. In the metro politan area, the Port of Portland and Multnomah County have passed minority set-asides and minority incentive programs. The Portland School District has been asked to provide a similar set-aside program, but after about two years of unfruitful discussion, the distict's attorney, Mark McClanahan, declared set-asides to be illegal and of doubtful constitutionality. McClanahan is second guessing the U.S. Supreme Court, which will soon make a decision on the constitutionality of a professional school's minority enrollment program. If the Court were to rule against the college plan, it might or might not reflect on the constitutionality of contract set-asides or minority preferences in building contracts. It is time for the Portland Public Schools to get in step with the rest of the nation and to fulfill its obligations to minority citii A N e w W e lfa r e P ro g ra m President Carter fired the first shot of vhat will undoubtedly be a national Iebate on welfare policy when he un- reiled the principles that would guide his administration's welfare reform pro josaia recently. The twelve principles be enunciated ire so general that they almost defy nmment. Each one could mean what •ver an observer wishes them to. So it won’t be until later this summer, when egislation is drafted, that w e ll know just what the Adminstration’s welfare pro gram will actually be. But the President is on the right track when he says we should scrap the present lystem in its entirety and come up with mmething totally new. One cause for concern is the P re« tent’s in d ic a tio n that such a new system won't be in place until 1981. That’s a long time, especially when the present welfare system is not meeting the bask needs of the poor. On the other hand, better late than to rush through an inadequate system that really amounts to fiscal relief for states ind would delay real welfare reform for it least another decade There's also a disturbing implication in the President’s statement that the ulti mate program may feature a two-tier approach — one system that deals with those able to work, and another, an income maintenance system, that deals with those who cannot work. This could wind up contradicting the stated goal of simplifying the system and making it more efficient, since such categorization of those in need will wind up creating yet another bureaucracy to implement comp licated regulations. Work requirements should not be tied to welfare reform. H E W Secretary Cali- fano recently revealed that of the 26 m illio n poor people, only two percent are non-aged, non-disabled males who do not work and most of those are over 62 ye a n old. ill or looking for work. Jobs should be made available to everyone able to work through a separate full employment program. Tying the job issue to welfare reform, especially through a strong work requirement, will only perpetuate stereotype and myths, and shift the focus of reform to setting up complex, costly work and training pro grams for a client population unable to utilize them. As the Administration frames its ulti mate proposals, I ’m hoping they’ll come up with a universal, refundable income tax credit to replace the welfare system. That’s the best means of resolving the dilemma of shaping an equitable income maintenance system. By providing grants for all families, taxing the grants away from those who don’t need them, while leaving reduced amounts in the hands of thoee who need some help, such a system would aceomp- lish all of the President's goals. I t would be simple, not require a vast bureaucracy, provide decent minimum incomes for every family, do away with complicated means testa and work requirements, provide incentives for the working poor, and federalize welfare. The a aed a of such a program can be found in one of the President's goals: the earned income tax credits for the work ing poor. Extending the concept of using the tax system and tax credits to be the transfer mechanism for a national income maintenance program would be wise. As the national debate gets under way, we’re going to hear a lot of perverse, often racist, nonsense about welfare and the poor. It would be tragic if the lies and misconceptions that poisoned previous debates on welfare should surface again. I t ’s important to remember that people are poor because they have been denied the education, skills or power to compete equally in our economy. Most poor people work. Most poor people are not on welfare. Most people on welfare want to work but cannot because of family res ponsibilities or poor health. Most people on welfare move off the rolls, to be replaced by others whose luck turns bod. Most people on welfare receive - even with food stamps - far less than poverty level payments. How e nation treats its poor is a good indication of its moral fiber. So far, we haven’t done well in this regard. Now there’s another chance. P o rtla n d O b s e rv e r . ... * Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, 2201' North Killingsworth, Portland, Oregon 67217. Mailing address: P .0. Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208. Telephone 283-2486. Subscriptions: $7.60 per year in the Tri-County area. $8.00 per year outside Portland. „1 A LF R E D L HENDERSON The Portland Observer's officiaLpoeition is expressed only in its Publisher’s column (We See The World Through Black Eyes). Any other material throughout the paper is the opfhion of the individual w riter or submitter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Psrtlaud Ni 1st Place y Service ONPA 1973 la t i Beat A d i ONPA 1973 5th 1 s s tE N N P A 1973 O re g o n Newspaper Publishers Association 1 R IC H E S T A N D POOREST The overriding economic fear here is that Nigeria's oil resources will be depleted before its vast revenues touch the lives of most of its citizens. The oil industry, which accounts for 90 percent of government revenues, employs just 20.000 people. Estimated per capita income in Nigeria is just $260 a year, making it the poorest OPEC country except Indonesia. Lagos itself best exemplifies the dis parity. The commercial center of Niger ia, it is now both enjoying and suffering a boomtown atmosphere. Uncontrolled public and private spend ing is fueling a 40-70 percent annual inflation. Traffic congestion is notorious as the worst in the world. And streets and buildings sprout up in a crazy patchwork defying comprehension. Yet despite sky-high prices, foreign are flocking here from >r,d. “You can make any amount of money here if you're willing to pay for it," says a Black Ampriean aabaman of electrical equipment who concentrates on the A fri can market. “I shot my travel budget here, but business was good, very good." U.S. investment here now tops $1 billion, largely in joint production of petroleum with the Nigerian But beneath large billboards depicting nightgown-clad Black women comfortably on well stuffed and bathing luxuriantly in beauty soap, an untold number of residents spend the night sleeping in' the streets. W ith a population said to number from to 4 million, Lagos’ rate is unestimable. eke out a subsistence selling of sunglasses, rolls of dyed doth or kola nuts at makeshift stands in “Where does all the oil money go?" one Nigerian asked in frustration, while surveying the slum-ridden downtown. “There's so much money around, but it all seems to go into the pockets of taxi drivers." Nigerians continue to flock to Lagoa and other cities from the countryside, For the tour Nigerians out of five who live outside the cities, life can be even more arduous than in city slums Agricultural production has fallen off badly in recent years, partially as a result of the Sahel drought in the north. 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But whether the widespread bureaucratic corruption that brought down Gee. IJyakuhu Gowon two years ago has been sufficiently curtailed to permit the best use of funds remains to be “In many ways we are in a race against time," aays an editor of Nigeria s leading newspaper. "Our oil revenues will not last forever. If we don't make it count now, it may be too late." front of their «hacks. The maze of corrugated tin and clapboard shacks is Subscribe to The Portland Observer ONPA 1976 New York 1 col. 6, tribal rivalries, religious language barriers and tbs of colonialism-including scon omies structured to look toward Europe, not home. Sixty years ago Britain Nigeria into its current borders without regard to natural boundaries. Today the is sb BntAlgam of 250 sod ss many dialects. Tbs north is predominately the south a mixture of Christian and traditional religions. The government has managed to aolid ify its power vis-a-vis individual ethnic groups since its defeat of the eastern Ibo tribe's Biafran secession of 1967 70. But regional and tribal tensions remain high. “In Nigeria your friends are Black and your enemies are Black,” says a i observer. “Since the British never settled here as they did elsewhere in Africa, and since there was no war for independence, there aren’t the same resentments against white«. So,“ he adds, “the cause of African unity still doesn’t run very deep. As a Nigerian who had just returned from living IS years in London lamented at the airport: “I was just told two flights to my home in Benin City were full, yet they were letting Europeans on behind me who had no reservations. “I f I were in London, I could complain about discrimination because I was Black. But here? In a Black country? I t is because I am from a different region and tribe." UNOLEUM CITY other areas 0 8 .0 0 «
