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.
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„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
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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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MEMBER
The military government of Lt. Gen.
Olusengun Obasanjo, witch promises
civilian rule by 1979, has earmarked
much of its annual $300-800 million
budget surplus for ambitious projects in
education, agriculture, transportation
and housing construction. 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."
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CITY
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