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2
Portland Observer
r. J u M ». iv r r
■Ci
We see the world
through Black eyes
The racism of neglect
The Portland School Board spent three hours on
Monday night attempting to determine whether
several communities in the Madison district hod
really reached a consensus of opinion on plans for
attendance changes in their elementary schools. The
final outcome of the discussion was to oik the area
office to provide evidence that the community has
been informed of prossibie effects in other schools
and that it is in agreement with the plan.
No such consideration was given to the parents of
students of Boise and King schools. Board member
Jonathan Newman has proposed a plan to halt
increasing Black enrollment at Jefferson, which is
now at 45 8 percent. This plan, if adopted by the
Board, will prevent students at Boise and King
attendance areas who live in the Jefferson area from
attending Jefferson. Worse than that, it assigns them
to no high school.
Where in this large school district is there a
neighborhood that doesn't have a high school?
Although the student might not chose to attend the
high school serving the area in which he lives, he
does have that option. These Boise and King area
students will not have that option — they must look
for a high school somewhere else.
And its not as simple as it sounds — they cannot go
to any high school which has over the district's
average of minorities - 18 percent.
This means these students cannot go to Adams,
Grant or Washington...and in a few years they won't
be able to go to Madison or Lincoln. And to top it all
off...this will be called "voluntary desegregation".
Another prediction of many Black citizens will also
come to pass. The highly financed magnet programs
at Jefferson will no lonaer be open to Black students
because their enrollment will be kept to the district
average, currently 18 percent.
What is the difference between these two
communities? Why are the opinions of the parents in
the Madison district so important when the parents of
Boise-King are ignored?
This is a very simple case of racism through
neglect. The district must desegregate its schools.
Jefferson is over 51% minority and apparently the
magnet programs ore not bringing in enough white
students to keep the percentage below the State's
requirement of 50% The alternative - no more
Blocks.
Desegregation is essential. We don't quarrel with
that. But we would like to see less commitment to
numerical percentages and more attention to
individual children.
Perhaps the parents and citizens of the Block
community should be consulted about the desegre
gation process.
We would like to know what
happens to these children. What preparations are
made in the receiving schools; what demands are
made on receiving school staff; what educational
and social benefits acrue to these students who year
after year bear the burden of the district's desegre
gation program?
Mandatory sentencing
perpetuates racism
of HJR 68 are adopted by the people in a
House Joint Resolution 68 - Minority
Repart 91 - passed the Oregon House last
Wednesday by a vote of 41 to IK The bill,
aa aawadmsnt to the Oregon Constitu
tion. will bow bo considered by the
Senate Committee on Revenue and
School Finance.
Some of the major
feature« of the bill include the creation of
tax bases for each school district baaed oa
“not operating expenditures." These tax
bases would ho in effect if the provisions
------ - J - »
KM9CK1
n r n n n e a r 1 few
'<->« I’tlJ v IIJIW —
TI a o ,
1977.
HJR 68 would provide a school district
with aa operating budget, but would
prohibit oxeaoa expenditures without
approval of local voters. State Basic
School Support monies would bo used as
an offset to the tax base, thus assisting
the local district in lowering property
taxes.
The Senate also is considering House
. u O ' -,
o ■■ '
SW3
Bill 8206. which would revise the
School Support formula and increes
level of state aid. There to (
regarding the formula to ho used fur
equalisation.
Currently, boato achool
support monies are distributed te dist
ricts on the basis of 80 pen
coots aad »0 percent for
Proponents of HB 3209 would like a
greater percent of state monies to ho
used for equalisation between “wealthy
districts” end “puer districts."
Pro and Can: U.S. w ithdraw al from K
W A SH IN G TO N - Despite the fears of
soma senior members of Congress. Presi
dent Carter is continuing with his plan to
withdraw U.S. Ground troops from South
Korea.
Last month a largely sypathetic House
subcommittee heard tram Major General
John K. Singlaug. the top military officer
in South Korea who was removed from
his post by Carter for tolling a reporter
that the administration’s withdrawal plan
would lead to a new war.
But the same day Signlaub was testify
ing ou Capitol Hill. Carter envoys were
tolling South Korean President Park
Chung Has that the President was
determined to remove U .8 . ground forces
from South Korea within the next four or
five years. U.S. A ir Force squadrons will
rem ainin the country.
TW$ House Armed Services Committee
to expected to ask members of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff to give their opinions of
the Carter plan later thia month. But
technically, the w ithdraw aljsmtod^not
tries in steel, shipbuilding, electron«,
chemical industrias.
And they have a much greater access to
the Western insustriakxed democracies
for advanced equipment and technology."
The President's supporters argue that
the vital U.S. contribution to South
Korea's defense to airpower. which can ba
rapidly reinforced by other U.S. air units
in the Pacific.
The air power will provide both a
symbol of the U.S. security guarantee
and
military assistance ÍB *****
of attack. Aad perhaps more important,
the air units would avoid the risk of
automatically entrapping th p United
States in say new conflict.
If North Korea today were to maaa its
numerically superior tanks »«d pianos to
plunge across the border toward the
South Korean capítol ot Seoul, only SO
mflaa south, the 14,000 mon of the U.S.
2nd Infantry Division would he blocking
their path.
The Pr ssidsnt weald have only a short
time - if any
to decide whether to
commit the force or withdraw it. Careful
weighing of the opttano an
with congress prehaUy would ba i
Among the bills currently being considered by the
Oregon State Senate, are three bills that would
require mandatory minimum sentences. HB 2013
would allow the sentencing judge to set a mandatory
minimum prison sentence equal to one-half of the
maximum sentence in all felony convictions.
HB 3041 would require mandatory minimum
prison sentences for all crimes where the defendent
was in possession of a gun during the crime. This
legislation also contains an escalator clause that
would increase the required prison term for each
subsequent offense: 2 years for the first offense; 5
years for the second offense; 10 years for the third
offense; and life inprisonment for the fourth offense,
offense.
HB 2011 would impose a mandatory minimum
sentence of twenty years for certain types of murder
opposing it would have to light a backfire
of public opinion to keep the troops in
and life sentence without possibility of parole for
South Korea.
other types of murder.
Should U.S. ground forces ba wttb-
The stated purpose for these bills is to reduce
crime, both by imposing a threat of penalty that
would deter the potential criminal and by putting
ffia tlJB. pubhe
away repeaters.
South Koran's population to more than support another Aston war, particularly
Much of the general public believes that crime is
twice as large m North Korea's (84.6 not one for the government of Park
committed by a few "career criminals". Actually, 54
millim, va. 16.3) and bar economy to four Chung Hen.
percent of the felonies in Oregon are committed by
times u prosperous.
"The American people will net tolerate
In defending his plan last month, our fighting another land war in Korea,"
juveniles. Of 100 felonies reported to the police,
Proaiiiont Carter pointed out that South insists Representative James P. Johnson
there are only 19.4 arrests, resulting in less than one
g m — has "maaatvo, very healthy indue- (R.-Colo.). "So why do we not accept that
prison commitment. Of those sentenced to adult
penal institutions, 64% have no prior record. When
you include white collar crime and crimes against
famly and friends, the so-called "career criminal" is
of miniscule threat to the general public.
These statistics demonstrate that longer prison
sentences will have little effect as a crime deterahl.
The effect passage of the bills would have, in
addition to the need to build several maximum
security prisons, wbuld be destruction of those
committed to the prison.
Since, according to the Oregon C6n$titution,
incarceration is for the purpose of rehabilitation, the
ideal for mast offender» would be a short term crash
program to become self-sufficient and productive.
This would have to include counseling, medical care,
education and vocational training as well as drug or
alcohol treatment. The prisoner would have to know
that "rehabilitation" would mean release.
This is not the case in Oregon. The people have
not seen fit to fund a system that might have some
potential for success.
The only effect long terms without hope for early
release will have is to increase the frustration and
hopelessness of the long-term prisoners.
There
would be no reason for long-term prisoners to co
operate with prison officials or to participate in the
few programs that are offered.
Their presence
would be detrimental to the short-term prisoners, so
they would have to be separated and "•..urehoused"
The 14,000-m an U.S. 2nd Infantry Division
an maximum security prisons. None of this could be
is stationed north of Seoul. U.S. Phantom
of any benefit to them or to society when they are
jets are based a t Osan and Kunsan.
finally released.
The other effect of mandatory minimum sentences
would be to further punish those who are at the
mercy of incompetent attornies, since those who ore
properly represented would have a far better chance
of avoiding conviction.
The bills would also perpetrate the rocism now
existing in the judicial system. At least the Black
defendant who gets a forty or fifty year sentence to
as well as city representatives, with
the prison due to institutional or overt racism has a To The Editor:
Chairman Clark’s and Mayor Gold
chance for parole. If these bills are passed, we will
schmidt's agreement, because moat of our
I am responding to an article entitled
find the prisons filled with Black men who never hod
city
appointees were quite recently
the opportunity for fair treatment by the judicial "GUcreaae resignation multiplies conspir
eriee" in the Portland Observer of May
system.
M y highest priority for PMSC and the
North and South Korea
fact and get on with the gradual with
drawal?"
Calling the Park regime “one ot the
moot vicious, one of the moot corrupt
regimes in the poot-Worid W ar I I ora,"
Representative John Krebs (D.-Cahf.)
also supported the move "to signal to the
rest of the world that we moan what we
say when «HT talk shout human rights."
Con: I
Opponents of troop withdrawal
that the continued presence of the U.8.
2nd Division in Sooth Korea to crucial as a
symbol of the U.S. commitment to that
country. They contend that air uaito
based well south of the border do not
suffice u such a deterrent symbol.
"The North Korean big
fltol with Mr
¡'a way’, i t would take a *
UJ5. national derision to com
mit them to battle,” argues retired Army
General G. StfiwuB, former chief of the
Korean «"— »“ 4
Whan ha testified oa Capitol HUI tost
Gaaaral Staglanb noted th at the
2nd Division to strategically placed dose
enough to the harder to deter the North
" ‘
the project
ed front fine th at ft would not automatic
ally become entangled in combat at the
would retain full freedom to weigh his
commit the force or not as he
Opponents also argue that South Ko
rea. Japan and other U.S. allies in Asia
would be likely to infer from a ground
withdrawal that the United States
wavering in tits commitment to
South Korea. They vividly remember the
U A withdrawal from Vietnam and the
fo g tlM
in 1978.
And although opponents do
darn the domestic repression of the Park
re g im e nor dismiss the importance of
human rights aa a U A fornighn policy
interact, they eel the strategic risks of a
Korean withdrawal outweigh the moral
and political benefits of cutting off Park.
“The issue io the security of the Unitod
States and the strength of its alliances
with those friendly countries in the
Pacific basin." argued Representative
David C. T ra m (R.-La.) ia opposing the
troop withdrawal. " I do not m y the issue
of human rights aa a U .8 . foreign policy
interest, they foal the strategic risks of a
Korean withdrawal outweigh the moral
and political benefits of cutting off Park.
"The tosuo to the security of the United
States and the strength of its alliances
(with thorn friendly countries in the
Pacific basin," argued Representative
David C. T ra m (R. -La.) in opposing the
troop withdrawal. " I do not say the i
of human rights in Korea to not
ant. but I think it is a different issue. Id o
not think wo should cloud the issue of
Amriean Security with that kind of aide
© 1977, Congressional Quarterly Inc.
JjtÜMt tO tfo &ÍÜM
McCready pleads not guilty
®i«rrr
CROSSTOW N P U Z Z L E
1st
Portland Observer
O NPA 1973
Published every Thursday by E xie Publishing Company, 2201
North Killingsworth. Portland, Oregon 97217. M ailing address:
P .0 . Box 3137, Portland. Oregon 9720B. ^telephone 283-2486.
1st Place
t Ad Based
ONPA 1973
Subscriptions: $7.50 per year in the Tri-County area. $8.00 per
year outside Portland.
5th I
Editorial
N N P A 1973
I does Postage Paid at
A L F R E D L. HENDERSON
The Portland Observer's official ^position is expressed only in
its Publisher's column (W e See The W orld Through Black Eyes).
Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the
individual w rite r or subm itter and does not necessarily reflect
the opinion of the
Nstiowsl Advertising Representative
obUshers. Inc
New York
MEMMR
MEMOCR
O re g o n
Newspaper
Publishers
Association
1 O fc
W
Association - Founded IM S
N N A 1973
M l
O NTA 1975
26,1977. 1 would like the opportunity to
clarify some information in that article.
You state that. "There are also indica
tions that the powerplaying extends
beyond the PMSC Board to the local
government level, involving City Com
miaatooor, Connie McCready."
In fact, at the meeting you mention in the
article, I made every attempt to
it dear that I was not going to get
involved in the decision-making of the
Board despite the requests that were
to me by Board members to do just
Yes, I was asked to take action and
I said, " It’s not my position to do so, it's
the Board's.
As you know from the letter written to
me by Cleveland Gilcreaae an J published
in your edition of May 17, 1977. he
that we meet together. No
did I get that letter on my desk
than the pram waa calling me asking for a
response to his resignation. Then a day
later they were calling me to ask my
to the Board « request that he
I felt that the fairest way to
■toy
in these cases was t do so based
on knowledge, and that the appropriate
way to find out what waa happening was
to call on the people we appointed to ait
oa the PMSC Board. I invited the county
people who deserve its services is that
the beet possible use of the money is
achieved. As long as I am voting on
whether to appropriate money to PM8C I
will take that responsibility seriously and
so what I can to make sure the people's
needs are met.
Sincerely,
Connie McCready
Commissioner of Public Works
wm 1 KFT
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