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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1978)
Page 2 Portland Observer Thursday. February 23. 1978 ¿ tÜ M to tU &ÜÍM We see the world through Black eyes It’s the matter of citizen participation C itizen p a rtic ip a tio n is on the m o ve in A lb in a . For m a n y years th e Black c o m m u n ity reacted and u su a lly re a cte d too late, o ffe r the decisions had been m ad e. This w as because the decision s w e re m ad e in p riv a te a n d th e p e o p le in fo rm e d later. O n ly those w h o w e re p art o f the p o w e r structure had the o p p o rtu n ity to p a rtic ip a te S om etim es this h a p p e n e d because o f secrecy in g o v e rn m e n t — the conscious e ffo rt to subvert the d e m o cra tic process to p ro m o te o n e 's o w n ends. O ther tim e s it w as because the d e cis io n m akers d id n ot trust th e p e o p le to m ake in te llig e n t decisions or d id n ot w o n t to b o th e r w ith tim e -c o n s u m in g p u b lic d e b a te . That citizens a re d e m a n d in g th e o p p o rtu n ity to be h ea rd is e vid e n c e d by th re e se pa ra te incid en ts a tte n d e d la rg e ly by d iffe re n t in d iv id u a ls . The firs t w as th e u n ite d re a c tio n o f the Black co m m u n ity a nd m a n y o f those o rd in a rilly id e n tifie d w ith h u m a n rights g oa ls a g a in st th e P ortland School B oard's "N e w m a n P la n ". This p la n b ro u g h t over tw o h u n d re d persons b e fo re th e School Board to object. The next e v id e n c e w as th e a tte n d a n c e o f a p p ro x im a te ly o ne h u n d re d p e o p le at a King N e ig h b o rh o o d A sso ciatio n m e e tin g h e ld in response to th e P ortland D e ve lo p m e n t C om m issions proposed U rban R en ew a l Proiect on U n io n A ve nu e . A g a in , a b o u t o ne h u n d re d persons a tte n d e d an A lb in a Fair Share m e e tin g to discuss a b a n d o n e d houses in th e ir n e ig h b o rh o o d . The O bserver has a lw a y s p ro m o te d p a rtic ip a tio n : p a rtic ip a tio n in th e e c o n o m y th ro u g h e m p lo y m e n t a nd a g u a ra n te e d in c o m e ; p a rtic ip a tio n in the p o litic a l system th ro u g h the e le c tiv e process and th ro u g h a p p o in tm e n t to Boards a n d C om m issions; p a rtic ip a tio n in e d u ca tio n , h ou sin g, h e a lth care, etc. But m ost o f a ll — p a rtic ip a tio n in p la n n in g fo r ourselves a n d o u n n e ig h b o rh o o d s . For this reason w e a re d e lig h te d to see th e g ro w th o f c itiz e n in v o lv e m e n t e v e n th o u g h som e a g e n c ie s and o rg a n iz a tio n s m ig h t fe e l th e b ru n t o f it. Our e ffo rts a t in fo rm in g the p u b lic a n d o u r ta k in g e d ito ria l stances on th e issues a re n ot m e a n t as attacks on a ny persons or o rg a n iz a tio n s b u t a re the result o f a p o litic a l a n d so cial p h ilo s o p h y . W e ca nn ot a g re e w ith m a n y o f th e d ecision s o f the P ortland Public Schools a nd m ost o f a ll w e h a v e to q u e s tio n the process by w h ic h decision s a re m ade. The a d m in is tra tio n seems to be a fra id o f p u b lic d e b a te as e v id e n c e d by the s ile n c e a n d th e speed w h ic h a cco m p a n ie s th e ir decisions. W e u n d e rsta n d that the a d m in is tra tio n is upset because th e y b e lie v e the W o o d la w n Plan was le a k e d to th e O b server o lth o u g h the p la n is to be a cte d upon on F ebruary 27th a n d the p u b lic sh ou ld h o v e bee n in fo rm e d lon g ago. W e re a lly c a n 't ta ke c re d it fo r this e xpo sure th ou gh , th e C o m m u n ity Press g o t th e re firs t. W e h ave n ot ta k e n a p o s itio n fo r or a g a in s t PDC's U rban R en ew a l Project. Thom as K e nn e dy a tta c k e d us re p e a te d ly fo r p rin tin g " fa ls e in fo r m a tio n " re g a rd in g th e a lle g e d fa ilu re o f PDC to p ro p e rly in v o lv e th e n e ig h b o rh o o d reside n ts in th a t p ro po sal. (The reside n ts w h o spoke stated th a t th e y h a d not bee n p ro v id e d tim e ly in fo rm a tio n .) M r K ennedy n e g le c te d to re c a ll th a t he h ad been o ffe re d space in th e n e w s p a p e r to fu lly e x p la in the p ro je c t a nd th e re la te d issues. It is o u r h o p e th a t s o m e tim e in th e fu tu re th e g o v e rn m e n ta l a g e n c ie s w ill fu lly in fo rm a n d in v o lv e th e citizens. They w o u ld u n d o u b te d ly d isco ve r that m ost p e o p le a re c a p a b le o f m a k in g d ecision s that w ill e n h a n c e th e c o m m u n ity a n d o f m a k in g those sa crifices so m e tim e s necessary to p ro m o te th e p u b lic b e n e fit. Then w e can w rite g lo w in g e d ito ria ls and lo v e ly stories a n d e v e ry b o d y w ill fe e l g o o d . Supports Woodlawn school proposal To the Editor: In response to your editorial of Feb ruary 9. 1978,1 believe the record should be made clear on the proposed Woodlawn Multicultural Center. The article is misleading and could be detrimental to the proposal based on inaccurate infor mation I personally think we must explore alt sound educational options which will enhance learning as well as good interpersonal relationships. Enclosed are two items which 1 hope will be of interest in gaining your support for the proposal. Sincerely, Gladys McCoy. Member Board of Education Statement Regarding Portland Observer Editorial on W oodlawn Multicultural Center tary schools, are not usually taught by specialists. 2. Build strong retatiaaahi.Ni. Bringing together children from different schools for several weeks will enable them to form healthy relationships, based on common experiences rather than hear say. 3. t umculum to feature multicultural education. The curriculum will incor poraie information about the many con trbutions people of different back grounds have made to our American society. 4. Student* urged to remain at Wood lawn. Even though an entire class of students would attend the school for perhaps nine weeks, planners intend that because of the excellent education avail able at Woodlawn and the new friend ships that will develop several out-of neighborhood students will elect to re main at Woodlawn through the fifth grade 5. Not unique to Portland. Although The Woodlawn Multicultural Center proposal would bring a largely white third grade class to Woodlawn for an enriching educational experience in a multicultural setting. Each of four such To the Editor: classes would attend Woodlawn for a substantial period of time, perhaps nine We are concerned that the Portland weeks. The writer of the editorial and School District is considering a ‘Wood the people of the Portland School District lawn Plan' that would bring one class of who support the proposal share a com white students into Woodlawn School in mon concern: the separation that some order to add Caucasian students statist! times exists between Black and white cally and to provide a multiethnic pro children in a school involved in desegre gram. gation. However, the editorial writer, no Each white class and its teacher would doubt because of inadequate information, attend Woodlawn for one quarter (nine misses the key point: the proposal is weeks) and would remain a self contained under consideration precisely to counter unit with its teacher responsible for basic such racial separation. courses. These students would be with Several othér points need clarification: resident students for PE, 'fine arts', 1 Se.oration is not the intent of the lunch, social studies, and other activities. irogram As a goal, the Woodlawn Our concern* are two fold: Center concept has always maintained 1. The Community Coalition for School that all students would participate to Integration is involved in a study or gether in individualized reading and math current programs and will make compre programs. Students would also come hensive proposals to the School Board together in such classes as art. physical this summer. In light of the Coalition's education, and music which, in elemen work, a new 'desegregation' plan at the proposal was developed locally by school district teachers and administra tors, it is not unique to Portland. Many major cities, including Ixis Angeles and Fan Diego, have put into practice similar programs to improve education in a multicultural setting. 8. Program ba* local su.i.iort. The concept has received endorsement by the U oodlawn Parent Advisory Committee, the Woodlawn Neighborhood Associa lion, and the Portland School District Area II Citizen Advisory Committee, as well as Woodlawn teachers and admini strators and the Area II administration staff. I am hopeful that with more informa lion about this positive step to improve the education of Portland children by providing an extensive educational ex perience featuring a multicultural curn culum, while at the same time seeking to desegregate a school which falls outside State of Oregon regulations on racial balance, the Portland Observer will en dorse the proposal wholeheartedly. Opposes Woodlawn plan Woodlawn is premature. 2. The visiting students would remain visitor* not integrated into the school, although numbers would be used to compute the Black, white ratio. We oppose any program to bring white students into a predominately Black school which keeps them separate from the resident population If white student* are to be bussed in. they should become part of the existing classes and remain in Woodlawn until they have completed the grades offered at that school. This proposal is now on the agenda of the next regular meeting of the School Board; 7:30 p.m., Monday, February 27th. 1978. Sincere regards. (Ms.) Lillie Walker, Chairperson Committee for Quality Education For all Children The Rape of Albina To the Editor: Reflections on Black History by Herb Cawtborne Teaching Black boys and girls how to act and how to think is the goal of history. History is the boiled-down memory of humankind and. as such, provides us with the frames of reference to which we can turn as we act and think our way through life. History sparks comparison. Today is judged by how we compare it to our understanding of yesterday. Remember the old contention that, “He who does not know history is forever condemned to repeat it?" From the deep wells of history, we draw the values to judge the conditions we face today. But the knowledge of history is of poor value if all we adhere to is a collection of fragmented facts, dates, and names. We have a memorization games, not a pro cess of learning and understanding. Black history is a subject with great promise, but each of us will have to do our small part to insure its proper instruction to our young. The illustrious history of Afro-Ameri cans is so much more than one isolated fact, one lonely thread. It is so much more than a single period of hardtimes as seen from the darker view. It is certainly more than the colorful strands of one man's great existence. Black history is a beautifully colored fabric - a combination of all the threads, the strands of the past. The fabric of Black history cannot be understood if one studies only a select group of so-called "great ones." This approach, which constitutes basically what exists now. is divisive, for our children fail to gain an appreciation for the fact that everyone has a necessary contribution to make. Yet. when they see the totality of this struggle we have waged for 400 years in America, then they will see the fabric of our history. The picture will be big enough for them to find their place in it. Beyond the bits and pieces of isolated knowledge, understand ing the fabric allows one to share in the wisdom that is woven into the entire design. Unfortunately. Black children in this city are asked to climb great barriers of neglect and insensitivity in order to gain even a brief glimpse of the true meaning of their proud heritage. It used to be that the Portland Public Schools gave Black children little more than negative, racist images. The situation is better now. but not much. As opposed to nothing at all. some of our children at least are exposed to certain names and dates and events and times: it is not embarrassing any longer to mention Black people in a classroom. When I ask myself. "What kind of approach characterizes the last decade here in Portland." I must answer: It has been to encourage the Black child to remember the people, the dates, the landmarks - and then send them on their merry way thinking they know the backgrounds from which they come. At best, this approach is shallow. At worst, it is extremely destructive. Because of what exists now. and what I believe will likely exist in the future. I challenge our Black community. I chai lenge this community to do mure to accept the burdens of teaching young Black children to think well about their heritage. Though the public schools in this city do an absolutely terrible job of integrating the Black perspective, even when it has improved 100%, it will still not be sufficient. Therefore, we must do more ourselves. One way to rectify the situation is organize for the purpose of teaching our children the true and lasting wisdom of Black existence in this country and the world. To achieve this end, it is important that people know that the effort to teach our children the essence of their past will be very highly rewarded. We could afford to enlist the services of scholars and instructors in this commu nity. It would be a small investment which later will bring the priceless dividends of an informed and tough future generation. To embark in this city upon such a commitment to teach the beauty of Black progress in American society, we will boldly give real life to the meaning of Margaret Walker's magnificent dream: “Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; let a people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits and our blood. Let the marshall songs be written. Let the dirges disap pear. Let a race of men now rise and take control.” Portland Observer Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company. 2201 North KiUingsworth. Portland, Oregon 97217. Mailing address: P .0. Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208 Telephone: 283 2486. Subscriptions: $7.50 per year in the Tri-County area. $8.00 per year outside Portland. 1st Place Community Service ONPA 1973 1st Place Best Ad Results ONPA 1973 Second ( las* Postage Paid at Portland Oregon 5th Place Best Editorial NNPA 1973 The Portland Observer * official ponition is expressed only in its Publisher’s column IWe See The World Through Black Eyes). Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the individual writer or submitter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Obaerver. Herrick Mitorial Award NN A 1973 ALFRED L. HENDERSON Editor/Publisher National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. New York M A M fN /L L N 2nd Place Best Editorial 3rd Place Community Leadership ONPA 1975 MEMBER MEMBE* Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Honorable Mention e I i p J I per Afocittioo ■ Founded TM6 Once again Portland Development Commission, with its (Black) henchman more or less telling the community what they must do, is out to rape the Albina Community again. Over the past ten years P.D.C. has come into the Black community, with the help of other Bldbk workers, and stole from poor and defenseless elderly people, for their own selfish gain. The Mayor and the City Council have stood by as if they were as helpless as the victims. When P.D.C. acquired the property for Emanuel Hospital, they used Black work ers to help them steal from the com munity by gaining the confidence of the people - by telling them they were helping them to sign up for social security, medicare, health plan, and you name it they used it to get the property from the people. You would think by now. since the goose has layed so many golden eggs for them they would be content to leave the community alone. This legalized theft has gone on even though people have complained. No one listens, why no one listens is because this is the Albina where most of the poor Black and white live, so you don't have a voice. You are told what to do, not asked what you would like to do. Even though the crooks have been caught, and guilt is obvious, there has not been anyone arrested, or even told the foul play must stop. Now they are ready for another robbery, and there is no one to stop them. P.D.C. know* that even if they paid each homeowner up to $15,000 for their home, it would not be enough to buy a flea trap, as high as property is today. Most houses are selling for $25.000 and up. even with a large down payment the average monthly payment would be $200 to $300, people on low, and fixed income cannot afford to pay that much and try to live too. Most people who were moved from the Emanuel site are poorer now than before they had to move. If P.D.C. had used the money that the Federal government put into the Albina area during the Model Cities program, property there would not be a lot of run down houses still in the area. Most of the money was used in areas where there were working people who could have afforded to pay for their homes to be rehabilitated, but instead they got out right grants. But when it comes time to fix the Boise. Humboldt. Eliot areas the people were only able to get low interest loans. What a rip o ff And the homes that were fixed were poorly done by contractors who were out to make a* much money a* they could, while a good thing lasted. Black people are promised jobs every time a white firm move* into this area. This has gone on for over twenty years and most of us are as jobless now as we were twenty years ago. Nordstrom will be no different once they move in. They will hire one or two Blacks to justify their promise. When will the poor Blacks realize that a bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush. or. keep what you've got unless you are assured of something much, much better without you paying the price for someone else. The few thousand dollars that are being offered for your property can't buy you anything but an early grave from heart aches and heart breaks. whether or not it passes. I, for one, am beginning to find Mr. Priestley a very expensive form of entertainment. Having defended Mr. Priestley. Ms. Fisher goes on to attack Evie Crowell, the only Democratic candidate presently declared in the 16th District, with state ments like the following: "Ms. Crowell is a question mark." “I do not know Ms. Crowell..." "She has a small community track record." "She and others have been encouraged by the powers that be to run against Representative Priestley..." Let me enlighten Ms. Fisher. I do know Ms. Crowell. Her community track record is far from being small, and the only "powers” that have encouraged her to run are the powers inherent in a Black woman has lived in the 16th District since she was six and risen to the position of Associate Professor at Portland State University where she is both a librarian and leaches courses for the Black Studies Department. Evie Crowell is the imme diate past president of the Portland YWCA and has served in many organize tions working for a better community. These include the Martin Luther King Scholarship Fund, of which she was the secretary/treasurer; the Urban League, the Delta Sigma Theta (national Black women's social service sorority), the Public Education Research Council of Oregon, the Portland Art Association, and the City Club (as one of its first female members). In the recent past she has served as a participant or community resource person for the Tri-County Com munity Council Priority Needs Survey, the HEW hearing* on national health care held at Portland State University in October, and the "Wages, Welfare or What" conference held at PSU's School of Social Work last year. Most recently she was a participant at the Oregon Assemb ly of Black Affairs annual meeting in Salem where she took part in the planning for Oregon's first Black political convention, scheduled to be held next month in Portland. If Ms. Fisher doesn't know Ms. Cro well, one wonders where Ms. Fisher spends her time. Sincerely. ' Gary S. Sampson Sincerely. Vesia Loving Questions record To the Editor: In your issue of February 16th you printed a letter by Claudia Fisher which attempted to defend Wally Priestley from the charge of being unable “to introduce legislation and get it through." That letter was a classic example of "distortion by half-truth." Ms. Fisher wrote that Wally Priestley, “if one bothers to check." introduced 28 House measures which were passed and/or adopted by the House in the last legislative session. I have bothered to check, and the facts concerning Mr. Priestley's record are quite different than Ms. Fisher paints them. These facts can be found on page LS-27 of the Final Legislative Calendar of the Fifty ninth Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon. A representative may be counted as introducing legislation in three ways. He can be the sole sponsor of a bill; he can be the principal sponsor of a bill to which other rep resen ta tiv es attach their names; or he can attach his name to someone else’s bill to lend support when it goes before the House. Here is Mr. Priestley’s real record: He was the sole sponsor of twenty House bills. None were signed into law. He was the principal sponsor of nineteen House bills. Two became law. He added his name to 67 bills prepared by others. Thirteen became law. Ms. Fisher wrote of “28 measures" passed by the House, but passing the House isn't the same thing as "getting it through.” In fact only two of Mr. Priestley's own bills actually became laws. The other 37 bills of which he was the sole or principle sponsor never made it. This is not a very impressive re cord for a man who, "at an economic loos to himself, chooses not to be employed outside of the legislature." And speaking of "economic loss," let's not forget, that it costs the taxpayer's from $600 to $1,100 for every bill introduced by a legislator, » Too lot« to classify ENERGY SPECIALIST Duties include: helping de velop criteria and studies designed to identify sites suitable for different types of energy facilities; propos ing standards and rules that applicants for site cer tificate must meet; review monitoring by site operator and other agencies to as sure that state require ments are met; assisting in evaluation of site certificate applicant. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelors Degree in envi ronmental or physical science, natural science, en gineering, or related fields and four years experience in environmental control of resource management; or equivalent combination of experience and training. Salary range: $144541847/ month. Send for application - Ore gon Dept. of Energy, Rm. I ll, Labor & Industries Bldg., Salem, OR. 97310. An Equal O.i.iortunity Em.doyer
