Portland observer., July 27, 1978, Image 1

Mrs F ra n ce s S cho e n-'
U n iv e r s it y o f Oresror
t-ugene, Oregon 9740;
noo»
McCoy resigns School Board
PORTLAND
O B S E R /E R
Gladys McCoy announced Wed­
nesday that she w ill resign from her
position on the P ortland School
Board effective September llth . Mrs.
McCoy, who has served two four year
terms on the board, is a candidate for
the Board o f County Commissioners.
The Board has adopted a
procedure similar to that used for the
appointment o f Forrest Reike to fill
the vacancy created by the resignation
of Robert Ridgley. Applicants for the
position can apply with Mrs. Lori
Cargill, Secretary to the Board, by
August 14th. A three member com
mittee appointed by C hairm an
Jonathan Newman - Frank M c­
Namara, Beverly York and Phyllis
Weiner — w ill screen the applicants
and nominate three finalists.
I he finalists will be offered to the
Board on or before August 21st. A d­
ditional persons may be nominated
by three or more board members or
persons not selected may request to
be added.
On September llt h , Mrs. McCoy’ s
resignation w ill be accepted and a
person w ill be elected by the board to
fill the vacancy.
Russell Dawson: Former HUD director dies
W ASHINGTON, D.C. - L l. Col.
Russell H. Dawson, d ire c to r o f
Mobile Home Standards in the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban
Development in W ashington and
former director o f the Portland area
office, died Wednesday at W alter
Reed Arm y Medical Center after an
illness o f two months. He was 38.
A retired Arm y officer, Colonel
Dawson was a native o f West Point,
Mississippi and received his education
at Howard University, Northwestern
University and John Marshall Law
School.
Commissioned a second lieutenant
Al Wingfield (left) and Eugene Jackson (third from left)
of the Northwest Minority Contractors' Association tour
the OSP small engine repair training shop with OSP
instructor James Pettite and Charles Keaton. Director of
o f artillery at For, Custer, Michigan
in 1942, Dawson served in the
Southwest Pacific during World War
II. He took part in the fighting in
Korea during 1930 - 1932 and was
awarded the Bronze Star. From 1954
to his retirement from the Army in
1964, Dawson served in New York,
Honolulu and Fort Lewis. He was
awarded the Arm y Commendation
medal.
Dawson was em ployed by the
Yessler Atlantic Renewal Agency in
Seattle from 1964 to 1966 when he
became D ire cto r o f C om m unity
Development for the H U D Regional
Office in Seattle. He became H UD
Area Office Director in Portland in
1970 with responsibility for Oregon,
Southern Washington and Idaho.
In July o f 1976 he moved to
W ashington and assumed the
position o f Director o f M obil Home
Standards. Survivors include his wife
Alicia and five children, Russell H.
and Mrs. Debra Ballard o f Seattle,
and W illiam, Yvette and Renee; a
sister, M rs. Louise Stone o f
W ashington; and fo u r brothers,
Richard o f D etroit, and W illiam ,
Claude and Johnny o f Washington.
The family suggests that donations
be made to the Martin Luther King
Scholarship Fund o f Oregon.
Rehabilitation (right). Along with Lucius Hicks IV, director
fo the Portland State University Educational Center, they
visited the prison tu review the educational and training
programs. (See story on page 3)
Physicist warns nuclear waste risks not solved
Dale Bridenbaugh told members
o f the Nuclear Facility Siting Council
that “ the Council must take into
consideration the cumulative uncer-
tanties present in the total radioac­
tive waste disposal program” before
approving the construction o f a
nuclear power p la n t at Pebble
Springs by Portland General Elec­
tric.
He said, “ The applicant’ s (PGE)
considerations o f the risks imposed
by radioactive wastes, and o f the
possibility o f continued mismanage­
ment o f the U.S. Waste Disposal
Program
is inadequate
and
shallow and representations o f the
status o f the waste program are sim­
p listic and m isle a d in g ." Briden-
baugh was an engineer and manager
for General Electric for twenty-two
years before he and tw o other
engineers quit in 1976 because they
felt the commercial nuclear program
was being im plem ented w ith o u t
enough attention to safety factors.
Claiming that the U.S. Govern­
ment has no nuclear waste disposal
policy, Bridenbaugh referred to a
Department o f Energy report o f
March, 1978, that states “ This Task
Force Report is intended to be a first '
step toward formulation o f the ad­
m in is tra tio n ’ s p o lic y .” P rivate
utilities asking for construction ap­
proval have maintained that a govern^
ment facility for waste disposal w ill
be ready before the need for waste
disposal arises.
Bridenbaugh added that “ History
has conclusively demonstrated that
decision-m aking bodies cannot
depend on the o p tim is tic press
releases and schedules o f the nuclear
industry.”
(Please turn to Page 6 Column 3)
Neighborfair and a hot Sunday afternoon combined to
impel youngsters to take to the water. Those who found
the courage dove or jumped from the sea wall; others
found easier ways into the Willamette.
Western military upholds corrupt dictator
by N. Fungai Kumbula
In 1884, European powers
gathered in Berlin to decide how to
split up Africa in the infamous Par­
tition o f Africa. Today, what was
once one huge territory with no real,
fixed borders is split up into fifty ,
separate and independent countries.
And the partition was so complete
that now we have ‘ Arab A fric a ’ ,
’ Anglophone A fric a ’ , ’ Apartheid
A frica ’ , ’ Black A frica’ and ‘ Fran­
cophone A frica’ .
Analysis
Today, echoes o f that shameless
day in history arc very evident no,
only in present makeup o f Africa,
bu, also in the recent events affecting
both A fric a and Europe. A few
weeks ago, “ rebels” invaded Zaire
for the second time in fourteen months.
No sooner had they landed than
the U.S., France, Belgium and Wes,
Germany rushed in to “ rescue”
trapped Europeans.
For almost two weeks, we were
bombarded with daily broadcasts of
whites being “ massacred” by the
rebels. One curious aspect o f the
reports was the selective use o f the
word “ massacre". It seems that
whites were always “ massacred”
even when they were only ten o f
them and Blacks were always
"k ille d ” even when they were 200 o f
them. I wondered why Blacks can
never be “ massacred.”
T hat aside, very few people
bothered to figure out why there was
an invasion in the firs t place,
especially in view o f the fact that one
had been repulsed only a year before.
M obutu is one o f the most un­
popular leaders in Africa, and, on a
continent that boasts a Vorster and a
Smith, that’ s quite a distinction!
M o b u tu is now one o f the
wealthiest men in the world from
diverting the wealth o f the country
into his own pocket when it should
be going to improve the lives o f all
Z a iro is .
Instead o f b u ild in g
hospitals, schools, decent houses,
child care centers and other such
facilities to benefit all the people o f
Zaire, M obutu has used Z a ire ’ s
wealth to build a chateau in Paris,
another in Brussels and a villa in
Switzerland.
There have been numerous reports
in such papers as the Los Angeles
Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer,
The Nation, The New Leader and so
on, d e ta ilin g the c o rru p tio n
prevalent in the M obutu regime.
T yp ica l o f such reports is the
fo llo w in g , fro m Time 10/28/74:
“ The aura o f princely grandeur
surrounding Mobutu is . . . bolstered
by a lifestyle that includes palacial
residences in each o f the eight
provinces and others in France,
Belgium and Switzerland. There is
rfot only a luxurious palace in Kin­
shasa, but also a twenty square mile
‘ presidential domain* at N ’ sele, forty
miles away, which contains two more
residences and a swimming pool
reputed to be A frica’s largest. To
shuttle back and forth between his
in te rn a tio n a l chain o f palaces,
Mobutu uses the national airline, A ir
Zaire, as his personal transport ser­
vice. His high-handed habit o f com­
mandeering planes at whim has made
A ir Zaire's schedules something o f a
joke. When M obutu visited West
Germany last spring, he took the
line’s 747 for himself and a DC 10
for his wife, leaving A ir Zaire sud­
denly without two o f its largest air­
craft.”
M obutu also holds co n trolling
shares in Zaire’s largest taxi com­
pany, in the Banque de Kinshasa
(Bank
of
Kinshasa),
owns
skyscrapers in The Ivory Coast (West
Africa), and “ substantial chunks”
o f Zaire’s wholesale and retail trade.
Almost 43 percent o f the gross world
receipts from the famed Muhammad
A li — George Foreman fight in Kin­
shasa in 1974 ended up in Mobutu's
pocket.
M obutu has also sold 90,000
square miles o f Zaire to the West
Germans to use, reportedly, as a
missile base. Apparently, the Ger­
mans are forbidden from having
such installations in their own coun­
try as a result of some o f the restric­
tions placed on them after W orld
War II. The equipment they are
moving in there is so sophisticated
they can monitor the movements o f
all the lib e ra tio n movements in
Southern Africa.
The Germans would have absolute
sovereignly over this vast territory
which is larger than Swaziland,
Lesotho, M a la w i, Rwanda and
Burundi combined. The possibility
has been raised that they might soon
expel all the Africans living there.
Now, do you still wonder why the
people o f Zaire would rather have a
different leadership!
The position o f the U.S. is exem­
plified by two statements from the
White House:
“ Zaire is a good friend and a good
investm ent.”
N ixo n ,
toasting
Mobutu in 1972.
“ Over a period o f years, Mobutu
has been a friend o f ours. We have
enjoyed a good relationship with
Zaire. We have substantial commer­
cial investments in that country.” —
Carter press conference (3/24/77).
Anybody who read the papers in
March and A pril of last year w ill
recall these screaming headlines:
“ U.S. Flies Supplies To Zaire To
(Please turn to Page 2 Column 4)
Job Corps training leads to $16,000 job
A young man was in the Public
Defender’ s office because he had
been accused o f a crime which he did
not commit. That accusation cost
him his job where he was earning
$7700 per year in janitorial services.
It was there that he first heard about
Job Corps. Reluctant, because of
unpleasant rumors, he went to the
employment office to check it out.
He signed up to go to the center in
Astoria to learn Carpentry, but while
he was waiting for his departure, he
decided to join (he Navy. During this
time, he decided what he really want­
ed to learn was Welding. While in the
Navy, he was told he did not qualify
to learn welding.
Discouraged,
since that was why he had
joined, he thought that his best
bet to making a lot o f money might
be to become the best undercover
pusher in America. After leaving the
Navy he applied again to Job Corps,
this time to the Portland Job Corps
Center where he was told that there
was a welding class and that his
chances were very good o f being able
to attend.
Levoy Glass entered Portland Job
Corps Center on February 2, 1977.
He was assigned to Welding for one
week at the Springdale Campus and
to basic education classes the alter­
nate weeks downtown at 1022 S.W.
Salmon. In addition to math and
reading, he took Home Economics
and sewed himself a super looking
jacket fo r which he thanks Ms.
F ra h m ’ s excellent in s tru c tio n .
W ith in three m onths he was
nominated fo r a Fireball Award.
Now he is earning $16,000 per year
as a welder.
According to Levoy, it was not
easy sledding. He wanted to quit
many times, but he kept himself
going by telling himself that this was
his last chance. He was 21. Some of
his friends were in C o m m u n ity
College but they were working to
pay the tution, or applying for grants
or loans. The $30/m onth wasn’ t
much but $50/m onth which ac­
cumulates in savings mounted up to
$600 in one year.
Levoy attributes his success to the
skill o f his instructor, Steve Burdeny.
“ Mr. Burdeny would always help me
when I really needed it, but he
wouldn’ t help when I could solve the
problem myself. He answers all the
rig h t questions the rig h t w a y ,”
reports Levoy. One o f the virtues o f
Job Corps training is being able to
work at one’s own pace.
By July, five months after he en­
tered Job Corps, Levoy Glass was
shop foreman. “ By being forced to
give leadership, I had to do my
best.” W ith that incentive, Levoy
started thinking that he was the best
welder in the shop; then he set out to
prove it. He looks at welding as an
art, as is basketball, and you have to
work at it.
As Levoy gained skill, he went out
on work experience as do most Job
Corps completers. He went to work
making fireplaces at $4.50 per hour.
Two weeks later a job opened up at
FMC. Levoy joined the Union, took
a four hour test and was told that if
the test weld broke they would call
him, if not, he had the job. So, after
only nine months at the Portland Job
Corps Center, Levoy Glass had a job
that paid more than the teacher who
taught him. He was a welder at $8.69
per hour. Now, after seven months
on the job, he is earning $8.99 per
hour and his future looks bright.
Levoy is proud o f going from a ‘ 56
Chevy to a ‘74 Audi in one year,
thanks to Job Corps. He is prouder
still that he has gone from earning
nothing to earning $16,000 in one
year, thanks to Mr. Burdeny. What
is best o f all, is that he knows that he
need never be unemployed again.
For Levoy Glass, Job Corps has
made a big difference. He would tell
others who hover on the edge o f
deciding i f such a program is right
for them:
“ Don’ t listen to what you hear,
listen to what you can learn.” And to
those who are after big money the
easy way:
“ Job Corps is a gamble, but the
worst you can do is break even.”
As a person who experienced
many doubts before entering, and
after he was in Job Corps, Levoy
says, “ I f there is a doubt. Check Job
Corps o u t!"
Levoy Glass and his instructor, Steve Burdeny, in the welding shop at Port­
land Job Corps facility in Springdale.