Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1978)
The "tax revolt Page 2 Portland Observer Thursday. July 27. H"1** We see the world through Black eyes The right to protest Since before the U.S. became a nation the process of non-violent civil disobedience has been a method for the people to seek changes in laws or policies they consider wrong. During the 1960s thousands of people were jailed and persecuted because they used non violent protest as a m ethod to bring public a tte n tio n ra cia lly d is c rim in a to ry law s and practices. The Vietnam war brought peaceful protest from all segments of society until finally that immoral and illegal war was ended. Although governmental and law enforcement o ffic ia ls w ere n o t k in d ly d isposed to w a rd protesters -- and many sacrificed their lives or their reputations -- the right to free speech, to public assembly and to petition for change were more or less accepted. Now PGE asks the court to prevent the Trojan D ecom m issioning A lliance and others from holding a non-violent demonstration in protest of the Trojan plant. Few would deny that PGE has the ultimate right to eventually have tresspassers removed from its property, but it is far more serious to attempt to prevent a protest before it happens - before any laws are broken. The protesters expect to be arrested and possibly jailed. Those who break the law in civil disobedienced in order to change the law expect to suffer the consequences, and PGE can use the courts to attempt to impose those penalties. The goal of TDA is to close down Trojan through peaceful and legal means. Though PGE might have legitimate fears that this goal might someday be reached if the protests and other actions continue, this is hardly an excuse for PGE to attempt to deny the constitutional rights of bv Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. The so-called “ tax re v o lt” spearheaded by the action o f California voters in voting for the in famous Proposition 13, a massive reduction in local property taxes, supported the decision to remove prayer from the represents the triumph o f the politics public schools and we opposed those w h o o f selfishness. because of their own religious beliefs w ould deny It reflects the growing tendency of middle class voters to favor personal the right to abortion to other women. gain over the public good. I f this But this is going a bit far. A fter all, religious trend continues, effective govern broadcasts bring great com fort to many elderly ment could be severely hampered and handicapped persons who otherwise w ould and the fragile ties that bind a have no access to religious services. Even those pluralistic nation weakened. Stripped to its essentials, the tax w h o c o n s id e r th e m se lve s to o b usy or revolt represents a shell game, in disinterested to attend church can get a little which middle class voters fall for inspiration via the airwaves. meat-axe slashes in taxes that benefit Those w ho w ant no religion have no right to the rich while saving a few pennies deprive those w ho do. for themselves, if that, and reducing the public services that benefit the poor. In California, for example, the bulk o f tax savings w ill go to Governor Straub, Vern Cook and other public businesses, large agricultural enter officials w ho have had the courage to take a prises. and rich homeowners. Middle stand against Ballot Measure #6, the 1 % percent class property owners w ill soon find tax lim itation, deserve our com m endation. No that their savings on the property tax public official or political candidate should favor w ill be offset by substitute taxes in this measure, w hich w ill wreak havoc on state the form o f user fees for public ser and local programs w ith o u t bringing real tax relief vices. They’ ll pay more in federal taxes since their property tax deduc to those w ho need it most. tions w ill be lower. Measure #6 w ill bring benefits to the owners of They’ ll also find themselves hurt business and industrial property. Those elderly by a reduction in public services. citizens on fixed incomes whom we hear so much Their kids’ schools w ill lose teachers about w ill lose most if not all of the tax refunds and books, their garbage w ill be picked up less often, and there w ill th e y n o w re ce ive . be fewer firemen to respond to A few state officials and candidates have been emergencies. Time to take a stand brave enough to announce their opposition to the measure. Last week State Senator Vern Cook (candidate fo r U.S. Senate) appeared on a talk show and since then he has been regularly smeared and castigated on the air. Apparently few listened to w hat he said. Governor Straub has strongly opposed the measure in spite of the fact that he faces a tough race against Victor Atiyeh. Now the question is whether these m en's op concerned citizens. ponents w ill be brave enough to take a similar stand — or w ill they remain silent and give im plied support. There is no doubt that the measure As unbelievable as it m ight seem, there is has great popular support, at least at this tim e, and that some candidates may try to ride into o f actually a move afoot to introduce legislation to bar religious programming from radio. Supported fice on its coat tail. So it is tim e fo r Vic Atiyeh to get o ff the fence by prominent athiests, the legislation is sought and say where he stands. And Mark Hatfield under the guise of religious freedom. W e have s u p p o rte d e ffo rts in b e h a lf o f m ight just as well make his statement, too. It freedom of religion - or freedom from religion. would be too bad if im portant political decisions We believe that the U.S. Constitution guarantees were made on one issue — especially an issue every person the freedom to choose his own that is as little understood and as misrepresented religion or to refrain from religious belief. We as Measure #6. Religion in the air AS '(OU CAN SEE MR- AFFIRMATIVE ACpON O F F IC E R 4AV£ A NUHORVTX ON THIS Ô06 ! ! I CAN T \U H 0 E R S T A N 0 THOSE - VUE DO tBLACKS ARE COMPLAINIHGJ negative movement. For the tax revolt amounts to a major escalation o f the war between the classes. A m erica’ s d irty little secret, carefully hidden from view and denied by almost all, is that we have a class system. There are people on top who call the shots, there are people in the middle who identify their own interest with the powerful, and there are people on the bottom, effectively excluded from America’s riches. That bottom p o rtio n o f our society includes disproportionate numbers o f Blacks and other m inorities. T w enty-five m illio n people are poor, almost double that if you use more realistic figures than the o ffic ia l government statistics. They need services only government can provide — public service jobs, training and education programs, and, yes, welfare programs to allow them to barely survive. And those are the programs that are the targets o f those who so en thusiastically preach lower taxes and balanced budgets. The same people who protest high taxes w ill back a billion-dollar-plus B-l bomber, but they’ll fight public housing tooth and nail. The same people who complain about higher taxes on their SKO.OOO homes w ill bitterly oppose modest at tempts to house the homeless. So it all comes down to an attitude that can be summed up as: ‘ T v e got mine and 1 w on’ t help you get yours.” Make no mistake about it, the issue is not rationalizing an often inequitable tax system; the issue is the war on the poor. W hy then, did they vote fo r something so potentially destructive? Part o f the reason lies in the peculiarities o f the C a lifo rn ia situation — a real estate boom that has sent housing prices skyrocketing and an assessment policy that put property taxes on the same escalator. That legitimate gripe doesn’ t exist everywhere else, so there is hope the excessive California reaction won’ t be duplicated elsewhere. Bui in fact there is a nationwide trend. Some states have similar tax lim itation drives. Twenty-three state legisla tures have passed a call fo r a constitutional amendment to ban federal budget deficits. And spineless political leaders are scrambling to get aboard the anti-tax bandwagon. They arc abdicating the responsibility of leadership, which is to govern effectively and to educate the public to the fact that taxes pay for the services the public demands. Poll after poll shows public expectations o f government is high. People want better schools, a strong defense force, better roads and transit, and even health insurance programs. I f the tax revolt gathers strength those things w ill be out o f reach o f governm ent’ s a b ility to provide them. But you can bet that the tax breaks and hidden and overt sub sidies that benefit rich people or favored special interests will remain intact. But talking of the tax revolt in terms of its impact on government revenues and services only obscures what may be the real meaning o f this prisoners at OSP To the Editor: Andy Young said there are political prisoners in the U.S., and it caused a com m otion among the politicians. Prisons, federal and statt are some o f the biggest political plums that exist in this society, playing on the fears of the public about crime and criminals is one of the oldest and surest roads to success for aspiring politicians, and yet some are outraged that anyone would im ply that Am erica has p o litic a l prisoners. What is a prisoner doing three years for driving with a suspended license called? Street crim inal? Dangerous felon? Twenty to thirty thousand dollars in taxes is used to apprehend, convict, and imprison this desperado. Twenty to th irty thousand is taken out of the tax payers pockets and put into the pockets o f the state bureaucracy, (minus the two or three thousand necessary for the prisoner’s food and two sets of used blue jeans), and the politicians yell “ Foul!” when their motives are questioned. Prisons are slave labor camps. The conditions are better than the slave camps portrayed by Hollywood and television land: prisoners live in brightly painted cells, are allowed to buy radios, magazines, potato chips. But painted cells and the privilege of being able to buy radios, magazines, and potato chips, (which include a healthy profit for the state), does not negate the fact that forced prison labor makes hundreds of thousands o f dollars each year for the state. The money goes to the state bureaucracy. Politics anyone? For each prisoner the state draws so much per head from the taxpayer. Plus millions in federal aid is poured in. The money goes for more and higher paid s ta ff, more fringe benefits, higher retirement a llo wances. Some trickles through for out- of-date textbooks, a h a lf dozen basketballs, three new softballs. Some o f the money goes for fat con tracts such as a ten thousand dollar rennovation of showers that could have been done with one hundred dollars and satisfied everyone con cerned. Everyone, that is, except the people playing politics with prisoners and appropriations. Recently a prisoner detailed the sta ffs continual abuses in the S&I building to a lawyer in this prison’ s public security visiting cubicle. The prisoner is a diabetic and takes medicine each night. The staff lorgot his medicine that night, and he went into a seizure. The staff carried him out in a blanket twenty minutes after the seizure began. H e’ s not a political prisoner any more than the suspended driver is, but such in cidents and waste o f life can be m ultiplied a thousand times. I t ’ s called rehabilitation. But it’ s politics. Pure and simple. Zaire l i t Place Community Servie» ONPA 1*73 PORTLAND OBSERVER 1st Place Bast Ad Results ONPA 1*73 Published every Thurwtay by E xit Publishing Company, 2201 North Killingsworth, Portland Oregon 97217. M ailing address: P .O Box J IJ 7, Portland, Oregon 97208. Telephone: 283-2486. 8th Placa Beat Editorial NNPA 1*73 Subscriptions J7 50 per year in the Tri-County area, $8 00 per year Honorable Mention Herrick Editorial Award NNA 1*73 outside Portland Second Claaa Poataga Paid at Portland. Oregon The Portland O b trrver’s official position is expressed only in its Publisher s column (We 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 o f the Portland Observer A LF R ED L H E N D E R S O N E ditor/P u bli»h»r M tM M K I Publishers ‘ Association in T r i- C o u n t y A re a Congratulations To the Editor: Congratulations for your recent recognition by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Democracy cannot survive on ignorance. For that reason, the press constitutes one o f the most impor tant elements o f a free society. The dedication of your management and staff to the prin ciple o f a w ell-inform ed and, thereby, free society, deserves the high recognition o f your peers which your award symbolizes. Your paper stands as one o f the finest in the state. I know you will continue to provide Oregonians o f the future with the same high stan dard o f service that earned your award. Sincerely, Bob Straub Governor the O AU and is intended to safeguard A fric a ’ s hard won in dependence and not to keep some unpopular dictator in power. 1 would support it if it were intended to ex pand A frican’ s individual liberties and not merely to ensure the con tinued outflow o f profits to some foreign capital. When questioned about the objec tives o f the National Front for the Liberation o f the Congo (FNLC), its leader, General Nathaniel M ’ Bumba said the aim of the FNLC was “ to chase M obutu from power and create a government o f national u n ity .” No, a word about com munism or the expulsion of foreign workers! It is also interesting to note here just how few jo u rn a lists bothered to hear the “ views from the other side” — how many even knew the name General M ’ Bumba. So much for fair coverage! $ 8 .0 0 Ofher PORTLAND OBSERVER A d d re s s MtMMR N e N p N $ 7 .5 0 corruption, the waste and the endless repression, Britain, France, West Germany, the U.S. and Belgium scramble to the rescue, once more underscoring the West’s callous in difference to the wishes and aspirations o f the Africans. Together, the Western powers concoct a plan to create a Pan Africa Force "designed to protect govern ments that arc friendly to the West.” Not one word in the statement says anything at all about the rights of the people! Which means that, all any dictator threatened with internal revolt simply has to do is be pro- West and he is assured of support. That way, we w ill have dictators staying in power for decades regard less o f how hard their people may try to topple them. Like Tanzania’ s President Julius Nyerere, I have no objection to the creation o f a Pan Africa Force as long as it is credited at the behest o f Sincerely, Donald Danford #32323 3rd Placa Community Leadership ONPA 1*7* National Advertiaing Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. Naw York Oregon Newspaper 2nd Place Beat Editorial 3rd Piece Community Leadership ONPA 1*78 (Continued from Page 1 Column 6) difference to the wishes and Assist in Halting The Invasion.” “ S ta b ility o f Zaire C ould Be Perilled, Vance Tells H ill,” “ Egyp tian Soldiers Arrive In Zaire,” “ France A irlifting Morrocan Troops To Help Out In Zaire” and so forth and so on. Pretty much the same scenario was repeated this year except this time, the catch phrase was: “ whites massacred in Zaire.” Because of all this deliberate con fusion, the public failed to under stand the reasons behind the in vasion. Everybody became overly concerned about whites being massacred and the charges and count er charges flung back and forth be tween Carter and Castro. Mobutu is a dictator. O f that there is no doubt. But, he is a pro-West dictator, so he’ s ‘okay’ . The moment his corrupt regime is threatened by his own people, fed up with the Political prisoners in the United States? The politicians, from the aspiring district attorneys to the up set Congressmen in Washington, know there are political prisoners: that’s why they are so upset. p ER City _ ______________________ _____ ________________________ P.O. Box 3137
