Paga 2 Portland Obaarvar Thursday. January 25. 1979
EDITORIAL/OPINION
They deferred his dream!
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun ?
Or fester like a sore — and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over — like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load?
OR DOES IT EXPLODE?
Langston Hughes
Was it just a coincidence that immediately fol
lowing the Portland Board of Education's refusal
to adopt a school desegregation plan that would
provide justice to the district's Black students,
that same Board eloquently praised the ideals of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jonathan Newman — who has repeatedly
refused to mandatorily transfer white children
w hile busing increasing numbers of Black
children — called Dr. King "the outstanding
American of the Twentieth Century."
Isn't it a shame that those who speak so glibly
of Dr. King's dream that one day "little Black
boys and Block girls will be able to join hands
with little white boys and girls as sisters and
brothers" do not have the courage to make that
dream a reality.
The Board of Education should recall another
of Dr. King's statements: "The whirlwinds of
revolt will continue to shake the foundations of
our nation until the bright day of justice emeiges. ''
Justice has not emerged in Portland — and the
Board's refusal to consider the transfer of white
children for the purpose of desegregation has
delayed that day.
Designating Dr. King's birthdate as a school
holiday (whether paid or unpaid) is an honorable
gesture, one that comes many years too late. But
how much more appropriate would it have been
to end the district's discrimination against Black
children and provide equal educational oppor
tunities for all children.
Another Point o f View
School integration issue not closed
taken from The Oregonian
The Portland School Board's rejection of a
resolution to "pair" Black and white schools, as a
means of racial integration and racial equity in
achieving integration, does not put an end to the
issue of improving the program of integration in
local schools. The School Board and the inde
pendent Community Coalition for School In
tegration, which raised the basic issues involved
in the debate, should continue discussion and ne
gotiation.
Chief among the issues has been the pairing
proposal, in which predominantly white schools
would be matched with Black schools, with
mandatory busing of students between the
schools of each pairing.
This recommendation had built-in explosives.
There are seven predominantly Black schools in
volved, many times that number of w hite
schools. It meant that the Board would be
required to choose a minority of white schools to
share the burden of integration that has rested
more heavily on the Blacks. The Coalition stra
tegically declined to make recommendations for
such pairings.
One of the things that should be sought by
more consultation is a means of involving whites
in busing on a level more equitable to that of
Blacks.
The editors of The Oregonian have grave reser
vations about the over-simplified pairing propo
sal, inviting as it did unreasonable enmities be
tween or among the community's neighbor
hoods. But hope is to be held for a change in the
"s c a tte rin g " of Black pupils among w hite
schools. There should be some cohesion in the
busing of student bodies, whatever the race. One
or two Black pupils in a predominantly white
school or one or two whites in a Black student
body is not integration; it is isolation.
It is our understanding that the School Board
has obstructed an early and fair solution to this
community problem by the reluctance of its
members to discuss the issues among them
selves in public. There has been much
discussion, but it has come primarily from mem
bers of the audience with Board members listen
ing.
A reporter for The Oregonian who attended
the Board meetings and hearings has observed:
"During six Board meetings held on the Coali
tion's proposals, not once has the Board engaged
in public discussion of the substance of these
proposals."
This is not in the tradition of the Portland
School Board or in the tradition of openness at
every level in Oregon government. It does not do
credit to any decisions the Board has so far
made.
The School Board and representatives of the
Coalition should continue to work toward im
provements in the integration program, and they
should do so in the open.
Letters to the Editor
1 have known Kevin Berry since his
birth. 1 want everyone to know of the
good Christian characteristics o f M r.
and Mrs. Edward Berry and their
tw o sons, o f which Kevin is the
youngest.
1 feel that there is a conspiracy
among the police to bust anyone
regardless o f age, race or sex, i f the
person does not have a police record
at all. I am well aware o f th police
officers’ special weapons and tactics
(SW AT), especially in our Albina
area
Our backyard is only one hundred
N.E. Prescott. While gardening each
summer ( fo r ten years) in the
daytime 1 see police officers pulling
cars over — also stopping pedestrians
often for I.D . or whatever. Yes, I
am just nosy and 1 like to know
“ what it is” , as our young people
say.
I pray that the officers in Albina
w ill stop using extreme b ru ta lity
when making an airest because we
do not need a “ Watts,” a "D e tro it”
or an earthquake to teach us a
lesson. Only the strong survive and
we who are parents and grandparents
do not intend to sit quietly like Uncle
Toms and A unt Janes letting our
1st Place
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ONPA 1973
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ONPA 1973
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ONPA 1979
M t M S I I’
ill
« ® -
A lo t ot tnings happened in
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) this past year
but, in terms o f progress, very little
was accomplished. There was the
sellout “ agreement” o f March 3 in
which Bishop Abel Muzorewa and
Rev Ndabaningi Sithole put the 6.5
million Zimbabweans on the auction
block. The immediate response to
this was an escalation o f the armed
conflict. So far, this war has claimed
13,000 lives, 40 percent o f these lives
have been lost since the signing o f the
agreement. Over h a lf a m illio n
people have been incarcerated in
"p ro te cte d villages” to ‘ prevent
them from aiding and collaborating
with the guerrillas.*
There were repeated raids into
M ozam bique and Zambia by the
desperate Smith regime and hun
dreds upon hundreds o f innocent
refugees were killed. White flight
(exodus) reached unprecedented
levels, averaging 1,000 people per
month. By the end o f the year, an
estimated 12,000-20,000 whites (five
percent o f the total) had fled. Ian
Smith, Ndabaningi Sithole and Abel
Muzorewa came to the U.S. at the
invitation to Hayakawa and Helms
to plead for an end to sanctions and
recognition o f the “ internal govern
ment” by the U.S.
Both missions failed. The only
thing the unholy trio succeeded in
doing was in attracting thousands o f
dem onstrators everywhere they
went. The demonstrators managed
to convey to them the message that
even though Americans are so far
away from the scene o f oppression,
they are fully aware o f the injustices
perpetrated by that infamous regime.
The demonstrators also educated a
lot o f their countrymen who may not
have been too fa m ilia r w ith the
Rhodesian tragedy.
W ith the war heating up in
Rhodesia, the mercenary recruitment
campaign was stepped up aU over the
“ Free” world. A t the same time,
combat weary mercenaries who were
already in Rhodesia began to desert
in significant numbers. Ndabaningi
Sithole, who now has to cling to
Smith for survival, initiated a plan to
extend the d ra ft to Blacks. The
bogus elections, originally scheduled
fo r last December were scrapped
almost at the last moment due to
"technical d ifficu ltie s.” They are
now scheduled for A pril 20th. The
white referendum fo r approval or
rejection o f the proposed new con
stitution w ill be on February 28th.
The original guidelines for the set
ting up o f an independent Zimbabwe
have been d ra stica lly altered.
Whereas in the original agreement,
whoever had won the election would
have been free to choose his own
government, the new guidelines call
for a coalition government. Now,
anybody who gets just five percent o f
the vote will have to be included in
the government, w ill nave to be allot
ted some cabinet posts. W ith the
Black vote split three ways, and the
whites guaranteed a m inim um 28
seats, any government to result from
such a setup can only be expected to
be sadly ineffectual if not actually
unworkable. On the other hand, it
would also be a thinly disguised way
o f perpetuating the present system.
Byron Hove, the co-Minister o f
Justice, Law and Order was fired af
ter he had protested the absence o f
Blacks in the higher ranks o f the
police, the army and the rest o f the
civil service. A Rhodesia Airways
plane with 32 persons aboard (all
white) was shot down by the guerril
las using anti-aircraft rockets (SAM)
and all but six o f those on board
perished. A few weeks previously,
several missionaries had been killed.
Initially, the Smith regime had tried
to blame the killings on the guerrillas
in an effort to discredit them before
the eyes o f the world but, evidence
recently uncovered has implicated
the notorious Selous Scouts, opera
tives o f the Rhodesian army who fre
quently masquerade as guerrillas.
Smith held a secret meeting in
Lusaka. Zam bia w ith Joshua
Nkomo, one o f the two leaders o f the
P atriotic Front g u ctrilla alliance.
The meeting was presided over by the
President o f Zam bia, Kenneth
Kaunda who had tried to strike a
separate deal (between Nkomo and
Smith) excluding Robert Mugabe,
the other g u e rrilla chief. This
meeting was inconclusive and at one
p o in t threatened to wreck the
cooperation that had so far existed
among the Front line states. Charges
and countercharges flew back and
forth between Zambia and Tanzania.
The relationship between the two
countries was fu rth e r strained
toward the end o f the year when
Kaunda decided to reopen Zambia’ s
border with Rhodesia, ironically, at
the very time Smith was bombing
Zambia. This border had been closed
since 1968 as pan o f the sanctions
campaign. Some sources claim that
he was pressured into doing this by
the IM F from whom he had had to
borrow to get Zam bia out o f a
nagging financial quagmire.
A few days before Christmas, the
guerrillas made one o f their most
daring and spectacular raids when
they destroyed, using rockets, a fuel
refinery and storage dump just out
side Salisbury (the capital). More
than $20 million worth o f fuel was'
destroyed and the blaze burned out
o f control for four days. A massive
manhunt was launched but the
"culprits” were never apprehended
and the already jitte ry white
populace received another severe
jo lt.
In fleeing the country, due to the
severe currency restrictions the now
desperate regime has imposed, a lot
o f the whites fleeing Rhodesia are
devising some very ingenious ways to
thwart the government. There was
even a scandal involving some very
high ranking military officials who
had diverted into personal Swiss
bank accounts, funds earmarked for
arms purchases. Some eleven
Augusta Bell 203 helicopters
mysteriously turned up in Rhodesia
and the Houston based company
says it has no idea how they got
there. They supposedly originated in
Italy (from a Bell licensee), then were
sold to Israel, then to some “ logging
company” in Southeast Asia and
suddenly wound up in Rhodesia.
They were used in the recent raids.
I f all o f this sounds confusing,
don't despair. You are not alone. I
am sitting here wading through all
this and trying to figure out: where
do we go from here? The only thing
that seems clear is that Rhodesia's
problems are far from over. Even
the U.S. State Department acknow
ledges this and is now sort o f sitting
back to watch. ‘ We have done
all we could * Amidst all this con
fusion comes the latest report which
details how, in addition to the two
wings o f the Patriotic Front battling
the Rhodesian army, Muzorewa,
Sithole and Chirau have now begun
raising private armies that owe
allegiance to them, rather than to
Zimbabwe.
Again, it is the innocent civilian
who gets caught in the crossfire. One
way o f hope lies in that the farmers,
who have been the backbone o f
white resistance to majority and the
m ajor source o f income fo r the
Smith regime have been leaving in
record numbers. In some cases, up to
70 percent o f them have fled.
Business is also suffering as the
businessmen (w hite) spend in te r
minable periods o f time in the bits
pursuing an invisible enemy. Now
the regime has to depend on older
whites (in the 30-70 category) to
guard the cities! This military “ over-
duty" has also spurred white flight.
W ith a new government in Iran
that hopefully will cut o ff oil sales to
South Africa. Rhodesia may finally
be starved o f oil. Meantime, all we
can do is sit and hope and pray that
Zimbabwe will be saved and prevent
ed from completely going to the
dogs.
Africaa realities aad the caaflict strategy myth
Director, USSR A cademy o f
Sciences Institute o f Africa
young people suffer from all kinds of
abuse and possibly murder.
Shame on our preachers, the
cowards, not to speak out in public
concerning all this undercover police
harassment in Portland. You are
going to hell with your eyes wide
open. No praying, singing or
preaching can save you. Repent and
stop your low-down Uncle Tom ways.
Come forward and help Kevin Berry
because his family has helped all o f
us spiritually.
1 do not know the young lady who
was beaten but I pray for her too.
Who w ill be the next victim?
Mrs. C. Louise Harris
PORTLAND OBSERVER
by N. Fungti Kumbuta
by Professor A natoli Gromyko
End police brutality
To the editor:
Rhodesia: What’s la store for the Now Year?
Oregon
Newspaper
Publishers
Association
Refusing to face the facts and to
concede the inevitability o f change,
the West lays the blame for every
thing that is happening in Africa at
variance w ith its interests on the
Soviet U n io n , Cuba and other
socialist countries, claim ing that
these countries are pursuing a “ con
flict strategy’ ’ in Africa. Hence the
myths about “ Soviet penetration”
and about the socialist countries
working to destabilize A frica and
impeding the peaceful settlement o f
c o n flic ts .
M oreoever,
some
politicians in effect lay claim to the
right to wage armed struggle against
the independent countries and pro
gressive forces o f the continent.
The fundamental difference be
tween the approaches o f the USSR
and some Western powers to Africa
developments is plain to see. The
Soviet Union is opposed to policy
which runs counter to the objective
imperatives o f historical develop
ment in Africa. We shall continue, as
always, to support the forces righting
for national liberation and the peo
ples o f the newly free countries who
are waging a d ifficult struggle to up
ho ld th e ir independence and
freedom, including their right to
choose th e ir own path o f social
development, and to ensure the terri
torial integrity, independence and
sovereignty o f their countries. In
pursuing this policy, the USSR is not
prom pted
by
any
" u lte r io r
motives,” contrary to what Western
propagandists maintain. As Leonid
Brezhnev has said, in rendering assis
tance to peoples fighting fo r their
freedom, the Soviet Union does not
seek any advantages for itself, is not
out to obtain concessions, does not
strive for political domination or to
acquire m ilitary bases.
There is another aspect o f the mat
ter that must be borne in mind. Some
prominent leaders o f NATO coun
tries make a point o f underscoring
the dependence of the West’s economy
on wide access to African raw ma
terial resources. Moreover, the em
phasis is placed on the growing im
portance o f these resources for the
economies o f the Western countries,
in particular the United States. But
surely it is obvious that dependence
on one or another raw material source
cannot ju stify the use o f gunboat
diplomacy or armed intervention to
gain control over such sources.
To m aintain that A fric a is an
arena o f rivalry between socialist and
capitalist countries, and especially
between the USSR and the U.S., is to
be totally blind to the very substance
o f the policy o f the Soviet Union.
Suffice it to mention that in our
country there are no transnational
monopolies, which in the United
States, for instance, as is admitted
even in American quarters, often dic
tate their w ill to the State Depart
ment. W hat the Soviet U nion is
working for is the immediate grant
ing to the peoples of southern Africa
o f their legitim ate rights and the
abolition o f such political anomalies
and social anachronisms as the racist
regimes.
The Soviet Union has no “ conflict
strategy” in Africa. It is opposed to
the arms race everywhere, Africa in
cluded. However, when it comes to
newly liberated countries that have
embarked on building a society free
o f exploitation, the Soviet Union,
like the other socialist countries,
helps them to repulse aggression and
to build up their defense capability.
The latest examples are Angola and
Ethiopia, where Soviet and Cuban
assistance fo ile d the aggressors'
plans and compelled them to beat a
retreat. It is not difficult to visualize
what w ould have happened in
Angola, for instance, had the Soviet
Union and Cuba not come to its aid.
As like as not, it would have been oc
cupied by the South African army
and shared the fate o f Nam ibia,
which was annexed by the racists af
ter World War II.
The assistance rendered by the So
viet Union to Angola and Ethiopia
and the national liberation move
ments in southern Africa was fully in
accord w ith the U nited N ations
Charter and the decisions o f the
w orld organization and other?
authoritative international forums.
It serves the just cause o f the libera
tion o f the peoples from racist and
colonial oppression and the defense
o f the sovereignty and territorial in
tegrity o f states against encroach
ments from w ithout. The Soviet
people are rightly proud o f this.
The attempts made to misrepre
sent the stand taken by the Soviet
Union and other socialist countries on
African problems are primarily de
signed to justify the N ATO coun
tries’ policy o f direct intervention in
African affairs. There is no dearth o f
instances o f such interference. Take,
fo r instance, the intervention in
Zaire, the provocations engineered
against Benin, Angola, Zambia. Mo
zambique, and Botswana, the attempt
to set up an “ inter-African force”
under NATO aegis, and the political
maneuvers undertaken to save the
racist regimes.
As we see it, it is imperative for all
states whose efforts could lead to the
removal o f the conflict situation that
has arisen in southern Africa to take
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