Papa 2 Portland Observar Thursday. February 1.1979
EDITORIAL/OPINION
ri
Renew commitment
Change filibuster rule
The death of four young boys, members of the
Columbia Boys Club basketball team, reminds us
of the special uniqueness of each and every
child. Each child is not only an individual - with
bis own talents, desires, joys, and dreams -- but
be holds a special place in his family, his church,
his school, his community, a place than can
net/er be filled by another.
The loss of these young boys reminds us of
the community's responsibility to each child -- to
insure that each receives the care and protec
tion, the guidance and the education that will
allow him to achieve some of those dreams.
As we mourn the loss of these young boys, we
must also renew our commitment to all the
communty's children.
The United States Senate is again attempting
to deal with the filibuster - a procedure that
allows one or a small group of Senators to
prevent discussion of or vote on proposed
legislation by holding the floor for days or weeks.
Free them, too
Amnesty International has charged the US
with cruel and degrading punishment in some
prisons, possible fabrication of charges against
political activists and the use of the death penalty
by some states.
Among the specific cases mentioned were the
Wilmington 10; the Charlotte Three; Johnny
Harris, who faces the death penalty in Alabama;
and additional Black and Indian prisoners.
In light of the CIA's years of drug testing and
brain washing of unsuspecting, defensless
citizens; the FBI's harassment of Black and In
dian rights groups; the suspicious nature of teh
involvement of the CIA and the FBI in the
assassinations of President Kennedy and Dr.
King, these allegations are undoubtedly true.
Now that President Carter has set Patty Hurst
free, he should look into the phons and the courts
and fee the US's political prisoners.
Organized filibusters have echoed through
modern Senate history beginning with the effort
to talk to death the Anti-Lynching bill of 1937.
The filibusterers have usually been Senators
from the same bloc of states, trying to preserve
white supremacy or corporate power.
Virtually every step toward human rights in the
United States has been the target of the
filibuster. These anti-human rights filibusters in
clude those against the 1937-1938 Anti-Lynching
bill (29 days); the 1942 Anti-Poll Tax bill (9 days);
the 1946 Fair Employment Practices bill (18
days); the 1964 Civil Rights bill (83 days); the
1965 Voting Rights bill (26 days); the 1966 Repeal
of Right-to-Work-for-Less (14b) (16 days); the
1968 Campaign fund financing bill (20 days); the
1968 Open Housing bill (34 days); the 1972 Equal
Job Opportunities bill (23 days); the 1973 Voter
Registration bill (10 days,; the 1974 Consumer
Protection bill (17 days); the 1975 Common Site
Picketing bill (10 days,; the 1976 Anti-Trust
Amendments (14 days).
Past attempts to change the rules to control
filibustering have failed. At the beginning of each
session the rules can be changed by a procedural
motion - and that opportunity can be taken now
if enough Senators agree.
Persons w ho are interested in a more
democratic process in the Senate should urge
Oregon's Senators, Mark Hatfield and Robert
Packwood, to support this rule change.
O.S.P. runs 'kangaroo court'
The January 25, 1979, ‘ Behind the
W a ll’ colum n is one o f the best
analysis o f the prison kangaroo
court 1 have read. The standard,
“ You can have witnesses as long as
they arc not inmates, staff members,
or other Dersons” o f O.S.P. has been
laughed at, ridiculed, held up as an
example o f madness. From coast to
coast people are earnestly trying to
understand what type o f “ human in
telligence” could come up with such
nonsense. The keepers o f O.S.P.,
meanwhile, are content that they are
perfectly normal. A fter all, they have
always done things upside down and
see no reason to change now. They
are working, drawing steady pay-
checks, paying bills: what else is
there to life?
The last paragraph o f Earnest
Watson’s article summed up the en
tire Oregon “ correction" story: “ . .
. poorly trained personnel that deal
directly w ith the priso n e r.” The
emotions o f guards and other prison
personnel run the prison. I f the
keepers like the prisoner on a personal
basis, the prisoner w ill find that all
o f a sudden things are going right for
him — he secures the favored job he
wants, he gets the cell move he
wants, his daily life starts running
smoother, thanks to the almighty
guard. I f the keepers become men-
ta lly/e m o tio n a lly involved w ith a
prisoner on another level, the
prisoner’s life is beset with troubles,
from the hassle o f getting his cell
door open to getting a job change, a
cell move or any o f the 101 daily in
volvements o f sta ff and prisoner.
The convict who is the object o f the
guards negative emotions may find
himself trying to reason with the " in
telligence” that believes “ you can
have witnesses as long as they are not
people” makes sense. And up is
down and straight is crooked and
few are many . . .
Sincerely,
Donald Danford
American State Bank expands
(Continued from page 1 col. 4)
businesses who find it inconvenient
to come to the east side.”
Booker credits Sol and Frank
Director, owners o f the property the
bank w ill occupy, as providing much
o f the encouragement for the move
downtown. The general area where
the branch w ill be located is having a
renewed growth with the building o f
the M arriot Hotel, Portland General
Electric’s buildings and planning for
the Hawthorne Bridge area.
For the firs t tim e, ASB paid
dividends to stock holders this year.
The first three quarters o f 1978, the
dividend was 5< a share, but it was in
creased to 10c a share for the final
quarter.
The bank is increasing its loans
and is establishing a specialty in real
estate loans. Currently, a SI million
loan, the bank’ s largest, is being
closed with a Marion County com
pany. As a community based bank,
there is a desire to assist new and
potential homeowners as well as
businesses locate in the North-North-
east area. The bank also has a large
number o f Small Business Adm ini
stration loans, possibly the great
est number compared to the size of
the bank.
A bank is the hub o f the com
munity, around which the economic
and financial life evolves. Life in this
com m unity does not yet evolve
around ASB. since its competitors
are the well-established First
National and United States National
Banks. “ O ur co m p e titio n is the
best,” according to Booker. “ First
National is the 38th largest bank in
the nation and U.S. is right behind.
Accounts d o n ’ t come fro m no
where — every account has to
be taken away from another bank.
When the old established banks open
a new branch, most o f the customers
transfer from another branch and
they pick up a few new ones. But our
customers are all new.
“ We are competing against the
giants. They have the history and
the technology to win. We have had
hurdles to overcome that others
d on’ t — proving that a m in o rity
owned bank can have integrity and
stability. But now we are able to
compete on th e ir grounds and
sometimes to win.
“ We are growing and expanding,
and the year ahead w ill bring greater
successes.”
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Community Service
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Community Leadership
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3rd Piece
Community Leadership
ONPA 1979
Ml MSH
Oregon
PER
Aasocialion
by N. ¡u n ta i Kumbula
For a long time now, Africa has
viewed China as a friend, a leader
and a comrade in the struggle to be
free. The Chinese revolution and her
ensuing ‘go it alone* policy provided
a shining beacon that inspired
colonial Africa to rise up and throw
o ff the colonial shackles. China was
one o f the few countries that not
only turned up its nose at
‘capitalism’s exploitation ot man by
man* bt.t also actually came up with
a viable alternative.
They wiped out starvation, dtug
addiction and drug abuse, crime and
all the other ills o f capitalist
decadence and built from one of the
poorest countries on earth, a major
world power. And they did it single-
handed too. That’s what was so at
tractive to other people around the
world, people who were also trying
to get up from under the yoke o f op
pression. C hina’ s call fo r self re
liance was something they could all
identify with.
The architect o f this philosophy,
one Mao Tse-tung, died a few years
back and soon after his death, China
began to undergo profound policy
changes. The Great Wall o f China
that had kept “ foreign barbarians”
for hundreds o f years began to tum
ble — torn down by China's new
open door policy. The world watch
ed and A frica gasped.
Now China's door is open so wide
that Coca Cola is gushing through.
Before too long. Big Macs w ill be
making the ‘ Great Leap To China’
with “ Saturday Night Fever” right
on their heels. Credit cards, autos,
tractors, blue jeans, the whole
works. The way things arc going,
before too long, you w ill have
trouble deciding whether you are in
Chinatown (C alifornia) or "R e d ”
China.
You do not quarrel w ith your
neighbor because he is fixing up his
home for his family or building a
play area for his kids. By the same
token, we do not have any quarrel
w ith C hina’ s m odernization pro
gram. We understand their need for
technology, to enter the 20th cen
tury. The Chinese leadership know
best what’s good for China and we
applaud them for trying to accelerate
the advancement o f their country.
The one thing we are concerned
about is the resultant change that in
her foreign policy that accompanies
these ‘ ‘ advances.” As C h in a ’ s
relations with the West have im
proved, so her ties to the T hird
W orjd have been equally and ad
versely affected. The change had
been coming for quite some time but,
the real danger signal came with the
Angola Civil War o f 1975. China
had become increasingly obsessed
with trying to “ check Soviet expan
sionism " and so China began to
throw in her lot more and more with
the Western countries.
During the Angola War, because
o f this obsession, China, for the very
firs t time, took the same side as
A frica’ s arch enemy. South Africa,
in opposing the ascension to power
o f the M PLA. This came as a rude
shock to all A frica and suddenly
made us realize what a very different
hue our friend had now taken. A f
ter Angola came Zaire and, again,
China took the same side as South
A fric a along w ith Fran¿e, West
Germany and the U.S.
This is where our concern lies: that
in "norm alizing” relations with the
Western countries, China has begun
to take some rather unpopular
positions. In the struggles in
Southern A frica, China had been
one o f our mdfjt enthusiastic sup
porters, lending m o ra l, p o litic a l,
financial and material support. Most
of the time, this was in direct conflict
w ith the wishes o f the Western
nations who were concerned about
their investments. Lately, Chinese
aid has either been tied to too many
conditions or been cut o ff altogether.
I f the Chinese no longer wish to-
support our struggle, we cannot
argue with them. After all, you do
not prosecute a man for refusing to
offer you food. Our concern steins
from the fact that they may now de
cide to flex their muscles and in
fluence the course o f events (in the
wrong direction) in Southern Africa.
Already, it has been reported that,
when Zbniew Bzezinski went to
China recently, he was trying to per
suade the Chinese to cut back their
support fo r the Zim babwean
guerrillas. This in spite o f the fact
that the U.S. officially maintains a
“ neutral” policy.
As Teng Hsiao-ping basks in the
limelight in Washington, we wonder:
‘ Have we merely lost a friend or
made a new enemy as well?’
Urban poor being displaced
by Vernon Jordan
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
China's new foreign policy
Newspaper
Publishers
Association
Instead o f a planned effort to save
Speculators are making fortunes
major report to Congress on the ex
the cities for the people who now live
out o f this process while local of
tent o f displacement, a report that
w ith in th e ir borders, there is a
ficia ls welcome it as a way o f
should result in Congressional ac
national movement o f urban
reducing the city services poor people
tio n . M eanw hile, federal bank
revitalization going on that w ill - if
need and gaining tax money middle
regulatory agencies are putting new
it is not checked — wind up driving
income people bring.
mortgage money into urban housing
people from their homes and neigh
But this is no way to save cities.
markets that
w ill accelerate
borhoods and worsen A m erica’ s
The process merely trades revival in
displacement.
social problems.
one neighborhood for accelerated
Some people actually think that
Inner city neighborhoods are being
d e te rioratio n in another. Unless
helping this destructive process con
spruced up w ith rehabilitate d
policies are devised to shield the poor
stitutes “ social responsibility” . They
housing and other amenities. Lend
from displacement and to allow them
seem to think that any kind o f urban
ing institutions are putting up mo
to participate in true urban revival,
investment, even If it is a downtown
ney for housing and rehabilitation in
then the process may ignite the social
office building, is a “ social invest
neighborhoods they once redlined.
dynamite barely below the surface in
ment” .
I t ’s all part of a process designed
most cities.
Meanwhile, the poor are being
to attract the middle class back into
The Department o f Housing and
forced out o f th e ir homes, and
the cities they had deserted for the
U rban Development needs more
rational urban development may
suburbs. And one result o f that
powers to deal with the displacement
wind up being delayed fo r yet
process, whether intended or not, is
problem . It w ill be subm itting a
another generation.
displace the poor and the elderly now
living in those neighborhoods.
A National urban Coalition study
o f 65 neighborhoods in 44 cities
(Continued from Page I Column 4)
documents this.
population being held at Rocky But
without ever being allowed out for
Inner city houses are being bought
te arc Black while the outside ratio
fresh air which is contributing to
up, rehabilitated and sold to affluent
on Black citizens is about four per
poor health conditions at the jail.
people. Ideally, this should help the
cent.
According to previously revealed
racial and economic integration o f
Spokespersons fo r this Support
information, the food remains below
urban neighborhoods.
Committee are asking anyone sen
par, overcrowding continues, sani
But such integration as takes place
sitive to these conditions to attend
tary conditions are poor and health
appears to be only a way station on
the demonstration Sunday.
care specifically is inadequate.
the road to desegregation o f Black
A committee spokesperson has
neighborhoods into predominantly
Attorneys have been reported as
stated " a new facility w ill not be
white, middle class ones.
gathering information prepatory to
b u ilt u n til approxim ately 1984”
Poor people and most Black ur
launching lawsuits such as have been
pointing to this five year period “ as
ban-dwellers can’t afford the prices
successfully concluded in other states
an additional reason to immediately
and rent being asked for the newly
and similar to suits currently pending
urge Commissioner Clark and other
rehabilitated properties. And as the
such as was brought by a Portlandj
correction officials to bring the jail
sale prices for those houses escalate,
resident citing lack o f access to the
to a level of compliance as required
moderate income people find them
insulin he requires twice daily. The
by law as soon as possible.”
selves paying property taxes they
lack o f insulin fo r approximately
Members o f the committee have
can’ t a ffo rd on their old homes.
three days lead to hospital treatment
also labeled the county correction
They have to sell out, and the neigh
and a $35,000 suit. The driving viola
system as “ racist” citing statistics
borhood becomes depopulated o f its
tion leading to the incarceration was
that upwards o f thirty percent o f the
old residents who must leave before
later dismissed in court.
the in flu x o f more a fflu e n t
newcomers.
Where do they go? In some cities,
it is to trailer camps on the outskirts.
(Continued from Page 1 Column 6)
Hoffman told the ju ry that Williams
In others, it is to substandard
already been there once, had already
had
gone back to the donut shop
housing deeper w ith in the urban
been cut, and here's the man with the
w ith the intent to k ill M o rriso n
ghettos, which become more
knife again.”
because he was angry and
crowded.
Juanita Rivers, the waitress who
humiliated. “ Black pride — ethnic
In the neighborhoods surveyed by
saw much o f the incident, had
pride - is not an excuse for murder.”
the Urban Coalition, about half had
testified that she saw M orrison
M axim um sentence fo r firs t-
fewer m inority members living there
"lunge” at Williams before the shot
degree manslaughter is twenty years.
than before the renovation process.
and the coroner’s report corroborat
Sentencing has been set for March
Typically, those neighborhoods now
ed that statement.
2nd and W illiams remains free on
had fewer blue-collar workers, fewer
Deputy D istrict A ttorney Erich
bail.
families with children, and far fewer
elderly people.
Some have managed to keep stable i
minority population levels, indicating
that some Black middle class people
are taking part in the renovation
process.
But the poor can't participate.
$7.50 Tri-County — Per Year
They can’t afford to. And in the rush
$8.00 Other — Per Year
to proclaim that this revitalization I
process is good, few care about what
, Name
___________________ ___ ___________
happens to the dispossessed poor.
In some ways, what is happening is I Address____________________________________ _
an unplanned, speculative version of I City________________________
.State
Zip.
urban renewal, with negative con
I
Portland Obsever • Box 3137 • Portland, O R . 97208
sequences for the poor.
Jail demonstration planned
Williams convicted, manslaughtei
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