R»»*2 Portland Observa/ Thursday
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EDITORIAL/OPINION
Remember them, too
T h a week the nation » celebrating Vietnam
V e te ra n * W eek -- honoring those men and
women who served in Vietnam. The Vietnam
veterans were not welcomed home as heros, like
the men who had come home from other wars.
The stigma of an unpopular war still follows
these veterans. In the words of the President,
"instead of glory, they were too often met with
our embarrassment or ignored when they re
turned.” These veterans have not had the care,
the opportunities and the respect they deserve.
They are still met with embarrassment or ignored.
W hile we pause this week to honor these
veterans and pledge to renew our efforts to in
sure that our governm ent no longer ignores
them, we must also remember the men who left
the country or went to jail to demonstrate their
opposition to an illegal and immoral war. They,
too, suffered and served.
Two bad bills
SEnate Bill 358 will go to hearings in the
Senate Committee on Aging and Minority Affairs
next week. This bill, sponsored by Senator An
thony Meeker, would put a one year limit on the
authority of the Civil Rights Bureau to investigate
and resolve civil rights complaints.
In other words, if the Civil Rights Bureau failed
to investigate, conciliate and settle a complaint
within one year, the rights of the complaintant
would be lost.
In light of Oregon's record of taking from four
to five years to complete a civil rights case, this
would be a travesty of justice and would deny the
citizen's legal recourse. It is a green light for
discrimination.
A related bill is being introduced to the House -
- HB 3147 — at the request of Representative Max
Rijken. This bill would ammend the law to allow
public m e etin g s to be held in places th a t
discrim inate — lodge buildings and the like.
Currently, no governmental body can meet in a
place where discrim ination because of race,
creed, color, sex or national origin is practiced.
HB 3147 would allow public meetings to be
held in places where discrimination is practiced if
no other adequate facilities are regularly available
and if no person is denied access to the meeting.
This bill would place the State's stamp of ap
proval on discriminatory organizations.
Persons opposed to these bills should make
their voices heard It is true that no good bills
seem to be getting through the legislature this
session, and maybe there is no need to worry
But then, it just might be easier for a bad bill to
slip through.
A statement of Principles by Vietnam Veterans
As veterans o f the illegal “ war that never happened.**
»e exist so that fellow veterans may one day soon
receive the legal rights earned by serving in that war; we
exist so that the leaders and people o f America may
forever be conscious o f the injustice done to her sons
and daughters of the Vietnam era
We, the hidden minority, stand with other oppressed
minorities as peaceful soldiers in the war for social
justice.
W e advocate that veterans have the right to jobs,
training, and medical and mental-health care prescribed
by law and demanded by social justice. We deplore the
fact that hundreds o f thousands o f veterans are demed
these rights by the very governmental agencies that are
supposed to be helping them. It is time for society to
stop ignoring veterans and their problems.
Both society and the government were responsible for
drafting minors and other young men into the last war.
Neither society nor government seems to be willing to
acknowledge or repay veterans for the painful changes
that occurred in their lives fighting for a country that
did not care.
M a n y veterans feel they were m an ip u lated and
cheated by the political decisions made while they were
ui the military As veterans now, we are distrustful and
often insensitive to human values. O u r y o u th fu l
idealism was corrupted by having to kill or be killed,
while at home society became indifferent toward those
trapped m the fighting in Vietnam.
A t Project R eturn-VETS, we attempt to help rectify
those injustices by finding employment and training for
veterans, by neiping get iess-than-honorable discharges
upgraded, and by providing mental-health counseling.
We also attempt to educate the public, including other
veterans, about possible solutions for these problems
We stress helping disabled veterans, combat veterans,
and minority veterans — those most affected by the
violence of the war and American society.
* e support urgently needed changes in social policy,
as follows:
1. Responsive and innovative medical treatment for
veterans from the Veterans Adm inistration must be
Namibia's own 'internal settlement'
b y N . Fungai Kumbula
N a m ib ia has been likened to
Rhodesia for so many reasons. For
one. along with South Africa, they
are the only countries in southern
A frica still under m inority colonial
domination. The only other country
in Africa still suffering the same fate
is Western Sahara at the moment
jo in tly occupied by M orocco and
Mauretania. In both Rhodesia and
Namibia, the white number less than
a quarter o f a million in each coun
try. Both have also been involved in
long, costly and un winnable guerrilla
wars. In N am ibia, which has been
administered by South A frica since
the end o f W orld W ar I (the original
League o f Nations mandate that had
given South A frica this power was
revoked in 1966 but South A fric a
still refuses to quit). South A frica is
providing the troops that are op
posing the African freedom fighters.
In Rhodesia, the lan Smith regime
has relied very heavily on South
A fric a fo r both m ilita ry and
economic sustenance.
N ow , a new dimension has been
added to this long list o f analogies.
In Rhodesia, lan Smith forged an
’ in ternal agreement* w ith three,
moderate Black "leaders” that cul
minated in the holding o f elections
last m onth that installed a Black
“ d o m in a te d ’ ’ governm ent. Black
dominated* is a misnomer because
w hues still control all the instruments
o f power: the army, the police force,
the civil service, the judiciary and
have been guaranteed effective veto
power for at least ten years. Though
they make up less than four per cent
o f the population, they have been
assigned 28% o f the Assembly seats
and 30*» o f the Cabinet positions.
In Nam ibia, the U N . through the
five W estern ’ Pow ers*, the U .S .,
B ritain, France, Canada and West
Germany has been negotiating «nth
South A fric a for a solution to the
Namibian problem. S W A P O (South
West A frica Peoples Organization)
recognized by the U N as the sole
representative o f the N a m ib ia n
people has been waging an armed
struggle against South A fric a ’s oc
cupation since 1966. (The Patriotic
Front launched its initial attack on
settler occupation in 1966 too. H o w
ever. the present cam paign start
ed in 1972.)
T he U N negotiations have met
with one roadblock after another.
Last September, an apparent agree
ment «»as reached when South Africa
agreed to have elections held in
Nam ibia under the supervision o f the
U N and, S W A P O had also agreed to
participate. However, South A frica
already had initiated its own version
o f elections which it was going to
supervise. S W A P O had rejected this
idea as did the U N . Nonetheless.
December 4th through the 8th last
year, South A frica went ahead with
these elections which S W A P O
boycotted and which the U N
declared “ null and v o id “ . A t the
time South A frica claimed that this
was a ’ trial run’ for the later elec
tions that would be overseen by the
UN.
As was expected, the elections
were won by the so-called Democra
tic T u rn h a lk Alliance, a coalition o f
moderate Blacks and whites which
had the fin a n c ia l, m a te ria l and
political backing o f South A fric a .
Even though South A fric a had all
along m ain tain ed th at this was
nothing more than a ’trial run.’ she
has suddenly changed tunes and now
claims that these were the ’ real’ elec
tions and is also now talking about
tu rn in g over the a d m in is tra tiv e
powers to the constituent assembly
that was formed as a result o f these
’elections.*
This in effect leaves S W A P O out
in the cold just as Sm ith left the
Patriotic Front out o f his ’internal
settlement*. Further, South A frica is
also now reneging on her original
promise to allow U N supervised elec
tions to be held. For S W A P O , the
only option now left is an intensifi
cation o f the war. The U N , for its
part, has been meeting this past week
to decide the next step.
One o f the options supposedly un
der consideration is the imposition o f
economic sanctions against South
A frica but this is a course that has
repeatedly been vetoed by B ritain,
France and the U .S . The election o f a
new C onservative governm ent in
Britain does not help matters any at
all. So, for the time being at least,
there’ s one three letter word that
hovers over everything else: W A R .
P.S.: To Sunanda Sen,
Thank you fo r pointing out my
very serious om m ission o f In d ira
Gandhi as one o f the five women to
lead their countries She was in my
original d ra ft but, somewhere be
tween th at in itia l d ra ft and the
finished copy, she ’sneaked’ away.
N . Fungai Kumbula
'Free m arket' keeps medical costs high
by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
available.
2. Recognition of. and subsequent treatment for, the
delayed-stress reaction suffered by veterans must be
adequately funded by the federal government.
3. A national network o f veterans’ self-help groups
to supply services to Vietnam veterans and to function
as “ watch dogs” for all services to veterans must be en
couraged. facilitated, and funded by the federal govern
ment.
4. American society must be awakened to the fact
that refusal to openly accept veterans back home and
back into their communities has contributed to the
unique problems o f Vietnam-era veterans.
W ith the wisdom gained from serving in the Vietnam
war, we further serve to teach our sons and daughters so
that they , armed with our knowledge, may question the
next “ V ietnam '* and be spared the horrors o f our
generation
(Tha statemem was adopted in December, 1978, by
the staff o f Project Return- VETS.)
LUTHER
By Brumsic B randon Jr.
health practitioners, so long as many
public hospitals would stop dead in
their tracks svithout foreign trained
physicians, and so long as medical
professionals are R e d is trib u te d ,
America doesn’t have too many doc-
to n .
It's troubling that calls for limiting
the numbers o f doctors come just as
Blacks and other m in o ritie s are
gaining a tenuous toehold in medical
schools.
Even w ith the rise in m inority
medical school enrollments. Blacks
are o n ly ab ou t tw o per cent o f
Am erica's doctors. A nd while the
total number o f places in medical
schools is increasing, the number o f
Blacks admitted is shrinking.
So in this post-Bakke era, calling
for a doctor freeze is tantamount to
calling for permanent minority un
derrep resen tatio n in the m edical
profession.
The numbers o f doctors should be
increased. Incentives should be given
to encourage them to practice in
poverty neighborhoods and to prefer
general practice to the kinds o f
specialities society needs less.
Massive programs to increase the
numbers o f qualified minority health
professionals should be a top
p rio rity , so that the most under
served and underrepresented com
munities get their fair share o f health
care.
And all o f this should be in the
fra m e w o rk o f a n a tio n a l health
policy that provides universal, com
prehensive access to quality health
care for all.
1st Placa
C o m m u n ity Sarvica
O N P A 1973
PORTLAND OBSERVER
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#7206 Second elea« poataga pax) et Portland. Orego'
la» Placa
Saat A d Resulta
O N P A 1973
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Edrtoraf column Any ornar metenei throughout the paper e tn*
opinion of the mdtviduai e n te r or subm itter and does not
no r n aant y reflect the oomaxi o» the Portland O t a r ' - "
One of the most curious concepts
to come along in quite a while is
the growing notion that America has
too many doctors. Just try telling
that to minorities and the poor, who
frequently live in rural areas or ur
ban neighborhoods that have no doc
tors at all.
I t ’s the old story o f looking at
gross figures. The annual output of
new doctors has doubled in the past
two decades. But that doesn't mean
they practice where the people who
need their skills live. N o r does it
mean they are in specialities most
needed by the average health con
sumer.
Still, the so-called doctor shortage
is an excuse for support for cutting
federal aid to medical schools. I t ’s
even being used as a rationale for
opposing a national health insurance
plan.
It is argued that the more doctors
there are. the more people will use
them, and the more inflationary will
health costs become
Strange At the same time, we’re
to ld that the law o f supply and
demand has not been repealed. The
more there is available o f a good or
service, the lower iu price is likely to
become.
But that doesn’ t hold true for
health care. Why? The answer is that
organized medicine operates like an
in te rn a l O P E C m o n o p o ly , freed
from the normal constraints o f the
m a r k e tp la c e . F r e e - f o r s e rv ic e
medicine keeps health care costs
high, as does the cost-plus insurance
system.
I t ’ s hard to understand the
argument that it’s bad if people use
physician's services more often. I f
more people use more doctors, that
obviously means they need those
doctors and the health care they
provide.
Whenever sales o f some consumer
item increases we never say that's
bad. We recognize that people want
more o f that item and business takes
steps to supply it. But why then do
we say that items in human services,
like health care, should be carefully
rationed and kept limited?
Those limits are today imposed by
excessive costs. I f you can afford to
pay a doctor you use his services, if
you can’t you don’t. Poor people
covered by Medicare and Medicaid
programs have some access to health
care since the government will pay
for it. And there's been a rise in
health services utilization since those
programs were started.
That's good, it means more people
are getting better health care. But
m illions o f others are n ot. They
don't have access to doctors. The
fin a n c ia l structure o f m edical
professions is such that esoteric spe
cialities drain o ff many who in for
mer years might have been general
practitioners and family physicians.
The result is that some areas and
people are not served at all. some are
underserved, and relatively few have
full access to the health care they
need So long as the nation's ghettos
and barrios are v irtu a lly w ithout
Siti Placa
Beat Editorial
N N P A 1973
H onorable M e n tio n
H errick Editorial A w ard
N N A 1973
2nd Place
B a r' Editorial
ALFRED L HENDERSON
Editor/Publisher
A m a lg a m ated Publishers Inc
N e w Verb
MEMSf«
ddaor-^tatr
9
foondod 1999
3rd Piece
C o m m u n ity Leadership
O N P A 1976
3rd Place
C o m m u n ity Leadership
O N P A 1979
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