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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 1979)
Page 2 Portland O b w rv « r Thursday, Juna 14.1978 EDITORIAL/OPINION Fighting for the right On Friday U.S. District Judge Donald S. Voor hees will give an opinion on whether the anti busing referendum passed by the voters of Washington is constitutional. Measure 350, which was sponsored by the "Citizens for Voluntary Integration Committee,” was a response to the Seattle School Districts' comprehensive desegregation program. The measure requires school districts to assign students to the nearest or next nearest school to their home. The refreshing thing about the suit is that the Seattle, Tacoma and Pasco School Districts are suing in federal court to block the state from en forcing the measure. Here is the Seattle School District in court to fight for the right to continue an equitable desegregation program. In the meantime, the Portland School Board was so frightened by the Washington initiative and the remote possibility of a similar initiative here that they refused to even discuss compulsory cross-busing. Win or lose, the Seattle School Board has the courage to fight for equal educational opportuni ties for all its students. Next door, a frightened and timid Portland School Board has joined the opposition and will also find itself in court — but fighting against equal educational opportunities for its students. Where is Portland State? What is the role of the university in the Black community? That is a question that has never been answered by Portland State University. In the white community the role of the univer sity is more clearly defined. The university provides teaching, research and culture. Every week this newspaper receives numerous press releases from universities and colleges in the Oregon system. From Oregon State Univer sity are items on research in forestry, agriculture, lawn and garden care, wind energy, nutrition and oceanography. From the University of Oregon come stories about research in social science, psychology, music, education, architecture, anthropology, etc. For example, minority students in architec ture made several trips to Portland, meeting with local residents, to design land use plans for the Eliot neighborhood. Out of the Medical School comes extensive re search on cancer, lung disease, and other health related problems. In the center of the urban environment is Port land State University — with an opportunity to become involved with the Black community — and with the minority communities — in research and planning in the areas of economic develop ment, housing, school integration, health plan ning, planning with the elderly minorities. The needs are there — the problems are crying to be solved. The money is available. Where is the University? Where are the PSU schools of Social Work, of Urban Studies, of Education? Right here in Portland, the professors and students of PSU could find the best laboratory in the world. Be sides offering a much needed service, they could gain invaluable experience in working with the bureaucracy, fighting city hall, organizing com munities, experiencing disillusion and disappoint ment. Where is the university? That is the question that will be asked in coming months as the Education Center is closed Will PSU — which is supported by all of our tax dollars — become a more visible and viable influence in the com munity? Or will it fade away? Letters to the Editor Likes festival Insult to Aaron To the Editor: To the Editor: shall Hank Aaron in the o fficia l Rose Parade on the premises o f the M em orial Coliseum. The u n fa ir omission was insulting'.!!! Who can explain or apologize for such conduct?????? There are many people o f good will in Portland, and I believe they are shocked at what happened Saturday, June 9th. Radio KXL and the Rose Festival Association need to tell why there was no introduction o f Grand Mar Thank the Lord for our beautiful Rose Festival Parades, etc. the past 65 years; Portland is truly blessed I hope some day to see one o f our beautifu l Black young ladies crowned ‘ ‘Queen o f Rosaria.” Signed, Mrs. Osly J. Gates Sincerely, Mrs. C. Louise Harris Rose Festival charged with racism .. . again (Continued from page 1 column 6) complained about an editorial in the John Adams High School newspaper — “ The lack of black in bedsheet white” . Hannon wrote the school, stating that the Unity editorial w rit ten by student Greg Hough showed a “ lack of adult leadership and direc tion within the school’ s journalism program” and that the editorial was filled with inaccuracies. The editorial follows: “ Three weeks from now. Rose Festival Princess Lynn Talton will stand before thousands and rep resent Adams High School in the 1979 Queen’s Coronation. “ At first glance, Lynn would seem to have all the qualifications needed o f a worthy'representative during that ceremony. She is bright, friend ly, energetic and popular. With all that to her credit, our Princess also happens to be black. So, if past Rose Festival history can be considered any kind o f guide, the chances are that Lynn Talton w ill not walk away from the June I C oronation as Queen o f Rosaria. “ The fact is that Portland has had an official Rose Festival for nearly three quarters of a century and there s till remains to be a black Rose Festival Queen. “ O f course, large factors have played roles in dictating this fate. For one, it seems that there has been the presence o f a black student on the court for just slightly under a third o f the 71 Festival years. Also, the ratio o f Princesses in the last two decades has been very strongly white over black. So, since the Rose Festival Association says it keeps no file on past Princesses’ racial backgrounds, what reasons can anyone find to suggest that the lack o f a black queen is due to anything but coincidence? Plenty o f them. One need not look any further than the Festival’ s voting o f a Queen. This task is done every year by the Rosarians, an overwhelming white organization who, if not consciously bias toward black Princesses, must at least be guilty o f bias that is sub conscious. L e t’ s face it, human behavior in modern society has taught us that whites w ill be more at tractive to whites, with the same going for blacks and other minorities to their own races. I f the voting body is bedsheet white, how can a black Princess be elected in this or any year? “ That question has been raised before, right here at Adams, in the early 1970’s, this school refused to let the Rose Festival plant a tra d itio n a l rose garden here in protest o f an all-w hite Rosarian membership. Back then, Adams even voted against having a Princess at all, claiming the whole procedure was “ sexist” . Since that time, the protesting on our part has been eliminated. Maybe th a t’ s not so good. “ And what about last month's W ilson incident? This was sup posedly a circumstance plagued by disorganization, but doesn't it sound suspicious when a black student wins the Princess election and is forced by the school’ s administration into a runoff with the second place white PORTLAND OBSERVER The Portland Obsertrtr IUSPS 966 680 is published every Thur» day by Exw Publishing Company. Inc . 2201 North Killingeworth P o rtla n d Oregon 97217, Po»t Office Bo» 3137, Portland Oregon 97200 Second class postage paid at Portland, Oregon Subscriptions »7 50 per year in Tri County area »8 00 per year outside Tri-County Area P ostm aster Send address changes to the Portland (Mttervrr. P .0 Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97200 The Portland O b trr r tr't official position is expressed only in its Editorial column Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the individual w riter or submittar and does not necessarily reflect the opmiori of the Portland Obtervrr ALFREDL HENDERSON Editor/Publisher N ational A dvertising R epresentative A m a lg a m ated Publishers. Inc N ew York 1st Place C o m m u n ity Service O N P A 1973 1st Place Best A d Results O N P A 1973 6th Place Best Editorial N N P A 1973 H on orable M e n tio n H errick E ditorial A w ard N N A 1973 2nd Place Best Editorial 3rd Place 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 i»| 74 M M ,,. i ( i & | A»tati»lron fourtead IM S ■ ■ w ■ Association » Whatever happened to nuclear moratorium? by Chuck Johnson. Sanford E. Pitler, and Peter Bergel We are members o f the Trojan Decommissioning Alliance, legisla tive aides to Representative Wally Priestley, and authors o f the “ nuclear m oratorium ** b ill, HB 2570. We have maintained silence on the treatment o f that b ill by the Oregon Legislature. However, now that the b ill has been essentially killed by the Senate Environment and Energy Com m ittee, we have decided to break that silence. We drafted several bills for sub mission by sympathetic legislators; one o f these bills was HB 2570, the nuclear m oratorium b ill, which would delay construction o f new nuclear plants until the problems of storing radioactive waste arc solved. Public support for HB 2570 was massive. According to Represen tative Nancie Fadeley, there has seldom been a bill which generated such enthusiasm; there were literally thousands o f supporting letters, tele grams, and phone calls; over 2,000 persons attended an April rally en dorsing the bill; editorials supported the concept o f HB 2570 from Port land to North Bend to Medford; and an independently conducted poll showed 80% o f Oregonians in favor o f a moratorim until a safe method o f waste disposal is found. On May 7th, in response to this support, the House voted 36 to 24 to adopt an amended version o f HB 2570 and sent the bill to the Senate. In the Senate, it was referred to the Environment and Energy Commit tee, a group whose membership Senate President Jason Boe had already stacked with a clear pro- nuclear m ajority: Senator Hanlon from the district in which the Trojan Plant is located; Senator Jcrnstedl from the would-be Pebble Springs area; Senator Powell in whose district Teledyne Wah Chang pro duces an im portant element fo r nuclear plants; and the pro-nuclear Senators Day, Groener, and Ripper. Because a majority o f the Senators on the floor (17) were willing to vote for HB 2570, the six pro-nuclear E&E Committee members voted to hold the bill in committee and deny the Senate its vote, even after backers offered a 2-year moratorim as a compromise. The tactics employed to kill HB 2570 were undemocratic. The fu ll Senate was denied a chance to vote on the issue. Instead o f HB 2570, Governor Atiyeh, the utilities, and pro-nuclear legislators want to sub stitute a meaningless one-year “ m o ra to riu m ,” SB 899, which wou'd permit Pebble Springs to be sited before the public has a chance to vote on a moratorium initiative planned for the fall o f 1980, and before the next Legislature convenes. Governor Atiyeh then put pressure on the House. Six o f the nine Republican members who originally supported 2570 — Representatives Schoon, Zajonc, Cam pbell, Van Vliet, Lombard, and Rutherford — changed horses in mid-stream, sud denly refusing to back anything but a one-year moratorium. They cited as reasons the Governor's threatened veto and a disinclination to “ embar rass” him. The death o f HB 2570 must be laid at the door o f the Governor, for his unwillingness to compromise and his refusal to wait for the electorate to speak; at the door o f the six pro- nuclear members o f the Senate E&E Committee, for ignoring the demon strated preference o f a majority of Oregonians; and at the door o f the six Republican House members who placed the Governor's “ embarrass ment” above their own sense o f civic duty. The electorate will have its chance to speak in the 1980 initiative and legislative elections. We hope it won’ t be too late. TransAfrica flexes muscles by N. Fungai Kumbula On Capitol H ill in Washington, there's a lobbying group called TransAfrica, the only pro-A frica lobby in the country. TransAfrica was born slightly more than a year ago and today has become a group o f quite considerate clout. Over the past few years, Africa has become very prom inent in the thinking o f American legislators. One can easily trace the development of this thinking from the days when Africa was still very much a Mystery Continent to today when the U.S. is engaged in “ peace e ffo rts ” in Southern A fric a and an “ im provement o f ties” with the rest of •the continent. Africa has suddenly become im portant not only as a source o f raw materials (among them oil) but also as a market for manu factured goods and as an area o f in fluence. The East-West tug-of-war has been mostly waged over Africa lately. It was amidst this burgeoning popularity that T ransA frica was born. Specifically, its aim is to speak up for Africa, lobby for pro-Africa causes and fight anti-African legisla tion. The past few years have seen the C IA involvement in Angola, the two Zaire wars, the Soweto uprisings, the endless Nam ibian headaches and, Rhodesia, just to mention a few examples. So, Trans- Africa has been kept hopping almost from the word go. Randall Robinson, the executive director and Richard Hatcher, the chairman (the same Richard Hatcher who is the mayor o f Gary, Indiana) have provided outstanding leader ship considering the organization is so young. For operational funds, TransAfrica has to rely on donations and whatever fundraising events they can come up with. So far, most of TransAfrica's lobbying efforts have been aimed at the White House. At a recent fundraising dinner and dance in Washington, the topic on the agenda was sanctions against Rhodesia. The Senate had just voted to repeal these sanctions and recognize the puppet regime o f Bishop Muzorewa. Referring to this vote, Robinson charged that the “ U.S. was sliding towards support of the internal settlement. I f Carter heeds that advice, he is not going back to the White House in 1980.” Mayor Hatcher made the all impor tant point that Black Americans can make a difference in shaping U.S. African policy. TransA frica had joined forces w ith the Washington O ffic e on Africa to head a “ retain sanctions” campaign directed at church, union, liberal and civil rights constituencies. The idea was to explain the short comings o f the so-called elections recently held in Rhodesia. The argu ment the other side had been making was that now that Zimbabweans of all races had “ freely elected a government o f their choice," we should recognize that government and support it. Andrew Young, the U.S. A m bassador to the UN and one o f the student? Then, after much confu sion, embarassment and specula tion, the ru n o ff is not even held after all? It is hard to believe that the people in charge at W ilson could be so inept that they would miss the rule clearly stating a Prin cess w ill be chosen solely on her having the most votes. There could be something more to it than disorganization . . . only a very small percentage o f Wilson students are black. “ To charge that bias exists within the Rose Festival, one is relying on suspicion-based evidence. It's d if ficult to get any concrete fact about whether an organizaton is against minorities or not. But there's enough evidence to believe that a black Prin cess will never be elected Queen un der the present circumstances. "Perhaps there is no validity in bombarding this larger-than-all-of-us organization with accusations. But until a black queen is elected, there will always be those who use ‘ Rose Festival’ and ‘ racist’ in the same breath.” Hough’ s editorial does have one error. The Rose Festival Queen is selected from the slate of Princesses’ by a panel o f judges. In much the same tradition as the School District uses to name its Citizen Advisory Com mittee members — a board member appointing a committee to choose the members — the Rose Festival Association has a member appoint the judges who select the Queen. So, although Hough had his facts a little twisted, the results are the same. School supports editor Adams principal C o llin Morse supported Hough, and the faculty gave him a vote o f confidence. Not the School Board At the Monday night school board meeting, board member W ally Priestley moved that the board ask Hannon to identify and substantiate the numerous inaccurate statements or to apologize to the student, the school and the school district. The motion met with silence from his fellow board members and failed for lack o f a second Priestley also asked his fellow board members to reap praise the school district’s role in the Queen selection as again the request was denied. six speakers at the fundraising event welcomed the campaign along with several other administration officials concerned about the potential for disaster the Senate's sanctions end ing vote portended. An end to sanc tions, they concede, would hurt U .S .-A frica relations and further erode the U.S.’ s credibility in Africa. These jo in t T ra n sA fric a — Washington Office on Africa cam paign apparently paid o ff hand somely when a few days later President Carter announced that, for the time being anyway, sanctions would stay in effect. He said the Administration had determined that so far there had been no real transfer o f power as the conservatives claim. As expected, Muzorewa roundly cri ticized this decision. The work of TransAfrica. Wash ington Office on Africa and all other groups that are concerned about the Rhodesia dilemma is far from over. Senate conservatives are still expect ed to look for other ways to push for a repeal o f sanctions. TransAfrica will, therefore need a lot o f support. It is a well known fact that in rep resenting the interest o f Africa and her people, TransAfrica is providing a service on behalf o f Black America, a most essential service. Letters to T ra n sA frica and donations, when possible would show them that they are not alone in this war against a massive conserva tive onslaught on our sisters’ and brothers’ survival. the parade, described the floats and bands, and gave the interesting but insignificant details, failed to in troduce the Grand Marshall. The M anure Car Then, to the chagrin o f many pa rade watchers, Aaron and his wife were not up front where the Grand Marshall belongs, but in the words o f one bystander they were assigned to “ the back of the bus.” The lim ousine carrying the Aaron’s followed a group o f horses and the ever present “ Pooper Scoper.” Not only did the Aaron’s car have to stop repeatedly to allow the removal o f horse feces from the street, but they literally greeted the cheering crowds w ithin the sight, sound and smell of horse manure. Hank Aaron Slighted Hank Aaron, baseball’s all-time home run king was invited to be “ Grand M arshall" o f the Grand Floral Parde, the high point o f the annual Rose Festival. Spectators who paid to watch the pre-parade ceremonies and the parade as it passed through the Memorial Coliseum waited in an ticipation for the introduction o f Aaron and his wife. According to some disappointed patrons, the in troduction never came. The public address announcer, who introduced the many guests and participants in Thi» bta< k won tan < outd be »lie» a United Negro (oMeye ( und graduate wb<i. ould ded«< ate tier life lo lindirty a c ure (or cancer. A c ure that c outd »eve thousand» of live»each yeai And (Ml every A n ie n t a » h o f* N e t k pet »on » heart with pride So support hlat k education Send your check to the United Meyro College t und Box Q 500 I &»t62ndSt NewVbrk.NY 100?I GIVE TO THE UNITED NEGRItfOt LEGE FUND * r«ai.r Mt««« r>< Thi* Newipapo 4 the Aovertit.ng Count it
