Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, January 24, 1980, Image 4

Portland observer., January 24, 1980, Page 4, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextI P eg* 4 Portland Observer January 24. 1960 B Behind the Walls by Larry Baker »3502! O.S.P. Correspondent NATHANIEL SCOTT A MESSAGE Bv Nathaniel Scott 41877 Silling on my cell thinking, trying to assess the good and bad of con finement (doing time) I catnc to the conclusion that, the only good thing one can readily ascribe to is the amount o f leisure time one is con fronted with. Time forced on an in dividual, because he or she has committed a crime and if you are Black and poor (most Black people are poor) you will end up in confine CELL TALK David Wright »39816 Assistant Editor ment. (doing time, Being a victim o f this forced leisure time, I am using it to further my education by going to school. There is a song; a country and western song, if I may, that says “ Johnny, don’t take your guns to town.” What the song implies to me personally is that guns are weapons of destruction. I'd advise any Black person to stop taking their ignor ance to town; it too, is a weapon o f destruction. It is time for us to get o ff the American band stand for music and get on the Black stand of learning. The most prized possession that anyone has is their m ind. Their possible accomplishments are unlimited. When I was a youngster, I didn’ t have the time for schooling. I didn’t have the time to learn constructive things. M7 mind was full o f pimp- mobiles and prostitutes (degrading my Black family and myself in the worse way), using drugs (living in a world o f falsehood and illusions), trickery (taking from others what they had lawfully gained). But now in my declining years, I find that I wish that I had learned then, so I wouldn’ t be so far behind now. Within the criminal world there are no fringe benefits. After 20, 30, or any number o f years, you cannot draw compensation when you are sick. No organization will pay your rent or feed your children when you can’t find a place or person to rob or steal from. And if you end up in the penitentiary broke (as most criminals do) you w ill be an out cast... and labeled a moocher. You will have to contend with the humiliation o f no privacy. You will have to contend w ith the humiliation of the lowest forms o f ST ANDREWS CATHOLIC CHURCH 806 NE ALBERTA STREET Reverend Bertram Griffin, Pastor 281 4429 Masses 5 00pm Vigil Saturday 10 00am Choir Sunday 12 00pm Folk Sunday ST. ANDREW COMMUNITY SCHOOL 4919 NE 9th Ave „ ,, „ . , Nonta Kelly. Principal p Phone 284 1620 Grades 1 thru 8 HUGHES MEMORIAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH REV. AUSTIN V. RAY, MINISTER 111 N.E. FAILING Dial A-Prayer 284 0684 Worship 11 00am Church School 9 45am Office 281 2332 Specializing In Individual • Marriage and f amily • Group Therapy "The C hurch W here NO Stranger Feels S trang e" ALLEN TEMPLE CME CHURCH Corner of 8th and Skidmore Sunday School 9:30am Sunday Worship 11:00am Christian Youth Fellowship 6:00pm (second and fourth Sundays) degeneracy. “ Just to watch a foot ball game on T V ” you will have to The night descends—falls quietly contend w ith the h u m ilia tio n o f like a leaf caught in the silent breeze being a spectacle, parading in line o f autumn. Its veil is pulled across formation to any and all activities, the face o f the earth and all the under the watchful eyes of a count secrets are safe until sunrise exposes less number of guards. You will be its vainness, shallowness and shame. approached to engage in The occupant in cell C-451 lies homosexual activities, in one man staring at the ceiling, his thoughts ner or another, and if you have little rising and disappearing like the or no education you w ill be given blue-grey smoke o f his cigarette- menial or no job at all. spiraling in shapeless patterns— Once we were “ Black and proud” drifting into nothingness—escaping and it was “ learn baby learn.” But through the bars—defying gravity_ now we are in a cesspool o f silently rising in mirth as it cheats stagnation and instead o f being an the keepers o f the keys. ally to ourselves, we have become A silent curse escapes from the our worst enemy. almond lips as the occupant ponders As a Black man, I feel there is the bleakness o f tim e .. .timeless, only one way to overcome this can endless.. .time and, and no way to cerous sore and that is, through solve the riddle: How did I come to knowledgable means that w ill this?” . The question dances on the enhance the presence o f our being. verge of answer, then drifts away, to Underline the fact o f our unity and be replaced by the ache: the dull per change the desires and goals of our sistent pain that’s a part o f him, like young people from super flies, his heartbeat, his eyebrows, his movie stardom and sports cham dreams. “ Loneliness” —so vast, so pions to the presidency o f these complete that it pervades all; it con United States o f America. sumes and gnaws at his core.. his Today I grieve inside, when I read essence in p e ril... his life force un o f our youth not taking advantage der forfeiture o f the ache. o f an offered education. The swingshift guard passes, his I feel the pains o f anguish, from keys jingling freedom, his flashlight seeing them on the b rink o f flicking on and off, o ff and on in becoming convicts--ex-convicts— the darkness. He pauses in his labeled with a criminal record that routine to gain a better look at the will hound and haunt them for the motionless form. The occupant sees balance o f their lives. I feel the him but doesn’ t stir, he remains chocking sobs o f a suppressed cry, breathlessly still, his eyes dark pools when I think how it will make them o f sorrow that reflect the ache, his feel, to be visited by family, friends mind plotting revolt—“ a scream or and loved ones and they have to go a shout o f defiance!” Anything that through devices o f security, just to will signify his unwillingness to be touch hands. It takes a cold and examined w ith such cool detach heartless man to feel nothing when ment. S till he remains silent, un his son or daughter says “ inommie, moving in his sphere o f pain, why can’ t daddy come with us?” trapped in the darkness o f his ache, As I said, the only good thing abandoned in his misery as the about confinement is leisure time, guard shambles on, his keys jin but one does not have to go (or in gling, his light flashing on and o ff in my case, come) to the penitentiary the prison night. to acquire it. Leisure time is the Somewhere down the tier a toilet amount o f time not spent in flushes, a derelict cough rasps out, a securing your livelihood. A ll the steel door slams shut and someone time spent p la y in g -lo lly gaging- mumbles in fitfu l sleep. The night is door popping and B slinging; laid pregnant with unidentifiable sounds back tripping about something that —sounds that men have feared since ain t worth a damn nohow, is leisure before time had cadence; the sound time! o f soundlessness that leaves the In closing, I want to change the mind to create images—horrors—il beat a little- add a little soul--git lusions too real to be false. Illusions down on the fo r real side, so that lurk in shadowy corners, that everybody can understand. It ain’ t pounce upon unsuspecting prey, il here, brother. It is out there! You lusions that creep and crawl from are not a big man in here, just a face the pits of hell to teed on the souls in the crowd! To walk the yard and hallways, don't fill you with a bit of pride. It takes it away’ You have no one to tell your troubles to, because I got mine too! So use foresight and judgement in what you do. Be patient and understanding in all your endeavors and when confron E ted with the opportunity to commit a crime, think...Yes think about the good times and think about where the person is who wrote this...the Oregon State Penitentiary! NEW HOPE MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH REVEREND A. BERNARD DEVERS, PASTOR Lucid Walls O f Time 7:00pm 5:00pm 7.30pm 7:00pm Travelling to another I've just come from the other caught between the two not a part of either... bouncing back and forth slowly chipping the foundations so that I may be free and motionless at last so I may set root upon my hill and build my temple... By Garv Wm. Holt 41300 BADBYE By Gary Wm. Holt 4/300 You are Welcome to Worship at THE ARK OF SAFETY CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST A warm spirit o f fellowship always” The Honorable Bishop U.V Peterson, D.D. The Holiness Preacher,” Pastor Tuesday Bible Band Jr Church Wednesday Choir Rehearsal Friday T h e Pastor Speaks ’ Showers of B'esxir gs Broadcast KGAH 1 « 0 11 30em 12 30pm VP8C 6 30pm Evangelist,- Worship 8 00pm 84 NE Killingsworth Tuesday Friday Noon Day prayer 281 0499 STOP LOOKING BUY TOMORROW'S SECURITY FOR YOUR FAMILY TODAY New 3 and 4 bedroom homes with or without family rooms in Van couver close to 1-5 and 8 minutes from Interstate bridge. Include 2 baths, double garage, brick fireplaces, range, dishwasher, garbage disposal, w /w carpets. All are energy efficient with 10 year Home Owner's Warranty. Cash price for 3 bedroom with 1036 sq. ft. would be $48,500, 11 '/, % Annual Percentage Rate w ith 360 monthly payments at $480.64 principal and interest plus estimated taxes and insurance. $2e 650 CK) 'n f° r $100 00' FHA Purchasers move in approx. HERMITAGE REALTY, INC. 4715 St. Johns Rd Vans. W A . 98661 X m O (206)694-8577 206(574-1522 D U 716 N .t 99th Ase. Portland, OR. 97220 223-822 241-3723 S u r u / À r^rr/m en / n/t-t 1518 N.E KILLINGSWORTH 284 7997 Happy New Year JANUARY This is your invitation to 9:30am 10:30am 3725 N. Gantenbein Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97227 9 15am 11 15em EXODUS Editor: Julius Snowden Prayer and Pastor Phone; 281 6476 Church Phone 281-0163 Sunday Sunday School M orn.nq Wor$n-p o f confined men. “ The occupant day is never over and tomorrow will lies w a itin g .. m indful o f the never come!” danger, knowing that he’ s just a The occupant lies paralyzed in moment away from identity, fear. He envisions his soul slipping knowing that if he doesn’t fight the away, his tnind tilting on the edge of images—the ache will consume him, pandemonium, the distinct sense of w ill devour his dreams and swallow falling . eyes wide but sightless and his soul!” He knows these things a crimson moon shattering into a because nightly he wages this battle thousand fragments, each fragment for supremacy o f the cell. He con a drop of blood, each drop o f blood serves his strength during the a tear-drop, his heart bursting in his daylight hours for the war—control chest and vomited up upon the cold o f his sp irit that the ghouls o f concrete door. And just before the prison night threaten under the final desecration—the dissolving of cover o f darkness. He has come to his soul—the sun peeks its head know them, to identify them all in above the granite wall and the cell if turn; the loneliness that aches like a filled with life-giving lig h t— the hollowed-out heart that never beats: light—the lig h t!—salvation! — re the idleness of hours spent staring at demption!—the light!God bless the the wall, watching clouds form or light! “ A cry o f exultation leaps raindrops fa ll: the self pity that from the soul o f the occupant—he’s slowly destroys the will to survive: filled with a jubilance o f triumph as the sickening shame o f mastur the night dissolves in the shim bation: the burning fire o f desire mering rays o f dawn.” throbbing in the loins as the flesh screams lor sedation: the misty face Thus concludes a prison night, its o f a woman not yet forgotten—nev dark horrors suspended for another er to be forgotten: an old dear john day. another day o f blue denim letter: a wringled photograph o f a drabness, another day o f ringing man and child standing by a lake: bells and clanging doors.. .another the memories all run together in in day the occupant waits fo r the distinct patterns o f pain. "Yester return of the ache. PORTLAND. OREGON 9721 1 Reverend Thomas L. Strayhand. Minister Sunday School Morning Worship Evening Service 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays Communion 1st Sunday Wed Family Prayer Meeting and Bible Study Friday Brotherhood Fellowship Service with Morning Star 3rd Sunday By Asmar Abdu Seifullah aka Joe West »40404 7 30pm 7 00pm 7:3<pr You know it wasn't easy to say goodbye to you such a small word that word goodbye but so final the meaning so final... such a sad word that word goodbye and so hard to speak Why is goodbye a goodbye? maybe I'll change it io it's definite meaning cf jnge it to badbye or sadbye or don’t cry... EXODUS FORUMS JOIN US DURING 1980 Each Tuesday Evening 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. 1518 N.E. Killingsworth Portland, Oregon 97211 Phone 284 7997 Standing agenda: Subject: Answers to your questions, workable solutions to your problems and research for your enlightenment. Follow-Through as a practical concept to live by. Conductor: Thomas Boothe, author of Follow-Throuah concept. y Statement: Bring your questions, problems and con cerns to the Exodus Forums and we will find workable answers and solutions for you.