Page 2 Portland Observar M ay 22. 1960
EDITORIAL/OPINION
A first step
There should be no doubt on the part of the
Portland School Board that the Black com ­
m unity is united in its dem and fo r q u a lity
e d u ca tio n . There has been an a ttitu d e of
disbelief -- a q ue stion w h e th e r the Black
United Front has support and whether parents
would go so tar as to keep their children home
from school. The d istrict has tried to p e r­
petuate the myth that most Black parents are
happy with the education provided. That issue
should be determ ined now and the energy
used to dispute the Front's credibility should
be turned to solving the problems.
Other more reasoned voices say the BUF
should now be willing to compromise. This is
nonsense. The Front agreed last fall to forego
a boycott because promises were made by the
district. These promises have been broken.
Rather than compromise, the Front must stick
to its demands -- demands that are minimal
and reasonable.
The core of the dispute is the denial of
com munity participation in staff selection. The
time to argue this point is long past. Citizen
participation is now the name of the game,
required in many federal and local funding
processes (including the district's own federal
funds). Local government including the state,
city and county have involved citizens on
screening committees with great success and
the district uses this process to select Area
Advisory Board members.
This is an issue on which the Board w ill have
to concede. Parents are demanding a greater
voice in the determ ination of w ho teaches
their children.
The School Board can respond or can learn
once again that the only gains that ever come
to Black citizens are through stuggle. Con­
sidering everything, the district can't afford to
go through another summer of discontent.
There has been much criticism of the large
num bers of fo u r and five years old w h ite
children brought to Albina schools to improve
the racial ratio. Some of these parents did a
great deal of squaw king this fall w hen the
return of some Black children to their neigh­
borhood schools caused overcrowding for the
young white children. Some of these w hite
parents have never realized and have never
cared that by providing special programs for
their children the school d istrict has forced
Black children out of their ow n schools. They
have not cared that special money designated
tor the education of Black and "d is a d v a n ­
taged" children is used to educate their middle
and upper class w hite children.
These children are supposedly com ing to
enjoy an enriched educational experience in a
multi-racial setting -- a unique opportunity to
go to school w ith Black children. Yet these
parents dem onstrated extrem e in se n sitivity
when they chose to send their children to
these schoo ls d u rin g the b o y c o tt.
Notes from City Hall
By Charles Jordan
Commissioner o f Public Safety
Iwcnty-two incidents against bus
drivers since the beginning ol the
year have prompted me to appoint
one ot my police sergeants tem­
porarily as Chief of Security for Tri-
Met.
Sergeant Chuck Karl o f the City’ s
Crime Prevention Bureau will head
the security force for 90 days in
response to a request lor assistance
from Tri-Met officials and labor
representatives.
The problems encountered by
drivers and passengers have not
reached crisis proportion but I con­
sider them a “ red flag” indicating
that more effective security
measures must be taken. The
problem will not go away or resolve
itselt alone. Il requires my atten­
tion.
It is extremely difficult to know
the reasons why and how such in­
cidents occur but I teel we must take
action to secure our transportation
system for those who use the service
as well as tor those who provide it.
The disruption caused by a few is
not worth the inconvenience o f the
majority.
A number ot the incidents have
been attributed to young people
riding the bus. I would like to en­
courage all parents to talk with their
children to assure that they do not
engage in this activity and that they
understand the implications of their
actions. It would be unfortunate for
a responsible, young adult to obtain
a police record over what could
amount to nothing more than a mis-
understanding.
Our City is the most livable in the
United States and that is no ac­
cident. It is that way because our
citizens, concerned citizens, are in­
terested in m aintaining that
livability and they get involved. Our
City is largely free o f graffiti, van­
dalism, litter, street gangs, racial
tensions, desolate slums, pollution
and crime and I intend to do my
part as a leader in keeping it that
way.
My message to parents, drivers,
passengers and perpetrators is that
this violence w ill not be tolerated
and I declare this to be a closed
season to crime o f any sort on our
transit system.
I care.
„LeÎterS t0 the Ed'tOr
NAAPP and nukes
NAACP
Letter to Editor:
We are dismayed by the
NAACP’s coming out in favor o f
nuclear power recently, and by
NAA( I’ officials helping to spread
the myth being promulgated by the
big energy corporations that
“ energy means jobs’ ’ - in the
N AAC P version, »that “ energy
means jobs lor Black people.”
Facts contradict this myth:
* More energy does not mean
more jobs. As everyone knows,
unemployment has been increasing
during the last several years; energy
use, however, has been at an all time
high!
* Studies show that nuclear
power generation actually provides
lewer jobs than non-nuclear op­
tions. Ihe Council on Economic
Priorities estimates that the com­
bined solar conservation option
would generate 3.7 times more
direct employment that is, jobs
directly involved in energy produc­
tio n , than the nuclear op tio n --
while saving or producing 4 times
more energy at a lower total cost.
The American Institute o f Architec­
ts estimates that conservation
measured fo r new and exisiting
buildings would create A million to
more than one million decent jobs
by 1990.
* Jobs in the solar/conservation
industry — sheet-metal w ork, in ­
sulating buildings, etc, - are much
more accessible to masses o f presen­
tly unemployed workers, including
Black youths, than are jobs in the
nuclear industry, about half which,
according to the U.S. Department
o l Labor, go to engineers,
mathematicians, earth and physical
scientists, health physicists, and the
like. Many ot the non-professional
jobs, which today go to casual, o f­
ten m inority workers, involve ex­
posure to what the industry con­
siders “ maximum allowable ” doses
of radiation (“ allowable” doesn’ t
mean “ safe:” your chances o f get­
ting cancer will still go way up from
an “ allowable” dose); 15 minutes o f
exposure in a three-month period is
often the amount o f work available,
unless the rules are bent.
Can it be that the NAACP in en­
dorsing the views o f the oil com­
panies and utilitie s, is w illin g to
trade the interest o f masses o f
currently unemployed Blacks - not
to mention the other minorities as
well as the unemployed whites - for
the hope, not very great, that in 20
years the nuclear power industry
w ill employ a few more Black
mathematicians or geologists?
John Blank
For Ihe Portland Fight Back
Steering Committee
PORTLAND OBSERVER
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Refugees, relief and resettlement
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Publishers
Asst « u tin n
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Community Leadership
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Community Leadership
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By N. Fungai Kumbula
There are, at the moment, more
some 300,000 o f them, have taken
Ogaden is actually part o f Somalia.
refugees in Somalia than there are
refuge in the Sudan. A dding to
Somalia lost the war and was
people, ordinary citizens that is, in
them are some 67,000 Ugandans
forced to withdraw. However, the
Botswana - 1.3 million refugees as WSLF presses on with its campaign
who fled their homeland in the wake
opposed to the 800,000 people who
o f the overthrow o f Idi Amin Dada.
and so the wave o f refugees keeps
make up Botswana. D jib o u ti, the swelling. Somalia has a population
With their country still in a state o f
former French colony on the Horn
political flux, it does not look like
ol 3.7 million and a per capita in­
o f A fric a , is now home to some
they will be leaving any time soon.
come of $125.00 per annum. So she
30,000 refugees, fu lly 10% o f its
There are also some 5,000 exiles
is rather ill equipped to deal with
300,000 population. D jibouti used this colossal refugee problem on a
from Zaire and some Chadians.
to be called the Afars and Issas.
long term basis. Give her credit,
Sudan has managed to resettle
Sudan houses a fu rth e r h a lf a though, she is doing a commendable
some 42,000 o f these 400.000
m illio n refugees and another jo b . The U nited N ations High
refugees. They have been given little
500,000 reside in Zambia, Mozam­
Com m issioner
fo r
Refugees
plots o f land where they are given
bique and Botswana.
estimates that Somalia will need ap­
the means to fend for themselves.
So much has been written, said proximately $140 m illion but so far
Over 100,000 o f the refugees have,
and done about the boat people of has received only $18 million from
however, stubbornly insisted on
Cambodia and Vietnam. Now the international relief organizations.
staying in the urban areas with half
news is chokeful o f accounts o f Though there are some agancies and
o f them, 50,000 in Khartoum , the
Cuban refugees. At the same time groups in the United States working
capital. Next month the Sudanese
very little is being said or done
to get aid to Somalia, their efforts
government w ill host a pledging
about African refugees; the refugee
have been strym ied in Congress.
conference, with the assistance o f
popula tion in A fric a now ap­
The U N H C R warns that unless
the UNHCR, and the objective is to
proaches the 4 m illion mark. There
assistance is rushed to these
interest potential donor countries in
are more refugees in A frica right
refugees, they could face a disaster
a $50 million development program
now than any other place in the
that would make Cambodia (Kam­
designed to resettle all o f Sudan’ s
world and Somalia has the world’s puchea) look like a picnic. An end
refugees.
highest refugee population. Did you
to the p o litic a l c o n flicts in the
Only in Southern A fric a is the
know that? Bet you didn’t. Is the
region could go a long way towards
picture fo r refugees lo o k in g
lack o f attention due to the fact that
resolving the refugee problem but,
brighter. With the happy resolution
they are “ only Africans?”
at the moment, that is a very forlorn
o f Zimbabwe’s war o f liberation,
Most o f A frica’s and indeed the
hope.
the half m illion refugees who had
world’ s refugees are concentrated in
O f the 30,000 refugees in
fled to Mozambique, Botswana and
the Horn o f A fric a , the area en­
D jib o u ti, 20,000 have fled the
Zam bia are beginning to return
compassing the Sudan, E ritrea,
fighting between Ethiopia and the
home. The government o f Z im ­
Ethiopia, D jibouti and Somalia. An
WSLF in the Ogaden. The other
babwe has made the resettlement o f
18 year g u e rrilla campaign by
10,000, mostly professionals such as
these people its number one
E ritrea to break away from
college professors, students and
priority. Various African leaders are
E thiopia’ s grasp has forced some
other intellectuals who were in ­
now busy working on a plan for the
30,000 Ethiopians into neighboring
strumental in the overthrow o f one
peaceful resolution or cessation o f
Djibouti. In eastern Ethiopia in the
Emperor Haile Selassie fled their
hostilities in the Horn o f Africa and
desert region called the Ogaden,
homeland in 1976. They were
in Chad. I f Z im babw e’ s shining
E th io p ia has been engaged in
fleeing what they perceived as the
example can be repeated in Ehtiopia
another b itte r struggle w ith the
ruling m ilitary junta, the Dergue’ s the Ogaden and Chad, A fr ic a ’ s
Western Somali Liberation Front,
crackdown on intellectuals. They in­
refugee population can be just as
WSI.F. The WSLF wants to wrest
sist on staying in the city, D jibouti,
amicably settled. In the meantime,
co n tro l o f the Ogaden from
where there is already a 50% unem­
the international community needs
E thiopia and annex it to Somali
ploym ent
rate.
They
have,
to double, triple and quadruple its
because the Ogaden is populated
therefore, not endeared themselves
relief e ffo rt to A fric a i f a m ajor
mostly by ethnic Somalis. In 1977 to much with the locals. Less than
catastrophe is to be averted.
the Somali government joined in the
three years old, D jibouti (the coun­
On top ot all her other problems,
war against Ethiopia and invaded
try that is) is still busy trying to
Ethiopia has just recently filed an
Ethiopia. The Somali government
make a go o f her nationhood.
appeal for aid for some 5 m illion
supports the WSLF’s claim that the
The bulk o f E ritre a ’ s refugees,
drought victims. When it rains, it
pours.
The erruption of Mt. St. Miami
By Nyewusi A shan
A fier months o f reported police
violence against Black people in
M iam i, F lorida It was inevitable
that the Black com m unity would
scream "N o m o re !" and move in
mass to state their case. So, as Mt.
St. Helens’ burped ash and smoke,
so did Miami.
The spark that lite the fuse was
the cold blooded murder o f brother
A rth u r M c D u ffie , on December
17th 1979, by four white cops. (It is
reported that they were joined by at
least 8 other cops during the killing).
Five months later, on May 17th, an
all-w hite ju ry in Tampa, Florida
returned a "N o ! G u ilty " verdict.
M inutes a fte r the verdict, an
estimated 5,(MX) Black people stor­
med the Metro Justice Building in
downtown Miami and the City ex­
ploded.
And above the rumble o f Black
anger, fire and smoke, came the no-
nonesense voice o f Florida’ s Gover­
nor Graham declaring, “ murder,
assult, no matter what the asserted
justification, will not be tolerated.”
Other predictable voices were also
heard: “ Race r io t , ” Senseless
violence,” “ Why are they doing
it?”
A pparen tly the w hite com ­
munities and their uniformed agents
(the cops) had not been listening to
the voices from w ithin the Black
community; their pain and anguish
over the probation given a white cop
gunslinger, for sexually molesting a
11 year old Black girl, or the "N o
charges ” filed against white cops
who illegally broke into a brother
school teacher’ s home, beat and
Bigotry
To The Editor:
While there’ s a lot o f agitation
over “ hostages” in Iran. May Day
in New York saw a social explosion
in which people clubbed and bat­
tered one another into smithereens,
and in the South not long ago, some
groups engaged in a frantical con­
flic t that left several dead and
mangled. This, is a democracy with
liberty and justice for all!
The other day the news media
carried the item that i f you didn’ t
like the way we’ re treating Iran,
then go there. It is this kind o f
bigotry and intolerance that violates
arrested him and then claimed they
had made a mistake. Indeed they
had...made mistake after mistake,
involving the systematic, methodical
assult upon Black people.
Then came the biggest mistake of
all, the murder o f brother M cD uf­
fie. working man out taking a bike
ride, minding his own business when
confronted by white cops who were
just cruising through the Black
community looking for a "N ig g u h "
to k ill...a n y nigguh ...and they
did...clubbed his brain out onto the
funky pavement.
The verdict o f "N o t g u ilty " on all
charges was a slap in the face of the
Black com m unity. The verdict
clearly suggested three things, (I)
the murder o f Black men in Miami
is acceptable (2) that the all-white
jury were looking for/and protec­
ting their own (the killers) and (3)
that the City o f Miami didn’ t give a
damm aout the feelings o f the
Black com m unity. Realizing this,
the Black com m unity known as
Liberty C ity came back with i t ’ s
own verdict; "guilty on all counts!"
In a desperate attempt to regain
control o f the situation, the Gover­
nor called in 12(X) national guard
troops, including the Rev. Jesse
Jackson and Andrew Young. It was
like a page out o f the 1960’ s,
however, this wasn't the 1960's and
Black people in rebellion can no
longer be "calmed d o w n " by hand
picked system leaders, or the threat
o l white force. Sure, Blacks o f
Miami listened to what these hand
picked Black men had to say, but
they made it clear that both Jesse
and Andy should really locus on the
dangerous situations taking place in
their own backyard.
The
message
from
white
A m e rik k k a ’ s law enforcement
agencies is clear; expect no
prosecution o f white cops who kill
Black people, especially Black men.
Even the presence o f the federal
government doesn’t mean justice
will come. Black people remember
the brutal murder o f brother Jose
I orres in Icxas, by w hite cops,
rhe federal government indeed did
prosecute the "k ilte rs " o f Jose, the
result... a one d o lla r fin e and a
suspended one year sentence! ’ ’
From the communities o f Black
America, a message is also clear; a
new generation o f Blacks have been
born; young Blacks who remember
the violent aggressions o f white men
against their brothers, sisters,
mothers and fathers; the imprison­
ment o f their leaders and allies.
They have seen, they have heard and
in the fu tu re we shall see mass.
Black community organization to
insure the Black c o m m u n ity ’ s
survival against all forms o f Klanish
terror.
I here is really no justice or
democracy lor Black people in most
w hite courts, nor is there C ity
protection lo r Black people, from
gun to tin g , trigger happy, white
cops who occupy our communities,
therelore, the pending survival o f
our Black communities will depend
on our ab ility to organize United
Fronts, capable o f mass community
organizing; oranizing designed to
bring about maximum results, while
at the same time insuring the least
amount o l damage to the com ­
munity as possible.
Ihe situation in Miami is, "Jus
the same o l song, but with a d if­
ferent meaning... "
and contradicts the very central
principle o f democracy and frequen­
tly it is carried on in the very name
o f democracy! And often they who
most lo u d ly proclaim th e ir own
rights to free speech are the first to
deny it to others who may happen to
disagree with their particular views.
It dazes and outrages all descent
conscience when people pretend to
be defending democracy by in ­
dulging in H nleristic tactics. The
hypocritical ‘cliche” “ like it , ” or
“ leave it” belongs to this category.
Are we to like what is undermining
our own country’ s well-being? If we
are, as the authors o f this cliche
seem to imply, then we are helping
the country to take leave o f itself.
A ll societies, including our own is
continually imperiled by anarchy on
one side and tyranny on the other
depending on the p o litic a l ex­
trem ists to the left or right fo r
leadership. The democratic p rin ­
ciple is to guard against this even if
it may mean dissent and non­
co n fo rm ity versus dissenters and
non-conlormists who would destroy
democracy, even in the name o f
democracy.
Sincerely,
Paul Brtnbmen, Jr.