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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1981)
Paga 4 Portland Observer January 22. 1981 OBSERVATIONS From the Sidelines By Kathryn Hall Bogle Intense curiosity and immense capacity fo r study and learning mark the path and light the way for Shiva Ford, a young research scientist whose study has led him to explore some of the amazing poten tials of the human brain. The individual can regulate what the body is doing. Ford feels. He had delved into the positive research o f bio-feedback and the wondrous demonstrations o f body functions amplified and turned by instruments into tone sounds. Hand temperature or muscle tension can be monitored and measured to tell what they are doing, Ford says. Ford's curiosity, whetted by literature and discussion, led him to give more than a passing thought to the theory long sounded that people have a far greater capacity to regulate their own progress than is generally recognized and acted upon by them. That our minds react with our bodies, Ford believes, is demon strated repeatedly as many diseases are now thought to be stress-related; tension can cause cold fingers and hands, an accelerated heartbeat, etc. Styling himself as a conduit, Ford has been involved in brain research as a s ta ff member o f the research laboratory o f the Oregon Museum o f Science and Industry. He has worked with young people o f local high schools opening their minds to the field o f research bolstering the premise that we are not working up to optim al achievement in health and/or education. A four year course at Western State C hiropractic College gave Ford his C hiropractic degree in 1980. He has spent some o f his time in w orking in the research laboratories of the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado, one o f the three laboratories in this country doing research on the magnetic fields o f the brain. Born and educated in New York C ity, Ford came from a fam ily based in V irg in ia , a Black fam ily tracing its origins through a m atriarchal search back to early 1700. Recently, in August of 1980, a fam ily reunion drew about 600 members to Surry County in Virignia. An ongoing project o f Ford is to write a saga o f the history o f this family with the encouragement of his school-teacher mother. SHIVA FORD Ford says, only half-smiling, that neys. he was born “ more than once.” He K ojo Baako eventually returned interprets that to mean that he was to the United States o f America, to born once as an in fa n t and again New York City, to earn his living. much, much later when he matured His father is a Computer Scientist as in integrated man with a wholistic with IBM and Kojo Baako entered outlook “ blending the body, mind this field also. For the next six years and sp irit in to one very m u lti- he "worked as a Computer Scientist demensional being.” employed by IBM and sharpened his How did that come about? skills at Rutgers U niversity in the F o rd ’ s description o f this Masters program on the campus. m aturing comes much as To relax m ind and body Ford kaleidescopic color bits fall into pat studied the art o f m editation and tern. Complex, but with an orderly yoga becoming a devoted student o f complexity. the renowned sp iritu a l teacher, First there was his graduation Swami Satchidananda. A fter seven from Wesleyan University in 1971 years w ith Swami, he accepted a with a bachelor degree in A frican new name, “ Siva.” history and a minor in mathematics. In M arch o f 1976, relates Siva He traced extensively in West Africa Ford, “ 1 received an inspiration to after graduation and allowed him become one o f the few Black self to feel intensively as he walked chiropractors in the country. I put in the footsteps o f A frica n men down the machines (the computers) brought, bound in chains, to stoop to study the body. But, I found that and crawl to slave ships riding at an the body is a machine and that the chor at African shores. two machines had somehow become Ford re-examined the A frica n integrated. I found machines can be philosophical view o f life noting used to help study the body in a that it mates well w ith that Asian number o f ways. peoples, and he felt a sweeping “ I am not engaged in brain surge o f kinship w ith these research in relationship to personal unknown forbears. He went and social tra n sfo rm a tio n . My through an actual cermonial adop com puter background helps w ith tion in Kumasi in Ghana and the sophistication o f the research set became K ojo Baako (a male child up. Computers can measure the ac born on Monday). curate and appropriate degree o f He plans to write a book someday pressure on the exact place and the on some o f the exciting experiences degree o f the angle o f radiation of he lived during his A frica n jo u r- nerves telegraphing stress or pain. Human rights action, education (Continued from page 1 col 6) Organizations and groups are meeting to devise a plan o f action. Many have assisted the develop ment o f the G overnor’ s racial harassment bill. Laguardia hopes to improve the Com m ission’ s a b ility to speak to groups on human and legal rights issues. “ This is something we haven't had the staff or the expertise on the Commission to do to the ex tent that we should. Under the mandate to provide education, 1 hope to either add someone to our s ta ff or to id e n tify other persons who can do more of this. Recently the C ity /C o u n ty Commission on the Handicapped was placed under the M H R C ad m inistration and a representative placed on the Commission. “ This ties the protection o f the rights o f the handicapped directly to MHRC - whether it’ s building barriers, em ployment rights, or what. ” 1 would like to make the same type of link to women's groups - to make protection o f women’ s rights and advocacy for women a func tion o f the Commission. Although we have kept aware o f women's issues, we have not had direct in- volvement in wom en’ s problems and concerns. “ I f problems are experienced because people are poor - then we should become involved. This has probably not been done in the past. We need to fin d out what w ill happen to welfare clients under the new state budget. If what they say is true - people w ill not have enough money to survive. The Commission will have to decide whether there is a violation of human rights. Laguardia would like to hold a major conference on human rights, one that would look at the issues, share in fo rm a tio n . “ We need to look at human rights, whether they are being denied, and why. Maybe we should look at laizze-faire capitalism and its effect on the world economy. Maybe we should even invite a speaker from the Kian to explain their point o f view - i t ’ s something we are going to have to deal with. Maybe we should try to understand what they are saying so we w ill know how to fight them.” Tuesday night the Commission held its first meeting outside C ity Hall, meeting at Beaumont School at the request o f a teacher. " I think we w ill try to hold meetings in dif- NAACP appeals case (Continued from page 1 col 6) sity o f California at Davis Medical School, is now researching and practicing in the area o f childhood cancer problems at the City o f Hope Hospital in Pasadena, California. Dr. Charles Lee, who received the McLean Award from the National Medical Association in 1974 as the top Black graduating medical school student in 1974, is now a heart surgeon at the University o f Kansas Medical Center Hospital. Dr. Charles Floyd is a resident psychiatrist at the Long Beach, a lifo rn ia Veterans Ad m in istra tio n . and a practicing physician at the Martin Luther King Hospital in Los Angeles. Dr. Noland Jones is a leading esearcher and practicing physician n female cancer problems at Tufts U niversity H ospital in Boston, Mass. Other lawyers assisting with the defense o f the case include Patricia Goins o f the National Conference o f Black lawyers, Howard Univer sity Law Professor Herbert O. Reid, U niversity o f Pennsylvania Law Professor Ralph Smith, and Elmer Jackson, a Kansas C ity local coun sel for the NAACP. ferent points o f the City, at night, to involve the p u b lic .” C u rre n tly meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month at noon. “ Another issue we need to take a look at is police abuse o f Blacks. We know there is a problem and the Black United Front shouldn’t be the only group interested. Now a com mittee has been appointed to look at the Internal A ffa irs process. Since the Police Bureau is a C ity agency that is probably something we should be doing. But an outside committee has been appointed by Commissioner Jordan and we were not asked to p a rticip a te . We w ill watch the committee carefully and w ill look at its report. We m ight want to respond to their report or to do some investigating on our own - but this is an issue I feel we should be involved w ith.” A nother police issue is the gun policy. “ I don’ t know i f the P ort land police have a gun policy or what it is. But I ’ d like to see how it compares to those o f some other cities and those proposed by the FBI and other agencies.” The MHRC has been involved in the development o f the Governor’ s racial harassment bill. "W e strongly favor this b ill. I haven’ t seen the final b ill and don't know what the language is - but we support the concept. The police and the public need to know that racial harassment is serious - it is a serious threat to the person. “ Racial harassment has been treated by the police and by many others as not being very serious. You can compare it to rape. Many people believed rape was not serious, or that the victim was at fault - in some way instigated the crime. Police treated rape the same way - mistreated the victims or be littled the damaging affects o f rape. “ Racial harassment is like rape. The police have to learn that it is serious and have to learn how to »-•at the victim ." It's all very e x c itin g ," states Siva Ford. “ In the physical and the spiritual, there is a meeting ground in the whole field o f science.” Ford is now building a substantial c irc u it as a consultant visitin g around the nation. He returned to Portland this week after 10 days in W isconsin, A rizo n a , Southern California and the Bay area. Ford w ill continue as a brain- mind research consultant at OMSI where an outreach program has been started to involve m in o rity high school students in a six-week summertime course in brain-m ind study. "1 would be g lad,” states Ford, “ to ta lk to high school students about the importance o f math and science to them, for the ‘ how to’ can be a turning point in teaching.” In February, Ford is booked to teach “ The B ra in -M in d Connec tio n ” in a three-day session at M a rylh u rst College. Persons in terested should contact the college for further in fo rm a tio n regarding the course. There w ill be a fee charged. YES V Yes’ Y ou can have win«* You c a n a ls o h a v e p o p c o rn a n d p e a n u t b u tte r A n d hom e ba ked bread, to o ! Now y o u can have lo ts more o f y o u r fa v o rite fo m is w ith in l i m i t s o f c o u rs e — a n d s t i l l lose w e ig h t T o fin d o u t m ore a lio u t o u r new 1981 fo o d p la n s , jo in a W e ig h t W a tc h e r s * c la s s near y o u ! Pound HILLSHIRE FARMS SAUSAGE Smoked or Polish Pound K l _ SHOP IENOWS IE FOR r... I Th« Sr>«ndl>«il |S lo r « t In T « w i S m m 19M B R A N D S yew b i*« w V A R IE T IE S y o u lik e SIZES y o u w a u l • • • • • • «411 I I • 1«H> * ».«■ J 1 th « l« M O « 4 » M « • l l r d « M .l. M m m U 112«4 * H .I O lit w • l « t h * t . l . O t»l»l«n N . W m b a rU « • O r w l« y • J l r U * W M t tw m » l4 « 0 « < « l*h H ill» « ! •■ ■ • la k e O»— *o • • -« I t l i U «1 t . l . M « IH m • K in « C ity A mural done by the great Mexican painter Diego for Rockefeller Center was destroyed by order sponsers because Rivera included a portrait of The mural was reproduced in Mexico City at the of Fine Arts. Rivera of its Lenin. Palace INTERESTING FACTS Brought To You Every Week WEIGHT WATCHERS By A M E R IC A N STA TE B A N K The most successful w eight loss program in the world EMANUEL HOSPITAL 2801 N. Gantenbein Emanuel East, Room 2001 (Nursing Home) Thurs. 7:00 p.m. Rutherford Hayes became U.S. President in 1877 by one vote. 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