Page 2 Portland Observar February 6. 1961
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Bite the bullet.
The Reagan A d m in istra tio n is now in the
process o f m aking c u ts in the 1981-1982
budget proposed by President Jim m y Carter.
Before looking at Reagan's proposed cuts --
m o stly in hum an services -- we need to
examine the document he is starting w ith.
The 1981-1982 budget calls for expenditures
of $739.3 billion, 25 per cent of which goes to
the military. The military budget calls for a 14.2
per cent increase. This is the only part of the
bud get th a t Reagan hopes to expand -- he
would like to buy more weapons.
Am ong the programs Reagan wants to cut
are highw ays, synthetic fuel projects, c o m
m u n ity and econom ic developm ent grants,
fo o d stam ps, u n e m p lo ym e n t in sura nce,
student aid, public housing, etc.
The Reagan administration would like to cut
m ulti-purpose block grants to cities and "a c
tion g ra n ts " that are used to subsidize com
mercial developments by 30 per cent. Rather
than build more public housing to offset the
housing shortage, the Reagon administration
wants to subsidize more old apartments.
Although removing oil and gas cost control,
Reagan wants to eliminate much of the sub
sidy to transit systems.
W hile denying the econom ic developm ent
funds to provide more jobs, the Reagan people
w a nt to decrease m oney available to une m
p loyed. R egulations over fo o d stam ps,
m edical care and other social program s w ill
eliminate many families now eligible -- making
only the poorest of the poor eligible.
The Carter b u d get is based on an une m
p lo y m e n t rate of 7.5 to 5 8 per c e n t, b u t
carries a reduction of unemployment benefits.
Carter left 340,000 public service jobs for the
unemployed. He proposed $81 m illion for job
training for youth and $31 for job training for
those unem p loyed because of te ch n ica l
changes. Reagan is expected to eliminate the
public service jobs fo r victim s of short-term
joblessness and to drop the youth proposal.
The m ilita ry b u d get is a d iffe re n t s to ry .
While the American people are being asked to
cinch up their belts and live frugally, the Carter
budget calls for $180 billion to maintain current
sp e n d in g ; b o ls te r m ilita ry c o n s tru c tio n ,
o p e ra tions and m aintenance, research and
development and to raise military pay. Added
m oney w ill be sp e n t on re c ru itm e n t and
tra in in g ; m ore on e q u ip m e n t to place in
Europe; and massive increase in weapons pur
chase. Reagon is expected to add to the funds
for weapons.
Among the weapons to be purchased w ith a
$49.1 b illio n price tag are: the M X In te r
Ballistic Missle at $3. billion; T rident Missile
submarine at $3. billion; cruise missiles (laun
ched from air, sea and ground) at $1.5 billion;
B52 m odernization at $356 m illio n ; F15 and
F16 at $2.8 billion; tanks at 1.1 billion; nuclear
attack submarines at $779. million, etc. Hid
den in the budget is the new "stealth plane".
A to m ic warheads w ill cost $4.7 b illio n . A nd
the Reagon adm instration w ill add to this ar-
sonal.
This massive and growing military budget —
which is used to protect the economic interest
of giant corporations abroad and to suppress
many peoples of the world - is being torn form
the pockets of those who are least able to pay.
Of the $711.8 billion in tax revenue, only 9 per
cent comes from the Corporate Income Tax.
Individuals pay 74 per cent.
So as you consider the real needs of the
A m e rica n people -- jo b s , fo o d , h o u sin g ,
m edical care, e d u c a tio n -- do as th e y say.
"B ite the bullet."
Grants
T hat c h ild re n lo o k lik e (h e ir
parents is no coincidence. Parents
pass on to th e ir c h ild re n , genes,
genetic m a te ria l, in the fo rm o f
chromosomes which determine the
phyical characteristics the child w ill
have: height, skin colour, colour o f
hair, eyes, shape o f nose, blood type
and the like. By the time the child is
b orn, a ll these characteristics are
already pre-determ ined. W hether
the ch ild w ill resemble the fa th e r
more than the m other w ill depend
on whose genes are the m ore
dominant.
I f the m o th e r’ s genes fo r height
are more dominant than the father’ s
then the c h ild w ill resembe the
mother more in terms o f height. On
the o th e r hand, the fa th e r’ s eye
colour may be more dom inant than
the mother’ s in which case the child
w ill have “ m o th e r’ s height and
fa th e r’ s eyes.” Because so m any
o the r fa c to rs beside genes are in
volved and also becasue each
physical characteristic is determined
by its own separate p a ir o f genes
(one from the mother and one from
the fa th e r), the c h ild may end up
looking like neither parent which is
not always indicative o f some “ fun
ny business” on the side.
S ickle C ell A n e m ia , is one o f
those b lo o d diseases th a t parents
can also pass on to th e ir ch ild re n.
To understand the phenomenon o f
this disease, one has to delve in to
the science o f Genetics which is the
branch o f science devoted to
inheritance and all its ram ifications.
A ll people can be divided into three
basic categories on the basis o f their
b lo o d types. Those w ith n o rm a l
blood are said to have H b(a)H b(A )
blood (fo r a du lt hem oglobin - one
H b(A) gene from the father and the
other from the mother). Those with
Sickle Cell Anemia are said to have
Hb(S) H b(S) type b lo o d and the
ones w ith H B (A ) HB(S), one good
gene and one bad one, are said to
Letters to the Editor_________
Employee got no help
I believe that w hile raeists and
" line in stitutions use em ploym ent
i m eans ol c o n tro llin g Black
,•> ’I’le
I Ins was tru e o f the P o rtla n d
P ublic School d istric t durin g the
short tune I was an employee there.
I had been hired as a public relations
specialist by the district’s public in
fo rm a tio n d e p a rtm e n t (I’ll)) to
work on the school's desegregation
e ffo rts . I w orked from Jan u ary
through March ot last year before I
was tired. My superiors were co n
tent to assign me clerical duties at a
eery high salary rather than allow
me to carry out the responsibilities
detailed in the job opening adver
tisement.
W hen I insisted on doing public-
re la tio n s work o f a m ean in g fu l
n a tu re , a n d , when I to ld my
superiors our public relations to and
with the Black citizens of the district
should include more than expensive
-- but separate -- dinner meetings, I
was first isolated then tire d on
grounds I was incompetent
I rep o rted to and also appealed
ins tiring to the board ot education
I had worked with them as a group
Mid I had previously confided to
three ol them -- Herb C aw thorne.
Bill Scott and Joe Rcikc -- ms
suspicions that the PI I) ol I ice was
in te n tio n a lly not pro v id in g the
board with the professional skills of
which we were capable 11 ollow me
acting S u p e rin te n d e n t I enw u k 's
a p p o in tm e n t by the b o a rd , the
d ire c to r ol the I’ ll) o ffic e was
removed.)
I especially co m m u n icated my
co n cern s to H erb < a w th o rn e ; he
initially sh ared my belie! ot the
inadequacy and unresponsiveness ol
the PH ) office. But shortly belote
my te rm in a tio n , Mi ( a w th o rn e
said “ I was on my ow n.”
W henever the issue o f my
d ism issal cam e b e lo re the b o a rd .
( aw th o rn e, Rcike and Scott c o n
tin u a lly a ffirm e d the d istrict a d
m in istra to rs’ actions. Steve Buel,
who is passed o tt as a liberal, look
pains to com plain the district ad
m in is tta to rs had not adeq u ately
docum ented the evidence to tustilv
in v I i t mg. I hen he voted a w bite hot
al t i t iiiaiiou.
«»ills Wally Priestly voted against
ms le t in it ia t io n .
I understand why the other board
members voted to a ffir m my
dism issal. A n d I am p ro u d that
W a lly P rie s tly d id not buy that
policy o f control. But, I don’ t know
why H erb C a w th o rn e voted tim e
a lte r tim e th a t 1 be dism issed or
tailed to ask - as I suggested - that
the board investigate my charges.
Surely a Black vote in a raging sea
o f in s titu tio n a liz e d w h ite racism
would have been heard in this com
munity.
I w ill not be surprised i f there is
no substantive conse rva tive o p
p o s itio n to M r. C a w th o rn e as he
seeks election to an o ffice to which
we could not appoint him.
Portland Observer
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AtiocitHon ■ Foundoa 1M5
feeling weak. The patient had also
been having palpitations and short
ness o f breath and had been partici
p atin g less and less in a th le tic ac
tiv itie s as he had been in previous
years.
To date, apart from treating the
frequent crises, no cure fo r Sickle
Cell disease has been found yet. The
fact that it is a hereditary disease has
made it that much more d iffic u lt to
arrest. It is by no means restricted
e xclu sively to Blacks since it has
been found among M editerranean
people such as the S icilia n s, C o r
sicans, Greeks, Italians and others
b o rd e rin g on the M e d ite rra n e a n .
The incidence is much higher among
Black people th o u g h , w ith an
estim ated fo u r o f every thousand
Blacks in th is c o u n try having the
disease and one in twelve having the
tra it.
The o n ly suggestion th a t the
m edical e stab lish m en t has fo r
eradicating Sickle Cell disease is for
every
couple
c o n te m p la tin g
m arria g e to undergo genetic
screening which is a process where
o n e ’ s genetic m ake-up is d e te r
m ined. Once one has obtained h is /
her genetic h isto ry and that o f the
intended spouse, the tw o can then
decide w hether they w ill m a rry or
not. From their genetic charts, they
can be able to te ll w hat sort o f
children they are likely to have.
The idea behind th is lo g ic is to
discourage people w ho c a rry the
tr a it fro m m a rry in g and so the
sickled genes w ould die w ith them.
Were th is to happen, the gene fo r
the Sickle Cell w ould eventually be
w iped o u t. The weakness o f th is
a rg um en t o f course is th a t it
deprives carriers o f, that most fu n
damental o f rights: the right to have
c h ild re n . N onetheless, genetic
screening is a good idea before one
takes the plunge and gathers enough
courage to walk down the aisle.
Next W eek: A fric a Dairy II.
Thinking about Reagan
fli- Dr. Mann in# Marable
I)ear I diioi
have the tra it. This th ird category
carries the potential fo r passing on
S ickle C ell A n e m ia to th e ir o f f
spring depending on the blood type,
genes, o f the spouse.
I f an H b (A ) H b (A ) person
marries another H B (A ) H b (A ) per
son, the c h ild w ill have H b (A )
H b (A ) type blood and be perfectly
normal. W ith an H b(A ) Hb(S), they
w ill be carriers. When tw o carriers
Hb( A) Hb(S) marry, every time they
have a baby, there is one chance in
fo u r that the c h ild w ill be norm a l,
one chance in fo u r that it w ill have
the disease and one in tw o that it
w ill be a carrier.
Iro n ic a lly , S ickle C ell A nem ia
disease evolved as a defense
mechanism against another disease,
m a la ria , w hich a ffe c te d m ostly
people that live w ith in the tropics.
In parts o f West A frica and Central
A fr ic a , the incidence o f m a la ria ,
caused by the tse tse fly was very
high and, over the years, people
developed the sickled gene as the
body’ s defense against malaria.
B lood cells are n o rm a lly round
and biconcave and they w ou ld
th e re fo re flo w easily th ro u g h the
body’ s blood vessels. In the case o f
Sickle Cell Anem ia, the red blood
cells acquire a sickle shape w hich
impedes th e ir passage th ro ug h the
c a p illa rie s . W hen th is happens,
some organs o f the body such as the
kidneys and heart can be deprived
o f oxygen and, in the past, victim s
o f the disease used to die from renal
fa ilu re , heart fa ilu re , th ro m bo sis
and in fe c tio n . Persons w ith Sickle
C ell A n em ia p e rio d ic a lly go in to
shock when the percentage o f
sickled blood cells in the body is ab
norm ally high.
The disease was first described by
James Herrick, a Chicago physician
in 1904 when he examined a Black
college student w ho had come to
him c o m p la in in g o f a cough and
fe ver, a headache, dizziness and
The real problems of the minority population will be viewed and
presented from the perspective of their causality unrestrained ano
chronoically en trenched racism N ational and international
arrangements that prolong and increase the oppression of Third
World peoples shall be considered m the context of the.r ex
p'oitation and manipulation by the colonial nations, including the
United States and their relationship to this nation s historical
treatment of its Black population
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..o ’“ - N ,» i» .
' S tò ffe '
At a number o f levels, the election
o f Ronald Reagan presents serious
theorectical and practical questions
to the forces o f Progressive
Am erica. The Right W ing in white
LJ.S. politics clearly believes that it
has re a listic so lu tio n s to the co n
tin u in g burden o f in fla tio n , high
taxes, and high u n e m p lo ym e n t.
W hether to da y’ s solutions become
to m o rro w 's illusions — as I believe
they w ill — can only be determined
by h isto ry. M eanw hile, the Black
and H ispa nic m ovem ents, F em i
nists, E n v iro n m e n ta lis ts , C iv il
Libertarians, Anti-N uclear activists
and others must begin the necessary
process o f c o n s tru c tin g an a lte r
native national program o f pub lic
policies that has the p o te n tia l fo r
winning m ajoritarian support.
In th is lig h t, several hundred
people met on January 21 in New
York C ity ’ s Lotos Club to discuss a
progressive response to Reagan and
Reaganism. The guest speakers were
W illia m W in p is in g e r, head o f the
International Machinists union and
one o f the m ost lib e ra l trade
unionists in the c o u n try ; M ichael
H arrin g to n , the chairperson o f the
D em ocra tic S o cia list O rg a n iz in g
C o m m itte e ; B a rry C om m on er,
noted environm ental scientist and
fo rm e r P residential candidate fo r
the Citizens’ Party; Carol Bellamy,
the President o f the New York C ity
C o u n c il; and m yself.
V ic to r
N avasky, e d ito r o f The N a tio n ,
America’ s oldest magazine o f public
o p in io n and social th o u g h t,
moderated the conversation.
We were a ll asked a sim ple
question: What now? Although the
audience was somewhat in fo rm a l
and o v e rw h e lm in g ly lib e ra l in
p o litic a l o p in io n , there was sbme
tension in the air. M y brief remarks
that evening, in which a small sec
tio n appears below , were designed
to push progressives from a defen
sive strategy against the New Right
to w a rd an u n q u a lifie d p o lic y o f
constructive resistance and political
empowerment:
“ In the past seven days, there
have been tw o public events which
in m any ways are sym bolic o f the
fu tu re p o litic a l d ire c tio n o f
Am erica. One event represented the
best in us, the other, the worst in us.
One spoke to the h is to ric struggle
for civil rights and human liberation
over the restrictive legal constraints
o f Jim Crow and racial in ju s tic e ;
and the o th e r, a cerem ony advan
cing the selfish interests o f big cor
porations at the expense o f unem
ployed, blue collar workers, Blacks,
Hispanics, and other oppressed sec
tors o f American society.
The first event was, o f course, the
demonstrations held throughout the
n a tio n in h on or o f D r. M a rtin
L u th e r K in g, J r., the second, was
the inauguration o f a form er movie
a cto r whose sole claim to p u b lic
fame was his performance in “ Bed
time fo r B onzo." This is a man who
declared th a t 85 percent o f
A m e ric a ’ s p o llu tio n “ comes from
tre e s ." T his is a man w ho th in k s
th a t we can meet the econom ic
challenges o f the 1980s bv rushing
blindly backward into the 18th cen
tu ry w o rld o f A dam S m ith —
Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Reagan is fond o f quoting
F ranklin Roosevelt. The reason for
th is can be fo u n d in elem entary
science te xtb o o ks -- opposites a t
tra c t.
Reagan
is e ve ryth in g
Roosevelt was not. Reagan's “ New
B e g in n in g s " are s im p ly w arm ed-
o v e r-W a rre n G. H a rd in g : the
politics that says “ W hat’ s good for
G eneral M o to rs is good fo r
A m erica."
In his inaugural address, Reagan
called fo r re d u ctio n s in p u b lic
spendings - without mentioning the
c ritic a l hum an im pact th a t these
reductions would have in the social
services and edu catio n. He called
fo r “ rem oving the roadblocks that
have slowed o u r econom y and
reduced p r o d u c tiv ity ,” by an
across-the-board tax cut that favors
private enterprise more than the in
terests o f the p u b lic generally.
Reagan has prom ised to p ro tect
freedom across the w o rld - and
does th is by b rin g in g in to his a d
m in is tra tio n men lik e R ichard
A lle n , w ho served as a paid
a po lo gist fo r Portuguese c o lo n ia l
interests in A fric a ; and by appoint
ing women like Jean K irkp a trick at
the United Nations who in a recent
Commentary article implied that we
ought to support L a tin Am erican
a u th orita rian regimes that oppress
the human rights o f their citizens.
So the new President calls fo r
m ore freedom -fre e do m fo r the
corporations to fatten-up their bot
tom lines at the expense o f unem
p lo ym e n t lines; freedom fro m
b e n e fic ia l federal gove rn m e ntal
re g u la tio n s on the e n v iro n m e n t;
freedom from what Reaganites call
the so-called e x p lo ita tio n o f labor
over c a p ita l, o f w e lfa re m others
over c o rp o ra te executives, o f
government over m ultina tio na l cor
porations, o f Blacks and Hispanics
over w hites, o f wom en over men.
T o R onald Reagan, th is “ New
B e g in n in g ” represents a neo
co n se rva tive version o f the New
Deal. To the rest o f us, it represents
a raw deal.
Reagan also likes to quote K a rl
M a rx . Som etim e ago he asserted
that the federal incom e tax was a
creation o f Karl Marx. As steeped in
h is to ric a l m ate ria lism as o u r new
c h ie f executive is, he m ust su re ly
reca ll w hat M a rx w ro te in The
Eighteenth Brumaire. A ll historical
persons and events “ appear twice,
the first time as tragedy, the second
time as fa rc e ." Because i f F .D .R .’ s
u n fu ll fille d legacy o f social change
and progress is trag ic, then surely
R onald Reagan’ s R ight W in g
parody o f Roosevelt is a farce.
Many on the left are asking: What
comes next? Ronald Reagan sits in
the Oval O ffice; James W att is busy
th in k in g up ways to s trip m ine the
entire state o f Wyoming; A l Haig is
conjuring up a Com m unist Menace
in G renada and El S a lvad or to
ju s t if y U .S ., o vert o p e ra tio n s in
these
co u n trie s .
Keynesian
econom ics is dead; can the New
Deal-W elfare state be far behind?
L ib e ra lis m has been at a dead
end,
p o litic a lly ,
since
the
re p u d ia tio n o f the Johnson A d
m in istratio n in the 1960s. We must
stop
d efe nd ing
those social
program s we know w ill not w o rk ,
and begin by pushing the legitimate
d ia lo g u e on p u b lic p o lic y issues
to w a rd the d e m o cra tic le ft. We
must stop re s p o n d )^ to the public-
in itia tiv e s o f the R ig h t, and a r
ticulate a principled agenda that is
roo ted in c u ltu ra l p lu ra lis m and
so cia lism , in a com m on sense
language that A m e rican w o rk in g
people can understand and support.
W c must a rtic u la te a domestic-
agenda fo r fu ll e m p lo y m e n t, fo r
tough environment regulations, for
restrictions on the Hight o f capital
from innercities. fo r a ffirm a tive ac
tio n
fo r wom en and ethnic-
m inorities.
This w ill be no simple task in an
era o f low ered e xpectations and
even low er p o litic a l m orale. M any
have already said that the time is not
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