Pag« 2 Portland Observer May 14.1881
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Ask Boise community
7th and 8th grade students have. They enter
high school w ith a handicap.
If Boise is retained as a Pre-K-8 school, it is
o n ly a m a tte r o f tim e u n til its u pp er grade
stu d e n ts are sip h o n e d o ff. C e rta in sch o o l
board m em bers have long s o u g h t to send
them across the river to the W est side.
Tuesday m orning, around 1:00 a.m ., Herb
C a w thorne suggested th a t Tubm an M iddle
School be placed at the Boise building rather
than at the Eliot building as promised.
In its desperation to adopt an acceptable
desegregation plan the board co m m itte d to
place the middle school at Eliot, even though
the building is too small and the property is in
s u ffic ie n t. The board is now having second
th o u g h ts abo ut spending the estim ated $3
million to add more classrooms.
U n fo rtu n a te ly , the Board has n o t com e
back to the com munity to discuss the pros and
cons of locating at Eliot. Perhaps other a c
ceptable arrangem ents could be made if the
board were w illing to explore the possibilities
w ith Tubman parents and com m unity m em
bers. Joe Rieke suggested that Tubman go to
the J e ffe rs o n b u ild in g and C a w th o rn e
suggested Boise.
The Boise o p tio n does have som e
p o s s ib ilitie s , b u t it should go to the Boise
co m m u n ty before it is a d o pte d. The upper
grade students at Boise w ould ben efit from
assignment to a middle school. They currently
are deprived of the science, shop, music, art,
languages, and other programs that other 6th,
If the Tubman middle school were to go to
Boise, the Boise 6th, 7th and 8th grades would
go to Tubman. The lower grades would go to
Eliot - w ithin walking distance.
But Boise is not just another school. Its im
portance to the com m unity goes beyond the
education of its children - it is the symbol of a
com m unity's struggle to maintain its identity.
By Fungai Kumbula
The last half o f the seventies and
the beginning o f the eighties have set
a procedent which we all sincerely
hope w ill continue and eventually
engulf the whole African continent.
One o f the salvoes frequently
leveled at the various A fric a n
governments that took over from
colonial regimes throughout Africa
have been that in more cases than
one, those governments have tended
to be just as repressive and
to ta lita ria n as their predecessors.
There has been a decided lack o f
fundamental freedoms as evidenced
by the continent’ s disproportionate
share o f dictators, autocrats and
one-man governments; that Id i
A m in , Macias Nugemas, Jean
Bedel-Bokassas, Ian Smiths’ and the
like to mention just a few.
In the second h a lf o f the 70’ s,
there was a decided shift away from
this sad state o f a ffa irs to a more
e n lig h te n e d
p a r tic ip a to r y
dem ocratic system in several
A frica n countries. The fo llo w in g
are worth bearing in mind as we ex
plore this encouraging s h ift in
African politics.
It was Jonathan Newman's unwise decision
to in terfere w ith Boise th a t led to the C om
m u n ity C o a litio n , the BUF b o y c o tt and the
new desegregation plan. It was over Boise that
the com m unity finally decided to say "s to p .”
The proposal to move Tubman to Boise and
make Boise upper grades a part of Tubm an
U ganda: A fte r almost a decade
should be explored ca re fu lly w ith the Boise
o f rentless plunder o f the people,
com m u nity and the Black U nited Front. It is pillage and rape o f the n a tio n ’ s
not a decision that can be made hastily. A lot economy, one Idi Am in Dada was
finally toppled by a combined force
is at stake.
Talking to the police
The Observer has held a series of forums on
police/com m unity relations designed to allow
com m unity persons to express their concerns
d ire c tly to those w h o have som e p o w e r to
make changes. Am ong the participants have
been Deputy Chief S m ith, Captain McCabe,
the director of Internal Affairs, Stan Peters of
the police union and police officers.
A m ong the conce rn s discussed are e x
cessive force, harassment and abuse; racist
language; deficiencies in the citizen process;
excessive patrols; to relationships w ith youth.
Democratization of Motherland
The next step will be to rqake recommenda
tions in response to these co n ce rn s and to
present them to Commissioner Charles Jordan
and Chief Bruce Baker. Am ong the issues to
be addressed will be police hiring and training;
policing methods to insure the public's right to
peacefully use the parks and to be safe from
police harassment on the streets.
We hope the Comm issioner and the Chief,
w h o have been in v ite d to the m e e tin g , w ill
take this as an honest a tte m p t of citizens to
im pact city governm ent and to participate in
the decisions that effect their com m unity.
WHAT ABOUT OUR.
morale ?
o f Tanzanian troops and Ugandan
liberation forces collectively called
the Uganda N ational L ib e ration
F ront. A belated, ill-advised
attempt at rescuing the belagured
dictator by the ever unpredictable
Muammar Kaddafi o f Libya back
fired when A m in was routed
nonetheless.
Last December, Ugandans went
to the polls to choose a government
for the first time in almost a decade
and they elected M ilto n Obote
whom A m in had overthrow n nine
years previously and who had been
Uganda’ s firs t elected President
some nine years prior to that.
N ig e ria : A fte r almost thirteen
years of successive military regimes,
Nigerians went to the polls in Oc
tober o f 1979 and elected A lh a ji
Shchu Shagari head the co u n try’ s
first civilian government since the
overthrow
and
subsequent
assassination o f Sir A bubakar
Tafawa Balewa way back in 1966.
So far, the civilian government o f
Shagari has performed much better
than skeptics had thought it would:
a healthy sign that democracy can
work.
Ghana: For almost a decade,
Ghana, the standard-bearer o f the
decolonization struggle, toyed with
one m ilita ry regime after another.
The first civilian govrnment headed
by Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah who
had led the nation to independence
in 1957, was toppled in 1966. The
civilian adm inistration o f Dr. K ofi
Busia that took over for a while was
very short-lived and Busia himself
was soon on the outside looking in.
Central African Republic: 1979
also witnessed the fall o f Idi Am in’ s
com rade-in-blood, Jean Bedel-
Bokassa and his subsequent flight
from neighbouring Ivory Coast. He
was replaced by David Dacko whom
Bokassa had overthrow n in 1965.
This past year, C entral A frica n
Republicans voted for the first time
since 1965 and returned Dacko to
office by a rather slim margin.
In Equatorial Guinea, only a lit
tle removed from the C entral
A fric a n
R epublic,
another
notorious dictator, Macias Nguema
Biyogo, was overthrow n and
executed. The general who took
over has promised elections for later
this year.
Botswana: One o f the few truly
m ulti-party democracies anywhere
in the w orld has just completed
another round o f elections. A fte r
the death last year o f the country’ s
first President, Sir Seretse Khama,
his successor, D r. Quett Masire,
sim ply inherited his system and
carried on as his predecessor had
done.
Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere who
has led the country since indepen
dence in 1961 has indicated this is
his last term in office. He will retire
when his term expires in 1985.
S en eg al’s
Leopold
Sedar
Senghor has, however, beaten
Nyerere to the punch. He retired last
December after leading the country
since independence in 1961. His
hand-picked successor, form er
Prime Minister Abdou D iouf, has
been stam ping his own brand on
Senegal’ s p o litics in the past few
months.
There is talk that the Ivory
Coast’ s 76 year old President, Felix
Houphet-Boigny, may be retiring
soon. U nlike Senghor, he has not
nominated a successor but irsaid to
be preparing the country fo r the
changeover.
Then there is Z im b ab w e: the
elections that last year swept com
rade Robert Mugave and ZAN U in
to power have continued their clean
sweep. In m unicipal elections this
year, for the firs t tim e in almost
nine decades, every town and city in
Zimbabwe has a Black mayor. The
one exception is Bulawayo, Z im
babwe’ s second largest city where
m unicipal elections were put o ff
following the bloody uprising o f last
March.
Former dictators, Ian Smith and
Abel Muzorewa, though not im
prisoned, have been th orough ly
humilated by being completely over
whelmed in the municipal elections.
In the words o f one foreign
correspondent, they have become
“ non-persons.”
Zanzibar. Kenya. Mozambique
have also had elections recently and
a wide diversity o f opinion was ex
pressed in all three countries. In
some cases, candidates backed by
the government were ousted by in
dependents.
These are only a few selected
examples
of
the
wave o f
dem ocratization that has been
sweeping A frica lately. I t ’ s almost
safe to say that the age o f one-man
regimes is just about over. The good
tidings mentioned above seem to be
having a domino effect and causing
most African leaders to relax their
once total control on the reins o f
power.
This will have a tremendous boost
on the fig h t fo r lib e ra tio n o f
Namibia and South A frica because
no longer will it be argued that most
A frican countries are “ ju st as
repressive.” It is also a healthly sign
o f the coming o f age o f A fric a n
politics that divergent opinions can
now be more openly expressed and
African leaders no longer feel they
alone have the divine right to rule.
In a manner o f speaking, A frica is
getting back to where she used to be
before the Europeans came to
"civilize” the Africans.
Welcome back, Africa.
Letters to the Editor
Explore advantages of college education
43
Dear Editor:
After reading the latest edition of
the Portland Observer, I had to re
spond to Ron Sykes’ "Sport T alk”
colum n. R on’ s observation that
Ralph Sampson should have “ taken
the money and run” is distressing in
terms o f what it says to the youth of
the com m unity, Ron raises the
question as to the reason fo r o b
taining a degree. While we can agree
that a degree is not for everyone, his
statement raises some questions re
garding his interest in the improve
ment in the lot of youth in the com-
munitv.
Granted, Ralph could have
become the highest paid rookie in
the N BA; however, the list is long
o f those who did take the money
and ran, faded out in the first year,
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and were near poverty not long
after. Additonally, the playing life
o f a professioal player is limited at
best. Wise money management,
wise investment, and careful plan
ning insures that after their playing
days, a player can continue to live in
the style to which he has become ac
customed. Education helps facilitate
this process.
Another point Ron makes is that
the University o f Virginia would not
have been interested in Ralph if he
had not had his basketball ability.
This is a given; however, the
University does not maintain him as
a student s tric tly on his playing
ability. Consequently, he is benefit
ing from the total learning process.
I felt a need to share these com
ments w ith you, since many times
we hear our young people stating
ideas (hat indicate they can “ play”
Iheir way out o f poverty. While this
is possible for some, the stark reality
is that less than 1 percent o f them
obtain com fortable life styles
through this means.
1 encourage Ron to present a bet
ter balanced opinion and positive
direction fo r our youth. A d
d itio n a lly , I challenge him to
acknowledge the fact that Ralph
had a d iffic u lt decision and to
respect him fo r making the choice
he feels is in his own best interest.
Sincerely,
Mattthette R. W illiams
Assistant Personnel Manager
State Farm
Insurance Companies
!
Stealing our water
Portland Observer
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To the Editor:
I f the United States is to be con
sidered a second-rate nation in the
world it is because of the sorry state
our economy is in, not because we
are weak m ilitarily (we have enough
highly sophisticated weapons to
destroy the world several times over
and intercept whatever the Soviets
might send over).
One reason the United States
economy is in such a sorry state
is because o f government over
spending. One such proposed (over)
expenditure is the M X Missle
system. It would cost more billions
and billions o f dollars than any o f
us can really imagine and deal
another death blow to the U.S
economy.
Besides the negative affect the
M X Missle program would have on
the economy, we don’ t need it
m ilita rily . Seventy-five percent o f
our T rident missies are on sub
marines at sea and are undetectable.
The missies can take care o f
anything (he Soviets (or any other
nation) could throw at us.
and are undetectable. These missies
can take care o f anything the Soviets
(or any other nation) could throw at
us.
There is another reason for
citizens o f the Northwest to object
to the proposed M X Missle project.
Those missies ( if the proposal is
passed by Congress) would be
housed in U tah, an area w ith very
little water. A recent news item
reports that the state o f Nevada
senate has passed a resolution
calling fo r the federal government
to divert Colum bia River water to
Nevada to be used on the MX Missle
project. This is getting mighty close
to home, folks.
Please, senda postcard(s) to your
elected officials calling for a no vote
on the M X missle and all other fu r
ther nuclear weaponry develop
ment.
Betty McArdle
Portland, Oregon
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