INSIDE: Arbitration hearing report
SugarRay Leonard puts away Tommy Hearns in 14
by Ron Sykes
After week» of media hype, Sugar
Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns
met in Las Vegas to finally decide
who is supreme among the welter
weights.
The Paramount crowd, some
3500 strong, was awed by the pow
erful display of boxing and punch
ing skills of one Sugar Ray Leonard.
Tommy Hearns, the victim o f a
gigantic media hype, was said to be
the hit man. He was supposedly the
possessor of a punch with the kick
of a mule. Unusually tall for a wel
terweight, he was supposed to have
(he physique of a light-heavy, much
too much for Leonard. Thomas
Hearns, said Luigi Harris, “ is the
best welterweight I ’ve ever seen.”
Harris, an ex-boxer, undoubtedly
didn’t see too many fighters.
The pre-fight hoopla was spectac
ular. Undefeated 18-year-oid Tony
Ayola, fighting out of San Antonio,
Texas, ran his unbeaten streak to 19
by knocking out Jose Anjuquedro,
27-9, in 1:50 of the first round. Mar-
vis Frazier, Joe’s son, followed with
a sixth round decision and the stage
was set for the main event.
Because o f television lights, the
temperature was over the 100-degrpe
mark, 24,382 fans cheered as
Tommy “ Hitm an” Hearns entered
the ring promptly at 7:30.
Leonard entered five minutes
later, accompanied by an entourage
some 35 people strong. The two
well-conditioned gladiators met at
the center of the ring.
Hearns, standing 6-1 inches tall,
glared at the smaller Leonard.
Leonard, displaying a world of con
fidence, only smiled.
Hearns said earlier that he wanted
everything Leonard had. Little did
he know that he was soon to receive
just that. Round one began with
Sugar “ Mongoose” Leonard mov
ing from side to side, occasionally
flicking a quick jab to “ Hitm an’s”
face. The round ended ended with
Sugar Ray the winner on points.
Neither fighter was able to land any
telling blows.
“ Hearns will destroy Leonard in
ten,” said Earl Sykes, “ the Hitman
is just too good.”
The second round was pretty
much the same as the first. Leonard
still moving and sticking. Hearns
was content to feel Leonard out. At
this point Sugar Ray was ahead 2-0.
The third round, Hearns started
to pick it up, throwing long combin
ations that the back-peddling Leon
ard avoided. Hearns was the winner
on aggressiveness. By the sixth
round the fight had drawn even with
neither fighter able to do much
damage. But in the seventh Sugar
Ray took charge.
He banged a left-right combina
tion to the body, followed by a
straight right to the head that sent
the “ H itm an ” reeling. Leonard
swarmed all over the man from
Kronk’ s gym. A right landed flush
on the chin of Hearns. For the first
time in Hearns’ career he found
himself backing up.
Leonard stalked him with all the
fury of a wounded tiger. A right to
the stomach scored, followed by a
long left that sent Hearns stumbling
into the ropes. The seventh round
ended with Leonard scoring heavily
to the body and Hearns holding on
for his life.
The sixth round was definitely
Leonard’s. Hearns, feeling the pres
sure, began to circle the wagons.
The so-called "H itm an ” turned into
the marathon man at this point, and
tried to see how far and fast he
could run. The smaller, more con
fident Leonard continued the hunt.
A fte r twelve rounds it was clearly
Leonard the aggressor and Hearns
the runner. Leonard toyed with the
“ toy cannon” often sticking his
chin out to Hearns only to flick it
gack at the last minute. Hearns was
frustrated and by now set up for the
k ill. Leonard sensed that the end
was near. The 13th found the now
aroused Leonard standing flat-
footed.
Hearns now tucked tail and tried
to stay away from the ever pursuing
Leonard. A right caught Tommy as
he moved backward, sending him
sprawling to the ropes. Leonard,
knowing the end was near, quickly
followed with those deadly combi
nations as only he can deliver. Rat-
a-tat-tat and the “ Hitman” was sent
sprawling under the ropes. The thir
teenth ended with Hearns barely
able to stand up.
The fourteenth was short. Leon
ard opened with a barrage that left
the defenseless Hearns helpless on
{Please turn to page !4 column J)
PORTLAND OBSERVER
September 17, 1981
Volume XI, Number 49
25C Per Copy
Jennings named corrections ombudsman
by Nathaniel Scott
M ultnom ah C ounty Commis
sioner Caroline M iller announced
on Friday, September 11, the posi
tions o f ombudsman and alternate
for offenders at Multnomah County
Correctional Facilities.
The positions, made possible
through $3,000 of the commission
er’s staff money, effective immedi
ately, will hear the problems of the
jail inmates, report those problems
and help consider possible solu
tions.
W illiam Jennings was appointed
ombudsman and Stressla Johnson
alternate, both ex-offenders and
members o f the Northwest Ex-Of-
fender Association.
“ They have a right to make reso
lutions but not to act as advocates
for the prisoners,” commissioner
Miller said.
"They have the same privileges as
clergymen. . . . I think this is very
important in view of the fact of the
telephones.”
Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone
recently installed collect-call-only
telephones at Rocky Butte Jail be
cause of alleged misuse o f credit
cars and other violations by Rocky
Butte inmates.
The proposal for ombudsmen was
made by the Com m unity Correc-
tions Advisory Committee and will
be reviewed by representatives of
the Corrections Division, the Coun
ty Commissioners and corrections
officers within two months when it
is hoped that additional allocation
of funding will be forthcoming.
Since taking office in January,
commissioner M iller has been out
spoken about the needs o f Rocky
Butte ja il and community correc
tions. In view o f the Board of
Commissioners* recent decision to
add a 50-bed wing in the basement
o f Rocky Butte jail, which commis
sioner M jlle r opposed, she said,
“ I ’ ve never been convinced that
there was a need for beds out
there.”
Rocky Butte ja il is scheduled to
dose in 1983, and the additional 50-
bed basement unit will cost approxi
mately $150,000.
The County Commissioners are
now looking at the classification
system and $7,000 has been allo
cated for the study o f a proposed
site for a work-release center, pos
sibly in the downtown sector, at a
cost of $93,000.
Ms. M iller’s reasons for concern
about county corrections and ex-of-
4Mlders were numerous and among
tW m is, “ It ’s a group that 1 recog
nize that has no advocates.”
Unions that know no borders
Organizing "on the other side
by Peter Kate!
Pacific News Service
O JIN A G A . M E X IC O — Workers
began gathering ho’irs before the
meeting. Smoking cigarettes, they
talked about wages. Social Security
deductions and work availability in
their job market on “ el otro lado”
— "the other side" of the border.
By 5 pm, when the meeting
started, about 100 men and a hand
ful of women stood in a rough circle
in the yard o f a two-room adobe
house as Melquiades Lara Nanga
opened the monthly assembly of the
Ojinaga committee o f the Texas
Farm Workers Union (TFU ).
Running the meeting with Lara
was Carlos Marcntes, the sole TFU
organizer for the vast territory from
Ojinaga to southern New Mexico.
Two to three times a week he is at
the El Paso side o f the bridge to
Juarez, Mexico, meeting workers
who stream over legally and illegally
before dawn to find work in the chili
and onion fields o f Dona Ana
County in New Mexico or on the
construction sites of El Paso.
Workers have been crossing the
border into the United States for
decades, but now farm -w orker
unions are making the reverse trip to
organize people before they leave
Mexico. It is, agree farm workers
/ /
and operators alike, the arrival o f
the inevitable— for the southwestern
agricultural economy in general is
little restricted by the international
boundary.
Art Martori, president o f Produc
tion Farm Management o f Phoenix,
Ariz., a large citrus grower, says no
one from Mexico actually “ works il
legally” in the United States, even if
he has entered the country illegally.
The distinction is a vital one to em
ployers on the Southwestern border
who currently do not break the law
by hiring undocumented workers.
The unions organizing farm
workers from Mexico readily press
the work/residency distinction, too.
because a crucial principle is rooted
in it: a worker who has entered the
country illegally is as entitled as any
one else to organize, strike or bar
gain collectively, or to seek the pro
tection o f American labor laws.
Some o f the O jinaga workers, in
fact, now are receiving the benefit
o f the federal minimum wage, and
the courts have ordered that back
pay be given to Mexican workers
who had been paid at rates below
minimum wages.
On a recent August morning at 3
am, TFU organizer Marentes circu
lated among approximately 200 men
standing in small groups on the side-
(Please turn to page 12 column I)
Naming ceremony ancient African rite
Youth In the '80a: Where will they go?
(Photo: Richard J. Brown!
Our children's future
Grassroot News, N. W. — The
just our basic needs. I have to deal
children of tomorrow will face the
with not having enough food, cloth
same challenges, frustrations, eco
ing and having a house with room to
nomic woes and hopes of their par
move around in.
ents and foreparents. But the degree
"As they get older I know I ’m go
to which all those sensations are real
ing to have to fight to keep them off
ized will be at a different level be
the streets. I worry because there is
cause current events have dictated
no male figure here at home and I
that the conditions in which they
think a lot of kids wouldn't be out
will matureare similar to the era of
there on the streets if they had a
the end of Reconstruction.
more secure home situation.”
We will focus on the Black and
Another parent observed, “ Many
the poor child exclusively, and a
troubles the kids nowadays have
glance of how life is for them will
come from no one really caring. I
provide us with a glimpse o f the
know where the mother don’t care
adults of tomorrow. Whether they
and when your Mama don’t care for
will be ready for the times, or the
you then you might as well hang it
times ready for them, are questions
up. Some of the young uneducated
our special series on the child of to
and even the older educated would
morrow might answer.
put their man before their child.
Our first installment will concen
They feed their man, spend money
trale on the problems of the child.
on their man while their kids go
And like many of the problems of
barefoot and will be with a man who
an adult the economic woes have
doesn’ t love their kids. Shoot, a
taken their toll. A parent explains,
man got to respect my kids before I
“ Our basic problem is money. We
spend a second with him ."
have a hell of a time keeping up with
(Please turn to page 12 column I)
A nda woman who held a baby
against her bosom said, speak to
us o f children, and he said your
children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters
o f life belonging to itself.
They come through you, but not
from you
and though they are with you
yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love, but
not your thoughts, fo r they have
their own thoughts.
You may house your bodies, but not
your soul, fo r their souls dwell in
the house o f tomorrow which you
cannot visir, not even in your
dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but
seek not to make like you.
For l(fe goes not back wards, but
tarries with yesterday.
Grassroot News. N. W — So be
gins another naming ceremony in
Northeast Portland. A naming cere
mony is one where the family o f a
newborn gathers together, along
with the community, to celebrate
the giving of life. The most recent
recipient of this most blessed event
is the Waters family. According to
Star Waters the ceremony brings the
community together for very
positive reasons. “ The traditional
reasoning behind the naming cere-
mony is to allow the community to
come and greet the baby and to
learn the baby’s identity and name
at the same time that he does. It
gives family a chance to come to
gether to celebrate the birth o f a
child. The boy baby is named on the
eighth day after they’ re born and
the girl on the 7th day.”
The organization which spreads
this type o f ceremony is the Black
Educational Center. According to
Joyce H arris, Director o f the
B.E.C, "The B.E.C was very instru
mental in spreading the word about
the naming ceremony. Over the last
ten years we have sponsored at least
20 in the Portland Metro area. It ’s
our way of affirm ing our belief in
the children and the future.
“The naming ceremony is an al
ternative to the mass. Other ethnic
groups have certain traditions that
are exclusive to them and Black peo
ple are going to have to start estab
lishing their own traditions if we are
going to survive in these days and
times."
The newest addition to the Waters
family is Igwe (EE guay) Akil (Ah-
Keel). Igwe means one who uses rea
sons and Akil stands for a son of a
queen. Nothing is as pleasing as at
tending a naming ceremony: a bit of
tradition in an uncivilized world.
Thabitl, Star, Igwe Akil. Sunni and Raahonda Waters.
(Photo by Richard J. Brown)