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Page 2 Portland Observer, December 3. 1981 a /G IF T SÖÜRCE Leather Highlights] Sale J* Lustrous ton leather. Polished wood. / Michael Hepburn has his face painted by Kath arine Donner while other youngsters watch and wait their turns during a buffet given by "Give Us This Day” and the Portland Extended Family Group. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) States liable for segregation cost The National Association for the Advancement o f Colored People (N A A C P ) won two long-awaited decisions on school desegregation in Ohio last week—in Columbus and Cleveland. In both cases, noted Thomas A tkins, General Counsel fo r the Association, the issue and fin d in g were id entical: The Sixth C ircuit Court o f Appeals affirmed u n co n dition a lly that the State o f Ohio was liable for de jure desegre gation. Prior notification by a 1956 State Attorney General’ s opinion places responsibility fo r both determina tion and correction o f racial segre- gation squarely in the hands o f the state. The Court o f Appeals found that the State had not taken the ac tions required under either state or federal laws and held that the State o f Ohio Board o f Education and the Superintendent o f Public Instruc tion were jointly liable with their lo cal counterpans for the racial segre gation which was, Atkins said, “ il legally created, maintained and ex panded in these two districts.” “ These decisions are im portant nationally,” declared Atkins, par ticularly “ since no specific ‘ smoking gun’ incidents were used by the NAACP as the basis o f seeking re Antiqued ton leother. Polished wood 2 0 % OFF ENTIRE STOCK lie f.” Although the State did not ac tively forge the racial segregation, it had an affirmative duty to eliminate it. Because, Atkins noted, the Ohio situation is far more common, these cases should set a precedent. In addition, the General Counsel stated that, “ by securing findings against the state, we are able to reach in to the state structure fo r both financial relief and for state su pervision o f local districts. This will also assist in laying the basis fo r lawsuits brought against the state, seeking statewide relief, rather than separate suits on each individual city or town.” Rich cinnamon leother Polished wood Sole prices good through the weekend. 6359 Northeast Union Portland Nicaragua's 'totalitarianism ' by Frank Viviano Pacific News Service Recent statements by Secretary o f State Alexander Haig leave no doubt that the Reagan administra tion has accorded a special role in its foreign policy to Nicaragua. In Haig’ s view, Nicaragua is a to talitarian nation, a dangerous So viet-controlled state committed to the spread o f M a rxist-Leninism . The administration, he says, will not exclude the use o f direct military ac tion to curtail that threat. This view is at odds with reality on at least two major counts: It mis construes what actually is happen ing in Central America today just as thoroughly as it underestimates what would be required to halt it. Far from being a tightly controll ed Soviet or Cuban puppet, Nicara gua bears more resemblance to the p lu ra listic experiment o f Lech Walesa’ s Poland than it does to the Soviet to ta lita ria n state against which the Poles themselves have re belled. In fact, Nicaragua may be dangerous because it is Am erica’ s Poland: It threatens longtim e as sumptions o f passivity with a new and fierce insistence on self-determi nation. Nicaragua is the most dra matic product o f fundam ental changes sweeping across all o f Latin America, changes that nothing short o f true barbarism will stifle entirely. In the first place, it makes little sense to discuss the charge o f totali tarianism in Sandinista Nicaragua w ithout acknowledging the raw realities which prevailed in that country during the long nightmare o f the Somoza era, and which still prevail in El Salvador, Guatemala and H onduras— A m erica’ s allies and military clients. “ We used to say that if you didn’ t have malaria, you couldn’t really be Nicaraguan,” observed Minister o f Health Lea G uido. “ O ur in fan t mortality rate was one o f the highest on earth. In rural areas less than 10 percent o f our people even had latrines. The problem o f m alnutri tion was evident everywhere around us in dying children and swollen bellies. That was Nicaragua under Somoza.” “ Here in Central America it is not communism that moves us; it is the misery that reduces us to the level o f a nim als,” said M arcial Euceda. leader o f the national peasant’ s un ion in neighboring Honduras. “ It is not a m atter o f M arxism . It is a life all over Latin America. But N iw matter o f hunger, poverty and dis caragua is its first great landmark?? ease.” and that, more than anything else, M oreover, as the daily body may explain why Nicaragua is so count in U.S. newspapers illu s dangerous. trates, it also is a matter o f incon “ O f course we all took heart from ceivably b ru ta l violence: In El what happened there,” said Marcial Salvador or Guatemala murder is Euceda o f the reaction to Somoza’s the expected price for stating one’ s overthrow among Honduran political opinion too freely. peasants. “ A ll peasants have the By contrast, U.S. charge d ’affairs same problems, and in a way we all Thomas O’ Donnell admitted to me have the same enemies.” at the American Embassy in Mana “ From the very beginning, we gua this June, “ Nicaragua is a coun have said that the best support we try at peace w ith its e lf— social could give El Salvador or our other peace—and in Central America that neighbors was our own example,” is an impressive achievement.” remarked Sergio Ramirez, a mem Peace, o f course, is a tenuous ber o f the Nicaraguan Council o f business in this region, and it would State. “ I f we cannot consolidate the be naive to assume that the openness Nicaraguan revolution, if we cannot and enthusiasm which greeted trav keep our processes open and elers to Nicaragua in June cannot pluralistic, it w ill take another cen have been shaken by threats o f des tury for Latin America to move for truction from the most powerful na ward.” tion on the globe. Confronted with I f that revolution does fail, how a de facto economic blockade in ever, it may well be because the U ni tended to starve it, with exile troops ted States has accomplished a self- training in Florida to invade it, and fu lfillin g prophecy: Perhaps the with constant charges o f in te rfe r greatest menace to the Nicaraguan ence in El Salvador—supported by revolution and the American no material evidence—Nicaragua is position alike is that a campaign o f an embattled nation at the moment. ceaseless harassment and encircle But it would be a serious mistake ment w ill, indeed, transform Nica to conclude that signs o f embattle- ragua into a Cuba—an uneasy fo r ment are a prelude to the unraveling tress, perm anently ridden with o f what has transpired in Nicara insecurity. gua. This has, in almost every sense, In any co un try, including the been a distinctive revolution, some United States, the w ill to preserve thing very new to the world. free dialogue and p o litic a l liberty What must be undermined in declines as concern for self-preser Nicaragua is a process that has its vation increases. roots deep in the universe o f the Yet Ramirez, too, may be under peasants who comprise the great estimating the transformation that bulk o f its people, and in the a lli has taken hold in L a tin America ance between those peasants and over the past decade. Astonishing Latin Am erica’ s most form idable pockets o f self-awareness, o f re in s titu tio n , the Roman C a tho lic silience to unnecessary b ru ta lity , Church. have emerged almost everywhere in The basic organizational unit o f the vast expanse o f the Western this revolution was not the political Hemisphere that lies between the cell conjured up by H aig’ s Soviet- Rio Grande and the Strait o f M a dom ination scenario, not a seed gellan. Religion, growing literacy, sown by foreign intruders or urban the mass communications explosion intellectuals. It was the village and a dozen other factors have church. “ Christianity is the main in combined, particularly among the spiration o f our revolution,” point young who comprise the largest ed out Minister o f Culture Ernesto sector o f the population, to bring Cardenal, one o f the many priests hope and determination into Latin who hold significant o ffice in the America’ s villages. Nicaraguan government. The passivity o f centuries has Since the dawn o f liberation theo been broken, and although the pow logy in the late ’60s, a dawn brought er o f the Am erican m ilita ry may on by the church’s own recognition prove sufficient to destroy the Nica that conditions for most peasants raguan landmark, it cannot easily were growing steadily worse, this in reverse the tides o f change. spirational role has been a feature o f © 1981 Pacific News Service Today s Girl* Pantyhose *5 *1981 Volume Shoe Corporation 5139 North Lombard Portland Open 10 am 9 pm Monday Friday, 10 am 6 pm Saturday, 12 5 pm Sunday Be concerned! Be informed I Read the Observer! Subscribe today: cai1283 2486. Read the Observer every week. Subscribe today! Call 283 2486 HELP SAFEGUARD YOUR FAMILY THROUGH THE H0L/O 1 I CALL T h e CRIME PREVENTION DIVISION AND GET A FREE SECURITY SURVEY f ? 1 THIS SURVEY CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BETTER PROTECT YOUR FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD BELONGINGS ALSO ASK ABOUT THE FREE PR.QQRAM. YOU MAY QUALIFY! 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