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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 24, 1981)
Pag# 2 Portland Oto— r v r . December 24, 1961 Street Beat W ith the mass media’s attention concentrated on events in Poland we went into the streets with, " H o w do you feel about what has occurred in Poland? Grace Walker, employee o f C hil drens Services: " I t ’ s sad but I feel that we Americans don’t really have the right to throw stones. The Poles Phyllis Mahony: "T h e Soviets are that have already defected, it would be O .K . to stand by them. But as far going to m ake slaves o f a ll the as going all the way over there to Polish people. T h at’s just the way it is. T h ey are going to k ill them i f help them , I d o n ’ t agree. W ho helped us when they were sic-ing the they resist." dogs on Black people when M artin Luther King was m arching. W hat did the police do fo r us?" S a n ta C la u s a (J o a H a rris ) v is its b u s in e s s m a n Thom as C arter, M arv y Jam es, (o w n er o f N arvee's H a b e rd a s h e ry ) a n d V a l L in d sa y. W e n d e ll C o x a n gets a candy cane. (Photo: R ichard J . B ro w n ) Santa Claus visits Union Avenue Grassroot News, N . IF .— Santa Claus came to town in the form o f local Black businessman Joe Harris. "E v e ry year for the past couple o f years this is my present to businesses in the area. I don’ t go into their stores and pass out candy canes. I stand outside their stores and attract attention to them .” Harris says his intention is to get community resi dents to focus their time and money on stores and shops in the area. "S o m e people feel i f they can save a dime with a white man they would rather spend with him then with us. Not only do 1 want Blacks in this area to patronize our busi nesses but whites as well. W e have businesses in Albina and N .E . Port land. Let’s support them this Christ mas.” Harris concedes that people have their own preference for stores and shops but it still doesn’ t alter the fact that businesses in our com m unity need com m unity support*. " I ’ m not just a s h o w ," says the Black man in the Santa Claus suit. " I wish we had five or six Santa Clauses stretched out in the commu nity. M aybe, the people would pay more atten tio n to what we have around us." Jesse Rogers, B arb er: " I d o n ’ t care much about w hat’s happening Irm a Gene Reed, H o m em a k er: in P o land. They raise all this hell “ The young people won’t be around about what’s going on in Poland but they d o n ’ t over anything about too long with the way, not only Po w h a t’ s going on in South A fric a . land, but the way the whole world is going. I do believe that there will be So forget Poland." a w a r." was more appalled by these intem perate proposals— Gen. Jaruzelski or Lech W alesa. In the end, how ever, it was Jaruzelski who faced the choice. He could let P oland's internal revolution— which he seems to support more than he opposes— expand into an attempt to revolu tionize the entire strategic balance o f power in Europe. O r, he could impose martial law before the Rus sians were given the kind o f provo cation Moscow could not ignore. W hile the reasons for pessimism are great, the greatest cause for op timism is that the outlines o f a Pol ish solution are clear— and have been clear for a long time. American and Russian diplomats in W arsaw , Polish C om m unist Party officials and officials o f Soli darity alike all use the same phrase to describe the solution. They speak o f a “ national consensus” uniting the unions, the Polish army, and the Catholic Church in a common pro gram for Poland's future. The essential elements o f such a consensus are also clear. Internally, Poland must be free to adopt what ever course o f in tern a l economic and social reform is necessary to re vive the economy and assure social s ta b ility . T h a t the Soviet U n io n , however doctrinaire it may seem in the West, is w illing to permit such an internal liberalization is already evident. But the second, equally important element in any " n a tio n a l consen sus" is that externally, Poland must rem ain strategically a part o f the Warsaw Pact. The strategic balance o f power in Europe must not be up set by the Poles’ e ffo rt to reform their domestic life. In a sense, “ Finlandization” — so often derided in the W est— is not only the ideal, but the only possible solutio n , though w ith one d if fe r ence. Poland, like the other Eastern European countries, cannot really be Finlandized because they cannot be strategically n eu tral— u n til the day finally comes when the U.S. and LEGENDARY JAZZ TRUMPETER IN CONCER WEDNESDAY JA N U A R Y 13 C ivic A u d ito riu m the Soviet U nion resolve their d if ferences. W hat really is needed, therefore is Polandization, that is. the kind o national consensus, both in ternal and external, that Jaruzelski, W a l esa and the Catholic Church all fa vor. The key question now is whether by imposing m artial law Jar<tzelski has forced his country to take a step forward toward achieving national consensus, or whether m artial law will only make Poland’s internal cri sis worse, and the external com pli cations o f that crisis even m ore serious. M ost Poles agree th a t G en. Jaruzelski and Lech Walesa are not just Polish patriots, but realistic Po lish patriots. But will their compa triots be as realistic in the next few days and weeks— including the en trenched Com m unist P a rty head liners, who wish to use m artial law to turn back the clock, and the Soli darity radicals, who are tempted to see in martial law a justification for overt revolution? W ill not just Jaruzelski and W al esa, but 36 m illio n Poles, forsake the momentary satisfactions o f a ro mantic gesture for the realy terrify ing task o f finding some basis for re building their country according to both its in te rn a l and external realities? O r will they op» for caval ry charges against tanks? As in 1914 in S a ra jev o , and in 1939 in P o la n d , there is the tendency to imagine the future de pends on what the great powers will do. In truth, the future now depends on whether or not a volatile Eastern European n atio n alism can both channel itself to some constructive purpose, and avoid dragging the larger w orld in to its in tern al con flicts. © Padfic News Service K ay K irkm an , U nem ployed: "1 feel that they are fighting fo r the right thing. 1 can’t blame them for wanting to be free. I th in k the people o f Poland are rig h t. They should be free." Rose M arie Williams, Housewife: " I don’t like it and I feel sorry for the people over there. I wish Russia w ould go home and stay hom e. I d o n ’t th in k we should hide our heads in a hole every time something like that happens. I don’t want to go to war but I don’t want people sup pressed under communism." Keeping Warsaw in the Pact (Continued fro m page I column 6) H o w a rd Cote, U nem ployed: "1 was a union business agent until 6 months ago so 1 have to support the S olidarity m ovem ent. Freedom in Poland is important to us and I see the domino theory happening over and over. We should be harder in our response. There is some need for aggression.” by Lenite D u ka and R ichard B ro w n Christm Read the Observer avory week Subscribe today! CaH2B3-2AX. Narvee's Haberdasnery Emporium The Latest in Men's Fashions (Hats, Cape, Gloves, Scarfs and Accessories) 3619 N.E. Union 12 noon to 7:00 p.m . 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