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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 1982)
» V* * •• Page 4 Portland Observer, January 14, 1962 a EDITORIAL/OPINION by Funga i K urn bula Citizen Achievement Awards T he O b se rve r is p ro u d to present C itiz e n A c h ie v e m e n t A w a rd s to person s w ith o u t standing achievement in th e ir fields. Each is an e x a m p le o f in d iv id u a l acco m p lish m e n t in his fie ld o f endeavor and each serves as a ro ll m odel fo r youth. We present the M an and W om an o f the year — R o n n ie H e rn d o n and L in d a W illia m s — selected f o r o u ts ta n d in g se rvice to the co m m u nity; R uth H aefner fo r her m any years o f w o rk fo r others. In the va rio u s fields: C o rp o ra te E xecutive, E a rl W a n t,a n d ; F inance and B a n k in g , V .F . B o o ke r; S ports E xe cutive, H a rry G lic k m a n ; Sm all Business, C ora Sm ith. S ta te G o v e rn m e n t, G re tc h e n K a fo u r y ; C o u n ty G o v e rn m e n t, D o n C la r k ; C ity G o v e rn m e n t, C h a rle s J o rd a n ; C o m m u n ity Service, Edna Robertson. It w ill o u r pleasure to present these awards at o u r firs t a nn ual aw ards banquet in A p r il. Each year we w ill lo o k fo rw a rd to h o n o rin g those w ho serve. Prisons or milk? President Reagan has proposed additional $1 b illio n cuts in the A id to Dependent C h ild re n (A F D C ) p ro g ra m . This w o u ld be added to the $1 b illio n already removed fro m the program in fiscal 1982. The adm inistration says the reductions, along w ith reductions in other social and educational programs, w ill help erase the projected $150 b il lion deficit. Am ong the suggested methods to absorb this cut is to te rm in a te A F D C to ch ild re n over 16 years. This w o u ld mean th a t the fa m ily w ould receive no m oney to feed and clo th e teen-age children who are still in school. The result would be to force the child out o f the home o r deprive younger children in the home. This is a heartless propo sal— to force young people out o f their homes and in to the streets. It comes at a tim e o f high u n e m p lo ym e n t, espe cially among young people, and a time when op portunities fo r tra in in g and education are being eliminated. A long w ith this proposal come drastic federal cuts in education and employment training, and state and lo cal cuts in edu ca tio n , v o c a tio n a l training, rehab ilita tion services, social services, etc. W hat are young people deprived o f home, ed ucation and em ployment supposed to do in this country? Join the g ro w in g num bers o f p ro s ti tutes, addicts, beggars and thieves and spend the m a jo rity o f their lives in jail? W o u ld we re a lly ra th e r b u ild prisons than feed our children? Consider state lottery Governor Vic Atiyeh has proposed a series o f budget cuts to meet the expected state budget de feat. These reductions cut deeply in to the educa tion and human services programs. The Dem ocrats— w ho tra d itio n a lly have a t tempted to develop and protect programs to as sist the disadvantaged— have arrived in Salem for the Speical Session o f the Legislature that be gins M onday w ithout a program . H a vin g a lrea dy gone th ro u g h budget cuts some o f the state agencies serving the poor, chil dren, and the elderly are unable to absorb addi tional cuts and still provide even basic services. The g o v e rn o r’ s budget also proposes such drastic cuts in higher education, in economic de ve lo p m e n t, in fo re s try research, in e n v iro n mental protection that future generations w ill be endangered. As opposed to m aking these drastic cuts the Legislature w ill have to consider other sources o f revenue. L im ita tio n o f p ro p e rty tax r e lie f to only those o f low-incom e w ould return m illions ÎDÜtëfc BtVA I5CÖT 5TÄMR. 0K..THO am... Illit- uJAVTA BETTER UIL h A kUWOTt.. ÍAPV../8K ' ""U h BUT, r THOUGHT w o e to the general fund. Increased corporation taxes, luxury taxes and a sales tax w ill probably be con sidered and rejected. The Legislature should also study the poten tial revenue that could be raised through a state lo tte ry . O regon is conservative w ith respect to gam bling— o u tla w in g everything except racing and Bingo games operated by n o n -p rofit organi zations. M any states and local ju ris d ic tio n s use a lo t tery to supplement their general fund budgets or to s u p p o rt specific program s. There has been much opposition to a lottery here based on m o ra lity, on the idea that the poor are more like ly to abuse it, that com pulsive g a m bling w ill de p riv e th e ir fa m ilie s . Perhaps these are v a lid fears. The Legislature should study the issue and de termine whether some type o f lottery would be a v a lid m e th o d to raise fu n d s to p ro v id e fo o d , shelter and m edica l care fo r the sta te ’ s m ost needy. NO, rr... WHAT? Sof«y, Now its 18- 5 < i« IQ " / 7 0 O i< 113 20.. Ö0P5.I. WRONG A6AIN a» iiu / p - cm M tM M R Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association MEMBER MtoclaHon - Foundad IMS Portland Observer Comrade Mazordze's unfinished agenda (N ote: Z im b a b w e ’s M inister o f Health, D r. M azordze, died on De cember 5th, 1981, after having been in o ffice for just over three weeks. Previously he had been the deputy M inister o f H ealth . Thousands o f grieving Zimbabweans attended his funeral.) “ But where I think we have been Ministry had decreed that those peo misunderstood, and deliberately ple earning less than U .S. $210 per too. 1 think, because it makes it eas m onth should be entitled to free ier to discredit us, is the idea that we medical care. A subsequent surve are going to take the trad itio n al carried out by the M in istry found healers and mix them with the doc that less than 5 per cent o f the peo tors. This is not at all what we are ple in the rural areas were making trying to do. more than $140 for a whole year. W e are trying to get the tra d i So, the M in istry felt ju stified in Before his appointm ent as the tional healers to come out into the making this decree some objections M inister o f H ealth o f Zim babw e, open, to talk about their secrets, notwithstanding. follow ing the dismissal o f D r. and how they can use them to the The people raising these objec Ushewokunze, the late C om rade benefit o f all. The two systems, the tions and who needed convincing D r. M azordze had granted the fo l Western style medical practice and about the inequality o f health care lowing interview in which he had the traditional healers are complete for the masses were mostly doctors spelled out some o f the M inistry o f ly separate. We want to encourage a and other similar health profession H ealth's objectives. These objec system where there is an interplay als, according to the M in istry o f tives are designed to overcome the between th e m ," the good Doctor H ealth. A fte r the M in istry stood imbalances and inequities in health explained. firm , however, D r. Mazorodze con care inherited from previous coloni O f the recent government ban o f cedes the objectors did begin to see al regimes. things the same way even though it the controversial contraceptive B riefly: fully 75 per cent o f the Dcpo Provera, which has attracted a took them a year-and-a-half to do three hundred or so doctors in p ri so. lot o f attention abroad, Com rade vate practice in the country were M azordze said the brouhaha was Asked whether a lot o f doctors based either in Bulawayo or Salis had not chosen to leave the country unfortunate and, again, a matter of bury. Further, Salisbury’s hospitals, rather than follow the M inistry’s di being misunderstood. The govern though serving only about ten per ment had decided last year to phase rectives, Comrade Mazorodze said cent o f the population, were gob this was not the problem at all. The out Depo Provera, not to ban it out bling up a whopping 30 per cent o f M inistry was more concerned with right. It was the vested interests in the national health budget. There the reorientation o f the emphasis volved in the marketing o f this drug was, therefore, a definite need to placed on manpower. that raised all the ruckus. correct this imbalance so all Z im So far, (his emphasis has been on It had been decided that since the babweans can be more equally curative rather than preventive med drug had not been proven to be 100 served. icine. A lot o f the diseases in Z im per cent medically safe, it would be In the said interview . Com rade babwe are preventable and so more safer to phase it out over tim e and M azordze touched on the work the time and resources should be spent the Fam ily Planning Association M in istry o f H ealth was engaged in on teaching the people in the rural was advised to put patients on alter in restoring the rural hospitals that areas how to improve their general native and proven contraceptives. had been forced to close as the War health through n u tritio n , hygiene “ We have accepted the need for o f Independence intensified. By the and im m unization programs. This fam ily planning, and this govern time the W ar ended, only four hos has involved retraining some o f the ment has actually increased spend pitals out o f a total o f sixteen were resident nurses we inherited who ing for it. But we also believe that still operational and, even then, tended sometimes to be incapable of fam ily planning should be taken as only at half capacity. running rural health clinics on their pasrt and parcel o f our whole devel The M inistry had managed to se own. The medical assistants we are opment e ffo r t.. . . cure a grant from the government of now training arc a lot more versatile I f we can provide social benefits the United States to restore these because their training is geared to during illness, or accidents, or guar hospitals and clinics and bring them wards serving the people. antee education- and old-age-bene back to I(X) per cent capacity. On the publicity Zim babw e’s e f fits, then the need for more children “ To overcome the manpower forts to integrate traditional medi diminishes. That is much more shortage, we have been using former cine into the health system have im portant in the long r u n ," the guerrilla medics who had been the been getting in the overseas media. Comrade said in concluding the in only health professionals in the last Dr. Mazorodze said that there really terview. stages o f the war a n y w a y ," added wasn’t anything new in that. A ll These are some o f the programs Comrade Mazordze. that his M inistry was doing was to the late Minister had in mind when He went on to add that there had legalize their existence—-they were he so suddenly and tragically left us been a fair amount o f resistance there (the traditional healers) before barely three weeks ago. No doubt when the M in istry o f H ealth first the onset o f colonialism and they the carrying through o f all these broached the subject o f dem ocra have survived to this day. Some o f programs by his successors will be a tising Z im b abw e’ s health services. them are very good botanists and fittin g tribute to this our departed Towards the end o f last year, the they excell in the area o f psychiatry. Hero. The nuclear war by Manning Marable Two things arc certain about the Reagan A d m in is tra tio n — it has an absolute contem pt for human life and a total disregard for in tern a tional peace. I f Reagan’s domestic economic and social policies have reaped massive unemployment and human suffering, then his foreign policies on the question o f nuclear arms control must be viewed as a similar disaster. The first eight m onths o f R ea gan's Adm inistration were not un expectedly characterized by vicious attacks on national liberation move ments (in Nicaragua, Grenada, A n ; gola, and other countries) and by a call to establish U .S. nuclear super io rity over the Soviet U n io n . The justification for the $180 billion nu clear arms budget was R eagan’ s view that the only way to deal with “ Soviet aggression’ ’ was fro m a “ position o f strength.” Reagan ap pointed Cold W arriors to sensitive positions, such as Paul Nitze, chief nego^Rtor for the Geneva arms lim i tation talks with the Soviets, and Eugene Rostow , d ire cto r o f the A rm s C o n tro l and D isarm am ent Agency. Reagan even made public statements that argued in effect that a nuclear war between the U.S. and the U .S .S .R . could be "lim ite d ” to certain geographical regions. An ex change o f deadly 20 megaton bombs would not destroy mankind. By the fall o f 1981, however, Rea gan was forced to retreat from his C o ld W a r rh eto ric. C onservative w hite voters in N evada and U tah voiced opposition to the M X missile Subscr,puons »10 00 per year in Tri County area Poetm eeter system (originally proposed by Pres Send address changes to the Portland Obstrvar, P.O. Box 3137 ident ( a rte r), and the plan was Portland Oregon 97206 changed. On Veterans D ay th o u sands o f students at over 150 college campuses attended teach-ins on the A. L et Henderson, Publisher mounting danger o f a nuclear holo A I Williams, Advertising Manager A l McGilberry, Managing Editor caust. On November 17, 1981, the National Advertiam g Representative N a tio n a l C onference o f C ath o lic Am algam ated Publishers. Inc. Bishops denounced Reagan’s mas 283-2488 T h . P o rtland Observer tU S P S 959 8801 is published every Thuredey by Exw Publtshing Compeny. Inc . 2201 North Killings worth. Portland. Oregon 97217. Poet Office Box 3137. Portland Oregon 97208 Second cieee poetege peid at Portlend. Oregon N e w York sive arms b u ild u p and called on g reater, not lesser, p o ssib ility o f U.S. Catholics to support strategies W orld War III . o f international peace. In October The U .S spends billions o f ta x and November several million Euro payers’ dollars every year for nu peans. both in the West and in Com clear weapons which could be chan- munist states, held rallies and dem nelcd more productively for health onstrations against nuclear wea care, Tull em ploym ent, education, pons. Many Western political lead agricultural production, and other ers attacked the U.S. plan to deploy human essentials. The cost o r the 572 Pershing II and cruise missiles cruise missile alone is $ 1 1 b illio n . in Europe in 1983. Both the U .S . and U .S .S .R . build Reagan’s next move was a publi two to three nuclear weapons daily. city g im m ick , designed to blunt I f present nuclear arms production Western Europe's criticisms o f his continues, by 1991 there w ill be insane nuclear policies. Proclaiming 75,000 nuclear warheads, fifty per his new com m itm ent to w orld cent more than today, with an ex peace, Reagan proposed on Novem plosive power o f over two m illion ber 18 a “ zero-option" in Europe. Hiroshima bombs. Perhaps a dozen The Soviets had to dismantle their m ore nations— in clu d in g racist 600 intermediate-range missiles al South A frica, South Korea and Is- ready in place in Western Russia, r ,e ' possess nuclear weapons and stop putting others into place. by 1991. In return, the U .S would agree not We must understand that no one to put their cruise and Pershing I I wins In a nuclear conflict. A single missiles in W estern Europe next one-megaton bom b, dropped over year. Reagan’s “ zero-option" was any m ajor U .S. city would create a hailed by the U.S. press, both major fireball over one m ile in diam eter, U .S. political parties, and by most destroy 50 square miles o f city area, Western Eurpoean political leaders and permanently blind all persons in as a genuine proposal toward peace. a 1,000-squ are-m ile v ic in ity who As in Reagan’s domestic policies, looked at the fireball. A full-scale the “ ze ro -o p tio n ” was hardly de nuclear war would kill approximate signed to work. Sufficient political ly 100 m illio n A m erican s, and at opposition had developed in Eng least 50 m illio n m ore w ould die land, H olland and other countries from radioactive fallout or other in to America’s proposed missiles such juries within weeks. that it was already doubtful that the The only possibility for human U.S. would be able to deploy all o f survival is a clearcut end to the nu its weapons. Soviet leader Brezhnev clear madness. Both the U .S . and had, tw o weeks before R eagan’ s U.S.S.R must reduce and eventually move, rejected the idea o f "zero-op outlaw the production o f nuclear tio n ." Reagan’ s own Secretary o f weapons, dism antle existing sys State Alexander Haig, hardly “ soft tems, and adopt an intensive p ro on C o m m u n ism ,” had previously gram to halt the spread o f nuclear termed the “ zero-option” unrealis weapons to all nations. We have the tic. And even if the Soviets agreed to political responsibility in this coun R eagan’ s term s, the A d m in is tra try to force out o f office any politi tio n ’ s next step would be to place cian who does not favor the ultimate the same cruise missiles in U.S. sub destruction o f nuclear weaponry. marines o ff Western Europe. Since Building a broad opposition to Rea missiles in submarines are impossi gan s cruel domestic agenda means ble to verify, the Soviets would be that progressive people must over forced to increase their missile pro turn his foreign policies and nuclear d u c tio n -le a d in g in evitably to a agenda as well.
