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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1982)
Page 6 Portland Observer, February 4,1 9 6 2 Howard, Reed begin exchange «i by Kathryn H all Bogle Attorney Michael Taylor explains Landlord- Tenant law at workshop held at King Neighbor- hood Facility H ow ard U niversity in W ashing ton, D .C ., and Oregon’s own presti gious Reed College will begin a new exchange program in the fa ll o f 1982. According to Gary Connor, regis trar at Reed, the exchange will allow students from both institutions to “ explote another educational set ting.” " W e have been w orking on the idea fo r about a y e a r,” said C o n nor. “ O u r Black studies program has not been active fo r some tim e and because we want to help our Reed students to break through an all-white situation we decided to in vite an enrollm ent o f H ow ard stu dents to the Reed campus. The Howard catalog will be available at Reed for Reedites who wish to study at Howard. “ W e realize that when students come to Reed they tend to stay in the same socio-economic group in which they started,” C onnor said. “ W e also found that in our new freshman class thare are only four minority students and that only one o f them is Black. by Legal Aid. "H o w a rd University has a strong (Photo: Richard J. Brown) academic background to o ffe r in medicine, in law and in engineering and business and our students could continue studies among persons in a mixed racial setting. After all, H ow ard, predom inantly B lack, has the South Vietnamese people, it was about 10,000 students on campus.” next to impossible to defeat them. C onnor said that Reed had con Ken King sheds some light on the sidered the fin an cial difference in dilemma o f the American soldier in tuition at the two campuses and that V ietn am . “ The fru stratin g thing Reed w ill o ffe r a 40 per cent dis about being a soldier in V ietnam count to Howard students who wish was you couldn't tell the Viet Cong to enter Reed. Applications for the from other Vietnamese people. We exchange program w ill soon be hit anybody that was in the line o f available for students on each fire— we were not taking any prison campus, Connor said. ers.” Ken was 18 years old when he entered the M arin e Corps. He served 21 months o f active combat duty. Resale Clothing “ First Quality The Second Time Around" Men's, Women's, Children s Clothing and Household Items ALL SIZtS AVAILABLE Consignments Accepted (Quality Meichandnr Only) By Appointment Please 281-9418 2406 N.E. Union Ave Parking On N1 Sacramento St brought to you every week by Vietnam: The forgotten veterans by Harris Levon McRae “ Many Vietnam veterans don’t realize it takes a beautiful mind to even half-way keep it together a fte r the traum atic experiences that we went through. It puts a ch ill through your body to see wasted people transported around like trash. Anybody that survived Vietnam can survive in the United- States— em ployed or unem ployed.” — Ken King, a Black Vietnam veteran Ken King and most o f the V ie t nam veterans I talked to were posi tive people w orking full-tim e jobs and living productive lives. They are quite a contrast to the “ drug-crazed killer” image that many people have o f them. “ It is a tragic mistake to focus only on those individuals who have failed for whatever reasons, to make an adequate socio-psychologic ad justment following their experience in Vietnam. Disabled American Vet erans and Veterans Administration studies suggest that between 40-60 per cent o f all Vietnam veterans have failed in some degree ranging from mild to severe, to integrate and successfully assimilate their exper ience in Vietnam. This implies that 40 to 60 per cent o f Vietnam veter ans have successfully re-entered American society, and this group of Vietnam veterans is invisible,” says D r. A n th o n y C . T raw eek, clinical psychologist at the Vet Center lo cated at 2450 SE B elm ont. “ V ie t nam veterans are perceived as extra ordinarily ‘unique,* but they are just like everyone else.” W h ile I do not wish to detract fro m the positive influence that Vietnam has had for many individuals, I feel that American so ciety in general needs to be more ed ucated about the psychological/ em otional effects o f the Vietnam war on so many veterans. N early three m illio n men and women served in V ietn am . A bout 58,000 died, 300,000 were wounded and over 100,000 returned home as disabled veterans. M any others suf fer from flashbacks and other dis orders that are related to stress. M any Vietnam vets still suffer from these stress-related disorders today. U n til very recently, the American people have never heard in depth from the soldiers themselves the com plicated physical and m ental realities o f when they went through in Vietnam . For years many veter ans refused to talk about their ex periences in Vietnam and the ones that did confide in their families and friends often found that they didn’t want to hear about Vietnam or they asked questions that the veterans found difficult to deal with. " I was reluctant to talk about the war u n til six years la te r,” said D avid C o llie r, a Vietnam veteran who is now a counselor at the Vet Center. “ M any vets find it hard to talk to anyone who doesn’ t have that common experience I Vietnam) and many o f them don't want to be judged.” Those feelings are well under stood. Not since the C ivil W ar had the United States been divided into groups as strongly opposed as those that developed during the Vietnam war. Throughout the U n ited States, there was a very negative reaction to the military operations this country was involved in. Opposition to the war came from several different di rections. H u m an itarian s were against the continuous attacks and bombing raids on unarmed citizens. Some people were ashamed that the country they lived in— the leading democratic nation— had interfered in what they regarded as a war o f liberation. The American presence, too, was economic as well as m ili tary and p o litical. A lm ost 90 per cent o f Vietnamese im ports were from the United States. The country was flooded w ith A m erican-m ade products. The U .S .-b a ck ed South Vietnamese government had not re form ed the landow ning system, it had not eased the burden o f taxa tion, or removed corrupt officials. The U .S . was conducting a war in which their p rim ary concern was gaining territory. The Communists were more concerned with winning people to their cause. Since the Communists or “ V iet C o n g ” as they were generally known had gained the support o f a large part o f Interstate Tax Service Are you paying too much to have your income tax return prepared? W e offer competent service at economical prices. • Personal Returns • Business Returns • Out Of State Returns S a m e -D a y S ervice 2-3 D ay S ervice Short Form Long Form 1040A & 40S (including earned income credit 1040& 40 Sch. A - Deductions Sch. B—Interest etc. $ 1 0 °° (interest with exclusion) $24°° and up S ince 1966 • Licensed Tax C o n su lta n t 5510 N. Interstate Ave. Portland, OR 97217 • 283-6014 Analysis “ Vietnam was d iffe re n t than W orld W ar I I in that W orld W ar I I vets had an identifiable enemy. In Vietnam everybody was potentially Viet Cong,” adds David Collier. M ost Vietnam veterans went to V ietn am w ith an u nthinking com m itm ent to dem ocratic principles and the same sincere sense o f duty that their fathers and grandfathers had gone to war fo r. Vietnam vets were thinking o f containing C om munism and the preservation o f Am erican and democratic stability in Vietnam. For many o f them, once in com bat, their views o f “ democ racy” changed and they were won dering what they had to be patriotic abo u t. They were first-h an d w it nesses o f American fraud and deceit in South Vietn am . They couldn’ t equate the body count o f the people they were killing every day with the incompetence and corruption o f the government they were supporting. A1 Jones, another Black Vietnam vet, told me: " I still find it very d if ficult to deal with the fact that 1 was risking life and lim b for n o th in g - nothing! The Vietnam war was a big lie.” The straw that proved to break the backs o f many veterans came when upon arriving in the U.S. they found that the folks at home too felt that the war was one big sham. Vietnam veterans d id n ’ t get the open-hearted greeting that wel comed home veterans from other wars. They were returned to their communities as individuals— rarely in large groups. There was hardly any recognition o f the deeds the vet erans carried out in the name o f de m ocracy and their cou n try. For many vets this lack o f acknowledge ment left a feeling o f resentment. One form er V ietnam vet ex plained on last week’ s Tow n H all television show: “ It is very hard for many people to realize how it feels to fight for your country and then come home and have people throw bags o f urine at you and defecating in bags and throwing them at you. W e’re supposed to deal with this?I” Many o f the veterans understand the criticism o f the w ar, but they can’t understand why they are the ones who have to be punished for mistakes that our leaders made. One vet summed it up very well by say ing, “ D o n ’ t confuse the war with the warrior— the war was continued two or three years fo r purely eco nomic and political reasons.” As I mentioned earlier, the major ity o f the Vietnam veterans have ad- A M E R IC A N STATE B A N K When you hold a seashell to your ear, the sound you hear does not come from the shell. W hat you hear is simply the sound of blood pulsing in your own ear. • Every river in Europe that flows into the Black Sea starts w ith the letter “ D " —the Danube, Dnieper, Dniester and Don. The man who invented the safety pin, Walter Hunt, sold his invention for just $400. justed well to life back home. H o w ever, things aren ’t going well for many veterans who still suffer serious problems that are rooted in their experiences in the war and the way they were treated when they re turned home. Next week the Observer will take an in-depth look at some o f these problems. E r The world's largest airport, in Montreal, Canada, is bigger than the Island of Manhattan. American State Bank AN IN D EPEND EN T BANK Head Office 2737 N. E. Union Portland, Oregon 97212 X O D U S '! /¿ u o /u n a / a n t / & is fáeet&e 1639N.E. Alberta PORTLANO. OREGÖN 9721 1 284 7997 Quadripartite Mental - Fitness Mental Fitness is as important as Physical Fitness i f not more so. Success comes to the wise by way o f the mind. The mind must be prepared to recognize and sense what to say and do at the right time w ithin the follow ing four dimensions which are in Q U A D R IP A R TITE form. (1) (2) (3 ) F A M ILY SOCIAL FRIENDS, JOB, PROFESSION P E R S O N A L R E L IE F P R IN C IP L E S A N D SELF ES TEEM P O L IC Y (4) MONEY AN D M A T E R IA L M A N A G E M E N T FU N D A M E N T A L RU LE A ll things that happen to people w ill happen in one or more o f these fou r areas, but whatever happens in any one area w ill have an effect on all o f the other areas. Knowing the Q U A D R IP A R T IT E CONCEPT and practicing it, is what Mental Fitness is all about. Praaantad aa a comm unity larvlca by Houaa o f Exodua
