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