Portland Observer, April 8, 1962 Page 3 LU PORTLAND OBSERVER State of the City Commissioner Jordan: Portland's future bright • ‘These are the best o f times and the worst o f times,” City Com m is sioner Charles Jordan reiterated, “ it is a time o f economic d iffic u l ties, yet I am optimistic about the city’s future.” Along with his optimism Jordan sees some m ajor challenges the city must face. The most serious is the problem o f unemployed youth d ur ing the sum m er. “ T he parks and recreation areas w ill be crowded w ith young people who have nowhere to go. Most o f the kids will be unemployed and many o f their parents also. T olerance w ill be low .” The C ity has no program s to ameliorate this problem. There is lit tle money for youth employment al though the M ayor does have a lim ited fund for this. “ I f the City wants to fight crime it should use its money to create em ployment. I f you are really serious about fighting crime you will get out to the neighborhoods and get with the teenagers.” Jordan feels the M a y o r’ s p ro posed war on street crime is a waste o f m oney. “ The people lo iterin g dow ntow n are a nuisance; they bother and upset people. But the loi terers, the alcoholics on the streets aren’ t c om m ittin g m a jo r crimes. The source o f crime is unem ploy ment and drugs.” Jordan was not upset by the day’s news that Portland has the greatest rate o f increase in violent crime in the nation. “ The reports are made by the F .B .I. and they use the infor mation given to them by the cities. The statistics are influenced by re porting procedures and classifica tions that vary from city to city. I f Portland has a good reporting sys tem, then it will be higher on the list than a city that does not.” Jordan is concerned about crime in the city. “ We do have a problem but we can still deal with it. Throw ing money after the symptoms will not help; we have to get to the causes.” Jordan favors and has proposed a citizen committee to audit the Police Bureau’s handling o f citizen com plaints against police officers and make recom m endations. H e o p poses a “ citizen review committee” which would involve citizens in in vestigating complaints. “ The police bureau cannot operate with citizen interference. The police must work for one person and that person must be responsible for discipline.” He blames M ayo r Ivancie for causing confusion over the two concepts. H e believes the police o fficers would benefit from an audit com m ittee. “ The professional o fficer needs this. We need to regain public confidence. A series o f events caused the public to lose confidence in the police bureau. “ I still believe this is one o f the best police bureaus in the n ation, but we have a few officers who go beyond the law. We have to take the responsibility to speak out against those who take the law in their own hands.” M ayor Ivancie is creating an illu sion (hat there is something to hide, Jordan said. “ There is nothing to hide. I don’t believe a citizens com mittee would find anything wrong, but the public will believe citizens more than they would officials.” C rim e prevention requires c iti zens' trust in the police, Jordan add ed. “ Police d o n ’ t prevent crim e; only citizens prevent crime. Police enforce the laws. An increase o f po lice officers enhances the feeling o f safety. But it is citizens who report crime, call the police, and prevent crime.” A lth o u g h Jordan sees an im provement in the economy by Octo ber, he is concerned about those who m ight not survive u n til then. “ The people at the bottom o f the barrel need help just to have the ba s ics -fo o d , clothing, fuel and hous ing. We are working every day just to get food for people.” He forsees the need to shift some funds from other bureaus and pro grams to social services, at least for the next year. O v e ra ll, the city is in adequate condition financially. Some bureaus w ill have cuts, there w ill be some shiftin g o f funds to meet special problem s, but the city is fiscally sound. Jordan has no ambitions for state or national office but plans to stay at the local level "where the real de cisions are made.” He will not make the decision whether to run fo r M ayor or to retain his council seat u n til this fa ll. “ I want to look at plans and programs. I will only run for M ayo r if I need the position to carry out the plans and programs.” ” 1 am optimistic. I believe P ort land’s future will be bright.” COMMISSIONER CHARLES JORDAN True meaning of Easter lost by Harris Levon McRae Denlaa Walla racalvaa her badge from M ultno mah County Sheriff Edgar Martin aa thirteen naw Daputy Shariffa join tha forca. Sworn in by Judge Robert E. Jonaa ware Richard Bile«, Mary White, Gayle Brooke. Earl Green, Jr.. Anna Fruita. Law rence Hagan, Carol Cumminga. Suaan Walton, Da vid Hadley. Richard Maalnarl, Tad Stanaland and Me Walla. (Photo: Richard Brown) It is Easter time again— the an nual celebration com m em orating Jesus Christ’s rising from the dead. Many people celebrating the holiday however do not truly understand the essence o f Easter. “ Easter is a holiday for which many families gather for Easter ham and tragically a time when people go into debt buying things they d o n 't need, to impress people that they d o n 't lik e . C h ris tia n ity is based upon the death and resurrection o f Jesus Christ. Easter Sunday is a cel ebration o f this. One o f the critical points o f C hristian faith is that if Christ didn’t rise, our faith as Chris tians has no meaning." said Rever end John G a rlin g to n , pastor o f Maranatha Church and President of the Albina Ministerial Alliance. Since Easter is a religious h o li day, a lot o f people are offended by the commercial hype surrounding it — especially concerning the c h il dren. “ I discourage a ll o f the myths that relate to Christian holidays. We shouldn’t tell our kids that fat men come down chimneys or that bun nies lay eggs— they have enough lies to deal with. Parents should take the opportunity to share with their chil dren the tru th about the Easter story. O u r kids are impacted by a secular society that takes religion and commercializes it. So either you lose Jesus C h rist in the tingle o f Christmas or he is hidden behind the bunny o f E a ste r,” Reverend G a r lington said. Children however aren’t the only ones losing out on the essence o f Easter. “ M y concern is that people get into credit debt by buying new suits and things. The other tragedy is that people w ith o u t a new suit o ften w on’ t come to church. One o f the ideas that I am going to use next Easter to get around this is instead o f having everyone dress up, we are going to encourage folks to dress d o w n — to wear average, everyday clothes.” Spring has sprung and for many the sign o f new life all around them combined with the Easter season is a International pressure for nuclear arms freeze builds Pressure for an end to the nuclear arms race is building in the U .S. and abroad . President Reagan's plan continues to be to build additional nuclear missiles to reach “ p a rity ” with the Soviets prior to taking steps to freeze production or reduce de ployment o f nuclear arms. Reagan shocked the n atio n s’ s leaders by becoming the first presi dent to charge that the Soviet nu clear force is superior to that o f the U n ited States. Some months ago Reagan frightened his European al lies by saying that a limited nuclear war fought in Europe, and leaving the U .S . undam aged, is possible. Administration spokesmen have al so said that the U.S. can survive and rebuild follow ing a m ajor nuclear attack. The Soviet Union says that a lim ited nuclear war is impossible, that the first attack would result in the destruction. They also state that they have reached p arity w ith the U .S. and its allies but have not sur passed them. \ _______________________ The argum ent about who leads the nuclear arms race continues. The U.S. has superiority in numbers o f weapons, short and intermediate range missiles, submarine and a ir plane-based missiles. The U .S .S .R . has more o f the heavy inter-contin ental missiles called “ strategic” mis siles. Either nation could destroy the world's population many times. Although the U .S .S .R . is vulner able to intermediate range missiles based in Europe and in other U .S . allies around the U .S .S .R .’ s borders, as well as from sub and air- based missiles, the U.S. can only be hit with inter-continental missiles. The last "strategic" arms talks re sulted in S A L T - I I, which would have limited the rate o f nuclear ex pansion but would not have reduced the number of weapons. Negotiated by the C a rte r A d m in is tra tio n , S A L T -II was not ratified by C o n gress and was killed by the Reagan Administration. The U .S .’s most recent proposal was to refrain from deploying 572 Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in Eu rope if the U.S.S.R. removes the 200 SS-20 missiles it has directed at Eu rope. The U .S. did not offer to re move the a p p ro x im a te ly 1,000 N A T O missiles in Europe, those of the “ independent" forces o f Britain and France, or U.S. missiles on sub marines and airplanes stationed in Europe. The U.S. claims the new Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles arc necessary to counter the SS-20s. Although the Defense Departm ent says they arc for the defense o f Europe, they are capable o f hitting Soviet targets. Moscow ays their SS-20 is not a new missile system, bu, a replace ment o f earlier systems. They con sider the Pershing 2 and Cruise mis siles to be first-strike offensive wea pons intended to destroy their nu clear d ete rren t. The Pershing 2 could hit Soviet targets w ithin six minutes if fired fro m W estern Europe, much faster than it would take Soviet missiles to hit the U.S. The U .S .S .R . rejected Reagan’s “ Zero O ption” and countered with its own. On February 10th the So viets proposed reduction o f interme diate missiles— those with a combat radius o f 620 miles or m ore. It called for reduction to 600 on each side by 1985, to 300 by 1991 o f inter mediate missiles “ deployed in the territory o f Europe and in the adja cent waters or installed for use in Europe.” These missiles are capable o f striking the Soviet Union but not the U .S. They also said they would like to eliminate intermediates from Europe entirely if the U .S . and N A T O would include all missiles, not just land-based missiles. The U .S .S .R . sees Reagan's “ zero option” plan as a method to reduce Soviet missiles without sim ila r U .S . reductions. It holds the threat that if the U.S.S.R . does not agree, the U.S. will increase its mis sile power. On March 16th, President Leonid Brezhnev made the surprise a n nouncement that the Soviet U nion has unilaterally suspended deploy- ments o f its new SS-20s. The freeze will continue until the U .S. and the U.S.S.R . sign an arms pact, or until the U .S . begins installation o f the Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles in Europe. The arms talks in Geneva were suspended on March 16th to allow both sides to study the options. When they resume in May, Moscow will again insist that U.S. missiles in Europe that are capable o f hitting the U .S .S .R . be included in any agreement on “ strategic" weapons; the U.S. will undoubtedly refuse. Moscow has repeatedly called for a halt to the arms race. It presented declarations to the U .N . in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1946 it called for a ban on production o f nuclear wea pons and for destruction o f existing nuclear weapons. In 1977 Brezhnev proposed a halt in production by all nations. In 1978 he advocated a U .N . special session to discuss disar mament and gradual destruction o f nuclear weapons, banning o f testing (Please turn to p ig e 11 column 5) _____ REV. JOHN GARLINGTON rem inder o f hope in the midst o f bleakness. Reverend G a rlin g to n comments: “ I f people too k the hope o f C hrist triu m p h in g over death and related it to Reaganomics and other hardships, we would see a renewal in our co m m u n ity. As the saying goes, ‘ W eeping may endure for a night but joy is going to come in the morning.’ ” ------------- 'l March against Racism! The Black United Front is calling on the Black com m unity and all concerned Portland citizens to parti cipate in the 2nd annual M arch Against Racist Violence, on Satur day, A pril 17th. The march will be gin at noon at A lberta Park, N .E . 19th and Killingsworth, and end at the King N eighborhood F a c ility , 4 8 I5 N .E . 7th Avenue. A ll concerned are urged to parti cipate and voice their protest on the school situation, racist immigration policies, racial harassment of Black businesses, abuse o f police powers, welfare and social program cuts, job discrimination___ For more in fo rm atio n , call 249- 8501. ________ > J V »