Page 4 Portland Observer, April 8,1982
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Easter
Easter was first a holiday celebrating the res
urrection o f C h rist.‘Somehow it has turned into
new shoes, coats, hats— a com plete reversal o f
what it was intended to be.
T h is n a tio n sh o u ld tu rn back to the tru e
m eaning o f E a ster— hope, love, lib e ra tio n ,
peace. Easter should be a time o f reconsecration
to the ideals o f all religion: love fo r one another
and sacrifice fo r the benefit o f the com m unity.
It is easy to go to war; it is d iffic u lt to fin d un
derstanding. It is easy to oppress and destroy; it
is d iffic u lt to free and nurture.
Easter is a tim e when we should determine to
fo llo w the teachings o f C h ris t— to love o u r
b ro th e rs as ourselves. It is a tim e when we
shnuld consecrate ourselves to the task o f p ro
m o tin g peace and u n d e rsta n d in g in o u r o w n
communities and throughout the w orld.
Easter is a tim e when we should strive to en
sure that all people have fo o d , clo th in g , hous
ing, education and medical care. It is a tim e fo r
us to examine our own responsibility and role in
providing fo r the poor in our own com m unities
and to examine the responsibility and role o f our
nation toward the peoples o f the w orld.
Easter is a time fo r families, fo r children. It is
Spring. It is the tim e when we should th in k o f
fu tu re generations and take whatever steps are
necessary to preserve our planet and to save hu
m anity fro m self-destruction.
The problem s fa c in g the w o rld to d a y m ay
seem in su rm o u n ta b le but Easter means hope,
love, liberation and peace.
th e
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Pot i t /' col t
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tu h nino
Enterprise Zones no answer
by Norman H ill
Democrats in the Senate (Q uentin
Burdick and Daniel Inouye) and has
won the support o f 17 Democrats in
the House. A t a time o f massive re
treat and cutbacks in social spend
ing some lib e ra ls, app a re n tly, are
w illin g to g ra sr at straw s in the
wind.
Proponents o f the enterprise
zones approach argue that their pro
gram would provide increased em
ployment fo r unemployed poor u r
ban Blacks and H ispanics. In the
words o f President Reagan, " I t ’ s
tim e fo r us to fin d o u t i f the tw o
most dynam ic and co n stru ctive
forces know n to m an— free enter
prise and the p ro fit m otive—can be
brought to play where government
bureaucracy and social program s
have fa ile d ."
In late M arch President Reagan
unveiled his plan fo r urban enter
prise zones. The urban enterprise
zone concept is the single most im
portant new domestic in itia tive the
A d m inistration has proposed since
it came into office.
The basis o f the enterprise zone
plan is the providing o f significant
tax relief to those businesses which
relocate to im poverished urban
areas. In exchange for lower corpor
ate taxes and what appears to be a
relaxation o f governm ent require
ments on employers and employees
in such areas as environmental stan
dards, wage p ro te c tio n and c h ild
p ro te c tio n law s, enterprise zone
proponents argue that businesses
would create new jobs fo r the poor
and disadvantaged.
The enterprise zones, according
to W hite House estimates, w ill cost
the Federal Government up to .1 b il
lion dollars in revenues over three
years. They amount, in essence, to a
m ajor additional targeted tax break
for already profitable corporations.
One might argue that this new tax
lo o p h o le , this g ig a n tic tax give
away, would be roundly and unani
mously condemned by segments o f
the liberal and m inority community.
Yet, surprisingly, this is not the
case. Indeed, what made the Presi
d e n t’ s announcem ent so unusual
was that in outlining the plan to the
press he was flanked by conservative
R epublican Representative Jack
Kemp and liberal Democratic Rep
resentative Robert G arcia. M o re
over, similar enterprise zone legisla
tion introduced by Rep. Kemp and
Rep. G arcia is backed by tw o
Yet a serious lo o k at the enter
prise zone concept suggests that it is
deeply flawed and doomed to inevit
able failure. The proposal would re
sult in the establishm ent o f a new
type o f " ru n a w a y s h o p " w hich
would be substandard in its protec
tions and benefits fo r workers. De
creased local tax revenues in an en
terprise zone w ould place an even
greater burden upon the local com
m unity to pay fo r schools and vital
services.
In the final analysis (he principal
beneficiearies o f this tax giveaway
would be companies which already
reap (he benefits o f huge tax reduc
tions. C o rp o ra tio n s m ight indeed
find the enterprise zones attractive
enough to opt fo r relocating, but
they w ould merely be transferring
their facilities. Not a single new jo b
w ould be created. There w ould be
no guarantee that the m inority poor
would be trained in the skills neces
sary to make it in to d a y ’ s in c
reasingly complex economy. The en
terprise zone program w ould not
pro vid e the " u p - f r o n t " money
which would enable marginal busi
nesses to take advantage o f the
plan's huge tax breaks. O nly those
w e ll-o ff businesses w hich already
have sufficient capital to move into
an enterprise zone would derive sig
nificant tax reductions.
M ore o ve r, Samuel Pierce, the
A d m in is tra tio n ’ s Secretary o f
H ousing, has adm itted that there
arc "h undreds, maybe— probably
thousands’ * o f areas that w ould
meet the basic criteria to be declared
an enterprise zone. Yet even i f the
program had a chance o f succeeding
it w ould be im plem ented o n ly in
tw enty-five new localities per year.
C learly enterprise zones arc not a
real answer to urban poverty.
W hat the n a tio n needs is not a
feeble attem pt at fu rth e r tax give
aways. What we need is not a nega
tive com petition to sec which com
m unity can create an environm ent
o f increased profits for the wealthy
and decreased services for local resi
dents.
In the fin a l analysis, what our
co u n try needs is a comprehensive
program o f reindustrialization and
an in d u s tria l p o lic y w hich recog
nizes that Am erica’ s workers, both
Black and white, are its greatest re
source. Such a policy would empha
size increased jobs training and edu
ca tio n w hich could help prepare
young workers fo r meaningful jobs
in growing industries.
N orm an H ill is President o f the
A. P hilip Randolph Institute.
The racism of capital punishment
From The Grassroots
by Manning Marable
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Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
The decision to put Tubm an
M id d le School at Boise school in
stead o f at the E lio t site was not
concerned with whether Black chil
dren have a middle school in their
community.
The community, which had nego
tiated two years ago in faith with the
board, was badly crushed to fin d ,
these many years after slavery, that
the a ttitu d e as fa r as promises to
Blacks are still the same.
The decision was power against
the powerless. As in the W ashing
to n -M o n ro e /A d a m s decision, the
pow erful and in flu e n tia l came out
victorious, when their schools were
to be closed last year. But the poor
and powerless were defeated in their
effort to save their high schools.
N ot only do the in flu e n tia l con
tro l their com m unity, but they are
also c o n tro llin g the destiny o f our
children and our community.
‘«4» MB»
tn
! Oregon
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Newspaper
Publishers
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Association
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It was clear the five board mem
bers who voted to put Tubm an at
the Boise site had th e ir m inds a l
ready made up. But they went on
with the form ality o f listening to the
community plead for them to keep a
promise. It was the five board mem
bers’ way o f putting Steve Buel and
H erb C a w th o rn e and the Black
com m unity back in th e ir so-called
places, because o f the firin g o f Dr.
Blanchard.
It is sad that Black children have
to suffer fo r racist individuals who
have a deep-rooted p re ju d ice fo r
people o f color.
The decision that the Boise advi
sory board made was also unfound
ed, because I am a member o f that
board. T w o weeks before we had
voted and decided that the m iddle
school should be put at E lio t and
Boise remain a K-8. On the day o f
the board m eeting a m eeting was
called which I was not invited to at
tend. There were only fo u r people
present, and the principal. They did
not get to hear but one side o f the
story. Two o f the members had only
attended one m eeting before this
one; they knew nothing about the is
sue, nothing about the fight that we
have fought fo r over twelve years to
keep Boise school open in the com
m unity. Four people cannot speak
fo r hundreds. I to o k a survey last
year and over a hundred people re
sponded and only about fo u r said
they w ould lik e to see a m iddle
school; the rest, including our Asian
parents said they wanted Boise to re
main a K-8.
To the parents; do not agree to
transfer your ch ild re n to three or
four schools. I f you do, all the work
that we have done to ensure quality
education and justice fo r our c h il
dren w ill have been in vain.
Insist that all children go to Eliot. I f
the program is so good, it should
serve the students o f o u r com
m u n ity, not the w hite. They have
plenty, we have nothing.
Vesia Loving
Portland Observer
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vor o f capital punishment. U niver
sity o f C hicago econom ist Isaac
E hrlich published a widely praised
study which claimed that "every ex
ecution deterred a p p ro x im a te ly
eight murders.” Politicians in both
the Democratic and Republican par
ties in fo rm e d a budget conscious
pu b lic that executions w ould save
taxpayers money over incarcerating
prisoners fo r life terms. Convicted
murderers were, as a group, danger
ously a n tiso cia l in d iv id u a ls w ho
w ould u n d o u b te d ly k ill innocent
people again once released. Evan
gelical white ministers even quoted
Exodus 21:23-25 to ju s tify capital
punishment: You shall give " life for
life , eye fo r eye, to o th fo r to o th ,
hand fo r hand, foot fo r fo o t, burn
fo r burn, wound fo r wound, stripe
for stripe.”
The solid evidence against a ll
these pro-death viewpoints is simple
enough. In the mid-1970s a group o f
influence econometricians examined
Ehrlich’ s research and declared that
it was " fa ta lly flawed with num er
ous
m e th o d o lo g ica l
e r r o r s ."
Neither Hoover nor any social scien
tist has ever proven a direct relation
ship between c a p ita l punishm ent
and crim e deterrence. The p u b lic
was told repeatedly that capital pun
ishment is more costly to the state
than life imprisonment. In 1971, for
example, it was estimated that the
com m utation o f death sentences o f
15 A rkansas prisoners saved the
state an estimated $1.5 m illion. The
form er assistant warden o f Illin o is ’
C ook C ounty Jail noted that " o n
the average, a capital case, from the
time o f first commitment to the ja il
until the body is disposed o f after an
execution, costs about 25 per cent
more than the price o f 30 years o f
im prisonm ent w hich, on the aver
age, was the normal life expectancy
at the age o f co nviction o f capital
cases. C apital punishment is by no
means ‘ cheaper’ than life im prison
m ent, and the ju r is d ic tio n that
m a intains it pays d e a rly in both
money and human c o s ts ." Black
and progressive w h ite clergy o b
served correctly that the Bible also
sanctions capital punishm ent " i n
cases o f adultury (Lev. 20:10), blas
phemy (Lev. 24:15), working on the
sabbath (Ex. 35:2), refusing to obey
One o f the S o u th ’ s oldest and
most popoular methods fo r dealing
w ith the " N e g r o P ro b le m " was
lynching. Over 3500 Black men and
women were hung, burned at the
stake, and sexually m u tila te d be
tween 1882 and 1927. W ith the
Great Depression, however, the ra
cist brutalities largely left the streets
and cotton plantations, moving into
the very heart o f A m e rica ’ s penal
system. C apital punishment, in ac
tu a l practice, became (he central
and decisive means to threaten
Black people "le g a lly.”
The racial bias w ith in the statis
tics on capital punishm ent speaks
fo r its e lf. A lth o u g h Blacks com
prised about nine per cent o f the
U .S. p o p u la tio n in the 1930s, a l
most 50 per cent o f a ll prisoners
who were executed during the dec
ade were Afro-Am ericans. 97.1 per
cent o f all whites executed had been
convicted for murder. Only 10 white
men were executed fo r rape during
the e n tire ten-year p e rio d . 115
Black men were sentenced to die for
rape in the 1930s, 14.1 per cent o f all
Blacks executed. A fte r 1940, the
num ber o f Blacks convicted and
eventually killed fo r capital crimes
increased s ig n ific a n tly relative to
whites. Between 1940 and 1959 the
percentage o f Blacks executed fo r
rape compared to the to ta l number
o f Blacks k ille d steadily clim bed,
reaching nearly o n e -fo u rth o f the
total. About 90 per cent o f all A m
ericans executed fo r rape between
1930 and 1959 were Black, and all
but two o f the sentences occurred in
the South. Georgia, one o f the lead
ing lyn ch in g states, has also exe
cuted the highest num ber o f
prisoners since 1930, 366 persons.
The most important statistic to con
sider may be this: no white has ever
been executed fo r the rape o f a
Black in American history.
Advocates o f capital punishment
found themselves on the defensive
in the 1960s. Research revealed that
between 1928 and 1949, the aver
age homicide rates in states that al
lowed the death penalty were 200 to
300 per cent higher than in states
that had no ca p ita l punishm ent.
H om icide rates in the early 1960s,
when executions averaged 24 each • ■
year, were o n ly 70 per cent o f the J
1930s rate, when executions aver- ,
aged 150 per year. Some slates that (
sw itched to the death penalty ac- i
tually experienced increases in their I
ho m icid e rates. C o n fro n te d w ith •
m o u n tin g evidence that the death 1
penalty was inherently racist and an J
ineffective deterrent against crim e,
while social scientists, police admin-
istrations and politicians launched
and id e o lo g ica l " c o u n lc r o ffc n -
sive.” The n a tio n ’ s leading crim e
stopper, F .B .I. d ire c to r J. Edgar
Hoover, spoke out repeatedly in fa-
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a priest or judge (Deut. 17:12), diso
bedient children (Deut. 21:18), fo r
nication (D eut. 22:23) and sixteen
other offenses. Death penalty advo
cates who prided themselves on their
C h ris tia n ity co nvenie ntly fo rg o t
that Christ told his followers, "Y o u
have heard it said, 'A n eye fo r an
eye and a tooth fo r a to o th ,’ but I
say unto you, Do not resist one who
is e v il.” (M a tth e w 5:38-39).
W hite Am erica continued to be
unconvinced: the passions o f the
mob drowned out the exhortations
o f a Christ. By 1978, almost 70 per
cent o f all white Americans favored
capital punishm ent. A fte r ending
the death penalty in 1967, the Su
preme Court reversed itself a decade
later. By June, 1981, 827 men and
women were on death row, the larg
est num ber in U .S. h is to ry and
probably the largest in the w o rld .
Since 1972, 62 per cent o f the p r i
soners sentenced to die "w e re un
skilled, service, or domestic w o rk
ers; 60 per cent were unemployed at
the tim e o f their c rim e s ." C apital
punishment has again become a p i
votal clement in m aintaining w hile
supremacy. According to the In s ti
tute o f Southern Studies, in G eor
gia, between 1973 and 1977, over
three times as many convicted de
fendants who had killed white vic
tims received a death sentance as did
those who had killed Black victims.
Three-fourths o f the prisoners con
demned were in the South, and a l
most half were Black. Blacks in the
U.S. account fo r over h a lf (54 per
cent) o f all m urder v ic tim s , and
homicide is now the leading cause o f
death fo r Black people betwen the
ages o f 25 to 34. Only 13 per cent o f
all prisoners now on death row had
Black victim s. Legal activist Clare
Jupiter has clearly linked racism ,
lynchings and the current use o f
capital punishm ent: " L y n c h mobs
were ostensibly illegal, but the ac
tions o f juries arc legally recognized
as the w ill o f the co m m u n ity . By
their deliberations and selection o f
the proper victims for o ffic ia l m ur
der, m odern ju rie s —especially
Southern ju rie s echo a fa m ilia r
message: white skin and wealth arc
s till the best tools fo r beating the
death penalty.
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