Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, July 28, 1982, Page 2, Image 2

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Page 2 Portland Observer, July 28, 1962
Congressional rule hampers Black Caucus
A Congressional rule, which be­
gan to take effect this year, is put­
ting a severe financial strain on the
Congressional Black Caucus.
One of the oldest and most influ­
ential special interest groups in the
Congress, the ruling forbids such
caucuses from using public funds
and free public office space if they
also get contributions from the pri­
vate sector.
In the past the Black Caucus has
depended largely on the expensive
and lavish Congressional weekend
which culminates in a banquet and a
dance to raise funds. W ith the new
ruling, those funds can only be used
for research now.
Black Caucus chairman and Dis­
trict o f Colum bia Representative
W alter Fountroy said the Caucus
has resorted to some fancy fo o t­
work to ensure its survival.
“ We are utilizing the Congres­
sional Black Caucus Foundation
which we established five or six
years ago,” Fountroy said. “ That
organization is able to receive out­
side contributions so long as it does
nonpartisan research.”
The foundation will sponsor the
Black Caucus' annual congressional
weekend dinners to finance its legis­
lative analysis and research.
“ Secondly,” Fountroy con­
tinued, "we have established a polit­
ical action committee (PAC) which
can raise funds from individuals
from across the nation. And the
third organization [we have set
upj is what we call the Legislative
Service Organization.”
The Legislative Service Organiza­
tion allows the members o f the
Black Caucus to maintain offices on
the hill and is supported by contri­
butions from the caucus members
themselves.
“ I ’m sure that there are those
who are not unhappy thai the cau­
cus has been put under severe strain
by this rule,” Fountroy said. "Bui
the fact is that the rule was adopted
primarily to get at well-heeled, nar­
row-interest lobbies that have been
able, by contributions they have
raised from among their member­
ship, to finance many members of
the Congress in their efforts to rep­
resent their views.”
Fountroy said he did not know
whether black Americans would be
willing to contribute the necessary
financial support to the Black Cau­
cus without the lavish Black Caucus
weekend dinner.
" It is going to be increasingly dif­
ficult, he said. "For our advocacy
week, we are going to have to
depend upon a great many people
who cannot affo rd to come to
Washington for the dinner but who
certainly need a strong caucus advo­
cating issues in their behalf."
“ I am depending largely on the
contributions o f individuals to the
Congressional Black Caucus P A C ,”
Fountroy added.
"W e are going to survive this, but
we are going to survive as more and
more black people begin to contrib­
ute the $10 and S I5 that will aggre­
gate into a sufficient fund to make
sure that those who are gloating at
this new rule will not have the fu l­
fillment of their wishes,” Fountroy
said.
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Israel: No special treatment
[Continued from page 1 column tf)
and children, both Lebanese and
Palestinian, is thus on our
hands, not just on the hands of the
Israelis. The American-made cluster
bombs, for example, are among the
most sophisticated and deadly anti­
personnel w capons ever conceived by
man. Scattering hundreds of small
bomblets over an area of 25 acres or
more, a single CBU has a particular­
ly horrifying impact on a civilian
population. It is well known that
cluster bombs were furnished by us
to the Israelis in the early 1970s on
the specific condition that they be
used only against regular armies
when Israel was under attack, and
that they not be used against guerilla
forces or in civilian areas. When Is­
raelis violated this agreement in
1976 by the use of CBUs in southern
Lebanon, the United States govern­
ment lodged a form al and public
protest.
N ot so in 1982, however. N ot
only has the United States stood si­
lently by as the CBUs were used in
southern Lebanon in recent weeks:
we also vetoed a UN Security Coun­
cil resolution calling for Israeli with­
drawal from Lebanon. As in the
case of Vietnam, whatever may be
the merits of the destruction of rural
villages by U.S firepower, the indis­
criminate use o f that firepower is
viewed with universal horror else­
where in the world.
It is not merely world opinion
that is shocked: We violate our own
principles in this process. We have
long treasured our heritage as a na­
tion under law, a nation which
sought to restrain the excessive use
of force, even in just causes, accord­
ing to clear legal principles. One of
those principles is that our police in
pursuit of an armed criminal cannot
pursue that individual into a mar­
ketplace and indiscriminately shoot
into a crowd. Under no circum­
stances can the Israeli pursuit of not
more than 15,000 armed Palestin­
ians, in a country o f three million
people be considered a restrained
use of force. Naval bombardments
and aerial bombing o f Beirut, Si­
don, and Tyre and the Palestinian
refugee villages must, o f necessity,
kill and maim tens of thousands of
non-combatants.
A captured Israeli pilot put it fair­
ly and accurately the other day when
he said that he could not justify his
country’s use o f force— that such
use of force was excessive. Indeed,
to much of the world Israel has be­
come the newest international bully,
created and armed by the United
States and now out of control—but
still supported by Washington in
whatever its leaders, the former ter­
rorists Begin and Sharon, may seek
to do, regardless of how many inno­
cent people are killed in the process.
The growing hatred felt by Arabs
for the United States transcends na­
tional and political views. It is an
emotional, gut reaction to our con­
duct, a reaction which once implant­
ed in a human heart may remain for
years. As the Holocaust is remem­
bered in Jewish hearts, or as the ex­
term ination by the Turks in 1915
and 1916 is remembered in Armen­
ian hearts, it is the kind of hatred
that can provoke blind revenge and
retaliation for generations.
I was recently visited by the am­
bassador from one of the moderate
Arab states which has always been
friendly to the United States. He
could barely express his horror over
the continuing U.S endorsement of
Israel’s actions in Lebanon. But
more than expressing the concern of
his nation, he tried to express a
small part of the poison against the
United States and its people which
he felt was being permanently plant­
ed in Arab hearts by the daily Israeli
bombardment in and around Beirut.
The perception is growing that we
are not longer people interested in
fairness and justice. Instead, we
area now viewed as a people who,
like the Soviets in Afghanistan, val
ue expediency more than the lives of
innocent people.
An even worse aspect o f Leban­
on’s tragedy, however, may be the
dulling of our own senses toward in­
discriminate killing with U.S. wea­
pons, so long as it is Israel which is
doing the killing. As opposed to our
traditional view of independence of
action and policy, the United States
seems to have adopted the view that
no matter what offenses Israel may
commit, against Arabs on the West
Bank or in Lebanon, we intend to
support them, out o f respect for
what Israelis have done in the past,
or out o f some sense o f guilt over
our inaction 40 years ago in the face
of Hitler’s holocaust.
When Turkey, a N A TO ally, used
U.S. arms to invade Cyprus in 1975,
we immediately invoked a provision
of the Arms Control Act to cut off
aid. Yet when Israel used U.S. wea­
pons to destroy the Iraq i nuclear
reactor, to bomb Beirut and to in­
vade Lebanon, we stood nearly
mute.
What is this strange paralysis of
American leadership with respect to
Israel?
In my judgment, respect for the
opinions o f mankind and our own
legal heritage should prompt us now
to treat Israel as just one more for­
eign country, to be assisted when
right and condemned when wrong.
There is no longer any reason why
we should send $2.2 billion per year
in foreign aid (one-fifth of a total
$11 billion in U.S. foreign aid this
year) to a single nation of 3.5 m il­
lion people, when that nation is vio­
lating basic concepts of human de­
cency.
It seems to me high time we con­
sidered severing the so-called "spe­
cial” relationship with Israel which
has existed since 1948—that we cut
o ff the military weapons deliveries,
economic assistance and special tax
benefits that we have given for so
many years.
It is time to say: "Israel, after 34
years on this planet, you have final­
ly come of age. If you choose to use
excessive force in attaining your ob­
jectives. however praiseworthy— if
you continue to flout U .S policy
goals and unanimous United N a­
tions Security Council resolutions—
then do so on your own. We no
longer choose to support the killing
of innocent people, no matter how
understandable may be your goal of
eliminating military threats on your
borders. Our past relationship with
you has been based on morality, but
we find no morality in your actions
in and around Beirut today.”
■
■
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Limited
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■
J
The two U .S . Presidents who had the most children,
John Tyler (with 14) and William Henry Harrison (with
10, were both born in the same place — Charles City
County, Virginia.
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Mitchell charges SBA waging war
against minority firms
In a speech delivered at the Oper­
ation PUSH Convention on July 17,
1982, in Charleston, South C aro­
lina, Congressman Parren J. Mitch­
ell, (D -7th -M d .) charged that "the
Small Business A dm inistration
[SBA] has launched the most viciow
attack on the minority community
in recent memory.”
According to Congressman
Mitchell, SBA’s failure adequately
to defend a court challenge to the
award of federal contrcts to certain
disadvantaged firms in its 8(a) busi­
ness development program is the
most recent in a series o f moves
aimed at the minority business com­
munity. This latest action will affect
8(a) firms which are nearing compe­
titive status but which have techni­
cally exceeded SBA’s definition of a
"small business concern.” Accord­
ing to Congressman M itch ell, " I f
these businesses are abrubtly forced
out of the 8(a) program, many will
be out o f business in less than six
months.”
A recent General Accounting O f­
fice decision, which is only advisory
in nature, is now being used by SBA
to deny contracts to 23 minority 8(a)
firms. These firms will be forced to
lay o ff most of their 7,500 workers,
many of whom are minority.
SBA A dm in istrato r James C.
Sanders has refused to amend its
regulations to redefine a small busi­
ness for the purpose of the 8(a) pro-
gram. According to Congressman
M itch ell, “ The inclusion o f in ­
creases in employment and gross re­
ceipts to the base on which size is
measured is artifician when these in­
creases are attributable only to the
performance of 8(a) contracts which
are by no means permanent sources
of income, as this latest maneuver
demonstrates.”
Mitchell stated, " I have received
over 200 telegrams, letters and tele­
phone calls in less than 3 days pro­
testing this unreasonable and in­
equitable situation. As a result of
this massive community outcry, I
have initiated discussions with the
W hite House, SBA, Members ol
Congress and the minority business
community.” To date, neither the
W hite House nor A dm inistrator
Sanders has responded in a positive
fashion.
SBA is consistently acting to deny
economic parity for minority busi­
nesses. Programs for economic ad­
vancement are being sabotaged by
those very persons who, by law, are
directed and charged with responsi­
bility for their proper implementa­
tion. S B A ’s failure to stop these
kinds of abuses is testimony enough
to its lack o f commitment to the
economic revitalization of this na­
tion in general and the minority bus­
iness community in particular,” ac
cording to Congressman Mitchell.
227-0453
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