i
Portland Observer, November 24,1982 Page 5
Washington Hot Line
V U Ñ I O N AVENUE
GLASS
ItfMf
by Congressman Ron Wyden
W ith millions o f Americans un
em ployed and the economy still
floundering, the federal government
should pay particularly close atten
tio n to how it spends taxpayers’
dollars.
W henever possible, A m erican
business should be given first crack
at federal contracts—allowing them
to pump money back in to the
economy and put Americans back
to work.
U n fo rtu n a te ly , all too o ften ,
that's not what happens.
A classic example is a case here in
Portland on which members o f the
O regon and U ta h Congressional
delegations have been working.
Earlier this year, Northwest Pipe
& Casing, a Portland company, sub
mitted a $6 million bid on four De
fense Department contracts tor con
struction of steel pipe.
The bid was critical to Northwest
Pipe, which has been hard hit by the
economic dow nturn and is operat
ing at less than 30 percent capacity.
It was critical to dockworkers in
Portland, who need jobs on the wa
terfront.
A nd it was c ritica l to the U .S .
Steel plant in Geneva, Utah— where
the raw material to fill this contract
would come from — which has been
forced to lay o ff 1800 o f its 4800
workers. The rem aining 3,000 are
working only half-time.
U n fo rtu n a te ly , the government
chose to ignore these facts in m ak
ing its aw ard . A lth o u g h all the
Members o f the Oregon and U tah
Congressional delegations had w rit
ten Adm inistration officials asking
them to seriously consider N o rth -
west Pipe’s bid— the lowest domes
tic bid— it elected to do otherwise.
On September 30, the government
awarded the pipe-building contract
to a West G erm an com pan y— a
company whose own bid was only
1.6 percent lower than N orthwest
Pipe’s.
This decision has serious implica
tions for O reg o n ’ s and A m e ric a ’ s
economy.
I f Northwest Pipe had received
the aw ard , some 40 unem ployed
Northwest Pipe employees could re
turn to work immediately.
Dockworkers would be able to go
to work on the Portland waterfront
loading the finished product.
And the s p in -o ff effects in the
Portland economy would vastly ex
ceed even the $6 m illio n contract
price.
Add to this the economic benefits
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for U.S. steelworkers in U tah— and
transportation workers employed in
both states— and it’s tough to figure
out why the government would opt
to spend our tax dollars overseas.
It is at best bad public policy. It is
at worst a slap in the face to the un
employed
Oregonians
and
Americans.
•
•
•
•
The battle is not over yet. N orth
west Pipe has appealed the award
decision, and members o f both the
Oregon and U tah delegations are
backing its efforts.
— I REALLY WISH —
I KNEW W HY PEOPLE
HAVE FUNERALS
289-8887
élO S N.S. U N IO N AV.
We believe wc have a good chance
of success. And we believe we must.
W ith 1.8 million Americans out o f
work and looking for jobs, the U.S.
government has no business finan
cing jobs overseas. Our tax dollars
must be put to w ork at hom e—
where they’re needed the most.
Rewriting American History
by Dr. Manning Marable
"From the Grassroots”
American history has repealed it
self, in regards to its interpretation
o f (he pursuit o f biracial dem oc
racy: the first time as “ trag ed y,”
the second time “ as catastrophe.”
In the aftermath o f the First Recon
struction, white Am erican histor
ians attempted for decades to por
tray the democratic experiment o f
1865-1877 as a complete disaster.
After the Second Reconstruction, or
modern black movement, a similar
process o f historical revisionism oc
curred— led by none other than the
president of the United States. In a
series o f speeches and statements
since last year, President Reagan
has attempted to undermine the last
vestiges o f institutional equality by
deliberate distortions o f history.
At the Denver, Colorado conven
tion o f the N A A C P in July, 1981,
Reagan declared that his program
o f budgetary reductions and eco
nomic austerity for the poor was
“ the surest, most equitable way to
case the pressures on all the seg
ments o f our society." It was time
for black Americans to halt (heir de
pendency on the Federal G o vern
ment to resolve their economic
plight. “ Just as the Em ancipation
P ro clam atio n freed black people
118 years ago, today we need to de
clare an economic emancipation,”
the President suggested. Incredibly,
Reagan justified his program by in
voking the legacy of antislavery acti
vist H a rrie t Tub m an . “ T u b m an ’ s
glory was the glory o f the American
experience. It was a glory which had
no color or religious preference or
n a tio n a lity .’ ’ In early 1982, the
President infuriated blacks by sup
porting Federal tax exemptions for
racially-segregated, private schools.
At a black high school, Reagan o f
fered as an excuse, “ 1 didn't know
there were any (schools that still
practiced) segregation.” Speaking
later with forty Midwestern news
paper editors, Reagan was asked for
his opinion concerning the m ajor
public drive to declare M a rtin
Luther K ing’s birthday a national
h o lid ay. “ N o , I haven’ t taken a
stand one way or the other, and I
certainly understand why the black
community would like to do that.”
Reagan quickly added, “ IhoweverJ,
we could have an awful lot o f holi
days if we start down that road. It
m ight be th a t, th e re ’ s no way we
could afford all the holidays.” In a
nation that celebrates the birthday
o f George Washington, slaveholder
and slavetrader, and where many
states still legally observer the birth
days o f C o nfederate president
Jefferson Davis and rebel general
Robert E. Lee, Reagan’s assertions
were for blacks as absurd as they
were obnoxious.
Reagan’s most controversial a t
tempt to rewrite black history oc
curred at the National Black Repub
lican Council, which met in Wash
in g ton , D .C ., on September 15,
1982. The President stated that
blacks "would be appreciably better
o ff today” if Johnson’s Great Soci
ety— a series of modest social demo
cratic reforms in housing, health
care, education, vocational training,
and other public services— had
never been started. " W it h the
coming o f the Great Society,” Rea
gan declared, “ government began
eating away at the underpinnings of
the private enterprise system. The
big taxers and big spenders in C on
gress had started a binge that would
slowly change the nature of our so
ciety, and even worse, it threatened
the character o f our p eo p le .. . .T o
pay fo r all this spending, the lax
load increased till it was breaking
the backs o f w orking people, de
stroying incentive and siphoning o ff
resources needed in the private sec
tor to provide new jobs and oppor
tu n ity . In fla tio n had ju m p ed to
double-digit levels, unemployment
was climbing, and interest rates shot
through the ro o f, reaching 21.5
percent shortly before we took o f
fic e ,” Reagan stated. By the time
the full weight of Great Society pro
grams was felt, economic progress
for Am erica's poor had come to a
tragic halt. The poor and disadvan
taged arc better o ff today than if we
had allowed runaway Government
spending, interest rates and in fla
tion to continue ravaging the Am er
ican economy.”
Reagan's speech was delivered
several days after the chairmen o f
thirty-three state agencies affiliated
with the U .S. Commission on Civil
Rights had declared (hat Reagan
was responsible for a “ dangerous
deterioration in the Federal enforce
ment o f civil rig h ts” ; it was only
hours a fter a W ashington, D .C .
lawyers’ association issued an in-
cidtment that Reagan’s Justice D e
partment had "retreated” from de
segregation and blacks’ rights.
Many political moderates found the
President’s remarks embarrassing.
The New York Times admitted that
Johnson's w elfare programs were
sometimes “ mismanaged,” but that
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on balance, “ the Great Society was
a necessary, im aginative and p ro
ductive response to a deeply rooted
social conflict.” The President was
attempting “ to justify Reaganomics
to massively disaffected black vot
ers. They are not likely to be so eas
ily fooled.”
Gathering in Washington, D .C .,
for the conference sponsored by the
C ongressionnal Black Caucus on
September 17-18, 1982, civil rights
leaders and black elected officials
were severly shaken by Reagan's re
cent statements. Speaking before
the conference, A ndrew Young,
mayor o f A tlanta, Georgia, lashed
out against Reagan. I f the Presi
d en t’ s remarks were valid , Young
stated, then all o f the desegregation
marches, the sit-ins, and the protests
to obtain black equality were mean
ingless. “ M artin Luther King, Jr.,
would have died in v a in ,’ ’ he de
clared, his speech stam m ering.
Young pulled away fro m the po
dium briefly as tears flooded down
his face.
Hundreds in the audience began
to cry openly. Were all their sacri
fices for nothing? Did the assassina
tions, the bombings, the jail-ins, the
whole wrenching ordeal o f a people
surging forward toward freedom—
were they simply unproductive and
futile gestures? Fisk University pre
sident Walter J. Leonard described
the scene as a “ w ake,” the mourn
ing time for the dead, R eagan’ s
Students of human behavior tell us that ceremonies for saying
goodby have existed as long as man Ceremonies mark events in
the lives of people and communities. Weddings mark new families:
baptisms and bar mitzvahs welcome children and adolescents into
society Death marks the end of life The funeral acknowledges
that a life has been lived. People express their feelings about life
through ceremony. Funerals also provide a socially accepted way
for people to come together to support the grieving family Many
people welcome social support. If there were no funerals, how
would you find a way to tell a family that you cared about their
loss.
CALDWELLS COLONIAL MORTUARY
speech and Andrew Young's public
ordeal “ marked by the end o f the
Second Reconstruction.”
N E 14th between Sandy and Burnswl» 232-4111
Call for free booklet “A Time For Sharing.” No Obligation.
Winter dark
triggers blues
Many people suffer severe depres
sion in the winter months, possibly
because o f fewer daylight hours. Re
search cu rren tly underw ay at the
Oregon Health Sciences University
will determine if it is possible to re
verse this depression by increasing
exposure to artificial daylight.
“ The Effects of Light on Sleep
and Depression” is the topic o f a
free lecture at the Oregon H ealth
Sciences U niversity on Thursday,
December 2 at 8 p.m. in the Library
Auditorium. Sponsored by the Mar-
quam H ill Society o f the O H S U , the
lecture is open to the public.
The speaker will be D r. Alfred J.
Lew y, assistant professor in the
O H SU School o f Medicine's depart
ments o f psychiatry, pharmacology
and ophthalm ology, who has pio
neered the use o f bright, a rtific ia l
light in the treatment o f winter de
pression. Dr. Lewy is the director of
the university’s sleep and mood dis
orders la b o rato ry. Am ong his re
search programs is the study o f light
in the synchronizing of daily biolog
ical rhythms. He is also investigat
ing “ jet lag" and studying the daily
rhythm s o f b lind persons. D r.
l.cwy, a board-certified psychiatrist,
w ill discuss new research on the
b ra in ’ s pineal gland and its h o r
mone, m elatonin, and how light is
related to mood, hormone and rhy-
tm disorders.
This is the third talk in the 1982-
83 Marquam H ill Society Lectures.
The M arq u a m H ill Society is a
group of Oregon citizens committed
to furthering understanding o f the
O H S U and to fostering its con
tinued growth toward excellence.
The O H S U is com prised o f the
Schools o f Dentistry, Medicine and
Nursing. U niversity H ospital, and
the Crippled Children’s Division.
For more information, please call
225-8231.
Street Beat
by Lenita Duke and Richard Brown
The Portland City Council appropriat
ed $82,500 fo r emergency housing to
Portland’ s homeless. The Street Beat
team asked, ‘ ‘ What do you think about
this new appropriation o f funds?”
r
J. Maxay
Homemaker
1
V
Linda McCoy
Nursing Assistant
1 think its great. Times are so
hard people need all the support
they can get.
Are they really going to use it
fo r that purpose? Th ere are
some people who really need it.
They need to make a survey o f
destitute people to fin d out
what they really need. There are
o lder people who really need
housing, both blacks and
whites.
Harman Salisbury
Janitorial Sarvica
I t ’s not going to the people
who need it. There are people
w ithout jobs, cars and homes.
We should make sure the money
goes to the homeless.
,.t
Tse Rosario
U.S Army
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Jim Wolf
Salesm an
I t ’s vital. They have to do it. 1
travel the streets every day and I
see the people on the street and 1
wish I could help them. I work
every day and 1 wish I could a f
ford il.
1 know it’s not for everyone. 1
can understand the older people
need help but what about the
younger people who need jobs?
Pat Williamson
Corractional Officer
They should do som ething.
People have to have somewhere
to go. They just can’t let them
become bums.