Children's Christmas Issue
Metro/PI L
Projections
Pages 6 & 7
UJ
lack/black
crime
Page 2
PORTLAND OBSERVER
December 22, 1962
Volume XIII, Number 11
26C Per Copy
Three Sections
USPS 959-680-85?
Christmas and 'Les Miserables'
by From Schuman,
Pacific News Service
Ruth Haafnar and Maria Smith at dadication of Haafnar Plaza.
Portland Housing Authority, housing project for senior citizens. The
projset, locatsd at 60006 S W Beaverton Hillsdale Highway, will
serve low Income persona.
(Photo: Richard Brown)
As auto sales and housing starts
rise, and, especially, as early Christ­
mas shopping seems brisk, Reagan
officials are optimistic that the long-
awaited consumei -led recovery may
have come.
But big city mayors are worried
about something else—a rapidly in­
creasing flow o f homeless people
into their cities. They hope that they
are just transients between jobs,
available to be re-absorbed into a re­
covering economy.
Unfortunately, signs from other
countries in similar straits indicate
these "new poor" are going to be a
permanent part o f our urban land­
scape. They can be seen by the thou­
sands in most o f Europe's m ajor
cities.
W hile adm inistration o fficials
still believe that new economic
growth will cut down the number of
our new poor, the signs are m ulti­
plying that even if economic growth
resumes, it will be with permanently
high unemployment.
Struggle triumphs over adversity
Grassroot News. N. W.— Nothing
symbolizes the true meaning of
Christmas, 1982, as struggles and
triumphs. One larnily in N .E. Port­
land has lived this definition: Ste­
phanie Brown and her three c h il­
dren. A single parent who survived
four years of college to complete a
two year program in nursing, she
finds herself above water at this
time. "Currently, I ’m attending the
Oregon Health Science Center. I ’m
a student nurse in my sophomore
year.”
In the beginning Ms. Brown's am­
bition was to become an M .D . "But
it wouldn't be fair to my children to
study 48 hours a day. So. I changed
my m ajor to nursing and was ac­
cepted into the program at the Sci­
ence Center."
Many young single parents would
have found the situation o f going
back to school with a limited budget
an no babysitter intolerable. Ms.
Brown overcame. " I just did it.
When I had Chevazz he had to come
to school with me. When I got preg­
nant with Samaya I had to take time
o ff. When she was first bom I had
to take her to school with me to fin­
ish my last term. It didn't work out
too well but I finished. The way I
got over was to take each day, one
at a time.”
One o f her major problems was
finances. " I had no car or bus fare
so my children and I had to walk to
school from N .E . 12th and Stanton
to N . Killingsworth and A lbina. I
had no babysitter, clothes or any­
thing. I just took one day at a time,
and did the best I could. I was lucky
because I had a real close fam ily.
When things became life-threaten­
ing and I had no more resources my
family helped out as much as they
could. But, it was very stressful to
try and go to school and at the same
time maintain your family. It can be
done.”
Mrs. Brown supported herself
with a grant from Aid to Dependent
C hildren, which in many cases,
made it counter-productive to try
and go to school to better oneself.
"When I received my grant to go to
school the food stamp people just
counted my tuition as deductible.
All the other items such as transpor­
tation and books were counted at
income. They didn't care if you had
books or not. So, you are left with
no food stamps or they would give
you some which would not be
enough to feed your family. I f they
do give you food stamps they
wanted you to come back every
three months to give them the same
in fo rm atio n you gave them three
months ago. It became a real pain.”
Wouldn't it be easier to sit home
and watch soap operas all day and
stay in taverns all night? " N o . it
might seem easier, but I'm sure I
would have to pay for it in the long
run. I have three children who have
to go to school. They need clothes
and a college education. M y chil­
dren deserve all the things in child­
hood that I d id n 't have. And the
way our dear president with his in-
humanistic approach lo social
programs is, my family and I would
be in big trouble. You can't make it
on welfare. You're in this constant
state o f never having enough
money, food or clothes. I don't
think that is any kind o f way to
live."
Stephanie Brown's inspiration
was her mother. "She raised us all
to dream big and not let anything
stop us. She would tell us that we
could do it but we must put out an
e ffo rt. M y sisters helped out. I
couldn't have taken chemistry with­
out my sister coming to school to
watch him because they won't allow
him into the lab. A nother sitter
would loan me money to pay a bill
[Please turn lo page I I column 3)
Throughout the nation, m ajor
businesses are cutting their work
force«, hoping to keep productivity
high by substituting machines for
workers. And in thousands o f city
small businesses or rural farms, em­
ployers prefer to hire immigrants or
old poor.
The new poor come from all
walks o f middle and working class
life . There are the fam ilies en­
camped in vans or tents on the out­
skirts of cities. There arc many mid­
dle-aged in business suits. But a very
large number o f them are young
people from middle-class back­
grounds. Unlike the 1960s, when (he
"flower children" by and large still
could return to their parents' home,
now many have no place to go back
to. And, unlike im migrants, they
have no friends or ralatives or urban
community with whom they can bed
down until some opportunity
comes by. That gives them the ulti­
mate anonymity of no address and
no telephone number.
Besides all their problems, the
new poor have to battle against an
ingrained antipathy among all too
many Americans against poverty.
The ancestors o f most Americans
came here to escape poverty. In the
1960s, most Americans supported
the government-led effort to eradi­
cate poverty, even though they did
not relish the idea of poor and dark-
skinned folk coming into their
neighborhoods. And then in the
1970s, Americans decided to forget
about poverty.
Perhaps we are just becoming like
people elsewhere in the world who
look on poverty as an unfortunate
but natural condition of life. But we
might consider that in France, for
example, a distinction has always
been made between the poor and the
miserable. The poor, as the French
see it. are people who survive, even
if barely. "L es m iserables" are
those who cannot even survive, like
the tortured loner in Victor Hugo's
great novel.
M any o f the new poor worked
hard as individuals to gel into the
workforce. The qualified, got jobs,
and thought they were moving on
up the career ladder ol achievement.
Now they have been ejected, and as
individuals are left to fend for them­
selves.
The philosophy that governs the
Reagan A dm inistration, and even
more the kindred Thatcher govern­
ment in Britain, is that our overload­
ed economic systems must be sub­
ject to a thorough shuke up so that
[Please turn lo page 6 column J)
March on Washington announced
W A S H IN G T O N , D C — E v o k ­
ing the names and ideas of the his­
toric 1963 M arch on W ashington
which brought hundreds o f thou­
sands to the capital in the country’s
largest civil rights demonstration,
prom inent black leaders issued a
"Christmas Call to the Nation” on
December 20th to reconvene the fa­
mous "C o alitio n o f Conscience,"
enlarged by the participation o f
other movements for non-violent
social change which have emerged
during the last 20 years.
The Christmas Call to the Nation
from black leaders was announced
on Monday at the National Christ­
mas Tree on Washington's Ellipse.
" W e selected this site—and the
holiday season— to issue our call in
the spirit o f 'peace on earth, good
will to a ll,’ " Fauntroy said. " W e
believe that a comprehensive and
broad cultural, political and eco­
nomic program can challenge our
nation to fulfill the noble dream of
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi­
ness," he added
The N ational Campaign for the
Twentieth Anniversary of the His­
toric March on W ashington— o r­
ganized by Coretta Scott King, Pre­
sident, M a rtin Luther King, Jr.
Center for N o n -V io len t Social
Change; Congressman W alter E.
Fauntroy ( D - D .C .j, C hairm an,
Congressional Black Caucus; Dr.
Benjamin Hooks, Executive Direc­
tor, N A A C P , and Joseph Lowery,
President, Southern Christian Lead­
ership Conference— is intended lo
"assemble the great 'C oalitio n of
Conscience* around the themes of
'Jobs, Peace and Freedom’ which
led this nation forw ard,” according
to the letter announcing the event
sent to hundreds o f national black
leaders.
Although initiated by black lead­
ers, the new " C o a litio n o f C on­
science" "w ill unite the civil rights
movement, organized labor, the
women’ s movement, the churches
and the peace movement in a com­
mon e ffo rt to achieve jobs, peace
and freedom,” the leaders stated.
" T h e time has come for these
Coaat Janitorial Service celebrated Ita 26th An-
nlvaraary w ith a party for amployaaa. Visiting
during the even war a. (from left to right): Barbara
I t splat Manager: Willis Misldon. Quality Control
Manager: Romaao Connell. Belem Area Manager;
groups, who share common goals,
to join together to become a power­
ful political force,” they added.
The catalyst for the new Coalition
of Conscience w ill be a massive
gathering in Washington on August
27, 1983, which will kick o ff a com
prehensive legislative and grass­
roots campaign to implement ¡he co­
alition's goals
In addition to King, Fauntroy,
Hooks and Lowery, others who is­
sued the Christmas Call to the N a­
tion included: D .C . Mayor Marion
S. Barry, J r., Congressman John
Conyers (D M ich.), sponsor o f the
M artin Luther King H oliday Bill;
Jesse Jackson, President, Operation
PUSH; William Lucy, Coalition of
Black Trade Unionists, V .P .
A F S C M E ; Bishop John Adams,
President, Congress o f N ational
Black Churches; Robert Reeder,
N ational Executive Secretary,
Omega Psi Phi, and Stale Senator
Clarence M itchell. President Nas-
tional Black Caucus of Stale Legis­
lators.
Patty Cantwell. Payroll Manager; Joshua Hutch­
ins. Olstrict Marketing Manager; Herb Cawthorna,
featured apaakar; Henry D. Scott. Présidant; Baru-
tl Artharaa; and Kathleen Tlnnon. Manager
(Photo: Richard Brown)