Food:
Dieter's delight
Ed Leek's record
in the legislature
Page 6
Below
Hispanics oppose
Reagan
PORTWND OBSERMER
U^PS 959-680-855
© £xw PuNuAm« C o.. htt.
I9 ti
Volume XIII, Number 46
August 24, 1963
26C Per Copy
________________________________________________________________________________
March for Jobs, Peace, Freedom
A national mobilization w ill cul
minate Saturday, August 27th, with
a commemoration o f the 20th A nni
versary o f the 1963 M arch on Wash
ington. The historic day will be me
morialized in a massive march for
Jobs, Peace and Freedom in Wash
ington, D .C ., and in cities across the
country.
"W e seek to bring together a
‘ New Coalition o f Conscience' for
Jobs, Peace and Freedom on the
20th Anniversary o f D r. M artin
Luther King’s historic ' I Have a
Dream' speech," states the call
issued by the march conveners. "W e
seek in this way to help recapture a
sense o f noble and human spirit in
which our domestic and foreign
policies are consistent with the basic
national purposes articulated in the
Declaration o f Independence, the
Bill of Rights and the United States
Constitution."
In Oregon:
Oregonians will be gathering in
Salem for a march on the state
capitol followed by a rally featuring
Ronnie Herndon, BUF; Bob Baugh,
A F L -C IO ; the Love Congregation;
Ada Sanchez, Peoples Test Ban;
Reverend
Ira
M um ford;
The
Jazzmin
Community
Marching
Band; Sheila and the Monarchs and
others.
For I t — tranaportatlon from
Portland: coma to the King
Neighborhood Facility at 4816 NE
7th Avenue by 8:00 e.m. For
more Information call 288-8617 or
230-9427.
A Call To The Nation
Three critical conditions in our
society — insufferable unemploy
ment, an escalating arms race, and
the denial o f basic rights and p ro
grams which insure freedom —
compelled us to call upon our fello w
Americans to M arch on Washington
on August 27, 1993 on the occasion
o f the 20th anniversary o f the his
toric M arch on Washington.
We deemed it wise to call upon
our fellow Americans to remember
the full meaning o f the American
Dream, o f liberty and justice for all,
in a world o f peace and freedom in
which everyone can live with the
hope o f a better tomorrow for our
children.
W e seek to bring together a "N e w
Coalition o f Conscience” for Jobs,
Peace, and Freedom on the 20th
Anniversary of D r. M artin Luther
King’s historic “ I Have A D ream "
speech — a treasured part o f the
legacy o f all Americans.
We seek a New Coalition o f C on
science that will be an expansion o f
the historic Coalition o f the Civil
Rights Movement, because we un
derstand that the issues o f Jobs,
Peace, and Freedom are inextricably
linked. The New Coalition brings
together these three issues based
upon the concept o f the "Beloved
Com m unity" o f D r. King — that all
humans are "caught in an inescap
able network o f m u tu ality— what
ever affects one directly affects all
indirectly.”
Joba:
Millions o f Americans are suffer
ing from the disaster o f double-digit
unemployment and the groups
affected most are Blacks, Hispanics,
Native Americans, the disabled,
women and youth. The shrinking
availability o f jobs in a depressed
Ed Leek ’s first term
gets mixed review
■ iy w .,.
Be .
-,
Peace:
It is necessary that peace not be
defined merely as the absence o f war
or as a distant goal which is sought,
but as a means by which a goal is
achieved. The pursuit o f peaceful
ends through peaceful means must
be continued. Based on the assump
tion that life is worth living and that
humankind has a right to survive,
an alternative to war and threats o f
war must be found.
Freedom:
In light o f the creeping fear that is
sapping our confidence and trust in
each other and setting group against
group, we call for a national cam
paign throughout 1983 against hate
and every form o f class, racial, sex
ual, age. and religious prejudice.
We call upon the American people
to renew their commitment to the
cause o f human rights and to resist
the rising tide o f extremism reflected
in the rebirth o f bombings and in
creased brutalities by the Ku Klux
Kian, neo-Nazi groups, and in some
places, by the enforcement agencies.
W e belive that this is the historic
moment to bring together again a
coalition o f goodwill and conscience,
that will address the welfare of the
whole nation and not merely some
of its parts; that w ill be unified by a
common vision o f the American
Dream.
Tutu brings African struggle to Portland
by Rich Lochner
The needs o f poor and working
people in inner Northeast Portland
were put forward by first-term state
Rep. Ed Leek (D -N E Portland),
most Salem observers agree Some
say he still has a way to go learning
the legislative ropes in order to be
effective, however. Ron Herndon of
the Black United Front (B U F ) says
many in the Black community are
still angry about his election, triumph
ing over a divided Black vote in a
majority non white district.
Leek says his main achievements
is Salem were passage o f the Com
munity Finance Development C o r
poration (C F D C ), and aid to the
medically needy. Those measures’
backers say Leek did his best to win
support for these bills, but legisla
tive compromises mean they will
have little immediate impact in the
district.
The C F D C will give the state au
thority to tell up to $200 million in
bonds for local community develop
ment such as schools, roads, etc.
Small communities will save since
the state can get a much lower inter
est rate.
The original bill would have tar
geted high unemployment, low-in
come areas such as Northeast Port
land. Downstate paranoia that this
was a pro-Portland mane ver killed
that section. Leek says.
Small business would have gotten
direct help through a state loan pro
gram. The banks killed that since
they saw it as competition. Leek
says As passed, the C F D C mostly
helps rural areas like Tillam ook and
Harney County which have no
credit rating. Portland gets virtually
nothing since the city's credit rating
industrial economy, and the lack o f
training opportunities to learn new
skills, is undermining the moral and
spiritual foundations o f our com
munities and families. The military
budget which involves pouring bil
lions o f dollars into defense spend
ing denies our people scores o f ab
solutely essential human resources
and service programs. W e call upon
the American people to turn this na
tion around from its present course
and to seek with all deliberate speed
the full employment objectives o f
the Hum phrey-Haw kins Act.
is the same as the state's.
Medically needy
Some of the thousands of Oregon
families who lost health insurance in
the current depression will be aided
by the medically needy program.
The Human Resources Committee,
on which Leek serves, approved his
medically needy bill. However, the
Ways and Means Committee, which
handles funding, cut the request
from $20 million to $7 million under
Vera Katz* leadership. (This cut
contrasts with $17 million that was
found to remodel a Pendleton men
tal hospital into a prison, lobbyist
Oretchen Kafoury points out.)
The program will help 1500 o f the
poorest children and their families,
though thousands more will have no
medical insurance. Leek says the
principle that people deserve health
coverage has been established, and
he hopes more funding will be avail
able as the economy improves.
Leak's Style
"E d 's chief problem is his perso
n ality ." Kafoury savs. " H e needs to
(Continued on Page 4, Colum n I f
G R A SSR O O TS N E W S . N. W. -
He has been called the M artin
Luther King o f South A frica. His
passionate, but forceful call for
peace in the apartheid South Africa
touched the souls o f a sixty-person
audience who came to hear Bishop
Desmond Tutu's sermon last Friday
at M t. Olivet Baptist Church.
Bishop Tutu utters a theme o f
rebellion and faith much like his
American counterparts in the Black
liberation struggle in the United
States. H e is the general secretary of
the South A frican Council o f
Churches who has freed himself
from the emotional and intellectual
shackles o f a second-class citizen
ship
“ Let me tell you about my coun
try ," Bishop Tutu begins. " I t is a
country where they say the most im
portant thing about a human being
is the color o f his skin. Everything is
determined by that — where you
can live, who you can marry and the
school you will attend. It even de
cides where you arc to be buried.
" T o pursue this policy o f apart
heid, the government o f South
Africa does not mind how much
human suffering and misery they in
flict on their fellow human beings."
An example o f what Bishop Tutu
calls misery is the South African
policy
of
putting
Blacks
in
"hom elands.” "O ver three million
Black people have been uprooted
from their homes and dumped in
settlement ermpe — places where
there is very little food, very little
work.
Bishop Tutu, who has bean called tha "M artin Luther King of
South Africa." addressee the Portland community at M t. Olivet
Baptist Church.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown!
"T h e father must leave his family
in these camps to eke out a misera
ble existence while he goes as a m i
grant laborer to the white m an’s
town to look for a job. In these
towns he sits in a single cell hospice
(shelter) and is prey to prostitution,
drunkenness and all the other things
that split up human beings. H e lives
there for 11 months out o f a year.
So. Black fam ily life is destroyed —
not accidentally, but as part of gov
ernment policy."
According to Bishop T utu , South
A frica is a place o f record crop sur
pluses, but where people are starv
ing. " I visited one o f these resettle
ment camps once and I met a little
girl coming out o f one o f these
shacks in which they lived. I asked
her i f her widowed mother received
a pension or a grant. She replied,
no. I then asked her what she did for
food. She said that they borrowed
food. I asked her what she did when
they couldn’t borrow food. She an
swered by saying, 'W e drink water
to fill our stomachs.'
"T hey starve not because o f some
accident, but because it is govern
ment policy."
Tutu says despite the overt insidi
ous effects o f the government poli
cies, the people are not bitter. " I am
speaking for millions when I say
thank you for your prayers, con
cerns and activities to help change
the situation. I l is a situation o f es
calating violence and we are trying
to advert a blood bath. We are say
ing apartheid has to be dismantled.
W e are looking for all the peaceful
possibilities."
He urged the audience to "bring
international pressure on the South
African government to go to the
conference table before it is too late
to confer with the authentic leaders
o f all sections of the community.
For us (Blacks) it would include
those in jail and exile."
Tutu wants his countrymen to
draw up a new blueprint for a new
South Africa. " A South Africa
where people count, not because of
biological irrelevancies like color.”
He came one step away from ad
vocating economic sanctions, which
is punishable in South Africa as
"Econom ic
Sabotage."
"R ight
now, it might be right for Bishop
Tutu to be in jail. But I think my im
prisonment should be for something
more useful than standing up in
Portland, Oregon supporting eco
nomic sanctions.
"B u t involvement in South Africa
(Continued on Page 2. Colum n I )