I
Johnson gets
new eyes
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vs.
Ducks
Blacks win
Burlington suit
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P O R TM N D OBSERVER
Volume XIV, Number 4
November 16, 1983
25C Per Copy
Impeach Reagan Movement grows
The U.S. House of Represenia
lives was asked to start impeach
ment prixeedings against President
Ronald Reagan Thursday, Novem-
ber
10th.
Seven
Congressmen
charged the President with violating
the U.S. Constitution with the inva
sion of Grenada and imposition ol
censorship on the media Some of
the Congressmen added that Reagan
is guilty of international war crimes
The resolution was submitted by
Representatives le d Weiss (D N Y ),
John Conyers (D -M ic h .), Julian
Dixon (D -C a lif ), Mervyn Dymally
(D -C a lif.), Henry Gonzalez (D - lex
as), Mickey l.eland (D Texas) and
Parren M itchell (D -M d ).
Rep
Undaunted by Saturday's torrential rains, over
1,000 people filled Terry Schrunk Plaza to protest
U S. policy in Central America and the Caribbean.
The demonstration was part of a national day of
protest.
(Photo: Richard J Brown)
Rally protests U.S. aggression
by Robert Lothian
"F o rw a rd together, backward
never!” the rallying cry o f the G ren
adian revolution, echoed from und
er a sea o f umbrellas and reverber
ated o ff the First Interstate Bank
Tower as a crowd o f over 1,000
Tilled Terry Schrunk Plaza Saturday
to protest the U .S. invasion of
Grenada and threatened invasion of
Nicaragua.
The Portland Central America
Solidarity Comm ittee organized the
demonstration as Portland’s contri
bution to a national day of protest
which included a W ashington, D .C .
rally attended by 20.000 people and
addressed by presidential candidate
Jesse Jackson. Speakers in Portland
urged vigilance as comments from
the Keagan administration and U.S.
military maneuvers in Honduras
point toward an escalation o f U.S.
involvement in Central America
"T h e repression is increasing,”
said Salvador M artinez, a 22-year-
old former medical student from El
Salvador speaking on behalf o f the
Democratic Revolutionary Front
(F D R ), the coalition o f popular or-
gamzations and guerilla groups
leading the Salvadoran revolution.
" W e are not stupid. We know the
U.S. is getting ready to invade Cen
tral A m erica." said M artinez, who
cited as evidence the invasion of
Grenada, the recent coup in Guate
mala which installed a dictator more
in agreement with U .S. policy, the
U .S. troop build-up and wargames
in Honduras, the stationing o f U.S.
battleships o ff both coasts of Cen
tral Am erica, and the meeting in O c
tober (reported in the New York
Timex) o f the military leaders of
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras
and Panama to talk about a coor
dinated attack on Nicaragua with
U.S. help
U.S. troops could be in Guate
mala. El Salvador, or Nicaragua
within two hours notice, and bom
bardments and missile attacks from
U.S. ships could kill many thou
sands within minutes, he said.
A U .S.-led invasion would smash
the new society growing in Central
America which is seeking to reverse
centuries o f exploitation and pov
erty, according to Martinez.
" T h e people o f El Salvador al
ready took the decision to be free,"
he said. " W e are building a bridge
o f communication
it is your acts
o f solidarity that will help us. You
will be the people speaking for us."
He then led the crowd in a chant—
" N o draft, no war, Grenada to El
Salvador!"
Brigette Dennis-Sarabi, a radio
journalist with the Caribbean Edu
cation Project who lived in Grena
da, said the U .S. invasion crushed
the vision o f a better future which
the Grenadian revolution held out
to Blacks and Third W orld people
throughout Central America and
the Caribbean
That vision, she said, included a
land reform program where "thou
sands o f acres were given to small
farm ers," illiteracy reduced to 2
percent, equal pay for equal work
for women, a tripling o f social ser
vice expenditures, and free medical
care.
She said the decrees o f Governor-
General Sir Paul Scoon, including a
ban on public meetings, arrests
without warrants, and press censor
ship, are evidence that Grenada's
t Please turn to pane 9 column I )
Ron
Dellums (D-Calif.),
who was in the 14-member delega
lion to Grenada last weekend, said
that Reagan should be impeached
Conyers said. " T h e genius of the
Constitution is that it provides lor
the remedy of impeachment in the
event that the Executive violates the
duties and the oath of office An ar
rogation of powers by the Executive
that belong to the Congress subverts
the integrity of the O ffice.
" A fte r careful thought and study,
it is my position that the President's
military actions in Grenada consti
tute an abrogation of the duties
which he is sworn to uphold
"F irst, Article I, Sec. 8 of the
Constitution requires that (he C o n
gress. not the President or the C IA ,
determine if and when the nation
goes to war
"Second, Article 6 provides that
all treaties and charters to which the
U.S. is a signatory shall be the 'su
preme law of the land ' The Grena
dian invasion violates Article 1$ of
the Organization
of
American
States Charter, Article 2, para
graphs 1 and 4 of the United N a
tions Charter, as well as U N . reso
lutions Even the legal instrument
under which the President waged
war in Grenada, the Treaty o f the
Organization of Eastern Caribbean
States, requires that decisions invol
ving collective security can only be
undertaken when the signatory
States ate 'unanimous ' Three o f the
signatory States refused to call for
or support the U.S. invasion of G re
nada.
" T h ird , the unprecedented re
strictions on. and censorship of, the
news media prior to, during, and a f
ter the Grenadan invasion are in vio
lation of the First Amendment pro
viding for 'the freedom of speech,
or o f the press.'
"F in ally, the President's manipu
lation of I he War Powers Act, in
tailing to notify, and consult with.
Congress in introducing American
military forces into a situation of
'imminent hostilities,' is in flagrant
disregard of Congressional preroga
lives.
" W h ist still is a continuing pat
tern ot conduct in Nicaragua, the
(. aribbean and in Central America
in which the Administration will
stop at nothing, including tar-reach
mg C IA covert operations, to over
turn governments whose only of
tense is to have a different ideology
from our own. These actions are ¡I-
Low achievement ecores of Black public school
students brought parents together In Bieck United
Front-sponsored workshop to learn how to help
HEP JOHN CONYERS
lustrative of a pattern ot Adm inis
tration Iawlexsnc4\ across a broad
spectrum of policy.
" The President's compliance with
the laws of the land is fundamental
to the integrity o f the Executive
O ffice. Public approval o f the Presi
dent's military actions does not d i
minish the basic constitutional and
legal issues at stake T o the con
trary, current public silence in and
outside of Congress makes it doubly
important to scrutinize the Presi
dent's conduct Impeachment is a
final congressional remedy for judg
mg this pattern o f action and for
generating broad public debate on
t Please turn to page It) column II
their children in school This session is led by Ben
Priestley (right).
(Photo Richard J Brown)
Portland neighborhoods susceptible to water-carried lead poisoning
M any Portland residents could be
suffering from a well-known but sel
dom diagnosed disease resulting
from lead poisoning. Portlanders
are in a unique position o f risking
exposure through their water, in ad
dition to the usual modes o f paint,
gasoline exhaust and industrial
waste.
Portland's Bull Run water, publi
cized for its purity, softness and ab
sence o f minerals, absorbs minerals
from the pipes through which it
passes. The U.S. National Research
Council said in 1977 that, "L ead
may be dissolved from water pipes
most readily by water that is low in
hardness, bicarbonate, and pH and
high in dissolved oxygen and ni
trates." Portland rates "extremely
corrosive" on the three standard
formulas used to measure water cor
rosivity and contains four o f the five
factors causing solubility of lead.
The W orld Health Organization
found that "lead in water ingested
independently o f food may be more
readily absorbed and may provide a
relatively greater contribution to the
blood level than lead in fo o d ."
For the past three years Roger
Burt, a Southeast Portland resident,
has attempted to make Portland’s
city government recognize its prob
lems and take corrective measures.
Following visits to various doctors
seeking relief from symptoms in
cluding depression, weight loss, and
fatigue, Burt found a doctor who
tested him for lead poisoning. Find
ing positive results, he was treated at
Providence Hospital and spent the
next two years convalescing. He also
spent his time researching the causes
and effects o f lead poisoning.
Burt's main source o f poisoning
was easily found. About six months
before his illness was diagnosed, he
had put new plumbing into his older
home— copper pipes with lead sol
dered connections. Portland's min
eral-free water, standing in the
pipes, had picked up lead from the
pipes so that the clear, fresh water
was daily poisoning his body.
Lead can cause serious physical
impairment and even death. The
toxic effects o f lead might not be
known until after years o f exposure,
while lead is being stored in body
tissue. The damage is First to indivi
dual cells and then to organs and en
tire body systems. Damage to the
central nervous system is frequently
not reversible.
Symptoms vary and often are
overlooked by examining physi
cians. Routine blood tests do not re
veal lead levels in the blood and
most doctors do not look for lead
poisoning and therefore do not use
the special tests available.
Children are particularly at risk
In addition to irritability and hyper
activity, lead poisoning can affect
mental development A 1979 study
published in The New England
Journal o f Medicine showed that
children with lead poisoning had de
creased IQ , decreased auditory pro
cessing, decreased attention spans,
and increased hyperactivity corres
ponding to increased lead in the
body. The children in the sample
were taken from public schools and
had none of the usual symptoms ol
lead poisoning A 1972 study dem
onstrated that lead poisoned chil
dren's IQs increased after they were
treated to reduce the lead concentra
tion in (heir bodies
Children o f low-income families
are more likely to be affected by wa
ter-borne led because the homes
having lead bearing pipes are more
apt to be in older, low-income areas
of the city. Also, poor nutrition in
creases the affects of lead poison
ing
Sourcas of lead poisoning
Lead enters Portland water from
three main sources: The city esti
mates that there are from 10,000 to
12,000 lead service connection pipes
still in use. These are connections
between the water main and (he me
ter box o f the residence, school or
business building and were installed
before 19 JO. There is lead soldering
in copper pipes within buildings, in
stalled in the last 10 years. There ate
also galvanized iron pipes imported
from abroad, that contain minerals
including lead.
Although about 1200 lead con
nectors are replaced each year as
they are discovered, the C ity has no
plan for finding and replacing the
connectors. M ayor Ivancie esti
mated that replacement would cost
from JJ to $4 million
The 1974 Safe Drinking Water
Act (Public Law 93-523) makes the
water supplier responsible for the
quality o f the water at the custom
er's tap.
What the cuatomar can do
Water standing in copper pipes
with lead solder can absorb lead ex
ceeding the maximum allowed w ith
in four hours; in lead pipe the limit
could be exceeded in 10 minutes.
Exposure to lead can be reduced
by clearing standing water from the
pipes before water is taken from the
tap. Flushing the toilet and letting
the tap run for about five minutes is
usually sufficient.
Persons who suspect that their
water could be contaminated can
have their outside and inside plum b
ing checked by the C ity Water
Bureau at no charge.
f Please turn to page 4 column 41