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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1983)
Sorry night at Starry Night Oregonian teaches in Nicaragua Larry Holmes should retire Page 4 Page 9 Page 5 PORTWND OBSERVER J*PS 959-68O-855 € Volume XIV, Number 6 November 30, 1983 25C Per Copy Co . I"r l9>i Portland rally kicks off Jesse Jackson's race A kic k-o ff rally for the local Jesse Jackson campaign for President of the United States will be held on Saturday, December 3rd, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The rally will be held at Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church. 3138 N Vancouver Ave Co-chairpersons o f the recently organized Jesse Jackson for Presi dent Committee are Ronnie H ern don and Alm a H ill. Treasurer is Kay Sohl; John Blank is Secretary. Staff of North Portland Family Practica & Indue- trley Clinic take a moment to chat: Unde Bingold. nurse practitioner; Lynette Beyer, office manager; Dabble Jorgensen, receptionist; Donna Krieger, receptloniet; end Dr. Michael Freiatet. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Doctor fights to save clinic by Lanita Duke Grassroot News, AZ. IF .— The concept o f primary health care opened up in the inner city in 1980 as the North Portland Medical Cen ter. Located on Northeast Killings- worth and Vancouver Streets, the Center incorporates straight medical care, fam ily practice, emergency w alk-in, free screening for high blood pressure and diabetes, with a full laboratory and x-ray facilities. The question facing D r. Michael Freistat, physician and proprietor of the clinic, is: Can a practice survive financially in an area most in need o f the service? Freistat, 36, transplanted his me dical practice from Southeast Port land. H e said, "T h e federal govern ment determined this area as a health manpower shortage area. A l though the competition between physicians in Portland is high— one doctor per 600 patients— in inner North and Northeast it is one doctor per 6 ,0 0 0 ." Freistat finds the area offering “ interesting health care possibili ties." The blue-collar industry com bined with family care gives him a complex patient. “ W hat makes health care inter esting is what makes a person's health care a problem. They don't get health care often enough nor do they follow through with their health care. Because o f finances people just try to get by. In the meantime disease becomes more complex. We see a lot o f multiple problem s." Freistat also perceived the need for an urgency center to take the load o ff hospital emergency rooms by offering more affordable care for the patient. “ You could go to an emergency room but it w ill cost you thirty per cent more. The concept o f urgency centers has been opening up across the country to handle industry, acci dents and home emergencies. None opened up in this area because the common denominator is cash up front. "T h a t financial premise in this area is difficult becuase you have people with different economic backgrounds who require different economic approaches to get health care." Freistat said he believed medical facilities that open up in inner Northeast and lim it their welfare and medicare patients are doing the community a disservice. "T h e y are. in fact, discriminating against the com m unity.” Financial survivability is the issue Freistat is currently wrestling with. " T h e medical center took a dive in 1982 as the recession hit the area hard. I dropped ten to fifteen pa tients a day. People didn't know if they are still covered by their medi cal insurance and are going on and o ff the welfare ro ll." As a result his loan from the Small Business Administration has not been serviced. " I had to get my mother to co-sign and she took a tremendous liability by putting her name on the line to keep the clinic open. M y home is up for sale and I ’ m just finishing up with a di- vorce.” Freistat is also facing competitive pressure from the State’s M ulti-Ser vice Center and corporate groups owning and operating urgency centers. “ Medicine at my level is under going a mini-revolution. It is hard to compete with these corporate groups who spend thousands on ad vertising. You can’ t market yourself and say you are better but you can market yourself and say you are available. Medicine has become a business." Freistat also said he believed the Multi-Service Center is duplicating services he could provide for those with medical cards. "T h a t way they could concentrate on indigent care. I can't compete with their sliding scale." It seems as if the Hippocratic oath has been replaced with the economic theory o f maximizing profits. "Be- cuase o f price, access to medical care is difficult ot those who are self-paying. We tried to cushion the high price of medical care by keep ing our prices lo w ." The North Portland Medical Cen ter offers complete medical services in attractive surroundings. "O u r problem is the community— six blocks away— does not know who I am or what I do. I want people to know we have a medical walk-in center and if you have a medical problem that needs attention it can be taken care o f in the com m unity." I f the community does not use the North Portland Medical Clinic they may lose it. Jackson’s campaign is said to have the effect o f "liftin g the ceiling o ff Black aspirations.” One im port ant aspect o f Jackson's “ Rainbow C o a litio n "— the joining of Blacks, women, youth, farmers, seniors, the poor and other minorities— is its re lationship to the rapidly expanding anti-Reagan front. The Jackson candidacy challenges not only Rea gan but Reaganism. militarism and racism. In addition to his effort to affect the Democratic Party Platform and to push the other Democratic Party candidates to discuss the serious is sues facing the nation and the world, Jackson hopes to lead millions o f minority and poor citi zens to the polls for the first time. His rallies and appearances are marked by his urging the dispos sessed to register and to vote. In 1982, for the first time, Black people voted at a higher percentage than whites, expressing a deep op position to President Reagan and his policies. Registration campaigns will add millions o f Black voters, helping to defeat Reagan's allies in Congress. In the House, there are at least 86 districts iri which Black people make up 20 percent or more of the elector ate, and Black voters will play a ma jor role in at least six Senate races where Republican defeats could shift the balance o f power in the Senate. Also to be affected by a large Black voter turnout are num erous state and local positions. Jackson's voter registration drive has spurred other drives among the poor and among minorities— most significantly among Chicanos The National Coalition on Black Voter Participation plans to add two to ten million new Black voters. The Human Service Employment Registration, Voting and Education Campaign is unique in that it targets the millions o f poor who receive government benefits such as food stamps, unemployment compensa tion and welfare. Government workers will volunteer to register up to five million people as they visit government offices. Herb Cawthorne will be master of ceremonies for the rally and mem bers of the committee will speak. Ken Berry and friends will provide gospel music. Volunteers and funds for the O re gon campaign will be solicited. Portland rally will aaak support, volunteers and funds for Jesse Jackson's campaign for tha Democratic nomination for president (Photo: Richard J Brown) Surinam foils new coup attempt The government o f Surinam, a small nation on the northeast coast o f South America, reported that it had to put down an attempted coup. Ten people were charged with stir ring unrest and setting a government radio station, office buildings and a warehouse on fire. The arrests came as Surinam— a nation o f 300,000 people o f A fri can, Meztizo, East Indian, Indo nesian, and Dutch heritage— cele brated the eighth anniversary o f its independence from the Netherlands. This is the third reported attempt to overthrow the leftist government since the 1980 coup by young army officers overthrew the post-colonial government. Lt. Colonel Desi Bouterse said the First attempt to overthrow his gov ernment came on December 8, 1982. The fifteen persons who were arrest ed for participation in this attempt were subsequently killed, reportedly in an escape attempt. Bouterse later said they had been plotting with the C IA . At that time the U.S. and the Netherlands cut o ff all aid to Suri nam. In M ay o f 1983, U .S. officials ad mitted there had been a plan to overthrow the Surinam government but since it had been dropped fol lowing Congressional objectives. The purpose reportedly was, as in the case o f Grenada, to eliminate the possibility o f the U .S .S .R . or Cuba using Surinam as a “ base.” The second coup attempt took place on January 30, 1983. Following the invasion o f G ren ada by the U.S. Bourlerse requested that Cuban advisers and embassy personnel leave the country to re move the excuse for a similar inva sion of Surinam. The most recent coup attempt, on November 29th, was reported to be led by the Council for the I.ibcra lion o f Surinam, a group of exiles in the Netherlands, led by former pre sident Henk Chin A. Sen. Sen served as Prime Minister after the 1980 m il itary coup but was ousted in 1982. He moved first to the U.S. and then to the Netherlands. Greensboro civil rights suit maintains federal, state collusion----------- The Greensboro C ivil Rights Fund has received the endorsement o f the Congressional Black Caucus for the massive federal civil rights suit brought by widows and survi vors o f the November 3, 1979 Greensboro Massacre. Hearings on the suit w ill begin in December. The endorsement by the group of 21 Black Congressmen is added to a list of more than 100 other support ing groups and prominent indivi duals. The American C ivil Liberties Union, the National Council of Churches. Operation P U S H , the Presbyterian Church, the National Lawyers G uild, entertainers Ed As ner, H arry Belafonte and Pete Seeg- er, are among the endorsers of the Greensboro Civil Rights Suit. That suit demands $48 million real and punitive damages from Klansmen, Nazis, officials o f the Greensboro police. Bureau o f Alco hol Tobacco and Firearms, F B I, Justice Department and North C a rolina Bureau o f Investigation. The 88 defendants are charged with vio lating and conspiring to violate the civil rights o f Communist Workers Party labor organizers and commu nity activists who were killed and in jured at an anti-Kian demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina on November 3, 1979. The suit claims that local and federal officials used their offices to violate the civil rights of the demonstrators. They conspired with Klansmen and Nazis in that at tack, they unlaw fully arrested dem onstrators, and they concealed and manipulated evidence after the fact. The claims are based on media re ports, trial testimony and official admissions that two agents partici pated in planning and organization by the Kian and Nazi groups. Kians- m an/inform ant Edward Dawson re cruited, organized, and led Klans men while in the pay o f Greensboro police and while reporting to the F B I. Federal B A T F agent Bernard Butkovich participated in key Nazi planning meetings prior to Novem ber 3 while working undercover with them. Police, who had guaranteed protection to the anti-Kian demon strators, surveilled and followed the attackers that morning but did noth ing to stop the shootings. Not coin cidentally, according to the suit, C W P labor organizers who were murdered had been under FBI inves tigation the week before they were killed. On December 3 lawyers for the Civil Rights Fund will enter federal district court in Durham. North C a rolina, to argue against motions to dismiss the suit filed by the federal Justice Department, the State of North Carolina, and the City of Greensboro. The government previously suc cessfully stopped the discovery (court supervised investigation) pro cess in the suit, which C ivil Rights Fund lawyers project will ultimately reveal the full extent and character o f the multi-agency involvement in ■ the murders. Among its arguments for dismiss ing the suit, the Justice Department claims that federal officials with knowledge of an impending crime have not duty to stop the crime or warn the victims. M oreover, accord ing to the Justice Department, fed eral officials are not subject to suit under the civil rights laws. Lawyers for the Greensboro Civil Rights Fund believe that the Decern ber 3 hearing will result in the denial of the government's motions to dis miss the case. According to Wash ington-based attorney Dan Shee han, "H avin g reviewed the grounds set forth by the Justice Department in support of the demand that the Civil Rights Suit be dismissed, and being aware o f the solid reputation o f Judge Frank Mchridgc as a com petent and well-informed jurist, we are confident that the motions to dismiss will be readily denied by the court. Therefore, we will stand ready to accept the guidance of the court in proceeding with the civil discovery in this case in the manner which is most compatible with die effective prosecution o f the federal criminal indictment and with any additional criminal investigation of government activities which may be undertaken by.a special prosecutor being considered by the Court of Appeals in W ashington." In January the criminal trial of nine Klansmen and Nazis will begin t Please turn lo page 6 column />
