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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1983)
Page 4 Portland Observer, November 30, 1983 Political fallout fro m "The Day A fter EDITORIAL/OPINION No death penalties for Oregon! Robert Sullivan, 36, was executed by the State o f Florida Tuesday morning, bringing to six the number o f executions committed since the death penalty was restored in 1976. The people o f the U.S. w ill soon have to de termine whether it w ill concone the mass slaugh ter o f over 1,200 death row inmates across the nation. I f not, the execution w ill be as selective as the process that leads to this sentence. O f those waiting on death row, 42.3 percent are Black (508), 4.8 percent are Hispanic (58), 0.6 percent are Native American (7), and 0.4 percent are Asian (5). Only 51.8 percent are white. Sullivan’ s last appeal, which was lost, charged that people convicted o f .killing whites are more likely to be sentenced to death than those con victed o f killing Blacks. A 1982 study o f the 208 people sentenced to die in Florida showed that 90 percent had killed whites. A second evidence o f discrimination is that only one percent (12) o f the persons currently sentenced to die are women. Geography is also a factor. Thirty-nine states have a death penalty; 34 states have imposed the death penalty. California (with 131), Florida (196), Georgia (113), and Texas (159), have the most people under death sentence. The U.S. m il itary has seven men under sentence, one o f whom is white. An unusual event in the death o f Robert Sulli van was the intercession o f the Catholic Church, which entered his appeal processes as a friend o f the court, and a personal plea for clemency. The fact that Sullivan is a practicing Catholic who has had the support o f Florida church authori ties for several years, brings forth the question o f whether death met the legal criterion that the person be beyond rehabilitation. In this case death appears to be retribution. There also re mains, even after Sullivan’s death, the question o f whether he was really guilty. Oregon is one o f 13 jurisdictions (12 states and the District o f Columbia) that does not have a death penalty. As has been the case since our death penalty law was invalidated in 1981, there is a strong move to institute it here. Do we really want to go through the emo tional orgy o f a legalized killing in this state? Can the dem onstration shouting ’ ’ Death! Death!” outside the prison walls in Florida and Texas have done anything to further humanity in those states? Do we need the excessive amounts o f money needed to go through years o f litigation to Our tax bills? Is there any evi dence that the death penalty deters? Evidence presented to the President’s com mission on organized crime this week indicates that, rather than using their resources to k ill in dividuals sentenced to capital punishment, the States should be mustering their forces to fight the rapidly growing crime syndicates that have reached their tentacles not only into such sordid pursuits as drugs, prostitution and gambling, but are controlling large segments o f business and industry. Holmes should retire now Rumors arc spreading that heavyweight box ing cghampion Larry Holmes w ill announce his retirement next Wednesday. The 34-year-old un defeated boxer has held the W BA title for 5'/i years, longer than any man since Joe Louis. Holmes won his title in a split decision on June 9, 1978. defending Ken Norton. I f he re tires undefeated, (45-0), he w ill jo in Rocky M ar ciano, who retired with a 49-0 record. Holmes is said to have been upset by the Mar- vis Frazier fight, which he won handily in the first round. “ It made me feel rotten,” he said. “ 1 was more hurt winning that fight than I would’ ve been if I had lost. I d id n't want to beat this kid up.” The only thing standing in the way o f Holmes’ retirement is a possible shot at W BA title holdler Gerrie Coetzee o f South Africa. Boxing is a dangerous profession and is the only “ sport” in which men directly strike and attempt to injure each other. Although boxing can be an exciting spectator sport when fighters arc skilled and evenly matched, it is a brutal sport. Death and serious injury have become commonplace and recent studies have shown that even limited blows to the head can cause ir reparable brain damage. The health organiza tions o f the world are increasingly calling for an end to professional boxing, and we agree. Holmes is a lucky man. He has earned m il lions; he is involved in successful business enter prises. He is highly respected, has a young fam ily and still has his health. His wife is right. He should retire now. concept of a limited, winnable nuclear war was 99 by Dr. M anning M arable The American people have never experienced “ total w ar” - w i d e spread epidemic», limited water and food supplies, the collapse of civil order, millions o f dead, the dying and injured in the streets and coun tryside. The A B C film . The D ay A fte r. « instructive in the most direct and el ementary manner in acquainting Americans with the human dimen sions o f a general nuclear conflagra tion. Millions o f people, trapped in central cities or near military and in dustrial centers, would be vaporired or burned alive. Millions more who survived the assault would die in the next days and months from radia tion sickness. Communications, public transportation and most health facilities would be nonexis tent. T o think seriously about the "u n thinkable” creates fundamental problems for the Reagamtes and the superhawks o f both the Democratic and Republican parties. The basic idea behind current national defense policy is that the U.S. must arm it self with increasingly sophisticated and more powerful weapons in or der to make the likely “ costs” of warfare unacceptable to any ration al adversary. There are. however, at least two problems with the “ deter rence" philosophy. It assumes that both major powers will respond “ rationally” in a time o f political crisis, and that the Soviets will ulti mately back down when confronted by the American nuclear threat. But how “ rational” was the U.S. inva sion o f Grenada this fa ll— an illegal act of gunboat diplomacy which could have easily triggered a larger confrontation with the Soviets? How "ra tio n a l" was Soviet behav ior in shooting down the Korean air liner? The second problem is under scored by the U.S. decision to place Cruise and Pershing I I missiles in Western Europe. From West Ger many, it will take a Pershing I I less than ten minutes to obliterate a m ili tary target inside the Soviet Union. During a military confrontation with N A T O , the Soviets would be forced to deploy their missiles upon the first warning signal o f hostile Western action. As Joe Huxley, a professor in the film states, you either "use them or lose them .” The faulty logic o f deterrence leads inev itably to Reagan's mad quest for nu clear superiority, which would trig ger a nuclear war. The film skirts these issues, at tempting to divest any sharp politi cal content or analysis from the story. But sexist and racist elements were fairly obvious within The Day A fter. The m ajority o f the female characters were idiots. Eve Dahl berg refuses to halt wedding dav preparations during the national emergency, and calmly makes the bed after Minutem an missiles have been launched. Even during the postfilm discussion, no prominent women writers or spokespersons on the arms race— such as Helen Caldi- cott, Joanna Macy, or Randy Fors- berg— were invited before the cam eras. There are over 150,000 Black people who live and work in Kansas City. Indeed, the Black population o f the city is larger than the number o f Blacks in Nashville. Richmond. Virginia, M iam i, Boston, or Buf falo. Yet while watching the film , I got the distinct impression that the racial setting was o ff somewhere in North Dakota. The film begins with the sociological premise o f security and comfort. N o one lives in a ghet to here. D r. Russell Oakes works at Mem orial General Hospital and commutes from his upper middle class residence to teach a class at the university in Lawrence. W e’re not told whether Black maintenance workers at the hospital were allowed into the fallout shelter at the terror- filled moment the bombs began to fall. The only major Black character in the drama is Airm an First Class Billy M cCoy, who portrays a kind o f bewildered Afro-A m erican ver sion o f King Lear, wandering aim lessly in the radioactive fallout, searching for a wife and home which were vaporized days before. As films for commercial televi sion go. The Day A fte r was above average. But in the clutch, it failed to describe the real levels o f destruc tion and human agony which a gen eral thermonuclear conflict would create. However, there’s no need to depict the destruction o f Kansas C ity. G o to the 18th Congressional District in New Y o rk ’s South Bronx, for an understanding o f the impact o f Pentagon spending upon the poor and minorities. 41.2 per cent o f all South Bronx families ex ist below the poverty line; only 40 percent o f the adults are high school graduates. The median income per person in the district is $3.567. and the median age is less than 25 years old. Instead o f Kansas C ity, why not use Bedford-Stuyvesant or the C h i cago South Side, where the unem ployment percentage o f Black youths exceeds 85 percent? Brook lyn’s eleventh Congressional Dis trict has a 37.2 percent poverty rate, and a per capita income o f $3,981. Chicago's South Side has 27 percent o f its families living in poverty. Rea gan’s $1.6 trillion nuclear and con ventional weapons budget is drain ing urgently needed resources from our central cities and from m inori ties, women and labor. For the South Bronx, “ the day after” is to day: the real impact o f the arms race is no movie. Jackson campaign reveals issues H O U S T O N . N O V . 15— N n a tional Jewish leader says that while Jesse Jackson stirs "deep and justi- fia b le c o n c e rn " am ong Jews, his presidential candidacy should not be turned into a Black-Jewish confron tation. A lb e rt Vo rsp an o f New Y o rk , vice president o f the Union o f A m erican Hebrew Congregations, told the organization’s biennial assembly in the W estin G a lle ria , w ith 3,000 delegates in attendance: "Jesse Jackson w ill probably in fu ria te us, but his candidacy may just help to expose the A m erican people to the real world and the real conditions of our cities, our m inori ty fam ilies, our youth, our elderly, our future.” T h e R e fo rm Jewish leader said Jews should " re fu s e to tu rn the Jackson campaign into a Black-Jew ish confrontation.” H e added, " W e and the rest o f the responsible Jewish com m unity should repudiate and condemn the vig ila n te cam paign o f the Jewish I HKV6 RFM CF\TIC|IfcD R * IffctTWô WITH A LtAOEC CF M RIOCAéuAN Defense League thugs who have an nounced they will disrupt Jackson’ s political rallies. " D o e s that mean we should ig nore his views and his record, espe cially his unconscionable theatrical embrace o f Yasir A rafat and his ties to A rab groups, which stirred deep and ju s tifia b le concern am ong thoughtful Jews? Decidedly not! "Jesse Jackson should be sub jected to tough and sharp scrutiny, exactly like all other candidates, and on issues across the board, not only on the M iddle East. T o exempt him from judgement because he is Black would be supremely patronizing. " T o seek to delegitimize his cam paign and to hold him to a separate standard would be racism. Jesse is a showman and an o p p o rtun ist, but he has become a symbol o f Black as pirations in our tim e." M r. Vorspan compared the Jack- son cand idacy to th at o f John F. Kennedy in 1960. "Jesse Jackson challenges the white m onopoly on the W hite House," he said, "as JFK pUAtAE i$S FOCCES S K .K W NtlLlTACY O V l W w CF THE RlCAPNXlPN 1, HoWVtP. FAIL TO ANYTHtNf? IMPCoPtß IN WC PlÇiÜttlOW did the Protestant monopoly more than 20 years ago. In so doing, he will help achieve a more open socie ty in which even the W h ite House w ill someday become an equal o p portunity employer. “ I f he can articulate the pain in the streets and the desperation o f those Blacks and others who feel re jected and outcast in our society, America will gain even though Jack- son loses. An understanding o f the hurt and fear and despair, o f what is really happening in that other A m erica, cannot come from the board rooms and executive suites and think tanks which advise the Presid ent and the candidates. Jesse Jack- son will help to broaden the agenda for debate, to extend participation in the p o litic a l process and to achieve a m ore open s o c ie ty . . an America in which women and Jews, Blacks and Hispanics, Catholics and non-believers will have full access to the American political process, even at the to p.” Whether you re laced with a monumental decision — or a routine one — the tree Consumer Information Catalog can otter concrete advice There are more than 200 government booklets listed in the Catalog And they can help you improve your job health or financial profile start a business or a car plan a house or a diet And many of these booklets are Iree So order your tree Catalog today Any way you look at rt you II be head and shoulders above the crowd Just send your nam e and address to Consumer Information Center Dept. 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