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
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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
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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.”
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