Page 2 S e < * n I Portland Observer, January 18, 1984
Bubbleville shows
youthful dreams
by Chuck Goodmacher
M artin Luther K in *, Jr.** dream,
in which all people share together in
creating their collective future, be
came reality last week for the chil
dren o f Woodlawn and Brooklyn el
ementary school* through their cre
ation o f **Bubbleville." Assisted by
special project leader Elijuh M i-
rochnik, "Bubbleville" was the cul
mination o f a two-week learning
process about King’s dream— one
the students are sure to remember
for a long time to come.
“ It's important for the kid* not
just to have the-dream ." said M i-
rochnik. “ but to know how to build
II.”
“ Bubbleville,” or the ‘/dream
d om e," is an air-inflated plastic
structure complete with picture* and
maps o f the Woodlawn and Brookly
neighborhoods as well as a model
neighborhood build o f index cards.
The students presented the dome to
C ity Commissioner Charles Jordan
last Friday at Terry Schrunk Park.
In just two short weeks, Miroch-
nik brought the kids from studying
some o f the concepts o f King’s
dream, (cooperation, compromise
and understanding), to an exper
ience in which the dream was shared
by all. “ W e made it for M artin L u
ther K ing.” said Christian King of
W oodlawn Elementary School.
The children learned to coopera
tively resolve conflicts which arose
in the design process— particularly
about the shape o f the park in the
model city. Some children thought
“ Brooklawn
P ark“
should be
round and others square. One even
wanted a pizza parlor in the middle
of the park. A round park was final
ly agreed on.
“ The children learned ‘both sides
w in ,' ” said M irochnik, "and that’s
what they’ ve learned through the
process.”
Commissioner Jordan comment
ed how the city looked like a very
nice place to live— a city much like
M artin Luther King’s dream of
“ people living together, working to
gether." A loud, unanimous “ yes"
came in response to the Comm is
sioner’s query: “ I* this the kind of
city you want to live in?”
"B ubbleville" is only the first of
a series o f “ pairing projects” to
bring together student* from d iffe r
ent schools. Funding for the special
projects comes from the Tri-County
Talented and Gifted Fund. M iroch
nik teaches architecture for the
Portland Public School District.
L - R: Rev. Dr. Lavi B. Baldwin, keynote apaakar
at Monday’a King Day Calabratlon at Jefferson
High School and Rav. Wayna M. Raynolda with
TRAVEL RODERTS'
P res en ts
DR. LEE BROWN
Carnival _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Trinidad
Brown on crime
by Lam ia Duke
Grassrool News, N. W7. — Former
Multnom ah County Director of
Justice Services Lee Brown cele
brated the birthday of the Rev. M a r
lin Luther King, Jr., by telling the
M etropolitan
Human
Relations
Commission’s annual awards ban
quet that it was their obligation to
finish Dr. King’s unfinished busi
ness.
“ The dilemma that confronts us
today is a confrontation between
those forces which compel society to
change and those forces that seek to
Reynolds' portrait of Dr. King. Tha painting will
hang at King Naighborhood Facility.
(Photo. Richard J. Brown)
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TRAVEL RODERTS’
3415 n e
b n > * tw o v
M y d re a m
by Allison Oberbillig
Grade 8
M y greatest dream is for equality.
Equality for women, and equality
among all races. I want this because
the world has evolved to a place
where strength and dominace is
proved by one's color or sex. I know
this is wrong. A person should not
grow up thinking that because one is
white or male, they are superior to
Blacks and women. This thought is
taught fror.i childhood, and it is the
duty o f the children o f today to
make this idea obsolete. This
dream, " . . that one day the sons of
former slaves and the sons o f form
er slaveowners will be able to sit
down together at the table of broth
erhood. . . ” o f M artin Luther King,
Jr., is also my dream.
When I was in the third grade I
experienced sex discrimination for
the first time. What happened was
that a librarian called our classroom
and asked for two strong kids to
carry books for her. M y teacher sent
my best friend and me down to help
her. When we arrived, the librarian
said, " G o back to your classroom
and tell your teacher that I need (wo
boys.” Furiously, my friend and I
did as told, but then wrote a letter of
complaint to the librarian. She
called us down to her room after re
ceiving the note, and explained to us
that boys arc stronger than girls. We
expected her explanation, but knew
that we were as strong as the aver
age eight-year-old boy, which, of
course, was true
The opinion, "boys are stronger
than girls," needs to be changed.
The way to do this is by teaching
people
the
different
muscle
strengths o f men and women. For
example, it has been proved that
women have potentially stronger
lower body muscles than men, while
a man's upper torso is stronger than
a woman's.
There is a very powerful group
that works to prevent my dream for
equality and non-racism. This group
is the Ku Klux Kian. The KKK is as
sociated with the despised Nazis of
Germany. The Klansmen also use
the swastika emblem. The Kian
trains its members to " k ill Jews and
Niggers in the coming race w a r."
The only way to prevent this belief
from growing is to educate people.
O r, perhaps I should say, in some
cases, re-educate the people, as ra
cism has been taught.
There is a song in the musical
South Pacific, entitled, “ You've
Got To Be Carefully Taught.” This
song tells how people learn to be ra
cist, " . . . to hate all the people your
relatives hate----- “ This song also
explains the root cause of racism—
fear. “ Y o u ’ve got to be taught to be
afraid o f people whose eyes are odd
ly made, or people whose skins are a
different shade, you've got to be
carefully taught.”
This movie,
made in the 1930s, is based on ra
cism and the great unhappiness de
rived from it. It's too bad that not
enough people heard the song and
many other teachings and changed
their feelings. Maybe if they had.
the '60s w ouldn't have been so hard
for Black Americans.
I ’ve encountered some racism in
my life, but not as much as some
kids. Since I go to Harriet Tubman
Middle School, I think I have been
sheltered from racism, as my school
is totally integrated. I don't think
that anyone at our school worries if
they're sitting with a black girl or a
white girl. Everyone is neutral. I had
a friend who one day asked me what
school I went to, and after I said
"H a rrie t Tubm an”
he replied,
“ O h, that nigger school.” W e are
no longer friends.
I hope that one day my dream for
equality for all Americans, all hu
mans, will come true. I f it does be
come a reality, I know it won't be
from a wish upon a star. It will have
been achieved by many hardwork
ing, caring individuals.
NOW to picket Republicans
The Portland chapter of the N a
tional Organization for Women will
picket R e p u b lica n State C e n tra l
Committee headquarters. 620 S.W .
Fifth Avenue, Portland, at 12:00
noon on January 21, 1984, to com
memorate the eleventh anniversary
of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court
decision that legalized abortion.
During the protest, NO W members
will distribute leaflets to educate the
public about President Reagan's de
sire to return to the pre-1973 era of
dangerous, illegal abortion.
“ Since his election. President
Reagan has launched a major as
sault against women's right to de
cide when and whether to have chil
dren. He seeks to return to a time
when even rape or incest victims had
to bear unwanted children, when
hundreds o f women died each year
from botched abortions. Yet ac
cording to an August 1983 Gallup
poll, only 16 percent o f Americans
favor a total ban on abortion, simi
lar to the one which Reagan has lob
bied fo r," stated Tia Plympton,
Portland chapter N O W president.
"F o u r more years of this A d m in
istration would virtually guarantee
the reconsideration of Roe v. Wade
by a more conservative Supreme
Court. The President need only
appoint two more justices to reverse
this decision, and five o f the pro-
choice justices nr w serving are over
73 years o ld ," she continued.
"T h is Administration hypocrit-
aclly claims to be 'p ro -life,' but real
ly believes that life begins at concep
tion and ends at birth. Through his
budgets, policies, appointments,
and regulatory proposals, Ronald
Reagan has systematically attacked
the quality of life for millions of
American women and children.
N O W believes that women simply
cannot afford four more years o f a
President determined to end their
ability to make responsible decisions
about childbearing or childrear
ing ," Plympton concluded.
For more inform ation, please call
244-3353 or 289-3610.
•
po nton e) O re g o n 9 7 2 3 2
( 5 0 3 ) 2 8 7 1745
If your nose itches, som e say, it is a sign that you
will have a fig h t.
•
During th e A m erican Revolution, m any brides did
not w ear w h ite w ed din g gow ns; they w o re red as a
sym bol o f rebellion.
•
W y o m in g w a s the first state to allow w o m en to
vote.
•
T h e first sub w ay in the U .S . opened in Boston in
1897.
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(Continued fro m page I, column 6)
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Tour i n c l u d e s : ^ ^
maintain the status q u o ."
This confrontation, according to
Brown, exists while America plays a
game o f pretending there are no
problems associated with being non
white or poor in America.
“ Today we have three time*
more Black* living under the pov
erty line. We have twice a* many
whites graduating from high school
than non-whites, and a disparity in
prison sentencing— non-whites com
prise h alf o f all the jail and prison
population.”
Brown left Portland in 1978 to be
come Atlanta's police chief. As po
lice chief. Brown’s jurisdiction was
during the tragedy o f Atlanta's child
murders which left 23 children and
three young Black men dead. In an
interview, he said that investigation
“ gave me an appreciation for (he
neglect of young people in our soci
ety— a society (hat preaches (hat
children are our most precious re
sources while in reality there is a
great deal of abuse in many d iffe r
ent ways.”
Brown also said the problem o f
Black-on-Black crime and the dis
proportionate number o f A fro-
Americans behind bars go hand in
hand.
"Blacks throughout the country
are more likely to be the victims o f
all crimes because o f the social-eco
nomic problems in our society.
W hile, at the same time, the A dm in
istration of Justice has to be looked
at in the context that over 30 percent
o f those in jail or prison are non-
w hite.”
Brown said he was not aware if a
Black police executive reduces the
crime rate. “ They do bring a duality
into that position. They are Black;
thus they have lived the Black exper
ience and understand the problems
that exist and know which resources
are needed I f that makes them an
asset to the position then they are an
asset.”
Brown is currently an "asset” to
Texas. He is the police chief of
Houston.
My dream for the world
-
M arch 1st - M arch 9th
_________________ _________________ /
MRS. C’a
WIGS
M a n y w ig s p n e w d a t
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