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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1984)
P »fl« 4 Portland Observer, February 1,1964 An endangered species? EDITORIAL/OPINION State sales tax not the answer The Oregon Supreme C ourt has found that the process by which the sales tax proposal was put on the ballot was unconstitutional. This removes the sales tax from the ballot for the M arch special election unless the Legislature acts to replace it. Governor Atiyeh has proposed a one-day special session o f the Legislature for this purpose. A ll that could be accomplished in a one day session is to put the same measure on the ballot— perhaps with m inor changes. However, a one-day session will open a can o f worms. Numerous groups— including small business and professional groups— have come out against the current sales tax because o f the inconvenience and bookkeeping expense it will The real answer to the sales tax question is not a one-day band-aide session. It is a realistic program to adopt a progressive personal and corporate income tax and to provide home owner and renter property tax relief through a homestead exemption. The answer is to collect taxes from the big incom e/larger property owners who can a ffo rd to pay. The Democratic legislators are in a bind— many o f them went along with the pro sales tax forces in spite o f the Democratic Party’s platform and philosophical opposition. These people, who now need the votes o f Democrat working people are now behind the gun. W hich side are they on? cost them. Each o f these special interest groups will attempt to have their business or profession exempted from the tax— placing a heavier A one-day session that will allow them an opportunity to weasle out o f their responsibility to the people is not necessary. A n overhaul o f burden on working people. the State’s tax system is. No surprises! Ronald Reagan’s budget for fiscal 1984-85 brings no surprises. The 19 percent increase in the m ilitary budget brings military expenditures to one third o f the national budget— an unheard o f expenditure, particularly for a period in which the U .S . is not at war. This increase in m ilitary spending has to come from somewhere— so it comes from programs designed to assist the poor and minorities. Vocational education, education for the handicapped and the social service block grants are to be decreased by 3 percent, cost o f living increases for retirement programs will be frozen. Also, the massive increases in the military budget will leave a $180 billion deficit. M any economists say the deficit(the largest in history) will lead to higher interest rates, industrial stagnation, unemployment and depression. The Reagan Adm inistration is continuing to spend money to fatten the pockets o f the military industrialists at home and to bill men, women and children abroad. Meanwhile, the children in the U .S . will forfeit their right to a decent standard o f living as their dreams are mortgaged to pay for Reagan’s delusions. : CWt tfo P WORRYING AgotfT TUíT TtUAW by Dr. M anning M arable “ From The Grassroots" Several weeks ago one of the most interesting scholarly conferences was held by the University of C in cinnati’s O ffice o f M inority Pro grams and Services in conjunction with the Department of Afro-A m er- ican Studies. Key organizer P. Eric Abcrcrumbie brought together Black scholars and hundreds o f stu dent and community people from across the Midwest. The controver sial topic o f discussion was "T h e Black Man: Endangered Species." Abercrumbie. an articulate ad ministrator at the University o f C in cinnati. had earlier evoked the wrath o f many neoconservatives at the school by challenging the univer sity's racist environment. This con ference, the second annual event, was part o f a larger struggle to com bat academic racism while simultan eously creating the forum necessary for Blacks to discuss our own con cerns. The topic itself could not have been more timely. Too many Blacks have been lulled into complacency by the illusion that we as a people have achieved "equality.” The rise of feminism in the 1970s sharpened our appreciation o f the impact of sexual discrimination upon Black women, who in socioeconomic terms remain at the very bottom of American society. No struggle for Black liberation, to be sure, can be separated from the efforts to com bat rape, "w ife-beating," income inequality and all other forms of anti-women violence. But the Reagan Administration's criminal contempt for Blacks has accelerated the destruction of Black men as well as women— par ticularly young Black men Dr. Robert Staples. Associate Professor o f Sociology at the University of C alifornia/San Francisco, pre sented some devastating statistics on the pressing plight o f our young males: •Less than 20 percent o f all Black college graduates are males. •O ne-fourth o f all Black males fail to complete high school. •Since I960 Blacks aged IS to 20 commit suicide at a rate higher than that o f the total population o f all ages. Suicide is now the third lead ing cause of death after accidents and homicides among Black males aged IS to 24. •8S percent o f all executions for rape have involved Black men and white women, despite the fact that only 10 percent o f all rape cases in volve Black males and white fe males. No white male has ever been executed for raping a Black woman in U.S. history. •A bo u t half o f all Black men over 18 have never been married, separ ated, divorced or widowed. • Despite the fact that several m il lion Black male youths desire a career in professional athletics, the odds of any Black youth making it are over 20,000 to one. Today, over 300,000 Black young men are in prison. Black males suf fer over two million arrests every year in the U.S. How do we begin to combat the destruction o f young Black males— and in turn, the oblit eration of our communities? Conference participant D r. W . Monty W hitney, Associate Director o f the Cincinnati Seven Hill» Neigh borhood Houses, suggested that the bask "factors which inhibit healthy relationships are Racism, Sexism and C apitalism ." Short-term strate gies to address these problems in cluded greater "racial awareness.” changing "m ale-fem ale socializa tion pattern,” and improving "communication and accountabil ity” between Black men and women. D r. N a 'im Akbar, a Florida Stale professor o f Psychology, urged Blacks to combat the institu tions and ideologies which “ work against both our individual and col lective survival.” The “ lust for power,” material possessions and sexuality must be replaced by " a genuine commitment to one's being rooted in the knowledge o f one’s true self and nature.” Professor An- gelene Jamison, head of Black Stud ies at the University o f Cincinnati, suggested that "Black women and men have accepted and internalized many o f the myths, stereotypes, roles and definitions established by whites. Because we have not clearly understood these outside forces on male-female relationships.” Blacks often “ blame each other for the problems rather than to establish creative and productive ways of dealing with th em ." "Black survival,” in Dr. Jam i son’s words, depends upon the crea tion o f a "m eaningful dialogue” be tween Black women and men, and in efforts to build more "healthy and supportive relationships in the Black com m unity." This conference was a decisive step forward in that long process. Washington Hot Line by Congressman Ron Wyden » « X KIDS WtP U* New» urtH O FF President Reagan's State o f the Union address last week was, as usual, a virtuoso performance. He is a masterful performer and showed his skill in presenting the resounding theme o f "Am erica is back.” But as I sat in the House o f Rep resentatives and listened to (hose words, I couldn't help but think that, whereas some parts o f the country are on their way back from economic recession, slates like O re gon have a ways to go. In our state, unemployment is still above 10 percent. M ore than 100,000 people are out of work, Mills are still idle and grain over flows the silos because we cannot market it overseas. The culprit is (he deficit, and the first step to getting our state back on the road to economic health is cut ting the deficit. Deficits are a "double-wham m y” for Oregon. They keep interest rates out o f sight because the Treasury has to go out and borrow the money that home-buyers would use. Hence, fewer homes are built, less timber is cut and less lumber is milled. Second, high deficits make the dollar artificially strong. The result is that American goods are more ex pensive to buy and hence we export less o f them. That costs jobs all the way from the wheat fields of eastern Oregon to the docks of north Port land. The President brought us a step closer to starting the difficult task of deficit reduction when he proposed that we must make a "dow n pay m ent" on the deficit and offered to work together with Senate and House leaders o f both parties. But at the same time that Presi dent Reagan made this offer, he in timated that there was no fat to cut at the Pentagon and that (ax reform was out of bounds until after the election. T o make a bipartisan plan for re ducing the deficit work, all o f these areas— defense spending, domestic spending and revenue— must be open to discussion. W e can’t cut the deficit on the back o f domestic pro grams. Finding ways to cut the deficit will be my number one priority for the remainder o f this Congress. I will need your help and advice. I will be holding an open, public forum to hear your ideas on how to go about his important task. The forum will be held Saturday, 1020 N .E . Third Ave. Please come and share your views. Police complaints bring concern (C ontinuedfrom page I column A) African politics prove explosive (Continued fro m page 1 column 6) and incomplete, to concern export crops o n lj. So this year, Africa will receive more than half the world's food aid. The future looks no better. By the turn of the century, Africa will have 400 million more people to feed. And many national leaders have shown themselves completely incapable o f managing a sound economy, much less economies able to handle the coming population in creases. Their disillusioned citizens look —- M BH « w .i P u tii s h e rs Asso. ..ilion S |H ™ for alternative philosophies. In the north and to some extent in the west, they turn to Islamic precepts. In the rest o f Africa, serious eco nomic, social and political deterior ation is likely. And the chaos which follows may lead to long-lasting civil uprisings. The Western world will have to contend with this new situation es pecially in North Africa, where the Islamic revival directly challenges everything Western, l eaders who see everything in terms o f East-West confrontation will find themselves more and more isolated, especially when they align themselves with those leaders who are seen as re sponsible for the current crisis. People in the Western world must try to understand what is happening in these regions of Africa in human terms. If (hey do, the inevitable up heavals may become expressions of positive feelings. Otherwise the prolonged crisis in Africa and the intervention o f the superpowers might well get out of hand, and a serious confrontation o f these powers becomes a danger- out possibility. « PACIFIC NEWS SEP VICE. /«M Portland Observer 283 2486 Bo* 3 IJ7 Ponland 0»«pon 97208 ™ ™ ™ ™ " lewspaper. N ational A dvertising Représentative A m a lg am a te d Pubhahera me N ew Vorh _ ■ Subscribe today! ■ Yee. I w o u ld lik e a a u b a c rip tio n l to th e Portland Observer. 11 have enclosed my check or money order for *15, for a one year subscription. PLEASE PRINT I ! said. " It's very hard being a police o ffic e r," she said. “ I t ’s not an easy job, not one you are often appre ciated in ." The Observer welcomes Letters to the Editor. Letters should be short, and must contain the writer's name and address (addresses are not p rin t ed). The Observer reserves the right to edit f o r length. ! News fo r and about Ï you. Thfl P o rlfa n d O b \ r r * t r 1USPS 959 6801 t* published every Thnrvley by ( ■ * Publishing Company Inc 2201 North K.ltmgt worth Portland Oregon 97217 Post Office Bo« 3137 Portland Oregon 97208 Sacond d as* pottage pan! at Portland Oregon Alfred L. Henderson. Lditor/Publisher A l Williams. Advertising Manager Association ■ Foundod IM S r " " " ™ John said that when there is a problem, the Internal Audit C om mittee "can go into the Bureau and look at the files" to ensure that both the complainant and the police are protected. "W e can go through them with a fine tooth com b." she said. W hile the committee exists be cause of the 'possum incident and problems having to do with police- community relations and internal police discipline, specifically to monitor the police internal investi gations process and look out for the interests o f complainants, it is also concerned with police rights, she ! PORTLAND OBSERVER The P o n ia rd O b ir rv r ' wee eatabhahed m 1970 SutMc'iplion« »15 00 P » »••> * th * In County a>M P o tt m « l w Sand « d d iM t^ h a n g M Io ttw Piirilviut Observer P 0 MEMBER it would be important to check the officer's complaint history at the same tim e," she said, and the com mittee is working on that. John said the I I I ) gets about 350 complaints per year. T hat’s about half of what it was before 1981-82 when the Bureau stopped counting "m in o r” complaints. "W e want them to count all the complaints, re gardless o f the degree o f severity," she said. According to the I I D ’s records for the period Jan. - Sept. 1983, of the complaints they received, 33 (20 percent) came from Blacks and other minorities, 101 (63 percent) from whites, and 17 percent from within the Bureau itself. Out of the total 161 complaints for (hat period, 59 (36.6 percent) involved excessive force, 22 (13.6 percent) rude con duct, and 29 (18 percent) miscon duct. Mail to Ponland Obaervei Bo* 3137 Portland Oreqon 97208 N a m e ____________ A d d res s ________________________ ------------- ------------- C i t y ___ ___________________ S ta te ________ Z i p ________ I J i ■ I I I I I I I
