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Page 2, Portland Observer, October 16, 1906
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Printing o f"jo h n s "' names
will not solve problem
Recently, the P ortland Police Bureau asked
local newspapers to print the names o f “ johns”
(prostitutes’ customers) who are found guilty o f
soliciting prostitutes. Only one newspaper agreed
to do this.
The Observer believes those who buy sex in
Northeast P ortland from prostitutes should be
dealt with in the same manner as anv other crim ­
inal, since both the soliciting o f prostitution, and
prostitution, are crimes.
Printing the names o f “ johns” in a Northeast
Portland weekly newspaper will not do any good
since those who are found guilty are mainly from
outside com m unities such as Beaverton, Lake
Oswego, H illsb o ro and Washington State. It is
doubtful that many citizens living in these areas
read the P ortla n d Observer. Law enforcement
of ficials should w ork to get names printed in
newspapers o f com m unities where convicted
“ jo h n s ” live. It w ould have more effect than
printing the names in a newspaper outside o f their
community.
Many citizens who live in the E liot and King
neighborhoods feel that City Hall and the Police
Bureau are not concerned about what is happen­
ing in their neighborhoods. Most residents do not
accept the excuse given by city of ficials and the
police that if they had more jail space, they could
do more about the problem o f prostitution and
drug traf ficking.
Residents say that if prostitution and drug deal­
ing were in affluent neighborhoixls, city officials
and police would move quickly to stop it. C ity
officials should not wait until jail space is found to
act on the c i lie problems plaguing Northeast
residents.
The reason prostitutes stroll along Union Ave­
nue is because they know there are customers w ill­
ing to pay for their services. This is why the police
should focus more o f their a tte n tion on the
“ johns.“ By eliminating the demand for sex, the
prostitutes w ill disappear fro m the streets o f
Northeast Portland.
Instead o f asking local newspapers to print the
names o f those who come to Northeast in search
o f sex, city o fficia ls should start responding to
the problem o f prostitution by making it costly
and embarrassing.
This can be accomplished by the courts order­
ing those who are guilty o f soliciting the services o f
a prostitute to do community service in the N orth­
east area or in their own com m unities. There
should be public awareness o f the crime to which
this service is associated.
I f a “ jo h n ” is found guilty a second time, he
should be fined $1,000, ordered to do more com­
munity service and a letter sent to his employer in
a red envelope inform ing him o f the activities o f
his employee. I f found g uilty a th ird tim e, he
should be fined $2. (MM) and given a m andatory
30-day ja il sentence to be served on weekends.
By serving the ja il term on weekends, the guilty
“ jo h n ” w ill not lose his job. Equally im portant,
he will be able to pay his fine. The fine should be
taken out o f the convicted “ john’s” paycheck and
payable to the City o f Portland.
The C ity should give a portion o f the money
to organizations which work with prostitutes who
want to stop selling their bodies fo r money in
order to make a living.
This plan would work if city and law enforce­
ment officials implemented it. Such a plan is better
than printing names in the P ortland Observer o f
individuals who reside outside the newspaper’ s
circulation area.
Lough new measures by the crim inal justice
system targeting the “ johns” would help eliminate
the problem o f prostitution. Residents living in the
area affected by this problem should urge the
M ayor and law enforcement representatives to
make a commitment to punish those who are re­
sponsible for the prostitutes being in their neigh­
borhoods.
By eliminating the demand (the johns) and the
supply (the prostitutes), the display o f “ sex for
sale” on the streets o f Northeat P ortland w ill
cease.
Dr. Drew deserves better
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Recently the Oregon T ra il C hapter o f the
Am erican Red Cross named the Blood Donor
Center Canteen after Dr. Charles Drew. Drew, an
Afro-American, died in an automobile accident in
1950. Drew is recognized as one o f this nation’ s
foremost physicians and pioneers in blood and
plasma processing.
Dr. Drew worked with plasma which is used in
the treatment o f shock and in occurrences o f clot­
ting defects, as in hemophilia or severe liver dis­
eases.
Many Black citizens are upset w ith the Blood
Donor Center Canteen being named after Dr.
Drew by the Red Cross. I his is little to honor an
Afro-American for his contribution and for help­
ing to develop the world's first blotxl bank.
We feel that the Red Cross could have honored
Dr. Drew in a bigger way. Instead o f naming the
Blood Center Canteen after Dr Drew, it would
be more appropriate to name the Red Cross Blood
Center after Dr. Drew instead. Naming a canteen
after him doesn’ t show the public how great a
contribution he made to society.
Politics for the wealthy
Along the Color I.me by Dr Manning Marable
*
Dr Manning Marable teaches po­
at Colgate University,
Hamilton, New York.
ll! Kai sociology
by Steven Bailey N. D.
AIDS — Facts, not fear
A ID S (Acquired Immune Deficien­
cy Syndrom e) has grow n fro m an
unknown disease to one ot our conn
try 's m a jo r health concerns in less
tlian five years I he number ol report
ed cases has climbed Irom under 44M»
in 1981 to over I 3, (X X ) today It the
disease were to continue to spread at
this rale we will exceed a quarter mil
lion AIDS patients in the I nited States
alone by 1989 It is hoped that we can
lessen its spread by changing current
sexual habits, screening blood and
plasma donations, and applving other
appropriate public health policies as
their worth becomes known I lie hope
tor an immunization or curative the,
apv remains high throughout the re
search and medical com m unities,
yet these hopes have remained u n lu l
tilled tor the past live years
W e have gained trem endous
amounts ol knowledge about the dis
ease and about the immune sysiem, the
thymus gland and viruses m general,
but the keys to u n lo ckin g the so lu ­
tio n to this problem have vet to be
identified And with no solution, tins
disease is becoming the source ol near-
hysterical public reaction. I he case o f
the second grader ill New >ork stands
out as a prune example ol the preju­
dice and feat that ate arising
I he tact that casual spread o f the
disease has neve, been documented
tloes not seem to sway the resolute
opinion o l the parents and supporters
who wish to quarantine AIDS sutler
ers Irom public places I understand a
parent's desire and right to protect
and cate lo r their ch ildren And I
also can sympathize with the public in
their tear, that without complete iden­
tification ot the spread and incubation
ol the disease we cannot he KM) percent
certain ot the limits ol spread We also
can never be KM) percent certain that it
is sale to lake child,eu in our autos to
the store.
The vast evidence on spread o f the
disease leaves little room to suspect
that it can spread in casual manners.
Spread has thus lar been lim ite d to
sexual partners (both heterosexual
and homosexual partners), intravenous
transmission (both plasma and I V.
drug use), in ulero transmission during
pregnancy and peri natal contact.
If casual contact docs prove to be a
route o f transfer for AID S, the hys­
teria is uncalled fo r as we can only
conclude that casual contact w ith
A ID S patients has already occurred
lo r a majority o f the population. It is
only alter diagnosis o f the condition
that most sufferers quit their jobs as
waiters, school teachers, taxi-drivers,
hairdressers, bank employees, food
checkers, etc., etc., etc.
In the next couple o f articles I w ill
its to give you more current inform a­
tion regatdmg spread, current thera­
pies, and most im p o rta n t, habits to
prevent contracting the disease.
Letters to the Editor
T o th e e d it o r .
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disagree over tactics, but not fu n d a ­
mentals. U n til their dom ination over
public debate is lessened, we certainly
cannot expect to broaden n a tio n a l
politics to reflect the econom ic and
social concerns o f the majority.
Congressman John C onyers o f
Michigan has recently proposed H R
2320, which would reduce the number
o f signatures needed to place a third-
party or independent candidate on the
b a llo t in all states fro m 750,(XX) to
about 140,000. I f passed, the law
would permit third parties to use their
lim ited resources for advertising and
educational activitie s, and it could
force the n ational D em ocratic and
Republican candidates to recognize the
legitim ate demands o f Blacks, H is ­
panics, women, working people, and
other constituencies. J he need to sup­
port the passage o l H R 2320 cannot
be overemphasized: according to
polls, 59 percent ol all Black voters
were prepared to support Jesse Jack
son as an independent presidential
candidate had he been on the Nos em­
ber, 1984 ballot. If politics is to reflect
national p rio ritie s, and not the pre­
rogatives o f the w ealthy, we must
reform the basis for candidate access
and encourage the g ro w th o f th ird
parties.
Healthwatch
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Senate and House o f Representatives
had soared to $251,MM) l ast year, 15
m illionaires were elected as “ public
servants.” As Mark Green, head o f the
Democracy P roject, a public policy
group, recently observed: “ The evolu­
tion from a House o f Representatives
to a House o f Lords denies the diver­
sity o f our democracy. It establishes
a detach, property qualification for o f­
fice that increasingly says: low and
middle income need not apply."
Part o f the reason that Congress is
inaccessible to most Americans is the
high cost o f cam paigning fo r public-
office. I.asi year, the successful candi
dales lor the House o f Representatives
sjsenl an average o f $459,300. which
included an average o f $50,(MX) in
personal donations from the individual
candidates In the Senate, elected
members spent over $2 m illio n each
I he proliferation o f conservative and
pro-corporate political action commit­
tees buttresses the fin a n cial base o f
already well-to-do incumbent and as­
pirants, giving this elite a tremendous
electoral advantage.
I he passage o f sweeping campaign
law re fo rm , w hich w ould establish
public fin a n cin g fo r candidates fo r
federal o ffice s, w ould be a decisive
step tow ard re tu rn in g government
to the people. But meaningful reforms
cannot be achieved unless independent
and third-party candidates are able to
gam fa ire r access to the ballot. The
Democratic and Republican parties
How democratic is America's politi­
cal sysiem? We have become lo o ac­
customed to the casual and hypocriti­
cal behavior o f elected and appointed
o fficia ls who fa vo r special interests
above the people’s welfare We have a
Justice Department which prosecutes
Alabama voting rights activists, and
then permits E. F. H utton and C o m ­
pany to plead guilty to 2,000 counts o f
fraud in a massive check-kiting scheme
— without prosecuting a single person.
A branch o f the N a tio n al S ecurity
Agency announces that a com puter
program which tabulated over one-
Ihird o f all voles cast in the 1984 elec
lion is “ vulnerable to fraudulent ma­
n ip u la tio n ” — yet both parties arc
slow to call for a complete investiga­
tio n . We have a Congress in w hich
about 90 percent o f all incum bents
arc norm ally relected, but their w ill
ingness or a bility to effectively chai
lengc corporate power is virtually null
and void.
Who does Congress actually repre­
sent? The median annual fa m ily in-
comes for Black Americans is roughly
$15.(XM), and lo i w hites, $28.000.
Members o f Congress have little in
common with the majority of working
Americans in economic terms. Accord­
ing to the New York Times, in 1978,
l I k - 78 newly-elected members o f Con­
gress claimed an average ot $41.400 in
assets. Only one millionaire was elect­
ed that year Bui by 1984, the average
wealth o f the 43 new members of the
I'm looking tor parents whose ch il­
dren have Hunters Syndrome. This is a
rare disorder that only affects male
children
W ould you please help me fin d
these people by asking the parents o f
Hunters children to w rite to me? II
they w ould let me have their names
and addresses I w ill get in touch with
them I w ould like to ta lk to these
people about their children I have a
It) seat vdd son w ith H unters S yn­
drome
I'm contacting newspapers all over
the I nited ‘stales, tryin g to fin d as
mans parents with Hunters children as
possible to be able to com pile in fo r ­
m ation concerning this disease I
w ould appreciate your assistance in
helping me gather as many names and
addresses as possible.
I hank sou so very much fo r your
lime and effort.
A U H ) SCHWEITZER
12-B ( iimmunity Drive
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Portland Observer
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Alfred I Henderson. Editor/Publisher
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A m a lg a m a te d P u h i,th e re . Inc
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