Page 2, Portland Observer. July 9, 1986
Healthwatch
t*
The Disappearing Black Student"
Along i fié Color I me by Or Manning Marable
by Steven Bailey N D.
As Homeopathic medicine continues its re
newed growth in the U S ., it receives a critical
national press Recently on the nationally syn
dicated series by Dr, Dean Edell, KOIN TV
aired a short segment on homeopathy in
which Dr. Edell equated homeopathic medi
cine with a drop of medicine in a swimming
pool, and from this mixture a drop is mixed in
another pool and so forth. Three weeks ago
the New England Journal of Medicine carried
a correspondence in which a doctor reported
a case of pancreatitis following the ingestion
of a homeopathic "over-the-counter" pro
duct. The doctor went on to describe the con
tents of the product with their full strength
pharmacologic actions and toxicology. Thus
the only two reports on homeopathy that I've
seen this year both condem, but for exactly
opposite reasons. One reporter equates the
medicines w ith placeboes while the other
warns of the highly toxic potential of the medi
cines. While this might seem rather illogical,
it is consistent with the long established bias
that allopathic medicine has held toward
homeopathy.
Homeopathy began in the late 1700's under
the creative force of Samual Hahnemann,
M .D. Dr. Hahnemann, trained in then current
European medicine, was working on a ' Ma
teria M edica" (a text of the properties uses
and toxicology of medicine) when he came to
an important yet simple revelation. The plant
China, from which we extract quinine, showed
the same symptoms as a toxic influence (chills
and fevers) as were present in malena for
which China was given as the then current
treatment.
This apparent contradiction so
intrigued Hahnemann that in 1790 he began
his experiments with China. He began taking
4 drachms of China twice a day and recorded
all the symptoms he experienced (this is called
"provings" in homeopathic medicine, and all
homeopathic medicines have gone through
extensive provings to formulate current
"Repatories" of symptoms). Within a short
period of time, Hahnemann began to exper
ience fevers alternated with chills, the exact
same symptomology that he had been trained
to treat with lower doses of China1 This initial
experimentation marked the beginning of two
essential componants of homeopathy: the
Law of Similars and the Law of Minimum
Dose.
The "Law of Similars," much like the "Doc-
trme of Signatures" employed by Hippocrates,
states that the proper homeopathic medicine
will, in toxic dose, exhibit the same symptom
picture as is presented by the ill patient. When
the medicine is exactly matched to the symp
tom picture, it will, in small dose, help the
body to complete the healing response repre
sented by the non-resolved symptoms.
The "Law of Minimum Dose" evolved from
the logical extension of then current practice
which utilized therapeutic dosage as that
which did not create toxic reactions While
we recognize today that many of the "safe"
levels of allopathic treatments with mercury,
lead, etc., actually caused dramatic injury to
the patient, the law of minimum dose led
homeopathic physicians to utilize dosages that
were completely benign. Combined with the
Law of Similars", Hahnemann experimented
with the minimum dose and wrote extensively
of his 40 years of research in "Fragmenta de
Viribus Medicamentorum” , "M ateria Medica
Pura and "Chronic Disease" as well as his
still available and most celebrated "Organon
of Medicine".
In the 1800's another medical doctor contri
buted to the philosophical base of horneo
pathy. This was Dr Herring who provided a
succinct definition of disease and cure which
is known as "Herrings Law of Cure". This
model of disease is the standard that most
homeopathic doctors employ when treating
with homeopathic medicines This theory re
mains unparalleled in allopathic medicine,
whose definition of cure is a finite (i.e. 5 year)
period in which a particular diagnosed condi
tion is not present
While our society is becoming more con
cerned with the use of drugs on both recrea
tional and medical levels, the media assault on
this orre form of "drugless" medicine seems to
be growing even faster While the Queen of
England and the Pope are two of the millions
of people who seek homeopathic treatment,
our media attempts to make homeopathic
medicine appear as unfounded and preying on
the ignorant. It appears that the majority of
ignorance stems from the authors of these
articles that selectively condem this science I
invite readers to look in George Vitholkas'
books on Homeopathy which are available
throughout Portland bookstores for more
complete outlines of Homeopathic philosophy
and practice.
Last month, I was invited to speak at the
University of Chicago by the Black Graduate
Student Association. The audience discus
sion was stimulating, and I talked with several
graduate students well into the night. I com
mented that while my visit was very enjoyable,
the turnout of Black students seemed a bit
modest. Mr friendly hosts turned to me with
looks of surprise and shock. The turnout was
"g re a t,” they replied; the "real” problem was
that Black students and faculty at the Univer
sity of Chicago are "an endangered species."
Statistically, over the last ten years, the
University of Chicago's Black undergraduate
population has been cut in half, down to only
2.5 percent of the student body. The Univer
sity claims that it has 13 Black professors on
its staff of 1,100 faculty, although most of the
students say that the figure is inflated. Chi
cago has never established a formal academic
department or program in Afro-American
Studies, and has 38 percent fewer Black
faculty than 10 years ago
The only thing
missing from the University of Chicago's cam
pus is a sign posted at its front gates, "N o
Blacks Allow ed.”
At the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC),
the situation is identical. Originally opened in
1965, UIC claimed at that time that it would
encourage the recruitment of Black, Hispanic
and lower income students UlC's Black and
Latino enrollments jumped from 80 in 1968 to
5,645 in 1980, out of a total student population
of approximately 20,000 But with the era of
Reagariism and "academic racism ," college
recruiters shifted from inner city to suburban
schools for prospective enrollments. State
and federal financial aid programs were dra
stically reduced. Enrollment standards were
pushed up, not taking into account that a stu
dent from a poor high school can compete
with suburban students if adequate support
survices are provided By 1984, UlC's enroll
merit of Black students from Chicago's public
schools fell to 141. UlC's total Black student
enrollment fell to 2.447 in late 1985 Black and
Hispanic faculty comprise only 2.2 percent of
all tenured and tenure-track academic
appointments.
Other universities are witnessing similai
declines in Black enrollments. The University
of Michigan's Black student percentage has
dropped from 7.7 percent in 1976 to 5.2 per
cent in 1986. At Princeton University, only 22
of 1600 graduate students are Afro-Ameri
cans. And at Harvard, Black enrollment has
declined by almost one-third in the past
decade.
Turning around these statistics w o n 't be
easy, but there are several successful pro
grams which can be expanded and improved
The federally sponsored Upward Bound Pro
gram, designed to prepare Black and Hispanic
youth, plus low income and physically handi
capped students for college, has had a record
of success. In 1973, about 51,000 high school
students were enrolled in Upward Bound
Today, the figure is only 33,000 students
W ith increased federal expenditures for edu
cation, and measures to support historically
Black public and private institutions, we can
increase the opportunities for m inority
education.
But ultimately, the decisive factor is the
building of powerful, new movement for racial
equality and social justice. Access to an excel
lent education is a basic human right. No
viable democracy can afford to sentence th o u
sands of gifted Black teenagers to lives of
poverty, when the expansion of programs de
signed for educational opportunity can help to
resolve racial and socioeconomic problems
As the Black student disappears on white
campuses, American society takes a huge step
toward a domestic version of apartheid.
Dr
Manning M arable feaeba» sociology and political science at
Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana
Along the Color Line
appears in over 140 newspapers internationalfy
FREEDOM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
BY Alexander R Jones
C hildren to be Guinea Pigs in Child M o lester Experim ent
In a move that stands reason on its head,
the United States' National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) has granted $832,000 for a
bizarre three year psychiatric study in which
children will be deliberately exposed to the
danger of rape and/or murder by 100 known
child molesters.
NIMH is a government
agency under the U.S Department of Health
and Human Services.
Fifty of these pedophiles, the technical term
for child molester, will be given psycho
therapy, the traditional "patient on the couch"
type therapy The other 50 will be given con
troversial behaviour modification treatment
designed to create a feeling of physical dis
com fort or unpleasantness whenever the per
son becomes sexually aroused by children.
Once the 38 week period of therapy is over,
they will only be required to send a written,
daily account of their experiences to a resear
cher. Incredibly, these reports will be kept
completely confidential; even criminal inci
dents will not be reported to law enforcement
authorities!
Understandably, the proposed psychiatric
study to be jointly conducted by the Florida
Mental Health Institute and the University of
South Florida has drawn great criticism.
First of all, the researchers themselves admit
that traditional psychotherapy has not proven
effective in reforming child molesters, and as
far as behaviour modification goes, the results
have been anything but promising.
Mark
Chapman, the man who killed former Beatle
John Lennon, was the product of a behaviour
modification program in a mental institution in
Hawaii
Charles Manson underwent be
haviour modification in U.S. prisons before he
led his brutal, infamous, ritualistic murders in
a rich American neighborhood
This program should be stopped at once.
There's only one certain thing that it will pro
duce, and that's sexually abused children.
There have been too many criminals who have
been treated with behaviour modification and
then have com mitted crimes far more violent
than prior to their so called treatment. It is
madness to subject children to such horrors
EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY
Elimination of Transit Police, Bad Public Policy
“
Ä ? B a
I I » '
Portland Observer
Oregon
M
1
S
A sso .'. n '>n
P
Th* 1 ' i t i b i t d I g n m n IU S P S IB88BDI ■ pubi
Thumrt«» by E m PvM aN ng Company Inc
1483 N E KMnga
worth r s .- t w ^ Dragon »7311. Po« OTV.» Bo> 3137. PortlwxJ
O o gnn »7708 S * » « 1 Uaaa poaaaga paM M P o rtw x l Oiagon
Th« /><rth
*A t
M • «•«*«•
m t»7D
* ns
NW A
o«»'
S u lm n p t'
00 p tr yaw « ih» Tn County « a a Post
m a a t « Sand addraaa changa» lo 1ha P O r d M O ta tr rr r , P 0
Bo« 3137. P-attand. Oiagon »730*.
Alfred L Henderson, Editor/Publisher
A! Williams, General Manager
288-0033
N a tio n a l A d v a rtfa ln g R a p ra a a n ta tlv a
A m a lg a m a te d P ub lla h a ra Inc
N a w T o rli
The decision by the Tri-Met Board to
eliminate the entire transit police force is bad
public policy.
By eliminating the 11-man
force, the Tri Met Board is jeopardizing its
drivers, its equipment (which is publicly o w n
ed) and the safety of the riders who support
the transit system.
Furthermore, the Board's decision to dis
band the transit Police unit will endanger the
economy of dow ntown Portland and increase
the risk of liability for Tri-Met. The downtown
transit mall will become a haven for drug
pushers and users, drunks and panhandlers.
The transit police budget was only $350,000
for the current fiscal year; a small portion
when one considers that agency answered
2,000 calls and made 800 arrests last year.
Most of the calls involved passengers being
mugged, drunken passengers, weapons on
buses, and assaults on drivers.
W ith the
abolishment of the force, these figures will
most certainly increase.
By eliminating the transit police force, the
Tri Met Board has shown that it is insensitive
to the safety of the public and Tri-Met
employees. We, the public, unfortunately will
suffer from this irresponsible decision by the
Board.