Paye 2, Portland Observer, August 13, 1986
Healthwatch
Along the Color Line
by Dr Manning M aiable
by Steven Bailey. N O
0« Manning Maaabla a pau t a ia o i of aocaKogy ano poetical scianca
at Purdua Univaatrty
Along Iha CofcM I n a
a ppeau n over 140
nawapapaas miei nationally
Oiegon Fair Share's Health Care Issues Forum" at
PCC, Cascade Campus, last Thursday reflects the broad
based interest in adequate affordable liealth care
Members of the legislature state agencies and private/
public groups shared their views on a number of health
care issues
Topics of the forum included the State
Health Plan. Medicare assignment, the costs of pre
scnption drugs and nursing home care
Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury provided the open
mg remarks and, as usual, showed an interested, ex
penenced and knowledgable understanding of the criti
cal health issues facing Oregonians Having served as
chair to the House Committee on Health and resources
iri her legislative years, Ms Kafoury combines her
Salem experience with that of regional work as a county
commissioner
While mentioning the state's interest in health care
and the '86 interim session's |oint committee on health
care, (combining State Seriate and house members),
Ms Kafoury talked about the need to activate consu
mer involvement in health issues Seeing the large me
dical lobbies effect their own concerns while evading
the needs of the citizenry has prompted Ms Kafoury to
stress the need for grass roots participation She speci
fically cited the Hospital Association's lobby of last sos
Sion to limit their care for the indigent while receiving
state monies, and the plight of Mariah Taylor, whu as
a nurse practitioner has lost funding of most of her past
clientele. Consumer choice of care with fair reimburse
merit, support for the indigent, and unobstructed
acc ess to health care for all Oregonians are goals and
dreams with Ms Kafoury s vision
The second speaker was Don Clark, of Central City
Concern Mr Clark has helped develop a state health
plan which would guarantee care for all Oregonians
This plan would pool state, federal, local, employer and
private monies into one central fund which would guar
antee that all Oregonians have access to health care
He cited statistics that at least 1 in 4 Oregonians do not
have comprehensive health care and that his plan would
guarantee care to all "for less money". Not too sur
prisirigly, he noted that in 1983 the Oregon Medical
Association's "number 1 legislative priority was to kill
"S H IP" (State Health Insurance Plan) " It was men
tioned that SHIP did not guarantee an un obstructed
choice of providers, so tins plan could conceivably re
move Nurse Practitioners, Chiropractors, Naturopathic
Doctors and others from an active role in health care
delivery
Ruth Lathan spoke for Fair Share on the issue of
Medicare Assignment Oregon has risen from number
45 113%) in state rating of Medicare acceptance in the
recent past to 21% acceptance which, while improved,
still rates us in the bottom half This means that fewer
doctors in Oregon will accept Medicare assignment
than in most states The national average is about 30%
acceptance
Fair Share endorses and supports the
work of the Oregon Health Action Campaign 1241 0268)
which is seeking manditory acceptance of Medicare
assignment in Oregon
Another interesting topic covered was the costs of
prescription drugs in the Portland area Fair Share con
ducted surveys of the costs of common presciptions in
over 30 stores. To everyone's surprise, they found
Fred Meyers' prices to be the highest, chain stores in
the middle and private stores were the lowest
This
study also found that costs vary from store to store
and by area Prescriptions were highest in North Port
land and lowest in South East Fair Share (223 2981)
has a history of these findings which are available to
the public.
Suggestions to help in buying prescriptions are
1) Shop around, compare prices.
2) Seek generic brands which average 34% lower
than name brands and are normally identical to
the name brands
3) You can call ARP (Association of Retired Per
sons) at 231 8078 to find cost comparison For
senior citizens ARP will deliver
The final topic of this forum was nursing home care
Pam Dudda of Association of Friends spoke about her
termination as an employee at a nursing home for re
porting abuses at that home Her story emphasized thet
many nursing homes function as related to income and
numbers rather than individuals and personal care
Her association effected change within then particular
home through direct actions of picketing and public
awareness
But the problems exist throughout the
state
Penny Davis of Multnomah County Legal Aid spoke
on the legal and regulatory problems of our nursing
home system
Her report emphasized the need for
quality care in homes and cited the long term care Om
budsman Program as one current support network that
may help Grace Szigethy (774 8607), who is facilitator
for the Ombudsman Committee, asked all interested
people to become involved A toll free line (1 800 522
2602) is available for assistance by this group
Fair
Share is also working toward improvements in long
term care.
The meeting was long and filled with excellent ideas
and plans. It is good to see Fair Share evolving into a
broader based organization that is involving itself with
key Issues of the society
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Politics Will Prevent Mayor from Naming
Outsider As Chief
tains within the Bureau and the Union who
wanted Harrington out as Chief. By forcing
Harrington to resign or be fired, Clark has de
monstrated that he is reluctant to push his
police agenda too far on those managers and
the Police Union.
Since the resignation of former police Chief
Penny E. Harrington, many have suggested
that Portland Mayor Bud Clark go outside the
state for his new Police Chief.
Proponents of an outsider for the chief's
position claim there is no individual within the
Bureau who is committed to Mayor Clark's
community oriented style of policing Indeed
the Mayor should consider this issue when
Secondly, if the Mayor decides to select an
outsider to head the Bureau, it could result in
another Harrington type situation, in that the
new Chief, in an effort to carry out the
Mayor's desires for a community oriented Po
lice Bureau, could face stiff opposition from
some managers in the Bureau and the Police
Union and, therefore, create an atmosphere
that will lead to an all out power struggle with
in the Bureau This will result in what police
term "lo w morale” among the troops
selecting a permanent Chief
However, given the political reality of such a
move, it is unlikely that the Mayor will make
such a bold political decision. There are two
.reasons for this prediction.
First of all, Mayor Clark does not want to
anger upper level managers in the Bureau and
the Police Union again. One of the main rea
sons why the Mayor insisted on former Chief
Harrington's resignation (in addition to the re
commendation made by the Lezak commis
sion that she he replaced) was due to political
pressure placed on the Mayor by some cap
J
p ORTWND
OBSERVER
Given the political ramifications of the situa
tion, citizens of Portland shouldn't expect
Mayor Clark to name someone from outside
the Bureau as Chief.
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This June and July, at least six white supre
dred local whites attended the rally, which was
protected by several hundred police officers.
Although most residents weren't persuaded to
join the KKK, not a few shared its racist senti
ments. As one white resident stated to the
press: "The Kian is a bunch of goofs. But 1
don't want no niggers com min’ into this neigh
borhood. I'll fig h t'e m I'll k ill'e m ."
The latest manifestation of white supre
macy, as recently cited by the Atlanta based
Center for Democratic Renewal, are the "skin
heads" or "skin s". The "skins" are white
gangs who usually shave their heads, don
paramilitary attire, and often tatoo themselves
with Nazi markings. These young white men
and women "are united in their hatred of
'peace punks', homosexuals, liberals and left
ists, and in their frequent attacks also upon
Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Jew s.”
According to the Center's publication, the
Monitor, "their record of violence in the U S.
is staggering considering their relatively small
numbers.
Since 1981, skins have been
accused of murders, assaults and vandalism,
sometimes on a weekly basis, in Detroit, Chi
cago, Atlanta, San Francisco, New York City,
Denver, Balimore, Boston, Austin, Philadel
phia and Washington D .C ." The m otto of
Atlanta skins is "SW P: Supreme W hite
Power." In other cities, skins chant "K ill all
niggers."
Certainly, the vast majority of Americans
who actually voted for Reagan in 1984, as well
as others who favor a conservative political
agenda, are opposed to racist vigilantism. But
the battle against American racism cannot be
won solely by concentrating on these extrem
ist sects. The real victory can only begin when
we remove from public office through the poli
tical process all politicians who casually or de
liberately provoke racial vigilantism by their
own anti Black, anti Civil Rights policies.
Letters to the Editor
RE: FIVE YEAR REVIEW HEARING
Dear Parole Board Member:
My growing frustration is |ustified due to the fact
that your agency is performing inconsistently in regards
to my having a scheduled five year review hearing
Tiue, my initial hearing was rightfully cancelled because
I did not have the full five years completed
Your Board Action Form dated July 9 reflected the
same information but specified that another hearing
would be scheduled after August third Several weeks
ago I received an additional notice stating a hearing
date for August fifth. Again I was. figuratively speak
mg, slapped in the face and filled with disappointment
Through someone's error I was not listed on your copy
of the hearing schedule I do not want to believe you're
not sincerely interested in reviewing the progress I've
made since my initial board appearance of March 1982.
my positive future plans, and making my cell available —
prontol Are you still unaware I have a Federal detainer?
I come from a business background whereby the
team players of management work together with profi
ciency to help their paperwork progress steadily, timely,
orderly, correctly I’m willing to |Oin your team to help
it perform more professionally As you already know,
concerned citizens of Oregon are growing more dis
pleased with your present mess
I happen not to be one of your "favorite recalcirant
recidivists" who seem by your standard of considéra
tion more eligible for release time after time after time
Because I do not fit that description, I guess I'm just an
endangered species in this particular environment
Frankly, I will not feel disappointed next time you
cancel the review hearing, because this note has served
as an adequate channel to exhaust my current frustra
tion My attitude has stablized back to positiveness
So see you next Tuesday
maybe
Respectfully,
Raymond Cornelius Alexander
O SPNo 40341
...TELEVISIO N 8E LO N O S TO
B IL L COSBY ON THURSDAYS !
>
3J
k
The Reagan administration's fierce resis
tance to meaningful reforms which promote
racial justice creates a political and social envi
ronment conducive to the growth of white
racism. Whether Reagan is personally a racist
or not is irrelevant. The fundamental issue is
whether the administration's callous disregard
for the socioeconomic welfare of national
minorities, and its polemics and policies
against civil rights laws and affirmative action,
foster the ideological and political terrain so
essential for the development of racist vigilan-
tism. On balance, virtually all Black Americans
agree: the noxious weeds of Ku Klux Klanism,
Nazism, and even newer manifistations of
white terrorism, are directly related to the Rea
gan agenda, albeit in a more extreme form.
Only three weeks ago, white extremists held
the ' Aryan Nations World Congress" in Hay
den Lake, Idaho. Their manifesto calls for the
secession of idaho, Montana, Washington,
Oregon and Wyoming as an exlusively white
supremacist territory.
The leaders of this
racist formation call for unrelenting war
against the U S. government, which they term
the "Zionist Occupation Government."
macist rallies and protests were staged in and
around Chicago.
In Dolton, Illinois, Black
youths were stoned and verbally abused in a
July 4th parade by a white mob. On June 28,
tiie Knights of the Ku Klux Kian held a demon
stration in Marquette Park. About three bun
AND SCHEDULE MY PRESS
CONFERENCE ON EITH E R A
WEDNESDAY OR A F R ID A Y ...
Iwt) f r y
Ap»
STATf
The old political maxim, "one step forward,
two steps back” , characterizes the politics of
racial equality this summer of 1986
On the positive side, last m onth's Supreme
Court decisions which reinforced the use of
race conscious affirmative action programs
was a step forward. NAACP leader Benjamin
Hooks described the decisions as a rebuttal to
the Reagan administration's "pernicious ef
forts" to uproot affirmative action. Unfortu
nately, these decisions were sufficiently am
biguous that the forces of racial inequality
could still maintin that the high court's rulings
should not contitute the final word on the con
troversial issue.
Reagan's solicitor general
Charles Fried, who argued the losing side be
fore the Supreme Court, offered these sour
grapes: "W e have said that race-conscious re
medies which are victim specific are never per
missible. The court has said: 'N ot never, but
hardly ever. "
115 for on * v **r
Boi 11)1 . ............ «» ’.I»*
I
I
The Summer of Racism, 1986'
A tfrrd l. H tn dtno n , Editor/Publisher
At William*. (¡rn tro l Manager
288 0033
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