Portland observer., July 01, 1987, Page 2, Image 2

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<ftland O bserver. J u lv 1, 1987
i a A lo n g th e C o lo r L in e
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CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
A N IW S S E R V IC t
OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
Beyond the 1988 Elections
Since Gary Hart's disasterous demise as the leader for
the Democrats' presidential ticket, white party officials
and the media have waged a dishonest and dirty cam­
paign to belittle the only Black candidate in the race,
Jesse Jackson. Why? Because few can bare to admit
the simple political truth that Jesse is the legitimate
Democratic frontrunner. Only a few years ago, the idea
of a Black presidential candidate seemed absurd to the
bulk of white, middle America.
Now the leading
decision-makers are shuddering with the distrubing
spectre of an articulate, progressive and Black leader
who is making significant headway against all odds. In
the most recent New York Times pall, Jacksqn was
ranked firs t with 17 percent, followed by Michael Duka­
kis, 11 percent, and all others each received 6 percent
or less.
Few seriously believe that Jackson will actually win
the Democratic nomination. But that's not the crucial
purpose of this campaign. The Rainbow Coalition has
articulated a visionary, progressive agenda for social
justice and economic reforms which is attracting thou­
sands of converts among white farmers, white un­
employed workers, and the white homeless. Funda­
mental change can advance the economic and social
interests of Black, Hispanics and the majority of whites.
Americans are hungry for a message of new directions,
and Jackson is now being taken seriously as a viable
political option. Even before Hart dropped out of the
campaign, Jackson was running first or second in every
Southern state. In Iowa, Jackson is polling 13 to 15
percent of the vote, a credible second place behind
Congressman Richard A. Gephardt. One rival Demo­
crat campaign official recently stated that "the people
of Iowa think Jesse Jackson has a lot to say. His mes­
sage of anti-establishment populism is finding a real
audience there." And in Montana, according to state
party chairman Bruce Nelson, Jesse "was really well re­
ceived . . . He attracted 6,500 people in four cities, and
a lot of people realjy thought he had something to say."
The key to Jackson's recent success is that he has
refused to follow the crowded field into an opportu­
nistic "neoliberal" political posture. Only Illinois Sena­
tor Paul Simon espouses the old-time liberalism of
Roosevelt and Johnson; while Jackson, further to the
ideological left, represents an even nniore dynamic break
with Democratic mainstream. Or as Democratic Con-
gressman Charles E. Shumer puts i v ‘ Other_thaii
Simon, the field looks like 'Jesse Jackson and the Yup­
pies.' "
The real difficulty ahead for Rainbow Coalition pro­
ponents will be to conceive of the challenges and
opportunities beyond the 1988 presidential campaign.
We should understand, clearly and withput any ambi­
guity, that there is no long-term viability of working
within the confines of the Democratic Party. Given the
reactionary nature of the GOP, this simply means that
we must struggle to achieve a new realignment of parti­
san electoral forces. Hopefully, this can be achieved
in the next twelve year—and a national government
committed to "Rainbow Politics” can win power by the
year 2000. In the short run, however, a Third Party
option would polarize large numbers of Black, Hispanic
and working people, and isolate us from the majority of
American voters still committed to the two-party electo­
ral system.
If Jackson fails to win the presidential nomination,
as seems certain, our task should not be to decide
whether or not to back the neoliberal, white "lesser
evil" candidate, or to stay at home on election day.
The point is that no matter who is elected to the White
House —Biden, Gephardt, Cuomo, Bush, Kemp, e tc.—
we must still be prepared to build a mass democratic
movement to challenge the administration's policies.
This mass protest movement should consist of several
critical components: community-based, grassroots-
style organizations advocating Rainbow policies in hun­
dreds of neightborhoods; the cultivation of new pro­
gressive, local leaders; and the expansion of the Rain­
bow's program to embrace new constituencies across
the color line. The Jackson campaign of 1988 can help
to promote the achievement of all three elements, but
its focus must transcend the charismatic personality of
its candidate. Our eyes should see beyond the 1988
election, looking toward the development of institu­
tional structures and leaders who are independent of
both political parties. Certainly, we must be prepared
to engage in traditional partisan politics, but not at the
expense of our long-term agenda. For 1988 and be­
yond, we must advocate a two-tiered approach to pro­
gressive politics. First, we must actively support the
real frontrunner, Jesse Jackson, throughout the Demo­
cratic primaries. Second, we must use the general elec­
tion to raise the Rainbow's agenda to evaluate all can­
didates, and mobilize for the social protests and political
confrontations to come.
THE PORTLAND OBSERVER LEGAL
COLUMN
Become a Lawyer Thru Independent Study; a Non-Profit
University's Alternative to Law School
’
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;
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I know that there are some of you out there that have
always wanted to go to law school so you could study
law and become a lawyer. I think that I have found an
answer for you in my research. The answer is Berna-
dean University College of law. This school now offers
a four year Law Program allowing you to earn a Juris
Doctor degree through Independent Study. This de­
gree from Bernadean University will qualify you to take
the Calfornia Bar Examination.
The California Bar Program requires four calendar
years of correspondence and Independent Study. A
student entering this program need not be a resident
of the State of California, and all study may be com­
pleted outside of that state. There are two times when
a student must go to the State of California while en­
rolled in this program; they are as follows:
1) First, after the completion of the first year of study,
the student will be required to take the Baby Bar exam
—a seven hour examination, which is given in Califor­
nia;
2) and again at the end of the fourth year of law
study, the student will need to take the Final Bar Exam,
also held in the The State of California.
You can live anywhere in the State of Oregon or any
other state and prepare yourself for this Bar Exam, and
all of this can be done by Correspondence and Indepen­
dent Study.
The major benefit of taking the California Bar Pro­
gram is that it prepares you for admission to practice as
a California Attorney. It also entitles you to practice
before the California Courts and the Federal Courts as
a California Attorney and qualifies you for admission to
practice before the United States Tax Court, United
State Patent Court, and all of the Federal Administra-
tive Law Courts. In addition, after three years of prac­
tice, you are eligible, without any additional examina­
tion, to seek admission to practice in Washington, D.C.
as a California Attorney. You can also apply for admis­
sion.to other juristictions on the basis of your member­
ship in the California Bar. This program also enables
it's graduates to be eligible for private practice positions
of a legal or quasi-legal nature in city, state, county or
federal governments, as well as in private organizations
as legal assistants or In-House General Counsel. These
positions can be held without having to take any state
bar examinations.
Rule 8 states that the general education requirement
to be met by each law study applicant is as follows:
1) Two years of college work completed — of which
college work should be no lees than one half of the
collegiate work acceptable towards a Bachelor's degree
— in a four year program offered at a College or Uni­
versity approved by the Examination Committe, or
2) A two year Associate degree from one of Oregon's
Community Colleges.
The tuition cost for the Law Study program is $1,800
per year; $150.00 per month. Books cost approximately
$95.00 to $100.00 per year; this is very cheap for a pro­
gram of this kind.
If you have an interest in the Law Program, I would
be more than happy to offer some assistance in helping
to get you enrolled in this law school, as well as to help
you with your studies at no cost to you.
For further information about this program, please
write to or call this newspaper, or write to me: Omari
Kenyatta, J.D., c /o The Portland Observer, P.O. Box
3137, Portland, OR 97208.
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Association - Founded
1895
■\Ured ! Heniler\i>n, I ililn r/P u b lis h e r
A ! H ;//io rm , (ten ervi Manager
The Robertsons look like an average African Ameri­
can family. To meet them you would not know that
this ordinary family has been forced, by extreme cir­
cumstances, to become extraordinary, just to insure
their survival. A target of continuous racially motivated
violence in Brooklyn, New York, they refused to submit
to the terrorism, but rather, vowed to stand together to
change the racist environment in which they lived. And
now, because of the actions of the Robertsons, a signi­
ficant first step has been made which will benefit the
whole community.
It began in March of 1981 when a white policeman
put a gun to the head of Dario, one of the Robertsons'
five sons. >He was only 13 years old then and running
off to the recreation center he attended every day after
school. But the police officer saw only that he was run­
ning and that he was Black. As his teachers and fellow
students screamed for them to stop, the officers pulled
a gun, hand cuffed the frightened youth, and hauled
him off to the station house. Only because Dario halted
immediately at the police command, did he not become
yet another statistic in the spiraling rate of young Afri­
can American men killed by white police officers.
When Mr. Robertson went to see about his son the
officers cursed the father and roughed him up. No ar­
rest was made and the police subsequently admitted
that they had made a mistake. But admissions of error
are useless to Dario, who will forever be haunted by the
image of that gun to his head.
The family soon moved to an affordable neighbor­
hood in another section of Brooklyn —not an easy thing
for a family of seven to find in New York. The probiem
was, the Robertsons were the first Black family on the
block. Racist names were hurled at them every time
they left home. The all-white block association vowed
to force their removal. One night someone even slith­
A m a lg a m a t a t i P u b lis h e rs
N n w Y o rk
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I iv h
ered into their yard and spray painted their house to
show, Mrs. Robertson was told, "where the niggers
live” . And even after seven years the paint stains re
main.
Of course, none of this is new. Racist violence and
police brutality is a fact of life in most African Amen
can communities. What is different about his case is
the strength and determination of the family. They be
came like a small army, sitting around the kitchen table,
parents and children, writing letters together to whom­
ever they thought might listen, and taking shifts guard
ing their house.
Why you might ask, did they stay and fight? "Be
cause," says Mrs. Robertson, "No one should be allow­
ed to force us to move. And no one should be forced to
live like this. We are a decent, law-abiding family, and
decent housing is impossible to find for a low-income
family like ours. The older boys were strengthened by
what they had to fight. But now my husband and I are
fighting for the sons who are still coming up. My
youngest is now 2. We're in this fight for our lives.
There is good new, however. A milestone has been
reached in the neighborhood. Some of the Robertsons’
white neighbors, worn out themselves by the tense
environment they created, have begun to come for­
ward. The main instigator has moved away and now
one hundred-fifty of her neighbors have signed a peti
tion, initiated by Mrs. Robertson, to form a new block
association that will be open to all. As she says, "W e
are going to build a unified association where everyone
is welcome. No one says you have to like or break
bread together, but we should at least respect one an­
other."
The Robertsons' undaunted courage has forced an
entire neighborhood to change.
H EALTH W A T C H
by Steven Bailey, N.D.
AIDS in the Black Community
Last week the Observer carried an article "Aids and
Minorities" which revealed the disproportionate rate of
AIDS among people of color. This article cited some
alarming government numbers on rates of AIDS in
many minority groups and placed primary responsibility
on IV drug use and closet homosexuality. While all of
this is important, there are some important aspects of
the AIDS outbreak that continue to have a low profile.(
AIDS is not the first nor last disease to be found at
higher rates among people of color. Blacks in America
are considered "at risk” populations for heart disease,
many forms of cancer, strokes and statistically do repre­
sent a disproportionate number of our infectious and
communicable disease cases. I feel that the major
causes of these higher rates of illness are to be found in
the social-political reality that faces our minorities. The
combination of higher risk occupations, poorer nutri­
tion, lessor education and greater overall poverty (and
related drug and alcohol risks) speaks towards the stati­
stical risk populations of our inner-city poor. The rela­
tionship of AIDS to minorities emphasizes the social-
economic realities of America.
With any communicable disease there exists the
"germ theory" that states that there must be a causi-
tive organism (virus, bacterium, parasite, etc.); a route
of transfer; and a succeptable host. With AIDS we
strongly suspect that the AIDS virus is the causitive
organism and that it is spread solely through bodily
fluids (sex, shared needles, tranfusions, etc.). Since
AIDS is not spread casually (i.e., from a sneeze, a drink­
ing glass, etc.), we can take personal responsibility for
our own health. Abstaining from sex or using safe sex
practices (which means not sharing bodily fluids; use
of condum) and never sharing a hypodermic needle
for any purpose. Many couples are now getting jointly
screened for the virus prior to engaging in sex together.
Confidential testing for AIDS is widely available.
The succeptable host part of the germ theory is the
part that has received so little coverage in the massive
commentaries about AIDS. While it is clear that not
everyone who comes into contact with an infected part­
ner will get the disease, we have spent very little effort
on finding out why some people don't "ca tch " AIDS.
"Personal resistance" to AIDS is probably tied in
strongly to our immune function which includes tissue
health as well as active white blood cells.
A strong, healthy immune system involves good
nutrition (especially vitamin C, beta-carotene, zinc, B-6,
bioflavinoids and quercetin (found in the rinds of citris)),
exercise, normal bone marrow and thymic production
of white blood cells, stress management as well as here­
dity components. An unhealthy immune system may
often involve: poor nutrition as in too much simple
sugar and/or alcohol, excessive coffee, high fat and low
whole food intake, use of drugs (I.V. drug users have
depressed immune function unrelated to the AIDS
virus), poor life style as in frequent sex partners, no
sleep, excess stress, etc.
As we can see, the life of many of our inner city poor,
whether they are of color or not, promotes a generally
unhealthy immune system. As the AIDS epidemic con­
tinues to spread and the high cost of treatment further
strains our health care system, we once again see the
"pound foolishness" of our failure to address our coun
try's basic inner-city needs. These being employment,
education and preventive nutrition.
The Hidden
Pushers
Drug pushers don't always wear fur coats, patent
leather shoes and fancy hats. You w on't always see
them driving around in expensive Cadillacs filled with
gorgeous women. Not at all. Yet, no matter how
they're dressed, you'd better know how to recognize
them because they all lie, cheat, and sell products
which kill.
Psychiatry is one such pusher. It has mounted a
clever, misleading and systematic campaign to redefine
normal children as mentally ill. More and more often,
parents are being told that their normal children are suf­
fering from these "mental illnesses", which are no more
than fabrications designed to justify the millions of
dollars in psychiatric fees.
Portland Observer
• MH>
The Robertsons: Strength in the Face of Racial Violence
The great tragedy is that these small children are then
drugged, and then suffer from the drug's side effects.
Some are committing suicide, one of the listed hazards
of Ritalin, one of the drugs commonly used. This is a
nightmare no child should be forced to have, and if not
stopped, will create a future we will not want to con­
front.
These fantasy childhood "mental illnesses" cover
practically every characteristic any parent ever observed
in their children. Take a look at the latest edition of the
American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." According to
this publication, which is the "bible" of psychiatry, I
have know few children, including my own, who
weren't suffering from "Attention Deficit Disorder".
Incredibly, the symptoms include such things as:
(1) often fails to finish things he or she starts; (2)
doesn't seem to listen; (3) is easily distracted; etc., etc.,
etc. Based on such, young children are being put on
drugs. This is an unforgiveable crime.
Psychiatry is cleverly covering its pusher's greed with
a veneer of fancy words and invented diagnoses. Yet
the truth of its monstrous crime upon this country can
not be escaped. It needs to be exposed and stopped
Don't let any pusher drug your child. No matter his
clothes, his English and his education, a pusher is still a
pusher.
For a free booklet on this topic, written by the Citi
zen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), write to
Alex Jones, Church of Scientology, Suite 200, 316
Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Washington, DC 20003
CCHR is respected internationally for its work in expo
sing psychiatric abuses.
T' ' ' - '