Employers around the country and in Oregon are beginning to provide Page 2 P •rtland O o s e rv e r^ c to b e M 4 ^ 9 8 7 olor Line A lo n g bv IV child care assistance of various types to their working parent At least 3 000 employers nationwide offer such assistance, P around ¿ o T s t five years ago Those firms are not just good corporate Maubfv Reaganism's Not the Problem For the past six and-one-half years, virtually every Black poht.uan n America has denounced "Reaganism " Superficially, the termi ,stak^r, to mean the specific policy decisions of the current occupant of the Wh te House of the actions of his underlings. More broadly, Reaganism has been Interpreted as a reactionary legislative and socioeconomic agenda which has sought to reverse the historic gains of the civil rights movement Bu whe.he7one refers ro an individual - Reagan himself - or ,o a genera r e o r X e b od , of policies on health care, welfare. ,obs and hoes,ng lor p ~ P fêendP«,e poor. Ihe lerm "Reaganism" remarns Ihe generic citizens They are finding that child care makes good business sens6a^ plovers report that child care related employee programs have '^portan payoffs - including fewer missed days, higher employee morate, lower turnover and an easier time recruiting good people to work for the . As Child Care Coordinator, Mary Louise will help employers around the state develop child care-related programs. She also will assist employee Xups X «re interested in encouraging their employers to consider such Pr° 9XhaSt types of programs can employers sponsor? Establishment of a childcare center on or near the workplace is one of the most obvious steps, and several Oregon employers have or are developing such a facility. Ho : e, a ch d Z c e n , e , is no, a praclca, opr,on in ever, wor steranom rateaorv for nearly everything that's gone wrong in the 1980s. h is precisely this terminology, and the strategic political assumptions which form its foundations, which must be overturned. The P ^ n t and his administration have done many things which border close to cr m.na I y at least in the minds of the majority of Black Americans. But an ad horn mem ' attack on Reaganism per se sheds little light of thefactors gave the original impetus to the rebirth of conservatism in the 1970s and 19808 Reaganism'' represented one conservative responsei by a wing of America's power elite in corporate and financial sectors to a grow ng errs s within the economy and society during the previous decade. Butthis po heal conservatism was not confined to the Republican Party. We fa, to r e X b e r atom es that Jimmy Carter was perhaps the most conservative Democratic president since Grover Cleveland. It was Carter, not Reag , who sponsored decisive cuts in social welfare and human services; ,t was Carter who initiated "Cold War II” by his revival of sterile, anticommun s rhetoric and Pentagon expenditures. Carter's utter failure to carry ou moderate liberal agenda, which was responsible for h.s narrow ^ t i o office in 1976 led directly to the more destructive programs of Reaga* B ack Democratic leaders who want to focus all of their attention on the social havoc spawned by the GOP should be cautioned to turn around and examine their own party's responsibility for the Black community s current •sii Knarc the scar where he was cut by police detention and whose leg still bears with a broken soft drink bottle, f abuse has emerged in town- The book no.es, A lernfyrng pane,no, a b u » * phikkan ships with a heavv milt,aw prese streets, load them into S d a Z 'Z 'a s X h e d . before being turned ou, to make thei, w e, h° m Then there are the man, i n n o c a n , w h o I.nguish in p n ^ f o , months at a trme, d®, i ind visitsr from' t^ ' nPaccuJed of throwing stones at child, 11-year-old F a m e o u eventuallv acquitted of the charges, two unoccupied vehicles. remained in jail for However, before the f7 amd t he U-year-old would inter- 57 days because, the police said, they feared t y fere with witnesses in the case. .... hac been well- The torture district surgeon, was documented. In late 1985, Dr. V regarding the phy- responsible fo, examining d e ra .n e ^ She filed Qf age sical condition o, the detainees, iweltsl bruising, blisters over According to her affidavit the prisoners had Iwehsl. bm 9. X nity groups in developing and supporting community-wide child care so u t ,nc Rome of these options involve little or no cost to the employer. Moreover the state is offering a financial incentive in the form of a new business income tax ce d i, fo, part of fh . cos, o , child ca,e ass,stance ,o n X Z Z Several had had thei, a N ^ r k X able for their parents. s people anymore, we feel “ ~ emP^ “ SdeQuac, p, on, child care system a,fees the future o, ou, chip dren the strength of our families, and the health of our economy, n o issue more deserving of our attention and commitment. Andthroug effective public-private sector partnership, we can improve and expan chi'd care s e r v i c e crack-down is so outrageous tha no the brutality we are not allowed to see. Let us keep up the pressure o dismantle the horror fha. is apartheid. For the suffering children o, South Africa are the children of God . . . they are also our ch.ldrem BY Director of Minority and T hird W orld Affairs tor , « ___X -nl.Chn-ll Find Ways to Tell the Truth The Iran-Iraqi war in the Persian Gulf ,s a ma or in’ ernat,° ,1a' . ' ° nr“ which threatens the peace and security of the enure world You ve read Tbou, it in the papers, seen it on TV. or heard about „ on the radio. YW despite all the outpouring of information on this war, we are only be g Shown a facade. The basic cause o, this wa, has been complete!,, and danZ e " m , h about the Persian Gul, fighting is >ha< ™ u » d bv an unsuspected Third Party; a PERSON who purposefully started the conflict Exactly WHO this person is remains to be discovered, ow . such a person is the root cause of not only the Gulf war, but any con bet whether it is between nations, groups or marriage partners. Incredible. transcend the defensive nature and character of our own politics. Its no good enough for us simply to oppose someone else s agenda, while Of course it is. That is the reason it is usually overlooked Hubbard According to best-selling writer and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard there is actually a natural law: "A third party must be present and unknown n every quarrel for a conflict to exist." This does not mean, M r Hubbard explains "that there are no bad conditions that cause conflict. There are. But these are usually remedial by conference unless a third party is promo- renresentina a fundamental alternative. u There's also a failure, among most Black leaders to distinguish tactics from strategy A tactic is a specific, short-term action designed to increase any group's Power; a strategy is a long-term set of tactics which constitute a complex social program: nonviolent demonstrations, economic boycotts, and X registration drives, are necessary tactics in the freedom struggle^ 1109 He gives an intriguing historical example of this law at work. "The revolutionary forces and the Russian government were in conflict in 191 . However, "only when Germany's official state papers were captured .n World War II was it revealed that Germany had promoted the ^ ° l t and financed Lenin (the Third Party) to spark it off, even sending him into Rus- But they're no substitution for the devising a general political strategy 813 ' H T h X X ^ n y examples of the "Third Party Law" in action. You pro­ Wh CMosat oVthe White candidates for the Democratic Presidential n o rm a ­ tion X backed away from both the traditional liberalism of Walter Mon- X e as w e l,v i the neoliberalism of Gary Hart. They're promoting a thin.y- bably have seen some yourself. A marriage blows up in heatedlargumenv. The wife moves out. Meanwhile, the hidden, unsuspecte . ' an in-law chuckles quietly. Another example is the FBI which utilized Thi Parties to destroy the Black Panther Party by promoting conflicts between veiled echo of Reaganism, without the harsh edges. They re also argu g a g X r r e a . reductions in the military budget, and no major increases in redistributive social welfare programs. And on these terms^there s no fun­ damental distinction between most of the Republican and Democratic can d id a t T except the Reverend Jesse Jackson. So Reaganism ,sn t the problem - the problem is a failure of policy inside both major parties^ We need a bold strategy which challenges the conservatism and nonrespo - the Panthers and other organizations. Given this information, the so'ution to any conflict is for both partiesto sit down and isolate the Third Party by honestly comparing notes. Only then can peace be obtained. CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL by Benjam in F. Chavis, J r., Executive D irector «sive character of the two party system as a w hole.---------------------------------- A N f'VS S IR ' K f □ 7 ” M anning Marable at Ohl° S,a,e Un,Ver' S v . ■'Along the Color Line ' appears ,n over 140 newspa p ^ n w r n a h o n a lh r OF THF UNITED CHURCH OF CURISI + COM M ISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE Stop the Torture of Children in South Africa by Gov. Neil Goldschmidt Govt**o" The photos in the newspaper are familiar - unarmed South African youth running away from armed police who fire upon them with, teargas and bullets We have almost become conditioned to these images, to this brutality What we cannot see on the front pages of our newspapers, however is the overwhelming numbers of young people who are presently being detained without trial in South African's jails. It is thise' ^ ormat;° " which the South Africa regime foolishly hopes to hide from the eyes of the On September 10, I announced the appointment of Mary Louise McCtefock “ Portland ,o .he new position o, Child Care Coordrnafor ,n Z s t a t e Department of Homan Resources. She will work wrfh the busn world with its new repressive measures. There are now approximately 8,000 Black South Africans ,n detention Of that number, perhaps 3,000 are children, some even as young as 9 years of age Hoping to extinguish the growing rage which the detentions have incurred the government has recently forbidden any act which would pub­ licize or seek the release of those now detained. This includes s'gn.ngi petn tions, wearing T-shirts with sympathetic slogans, or even praying for those „ X s communify end with « h e r sfare agencies ,0 .denr.fv ways in which we can meet the needs of Oregon's working parents. society be- The need for child care cuts across all segments of our society* be cause a growing number of Oregonians rely upon child care in order to wo“ It is no longer rrue tha. mos, families fl, the "fredmonal modek r r e a lifv he mothers o, more than half o, Oregon children under the age 0, ™x work ou«ide fhei. homes: and more rhen hel, of Oregon famrkes have Permit me to respond to the article in your September 30 issue: "Dr. ProPZ “ b b r n X H: X N.O b=, controversial issues be covered in a balanced manner. On the question of whether our schools are doing the "o b fo r te African American students, yog did a good ¡ob o, preserving tba, “ Z is regrettable, however, that this front page story servedI only to exacerbate a situation rather than draw us nearer a solutron. I Ron Herndon s courage in biting the hand that feeds part o, hrs earl, ch to- hood e d u c a Z " P™9ram. and Marthew Prophets def, hendlrng o. sensmve issues However I hasten to point out that no other paper carried that story X h causte me ,o wonder where i. originated. Was .here a press con- ference a board meeting, or was this investigative journalism? I ha’ e m , own concerns about fhe demographics o, u n d e ro c h ^ n g students, too. However, depending on what statistics you 'nvest.gate a considerable range of stories can be told. Given what it at stake and the nrv of headlines in 72 point bold (very big) type, and the relative „"’ importance o, minor differences In perspective and priorities between or. Prophet and Ron Herndon , caufmn y o g , ™ truth which have more meaning. GPA represents on.y student performance, and is highly correlated to the subject matter. A C grade in algebra may be of more value than an "A ' in Physical Educ^ ' ° " f A more ex^ct focus would be investigating the trend on the number o Black students completing math and sciences courses. Ultimately, it is the community, not the schools, that ca" about changing the circumstances of African American children* The Observer's listing of exemplary Black students on the opposite page in the SameBeSreminded°thaSt criticism is easy, but creative solutions is where the action is Please don't let your newspaper stoop to competing with rags whose headlines exploit people's emotions and forego ment Dr Prophet, Ron Herndon, and the Oregon Alliance of Black School Educators have much in common that would be beneficial to African American students in Portland's schools. I urge you to investigate that. Michael Grice President OREGON ALLIANCE OF BLACK SCHOOL EDUCATORS Portland, OR His Future is Being Determined mous with beatings, with torture . . . with death. The book The War Against Children: South Africa’s Youngest Victims," published by the Law­ yers Committee for Human Rights, related the stories of these The information was provided to them by South African human rights groups such as the Detainees’ Parents Support Comm.tte and Black Sash* The book speaks of Joseph, a child of 14 years, whose fmgerna.b a e twisted and blackened from electric shock treatments performed while in child care - no, only because there aren't enough government to solve all of our child care problems, but also because employers have Z e in ,he * 9ZÎ0B second class POM»»» b««1 • ' Portl* ' ld Tb« was «stairlisbed '" q ” ' '3 X ) S M b a r^ r-xrs ” 5 00 ,w. yea. - lb« Tn ( ...,.ty — Sand e g re s s , banges in tha « trtr MEMBER 288 0033 P ° B o . 3137 Portland Oregon 972TB I ” t is o c itt on - Founded I ' PUBLIC S C H O O LS $15 for one year IU S PS 963 S8T„ ,s N a tio n a l A d v e rtis in g R e p rä s e n ta tiv « \ 11 reil I H ender^'» I ibtnr/P ublehi ■' /il W dlutms, General Manager A m a lg a m a te d P ublishers Ini N o w Y o rk N ew Von. J/ W O R K FOR BETTER working families. Portland Observer / Today bChl Ddeteantion in South Africa has frightening connotations. It is_synony- two or more wage-earners. . ctmnnlp for Yet, as important as child care is to us as a society it s a struggle manv families to find care which is both affordable and of good quality. I am seeking .he revolvement o, our state's business communrfv m N ew .(i.ippf P u l,Hst,ers Asso, .tlion Chu,ches have ,n9 t Lee X ’ remember the images of the fleeing South ALEXANDER R. JONES wnrkino Deople the poor, and other oppressed groups. Black politician's efforts to check Reaganism have faltered because they are too frequently defensive and reactive. The Reagan administrât initiates a policy and Black Democrats denounce it; the Reagan,tes nom nate someone like Bork, and the Black leadership mobilizes troops to hal his confirmation. We need to be on the front lines in halting B o ris appoint­ a n t ïo the Supreme Court, that's true. But we also should do mo e to I O'pf|< ■" V shock an s . ______________________________ & SOCIAL JUSTICE imolv that the resolution to the crisis of Reaganism will come about through thèSelectionof good people" to public office. "G ood" in this political lexi­ con means liberal-to-progressive positions on most public policies. The dif- " political logic is rha, fhe U S. P O ' ^ - s f e m = e n « a v doesn't create "good politicians" vs. "bad" ones. Some of the best politicians can be reactionary on certain issues: and in rare instances an ideological conservative can be fairly enlightened on evil rights °r civiU be - ties issues The strategy to replace bad politicians with good ones will al ways fail, unless elected officials are made to be organizationally, acc table to their primary constituencies. We need to transcend the politics of personality and charisma, in favor or emphasizing a coherent progressive policy agenda which advances the political objectives of racal minorities, hide with its recent, stepped up repression. And .del w « d o outrage" from the Reagan Admin,srrafron are ,t o t ^ f , freedom diffiCc'vHSrights spokespersons and Black public officials too frequently T h . Mrrf/unrf vehicles, and hold them fo, ^ t X m n are threatened.