Page 2 The Portland Observer June 13, 1990
Why Don’t People Stick With Their Own
Kind?
Misery Loves Company,
by Vickie L. Hughes
A Recap of Adventures
in Learning
by Prof. M cKinley B urt
My readers tell me that the last
two week’s descriptions of my curricu
lum development and implementation
at Portland State University opened their
eyes to what an “ urban” university
should be about (could be about). “ How
can it be” , several asked at a neighbor
hood meeting, “ that a school, present
ing itself as the primary hub of informa
tion and direction toward improving the
quality of life in inner cities have previ
ously so inadequately addressed the REAL
structures and issues of the urban infra
structure and its dominant group in most
cities, African Americans?”
First, let me say that this was
and is not the only school with this
disability, in Portland or elsewhere in
this nation. Next, I would point out that
when 1 left the institution, neither my
courses nor similar ones of broad spec
trum comprehension of the developmen
tal and contemporary urban problems
was permanently integrated into the
curriculum (check your catalog). In this
series you have seen me develop an
experience-based learning curve that
would enable one to design and deliver a
learning mode which would at every
point reflect the sophisticated interface
in America between labor, industry,
technology, culture, and the constraints
generated by this interaction (racial and
in general).
This fact could have been even
easier to grasp had I had the space to
develop the parameters of another course
design, “ Urban Business Administra
tion ’ ’. Here, I sought to remedy a major
deficiency discovered in the preparation
of urban program managers to manage
their operations in an efficient manner.
This concern was not generated by media
descriptions of myriad debacles, cata-
strophic failures in the delivery of social
services, or of real or imagined theft and
misfeasance -- but, rather, I was prompted
by my own real-time experience with
these urban exercises.
Coming to academia from in
dustry, it was not difficult to preceive
that the very same business disciplines
of accounting, organization, budgeting,
and personnel policies found there had
universal application -- and that here in
urban programing it was sorely lacking.
At the same time I held contracts with
the “ Model Cities” program of the “ Great
Society” movement for the fiscal man
agement of such operations as “ Supple
mental Welfare, A.M.A Day Care Cen
ters, Minority Business Enterprise, etc. ”
This is what I meant by ‘ ‘real-time expe
rience” , where, daily, one sought to
rectify the disabilities of inadequate data
bases (no business or administrative library
- or training), no concept of business
choices (buy or lease? - negotiate or
accept blindly) - not much of anything
except an exuberant desire to deiver an
ill-defined improvement in the “ Qual
ity of Life” .
For this reason, he course be
gan with an introduction to business
problems and the principal types of pro
prietorships - individual, partnerships
and corporations. Never mind that leg
islators and the funding agencies obvi
ously thought these matters unimportant
to the administration of “ social pro-
grams” --governmental authorities ne
glected such training and orientation.
The latter part of the course got down to
particulars concerning the administra
tion of “ Non-Profit” enterprise, where
we suppose the very name of these enti
ties inspired a reckless disregard of all
the financial disciplines and constraints
one would expect to find in institutions
handling huge sums of monies. Many
readers may wonder if there has been
substantial improvement in this scenario.
What is your experience? Were you on
the board of directors when the Urban
League experienced its trauma? What
was your training and orientation toward
becoming a responsibile, “ well-in
formed” director of a social program?
Again, as with my prior course,
other instructors became quite agitated
when scores of whites enrolled in a class
where the enrollment credits (and re
sources) would to to the maligned Black
Studies Department. Both undergrads
and practicing program managers had
been made cognizant of a major gap in
their educational preparation for urban
life or for delivering an adequate social
product to their clients. As before, the
other departments of the school were
forced to incorporate into their own
curriculum the key elements of an ade
quate urban interface--in selfinterest of
course!
It is not just the case, then, of
historical omissions of important facts
in the development of the American in
frastructure, from Black contributions
to the traumatic constraints placed upon
their progress-but that the efforts to
correct the disabilities of the system are
severly hampered by the estabishment’s
failure to honestly and forthrightly deal
with the problems inthiscurrentera. This
series should certainly make African
Americans of the inadequacies out there
that separate goal from practice. Again,
I project that we will not “ overcome”
until we gain control and direction over
the programs and education modes which
can integral to our very existence. (See
my front page series, Blacks and Sci
ence.)
Student Loan Repayment
Easier With Loan Consolidation
If a pop quiz for college students
contained the question, “What's loan
consolidation?”, there’s a good chance
they would know the answer. Grow
ing num bers of students are tu rn
ing to loan consolidation to help
m ake student loan repaym ent eas-
Initial student loan payments
can be cut by as much as 40 per
cent by combining existing loans
into a single new account.
U nder the nation’s largest edu
cational loan consolidation plan—
the Sallie Mae SMART LOAN’ Ac
count—borrowers can cut th eir
initial student loan paym ents by as
much as 40 percent by combining
their existing loans into a single
new account. The SMART LOAN
Account offers flexible repaym ent
options and generally a longer re
paym ent term th an the loans it
replaces.
To qualify, borrowers m ust have
at least $5,000 outstanding in eli
gible student loans, at least one
loan of which m ust be owned by
Sallie Mae or held by banks or other
lenders th a t do not offer loan con
solidation.
For additional information on
the SMART LOAN Account, bor
rowers may call 1-800-524-9100.
SM A RT LOAN® is a registered service
mark of Sallie Mae
~fiCd(C O tite---
X,
*
I am writing this story to share a
personal experience with others. I am a
progressive, career-m inded black
woman with a promising future. I have
always been a friendly, happy person.
My parents always taught me that
people make their own happiness.
Recently, I discovered that this is not
always true; others tried to destroy my
happiness. I am a strong individual and
yet I almost fell into The Trap! Here's
the story.
I recently ended a relationship with
a man whom I dated for over a year. Let
me now set the background so that you
know how this began. I moved to
Portland about a year and a half ago. I
came here single and happy. As soon as
I moved here, everyone 1 knew insisted
that I needed to meet a man. Some
friends introduced me to a man although
I did not come to Portland looking for
love. This man caught me right "off the
plane" as one might say!
With much hesitation, I became
involved with this man. Because I had
not been here long, his friends became
my friends. Most of these friends were
unhappy people due to several reasons.
Unfortunately, they came with the
territory. If I wanted to be with him, I
had to be with them.
My relationship with this man
started out beautifully. O f course there
were those moments when I had to sit
and listen to these friends talk about
their problems. And these people had
more
than the normal share of problems.
Eventually, hearing about all of these
problems started wearing me down and
I began to be unhappy.
One day this relationship turned
sour, yet, it continued on for months
after it was truly over. Our friends
diverted their attention to our problems
Role Playing
If you're a parent, someone is
watching you. Someone who notes
everything you do and say and keeps
tabs on your attitudes and activi
ties. Who? Your youngster. You are
your child's first and best hero,
role-model and ideal. Between two
and seven, in particular, your little
one w ants to do everything ju st the
way you do.
sourceful, careful and kind, chances
are your children will be, too.
OFJOBS
Legislators Fight
To Save Jobs
The chance to v ie w E arth
fro m space w o u ld have
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Introducing Vickie Hughes, the newest
freelance writer for the Portland
Observer newspaper. Ms. Hughes, a
native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a
graduate o f Spelman College (B.A.) in
Atlanta and Roosevelt University of
Chicago (MA.). Welcome aboard!
spotlight on children
If you show you're a person who
likes to read the new spaper to keep
up with the world, he's more likely
to w ant to read. If you’re honest, re
Happy Birthday Linda
From your Family
Huff, Washington, and Collins
to forget about their own problems.
Soon, these friends seemed to enjoy
seeing us unhappy and began to feed on
and contribute to these problems.
W hen
this
d isastrous
relationship finally ended, all attention
turned to me. I was supposed to be
unhappy because I was the woman in the
relationship and they believed that the
woman, in this case, always suffers the
most emotionally. I began to believe
this and found m yself extremely
unhappy. After two months of feeling
this way, 1 finally decided that my life
did not have to be this way. I am
attractive, intelligent, ambitious, and
loved by God and others. Why surround
myself with unhappy people and
become who they are?
I deserve
happiness and can be happy - 1 have a lot
to be thankful for.
These feelings helped me io
make a decision. I was no longer going
to be unhappy. I let go of my unhappy
friends and began to surround myself
with positive, happy people. My old
friends were shocked at the change that
had taken place in me. It was as if they
wanted me io stay unhappy and dwell on
a past relationship. For those of you who
I left behind (you know who you are), I
still love you - 1 have no enemies. But I
want you to know that now I am happy!
I hope that one day you too will find
happiness within yourselves and
surround yourselves with other happy
people.
And this ends my story.
Remember - misery loves company.
People should stick with their own kind.
Thousands more American jobs
could be forced overseas if legisla
tion currently proposed is allowed
to be passed into law.
That law would ban U.S. compa
nies from exporting agricultural
chemicals not registered here.
Though designed to protect people,
the law could actually h urt millions
here and abroad, says the National
Agricultural Chemicals Association
( NACA) by decreasing the ability of
world agriculture to produce needed
food, and costing many U.S. work
ers their jobs.
Some pesticides produced in the
U.S. and sold overseas are unregis
tered here because the specific pest
controlled is not a U.S. problem, or
because crops concerned are not
generally grown in America—cof
fee. rubber, cocoa, bananas, tea.
The chemicals are not, however,
unregulated
because they are
approved in countries where used
and no chemicals exported by any
member of NACA are banned or
severely restricted in the U.S.
NACA believes American com
panies should not have to spend
millions on securing a domestic
registration for a product used on
pests or crops not present here.
Those high costs—and the loss of
sales to companies in other nations
where the registration process is
more expedient and less costly—
could put companies out of busi
ness and put thousands of Ameri
cans out of work.
If famine-stricken nations can’t
purchase the crop protection chemi
cals they need from the U.S., they
may buy the chemicals from com
petitive companies in countries
whose safety and ethical standards
aren’t as good as ours. For more in
formation about this issue, write:
National Agricultural Chemicals As
sociation, 1155 15th St., N.W.. 9th
Floor, W ashington, D C 20005,
5re-schoolers and grade-school
ers have rich imaginations, too, and
like to im itate grown up jobs and
activities. To help, Fisher-Price has
created a num ber of just-like-the-
grown-ups type toys.
With the Fisher-Price Post Of
fice, youngsters can “sort” mail and
“deliver” packages. There are work
ing doors and slots, a package
compartment, post office boxes with
clicking keys, a stam p dispenser
and a letter carrier tote. Children
three to six can store im portant
docum ents in the Post Office safe
and change the time on the clock.
To complete the fun, they can write
notes on the wipe-off stationery,
put them in the play envelopes and
snap on a pretend stam p.
Kids can record and playback
their own voice on this realistic
pay phone.
Also calling up im agination in
children two to five is the Record &
Playback Telephone. When a child
picks up the phone and speaks, a
light comes on and the phone rec
ords and then plays back the child’s
own voice. The toy comes with a
one year limited w arranty and
features a coin release slot and
realistic-sounding key pad.
VOLUNTEERISM IS ALIVE
AND WELL IN THE 1990s
Profile of clubwomen is changing as working women
find they can spare time for community service.
By Alice C. Donahue
International President
General Federation of Women’s Clubs
When President George Bush
referred to “a thousand points of
light” during his inaugural address
last year, he said the country m ust
“tu rn to the only resource we have
th at in times of need always grows:
the goodness and courage of the
American people."
For those like myself who are
long-time volunteers, it is exciting
to have this em phasis on volun
teerism coming from the highest
levels of government. There was a
period during the late 70s and
especially in the 80s, as more and
more women entered the work force,
th at getting and holding a paid job
seemed to be the ultim ate goal. A
woman’s success rating was directly
related to her salary and her abil
ity to juggle career and m arriage,
ra th e r th an to any voluntary con
tribution she made to the world at
large.
Today, women are finding th at
collecting a weekly paycheck and
running a home don’t necessarily
add up to a full and satisfying life.
As a result, many of them are seek
ing ways, often through volunteer
service, to contribute to their com
munities.
During my presidency these past
two years of the world’s oldest and
largest volunteer women's organi
zation, countless women across the
country have described the satis
faction they have gained from such
community projects as building a
town playground, assisting dis
placed homemakers and working
on environm ental projects.
And equally im portant as what
they give is w hat they get: many
new and good friends. This is espe
cially true for someone who is a
newcomer in town or for a person
who is recently widowed or divorced.
Friendships and strong ties, both
with people inside the volunteer
organization and ith others in the
Ï w
Í
«
4
♦
I ’"'
Attorney General Dick Thorn
burgh congratulates GFWC Inter-
i_
~
a lir-fl c. Donahue
during ceremony m
.
received a national Crime Preven
tion Award. GFWC Crime Preven
tion Division Chairman Barbara
Wallace looks on.
community, seem to come easily to
clubwomen. Working side by side
with individuals committed to
m aking th eir town or city or coun
try a better place, is indeed a kind
of glue th a t lasting friendships are
made of.
Many career women who volun
teer also find th at they can do as
much “networking" in th a t setting
as they do at their professional
meetings. And, since the people
they meet come from a wider spec
trum of the population, they bene
fit from a broader field of contacts.
Studies indicate that women who
do not volunteer still understand
the importance of voluntary serv
ice and know they should do more.
To those women I say, ju st sta rt
doing something. Find one commu
nity service initiative th a t allows
you to solve a critical problem. Even
if you can’t spare a lot of tim e—give
a couple of hours a week.
It’s good for your country and
it’s good for you.
For a free brochure describing
GFWC projects, write; General
Federation Of Women's Clubs, 1734
N Street, N.W., W ashington, D C.
20036-2990 or call: 1-800-443-
GFWC.