August 15, 1990- The Portland Observer—Page 7 OPINION The ’’Hers” side of the His/Hers Opinion Page has been temporarily suspended while the Observer seeks a new writer ■ ■ •■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ The Portland Observer is seeking a female to write the “ Hers” viewpoint in the popular column “His/Hers Opinion” published weekly in this paper. Individual should be creative, intelligent, committed, black, and an excellent writer. This person should also be able to meet publication deadlines. Please drop off samples at 4747 N.E. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. No telephone calls, please. A freelance fee will be discussed should you be the one selected. FOR THE CHILDREN WHO WAIT RIBBON CAMPAIGN A WINNING PAIR Guy L. Smith, IV, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Philip Morris Companies Inc., center, congratu lates the two winners of the Philip Morris Summer Internship Pro gram’s Opportunity Awards during a recent reception for the 102 interns at the company's head quarters in New York City. The winners are Sherry Ann Jackson left, an intern with the Roundtable Theater Company and Joel Mentor, an intern with the Na tional Association for the Visually O ne Church, O ne Child o f Oregon, The Urban League of Portland, The Ameri can Red Cross and KBMS 1480are spon sors of the “ For The Children Who W ait” Ribbon Campaign to kickoff during the m onth o f August. One Church, O ne Child is a program designed to seek Black families to adopt Black children. The program has placed 31 children with permanent families since 1988. The ribbon cam paign is a way to inform the com m unity of the need to find perm anent homes for African A merican children who arc currently in foster care and to support the One Church, One Child program. Everyone in the com m u nity is encouraged and urged to take part in this campaign by tying on the ribbon to car antennas and/or side view mirrors to support the children who are waiting for a “ forever fam ily.” It is hoped as time goes by, that more people will real ize what it symbolizes. The ribbons should be displayed until all o f the waiting Black children have been adopted. “ W e hope to kick off a national ribbon campaign to include all o f the One Church, One Child programs and to recruit more sponsors” say Kathy Ken- drix, Public Relations Specialist for One Church, One Child of Oregon. Ribbons can be picked up at the Urban League of Portland, ION. Russell, The A merican Red Cross, 3131 N. Van couver AVe., KBMS 1480,510 SW 3rd and O ne Church, One Child of O regon, 5806 N. Albina. Handicapped. Both winners will receive a $1000 college tuition grant. Philip Morris sponsored 102 student interns, recruited by the New York City Partnerships 's Summer Jobs Program, to work in 102 non-profit agencies in New York City. The master of ceremonies for the reception, Smith said the company’s efforts make it possible for non-profit agencies to afford summer interns while preparing students for “the world of work." WANT TO BUY YOUR OWN HOME? M OVE SIX SPACES FORWARD. (It'll take just a few minutes to see if you can afford a HUD home!) H you've worked for two years for the same employer (or in the some occupation) and you have a good credit record, move ahead 1 space START Stop here and compute your Adjusted Income. That's your total gross monthly income, less federol withhold ing taxes Write your answer here and move on. * ■ Write the smaller omount of either space 3 or space 5 here. As a generol rule, that's the maximum omount you can afford for a monthly house payment (including property taxes). YOU DID ITI nth. number in space 6 is more than $ 5 5 0 , then chances are good that H UD has on affordoble home for you. Your next move is to coll your real estate agent. lo w monthly payment! and 3%downl Multiply your Ad|usted Income (from space 2) by 0.3 8 , then subtract $150 and wnte the answer here Then move on to the next space Add up oil your monthly debts (cor, loon, credit purchase, credit cord, child support and alimony payments you owe every month) and then odd $150. Fill in the total here and go to space 5. Most of our HUD homes ore opproved for FHA Mortgoge Insurance, which makes them more afford able than ever. Plus, HUD's bid process is easy. For listings of HUD homes available now, look for our big real estate classified od in every Sunday Oregonian. 0 HUD * DEPARTMENT O f HOUSING AND URBAN O f VEIOPME NT « 1989 by HUD. Portlond Office You're olmost home Multiply your Adpsted Income (from space 2) by 0.5 3 , subtract the amount on space 4, ond write the result here N o w move along P U A S I N O T l Ind-nrfuol a rt« do lenddn roqwtrtnwrdl for qwoMywif o p o t p * * » » bvy«' for O Korn* Tha formUo ko*« • mtendad only Io p»otn<b you eedk o of kow o lander moy « • * yov» knonc«f condrhon at d op<Aot »o o kome pwrckose fo» mformaAon on bon reqwsrementt toll to yoex roof esto* o^ent or b e d bndor Should Mothers Giving Birth to Crack Addicted Babies be Prosecuted as Criminals? BY ULLYSSES TUCKER, JR.________ aul M alone is barely a year old. According to his m edical foster parent, Maryrose Sanders, he will never know what a hug feels like or see the world around him. Paul will never com prehend basic realities because he is in a coma. He has been in a coma since April 27th and shows no signs o f improve ment. Paul is in this condition because he was beaten to pulp by his father’s girl friend. He suffered multiple skull frac tures. Anette L. Hunt, a 19-year old Portland woman, was sentenced to up to one year in jail and a residential treat ment program for the crime. She will also be on probation for five years. Re cently, a southern Oregon man was sen tenced to 18 months in jail for animal abuse. Are childrens’ lives less valu able? She will serve only 180 days. Regardless o f whether Hunt would not have hurt young Paul or not, he would have had a difficult life. His bio logical m other abused crack cocaine and he was bom an addict. Imagine being a newborn,hours into the world and the ow ner of a cocaine problem . The crying, screaming, craving, restlessness,and need for a substance you know nothing about except through our mothers social hab its. Paul's m other had no regard for his life o r future. Experts say that crack cocaine erodes values, self-esteem, motivation, am bition, and life perspec tive. W hat else could make a mother to be forgot about the little soul that she is carrying inside her? Can a drug be that powerful or a person that w eak? Little Paul had to pay the price. He paid the price because no one cared about his well being and because the D istrict At torney O ffice arranged a plea bargain with Hunt. Even more sadly, Paul lives in a Southeast hom e with his medical foster mother because he had no medical insurance. He stayed in the hospital one week before CSD placed him in the home. It’s tough when you are a ward of the state. Crack cocaine is a very popular and potent drug. W hen P aul’s mother in haled the drug, it shot straight through her bloodstream and ultimately to the placenta, then, his blood vessels started to constrict,provoking light strokes that killed segments of his tiny brain and this lead to neurological damage. Not to mention the m ultiple blows he took up side his little head. Before he, Paul, entered the world, he had seizures and shook uncontrollably. He even resw al lowed his own urine, that eventually flowed into the am niotic fluid and caused additional dam age from the same hit. Crack cocaine can also bring on prem a ture labor. It can raise blood pressure and trigger contractions, thus causing the placenta to tear away from the lining of the uterus. This forces early delivery .Some o f P aul’s friends’ weighed as little as two pounds. It’s a sad shame. According to stats com plied by 46 hospitals nationally, 11 percent o f the babies bom in 1989 were addicted to crack cocaine and that translates to al- Paul's mother had no regard for his life or future. Experts say that crack cocaine erodes values, self-esteem, motiva tion, ambition, and life per spective. What else could make a mother forget about the little soul that she is carrying inside her? Can a drug be that powerful or a person that weak? Little Paul had to pay the price. m ost a half million youngsters annually. How many Andrew Young's, Magic Johnson's, David Dinkin's,Spike Lee’s, or Bill Cosby's will be denied the oppor tunity to reach their fullest potential be cause of som eones'desire to sm oke co caine? We have got to do som ething to save our children, please. Losing a new generation to gang violence and crim i nal related activities only com plicates matters even worse. W here does the madness end? Babies bom on crack cocaine is only the beginning o f the problem. It gets tougher on the child when it is tim e to start school and begin general assim ulation in society with shortcomings. Psychologist/medical experts con tend that children bom addicted to co caine are slow learners, have poor atten tion spans, are afraid to bond, exhibit anti-social behavior patterns, and suffer from speech difficulties/impaired speech patterns and hyperactivity. These chil dren will need so much educational a t tention, support services, and understand ing. Is the educational system in A m er ica willing and ready to deal with a new and growing “ at risk " group? Does A merica really care as it progresses to a predominatley minority work force by the year 2000? There are some serious doubts by many experts. O f the $4.5 billion dollars approved to com bat the Bush administrations ‘ ‘W ar On D rugs” , 70% o f the budget is going to law for Paul and his half-m illion friends. There needs to be less spent on police, prison beds, law enforcem ent overtim e, heli copters and assault weapons. If nothing else, there should at least be a 50-50 split between law enforcem ent and interven- tion/education for young people. Pre vention is the best method. Catch the young ones before they have to be locked up or recycled by the crim inal justice system or looked down upon by some in- sensitive educator, who m ight not be aware o f the childs’ history. The story even goes deeper than Paul and his friends. Sadly, the great m ajority of the cocaine abusing m others were sexually abused,members o f grossly dysfunctional families, com e from bro ken hom es, and accept the lifestyle as normal. The cycle is repeated generation after generation. W here does it end, or how can the cycle be destroyed and moved into a positive direction? If the cycle is continued, again, there will be an e n tirely new underclass grow ing in A m er ica at the expense of taxpayers. W hen the issue o f services is addressed, in Oregon for example, there are only a few programs for mothers to go to for help. Many are afraid to lose their children to CSD because of their abuse and avoid valuable pre-natal care. Women are afraid to com e forth with their problem and others recklessly disregard the life o f the child. How many mothers are out there w ho avoid detection because o f stable incomes and solid insurance coverage? The problem just goes deeper and deeper. Drug abuse is a serious problem in this country and children are the ones suffer ing the m o st Still, the question rem ains, should these women abusing cocaine be charged as crim inals or for child abuse? Do they know right from wrong or do they really care about being pregnant and getting high? It would be a total contradiction to jai, the same women for abuse who were turned away because they could not get treatm ent. Locking these women up to “ chill” their cocaine habit would be a great idea, especially early in the preg nancy. To lock them up for abuse of cocaine will not solve the problem. Do you take the child away from the abuser, only to see the same person a year later with the same problem? There needs to be more community based treatment centers an educational program s to edu cate these women. On the other hand, in dividuals like Hunt need to receive full punishm ent for their crim es. To use cocaine is an entirely different issue than beating some child until they are uncon scious. Ironically, Hunt recently had a child by Pauls’ biological father. Is this another accident waiting to happen?T he court also told Hunt to take som e anger management classes at New Beginnings when her residential sentence starts. W ho knows, had Paul's biological Mom “ did the right thing," instead o f ending up without custody or not abus ing drugs, maybe he would have had half ach an ceto b eap ro d u ctiv e human being. If someone you know is abusing cocaine while pregnant, call the O regon Preven tion Resource Center at 1-800-822-6772 or HELPLINE at 1-800-621-1646. G ive the Paul M alone's o f the world a chance at life. TOP-LEVEL TALK US WEST PRESENTS SENIOR DAY AT ZOO Seniors and their escorts will be ad m itted free to M etro W ashington Park Zoo on Senior Citizens Day, Tuesday, Sept. 11. This is the 15th year for this event. Senior Citizens Day is sponsored by US W EST Com m unications, with special support from Senior W orld. Activities scheduled betw een 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. include free train rides, music, dancing, animal talks and the petting zoo. In addition, US W est Com munity Relations teams will serve free beverages and light refreshments. Care M edical, Inc., is contributing wheelchairs, which will be free on a first-come, first-serve basis. Numbers are limited, so seniors are urged to bring their own wheelchairs whenever pos sible. Volunteers from Southwest Port land Rotary and W est Linn Lions Clubs will be available to push wheelchairs. T ri-M ctw illprovidcexpanded serv ice on Route #63, with accessible buses operating on a 30-m inute schedule be tween downtown Portland and the zoo. Call Tri-Met customer service, 233-3511, for fares and routing. Support Our Advertisers! Say You Saw It In The Portland Observer! Craig Weatherup, President and CEO of Pepsi-Cola Company, responds to questions o f partici pants in the Pepsi-Cola Summer Intern Program during a recent four-day conference at Pepsi headquarters in Somers, N. Y. With Weatherup are, from left: Steve Brown, Georgia Technical University; Serrick McNeil, Washington University; Juan Salinas, Rutgers University (par tially hidden and Latonya Bennett, Texas A&M University. Weath erup had earlier told an audience of 80 college students that big business should both help to solve societal problems and to promote ethnic diversity in the work force. PO PS’ he w is te ria , th e s trin g b e a n and th e lo c u s t tre e a re all m e m b e r s o f th e