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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1991)
U n: t y <- ■f Or O re a o n qon L ib r I« on PORTLfl Volum e X X I Num ber 4 From the Community, to the Persian Gulf.., Sgt Desiree K. Freeman 13th Sig Bn Cav Div Task Force APO NY 09306 Our History is the Big* gest Grant We Will Ever Get PAGE 2 United Methodists Pray for Peace and Speedy End to War PAGE 2 Battle of New York Will Go to Buffalo PAGE 4 Sgt. Desiree K . Freeman works in the administration office. She is a gradu ate o f Grant H igh School, after which she entered the A rm y. She is the daugh ter o f Roy and W innfred Freeman. Desiree resides in Portland, Oregon. If you have family in the Gulf... please contact the Portland Observer. Through the duration of the war, we will be presenting personal profiles of local individuals involved in it. Please send a picture (if available) and a short biog raphy, as well as contact address (if you would like us to publish i t ) to: Portland Observer 4747 N.E. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, OR 97211 Murder in N.E. Portland Results in Two Deaths Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor Anita Baker Tour Can celed PAGE 5 Dance Program Stresses Black-Jewish Link PAGE 5 LCPL John Valentino Harold determined the cause o f death fo r both M itch e ll and Penny to be the rsult o f stab wounds. On Tuesday, January 22,1991, at approximately 3:45 p.m., Portland Police Detectives Kent Perry and Joe Goodale arrested Antoine Ramon Ken nedy, 16 years, at a location in North The victims/ deceased have been identified as Curtis Lee Penny, 24 and Dale Mitchell, 29. and a second subject lying in the m iddle o f the street. M edical personnel were summoned and pronounc'd both sub jects dead at the scene. The victims/deceased have been identified as Curtis Lee Penny, 24 years, and Dale M itc h e ll, 29 years. Portland, in connection w ith this hom i cide investigation. Kennedy has been lodged at the Donald E. Long home. A prelim inary hearing is scheduled for January 23, 1991, at 1:30 p.m. at the Juvenile Court (248-3460). A weapon has been recovered. School Board Responds to Proposed Boycott, Reform s’? <£ -■ Echo Co. PLT #22nd BN. FPO San Francisco CA Matthew Prophett o f schoo l board BY ANGELIQUE SANDERS /-B LC P L Valentino Harold, a gradu ate o f Grant High School, joined the Marine Corps October 17,1989. Less than a year after boot camp in San Diego, he was assigned to the Persian G u lf (on August 18,1990). KATU would also like to hear about your family members in the Persian Gulf. Send self-addressed envelope (for return) with full face picture and short bio to: KATU-TV, c/o salute, P.O. Box 2 KATU-TV, Portland, OR 97207 On Thursday, January 17,1991, at approxim ately 7:17 p.m., Portland Police responded to the intersection o f N E . Garfield Avenue and Failing Sueet regarding tw o persons believed to be injured lyin g in the street. Upon officers’ arrival, they found one person lying on the sidewalk January 23, 1991 "The Eyes and Ears o f The Community' Crisis Line Seeks Volunteers The Portland Women’s Crisis Line is pleased to announce openings for its March Volunteer Training. The Portland W om en’ s Crisis Line is a non p ro fit organization which provides 24- hours-a-day crisis intervention coun seling on its crisis line for women and children (and their fam ilies and friends) who have or arc experiencing domestic or sexual violence in their lives. The volunteer training lasts 40 hours, spread out over a three-week period. Interested women should con tact the business o ffice o f the crisis line at 232-9751, during normal business hours. Practicum students are urged to apply: credit is available. Final date fo r the sign-up fo r the March training is Wednesday, February 27. Portland W om cn’ sC risisL in e is an equal opportunity employer, funded in part by the United Way. fte ro ve ra ye a ro fsile n ce .B U F leader Ron Herndon’s proposed school reform, the PPS school board re sponded Tuesday by stating they’d like to meet w ith various com m unity lead ers to discuss a compromise. Stephen G riffith , o f the school board, says that he foresees fusion or fission between PPS and B U F as the outcome, adding, “ W hat I ’ m hoping is that we can combine those energies.” The community has expressed dis satisfaction with the school botud through various motions and boycotts in the past. Herndon became spokesperson o f this dissatisfaction when he united the discontented forces by submitting a reform plan to Portland Public Schools in October 1989. The school board shrugged it o ff until the Black United Front joined forces w ith 13 other local black organizations and, enlisting the com m unity’ s support, decided to in state one-day boycotts o f PPS (slated to commence in February). This prompted action from the school board. W hile they claim to be satisfied with their progress, school board members agreed to meet w ith several community leaders-including Hemdon- to discuss potential improvements. This meeting is scheduled for January 24, its purpose being to examine and evaluate the education quality provided to m i norities, and to suggest possible im provements o f curriculum . A statement issued by the school board says that “ The board o f educa tion suggests that the process decided on should include the creation o f an advisory committee w idely representa- tive o f comm unity interests.” Matthew. i p h o to b y Veronica Green Prophett (o f the school board) feels that there is already an academic excel lence c o m m itte e -in fact, there are 106 o f them, he claims. M arty Howard, chairman o f the board, claims the extensive 16 month period o f inaction on PPS’ part is be cause “ W e’ ve been waiting/hoping for people from the com m unity w ith ideas o f their ow n.” Charged w ith incqual educational opportunities for minority/disadvantaged students, Prophett shrugs o ff the alle gation w ith his sentiment that the fault lies as much w ith parents and other influences (such as instability at a house hold level). He cited a 1988 figure o f the dropout rates, o f blacks, which he says is low er than the figure for whites. A d ditio na lly, he presented a chart o f the local schools w ith the lowest atten dance for the 1989-90 school year. Another chart Prophett proudly dis played illustrated the incline o f black test scores, rising disproportionately faster than their w hite counterparts. The end result, however, was s till infe rio r fo r blacks, more than any other race: regardless o f the rate o f incline, this s till illustrates a problem. The school board’s Ross Dey claims that the largest problem w ith PPS is not its performance, but its reputation. Prophett is adamantly against the boycott, defending PPS by claiming those hurt by it are actually the teach ers. * ‘The threat o f a boycott has done grievous and irreparable damage...to the 4,000 teachers.” _______________ The Rainbow Coalition meets Wed., at 6:30 p.m. at Multnomah County Libraryto discuss boycott dateslsights. The Portland Observer will be continu ing its coverage o f boycott events. lood for Oil: Behind the Gulf Crisis war, and PAGE 2 death storm : an anti-war view, and what we eando PAGE! •THE TRUTH: the war as MLKJ may have seen it PAGE 6 News Religion Sports Entertainment Martin Luther King Classifieds Bids/Sub Bids Subsidized Housing Next Week Rainbow Coalition, Black United Front, & PPS Boycott F * *■ * * 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 BY DR. MANNING MARABLE "V ------- 7 W — ears from now people w ill won- der w ith amazement how and why the United States became em broiled in the Persian G u lf Crisis. Because despite the rhetoric in the Congressional debate over granting President Bush the power to initiate warfare, and despite the media’s con stant coverage o f Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the Am erican people are more poorly informed about the reasons for this crisis than any other ear in our history. L e t’ s begin w ith the essentials. The United States did not send American troops into the G u lf to ‘ ‘oppose aggres sion” or to defend “ democracy” or support the right o f K uw ait to resist Iraq’s aggression, fo r decades, “ ag gression” has been a cornerstone o f U.S. foreign policy. Eight years ago, the U.S. launched a massive, illegal in vasion o f Grenada, on the false pretext that American lives were endangered. Much o f the w orld opposed U.S. ag gression in Panama and the im position o f a puppet regime loyal to Am erican interests. The American response was to veto several United Nations Security Council resolutions critical o f the inva sion. N or does the United States oppose “ aggression” when it's comm itted by its allies. When Israel invaded neigh boring Lebanon, bombing Beirut and k illin g about twenty thousand people, the United States vetoed U.N. security council moves denouncing this aggres sion. When racist South A frica institu tionalized apartheid, murdered and imprisoned thousands o f the regim e’ s critics, and launched murderous inva sions against Namibia, Angola and Mozambique, the U.S. said virtu a lly nothing. When Iran was our enemy a few years ago, the U.S. did nothing when Saddam Hussein gassed Kurdish rebels in his country. The Reagan administration indirectly helped Iraq obtain sophisticated weapons to use against the Iranians. I t ’ s also d iffic u lt to characterize the form er regime in Kuw ait as a bas tion o f democracy, or to applaud the current, corrupt monarchy o f Saudi Arabia as a fortress for liberal values and beliefs. No one doubts that Saddam Hussein is a despotic dictator. But the same is also true fo r the Em iro fK u w a it and the ruling class o f Saudi Arabia. In Kuw ait, the vast m ajority o f the popu lation were noncitizens, p o litica lly disfranchised. Censorship in the press was pervasive, and K uw aiti dissidents claim that i f the E m ir ever reclaims power in his country again, that the level o f p olitical repression w ill be in tensified. The Saudis have a long his tory o f torture, executions, suppression o f w om en’s rights, and an absence o f democracy. W hy is the United States fighting on the side o f these despots? The croco dile tears ' ng shed for the Kuwaitis who were murdered and raped by Sad dam’s troops explain nothing about George Bush’s decision to send 400,000 troops into the G u lf, a force larger than the number o f Americans who invaded Europe in W orld W ar II. The basic reason is the political economy o f o il, and the singular fact that Americans, who represent five percent o f the world’s population, consumeconscrvatively 26 percent o f a ll petroleum. The Saudis, the Kuw aitis, and the other o il rich sheiks are actually ju n io r partners in a corporate conglomerate system involv ing W a ll Street, the m ultinational cor porations and capitalist elites in the United States and Western Europe. Dependable control over cheap and reliable sources o f energy is essential to the corporate and m ilita ry hierar chies in this country. That’ s part o f the reason w hy George Bush things it is cheaper to spill American blood in the sands o f K uw ait than to give up dom i nation and control over international o il sources. Perhaps the biggest tragedy ot the G u lf crisis was the manipulation o f the nation by President Bush into a confrontational situation with Saddam’s regime. A token American force, pref erably under United Nations co.' i md, would have been sufficient to halt Saddam from attacking Saudi Arabia. Bush’s secret decision to double the number o f Am erican troops in the re gion, made before the 1990 Congres sional elections but announced after ward, made a negotiated settlement almost impossible. Bush, not Saddam Hussein, made the confrontation in evitable.