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Voíurnn XXII, Number 3
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“The Eyes andEars of the Community”
M r s . F r a n c e s S c h o e n - N e w s p a p e r Re
U n i v e r s i t y o f O re g o n L i b r
E u g e n e , O re g o n
97403
^ n rila n h (©bserirer
Lewellen Named To Head Nike’s
Urban And Minority Affairs
Inc., the w orld’s lead-
ng athletic shoe and
apparel m anufac-
has named Michael
Lewellen as its Manager o f Urban
and M in o rity A ffairs. Lewellen had
been public relation manager at South­
western Bel Telephone’s St. Louis head­
quarters fo r the past six years.
In his new position, Lewellen w ill
be responsible for national philanthropic
programs which target education for
inner c ity youth. He w ill also oversee
corporate contributions from N IK E ’ s
“ Just D o I t ” fund to m in ority organiza­
tions, along w ith corporate visib ilty
w ithin m inority markets.
In 1990, Lewellen served as presi­
dent o f the St. Louis Chapter o f the
International Association o f Business
communicators (IA B C /S L Louis). He
also served on the board o f directors for
two St. Louis charities - Grace H ill
Neighborhood Services and the Univer­
sity C ity C hildren’s Center.
A form er sports reporter fo r the
Pine B lu ff (Arkansas) commercial
newspaper, Lewellen holds a bache­
lo r’s degree in journalism from Arkan­
sas State U niversity. In 1989, he earned
the international distinction o f " A c ­
credited Business communicator (ABC )’ ’
from the International Association o f
Business Communicators.
Two years ago Velma Maria Spears
was investing long arduous hours at her
jo b at Bonneville Power Adm inistra­
tion, where she has been employed fo r
the past four years, and taking courses
at Portland State U niversity and PCC
Sylvania Campus. Her intent was to
amass more hours to go towards her
degree in Electrical Engineering.
She graduated from IT T Technical
Institute, in A p ril o f 1987, w ith an A s­
sociate o f Applied Science Degree in
Electrical Engineering Technology.
Velma carried a fu ll academic sched­
ule and worked tw o part-time jobs
because she knew fu ll-w e ll that her
M om , who was the sole support o f the
fam ily, could not pay fo r her schooling.
She worked hard and studied hard.
Velma discovered, to her disappoint­
ment, that none o f her credits from IT T
would transfer. But this did not hinder
her drive to move forward. She had a
goal and she was not about to let any­
one or anything get in her way. Her
hard work and long hours o f study
Governor’s Commission for Women, The
Hanford Nuclear Waste Board, and The
Youth Conservation Corps Advisory
Committee.
Representative G ordly is the former
program director o f the H ouseof Umoja,
a Portland gang intervention facility. She
was also the associate director o f the
Pacific Northwest Region American
Friends Service Committee.
Currently the Citizens Chair o f the
C h ie fs Forum, G ordly is a former Pa­
role and Probation O ffice r for the State
o f Oregon.
“ I ’ ve been able to w ork in this dis­
trict w ith a great diversity o f people on
the things we care about most - kids,
public safety, human rights, and neigh­
borhood stability,” said G ordly. “ Help­
ing people who feel left out by the sys­
tem re-gain a personal sense o f empow-
erment is one o f my prim ary sources o f
fu lfillm e n t. Consequently, I feel very
w ell prepared to tackle these issues in
the Legislature.”
Kay Toran To Head Children’s Services
Division Metro Region
N ationally, he is an active mem­
ber o f the Public Relations Society o f
america; National Association o f black
Journalists; Kappa Alpha Psi Frater­
nity; and the United States Profes-
sional Tennis Association. Lewellen
also serves on the advisory board for
the National Association o f Part­
ners in Education in Washington,
D.C.
would fin a lly pay off.
Ms. Spears’ drive fo r excellence
began at an early age. Her mother,
M attie Ann Callier-Spears, recalls a
time when she was in elementary school;
“ M aria ’ s teacher, at Irvington Elemen­
tary School’ s Follow-Through Program,
Mrs. Bridges, said that she had never
had a student like Velma. She had an
uncanny a bility to solve math problems
in an unorthodox fashion. She got all o f
the answers right but she, Mrs. Bridges,
couldn’ t find the method o f M aria’ s
computation nowhere and in no one’ s
textbook. She would work it out the
same way each time. She w ould figure
it out in her head; and these were very
d iffic u lt mathematical equations. But
how she arrived at the answers was a
mystery to her instructors.” Mrs. Spears
recalls a problem her daughter had at
Binnsmead M iddle School. “ One day
I received a call from the principal, M r.
Tom Parr. He asked that I come into
the o ffice because there was a problem
between Velma and one o f her teach­
ers, Mrs. Roake. Mrs. Roake had given
Velma a failing grade because she said
that Velma had cheated on her test.
Maria was very adamant that she had
not cheated. Mrs. Roake said that she
must have cheated because everyone in
the class got the wrong answers except
Velma. And furthermore, the prob­
lems were not worked out p ro p e rly -
according to Mrs. Roake’ s textbook
theory. Up until that tim e Maria had
never
received
an
*F ’
in
anything....especially Math,” recalls her
mother.
It seems that this kin d -o f quandary
follow ed Velma even into high school
where she became one o f the pioneer
Perspectives
females to first walk the halls and at­
tend classes in the once all-m ale tech­
nological institution - Benson Polytech­
nical High School. During those years
and earlier, Benson’s program was for
the academic elite. It was the school
that gave students an incentive to study.
I f you couldn ’ t pass Benson ’ s entrance
exam or your GPA was below a “ B ,”
you could not enter.
T w enty-five years old, standing a
mere five feet two and a half, Velma is
as cute as a button w ith a voice as
sweet as honey dripping from the honey
comb. But she is as tough as nails. She
grew up w ith her three brothers, played
w ith her brothers’ friends, ran track,
played basketball, played tennis, par­
ticipated in gymnastics, was on the
varsity basketball rally squad and could
knock the tar out o f any boy. “ For a
very long tim e,” recalls her mother,
“ I don’ t think that Velm a realized that
she was a g ir l.”
Velma was also recognized as a
petite model. She enjoyed runway
modeling. She wanted to prove to
everyone that petite models were just
as effective as tall models on the
runway...after being told that she
couldn’t do runway modeling. “ You
have a pretty face, beautiful e yes-
B U T -y o u ’re too s h o rt” She appeared
on national T V on the Golden Graham
commercial.
She was perfectly named. Her
name Velma means, “ strong or
strength” and her m iddle name Maria
means, “ blessed.” Put them together
and she is “ Blessed Strength.” She is
the epitome o f any d efinition o f strong.
In times like these, the young A f-
continued on page2
B ill Carey, adm inistrator o f C h il­
dren’ s Services D ivision has named
Kay Toran M etro Region administrator
for CSD. The M etro Region includes
five branch offices in Portland w ith
about 350 employees.
Toran, 48 years old, was the assis­
tant administrator for M etro Region for
the past year. Her professional experi­
ence included Clackamas CSD branch
manager, administrator o f Purchasing
D ivision at the Department o f General
Services, director o f affirm ative action
for then-Governor V ic Atiyeh and
Assistant Professor for the Graduate
School o f Social W ork at Portland S tate
University.
* ‘ I am excited about the challenges
o f this jo b ,” says Toran. “ Because o f
measure five we need to have a child
welfare system that is responsive and
responsible. I want to insure an effec­
tive system that serves the needs o f
clients as w ell as responds to the ideas
and issues o f the com m unity.”
Toran replaces Betty U chytil who
was interim administrator for Metro
Region. U chytil w ill be returning to
her position as the head o f the child
welfare program office in Salem.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR
Special Edition starts on page 11
After AIDS, What?
BY PROFESSOR MCKINLEY BURT
As expected, there was quite a
response to last week’ s feature article,
“ The O rigin And Spread O f A ID S Is
F inally Revealed.” One reader even
paraphrased that old adage I ’ m always
citing about liberty, “ Eternal vigilance
is the price o f H E A L T H !” (I hesitated
to get my flu shot.)
Another noted that where we are
dealing w ith certain ‘ ‘aborigines” who
have invaded the medical profession it
is interesting to note the etymology o f
“ m alaria” ; m al is French fo r “ bad, ill,
e v il” and aria, here, is for “ a ir.” This
is derived from the idea o f the colonial­
ists and slave traders that this disease
which could cure their syphilis was the
result o f “ breathing bad air.” For this
reader it was not much o f a jum p to
recall the words M A Lefactor (c rim i­
nal) and M A Levolent (viciously evil),
or MALlfeasance (wrong doing). And,
o f course, there is MALpractice o f medi­
cine. Can there be an insidious reason
that the Bush adm inistration is so gung
ho on lim itin g the amount that can be
recovered in a malpratice suit? What
do they know that has not yet been
“ revealed” to the rest o f us?
W ell for one thing, we now know
that, worldwide, hemophiliacs have been
put at risk by injection o f blood pro­
teins contaminated by HTV viruses origi­
nated in the experiments o f injecting
humans w ith monkey blood (no need to
sleep w ith monkeys w ith European
Universities and the US Department o f
Health around). As early as 1983,
Cutter Biologicals warned that A ID S
had been reported among people w ith
hemophilia. Hundreds o f devastated
fam ilies are suing the makers o f c lo t­
ting factors. “ Head ‘em o ff at the
pass” M r. Bush.
N ow , the New York Times News
Service informs us that yet another
m ajor medical “ malfeasance” is upon
us though we have not so far been told
that this invasion o f our bodies could
have H IV or A ID S consequences (so
far). Scientists w ithin Dow Com ing
Co. urged company officials for years
to conduct critical safety studies o f the
SILICONE GEL BRAEST IMPLANTS,
but the tests were put o ff for years, a
review o f hundreds o f company docu­
ments show. W hile many o f the medi­
cal and administrative employees o f
the company quit in disgust early on,
Everybody Has A Blazer
Story
Business Employment Line
by James Posey
by McKinley Burt
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
is ju s t now getting around to issuing a
moratorium on the breast implants.
A ll in all it is rather an obscene
comedy, this “ m alevolent” perform ­
ance we have been compelled to attend.
As early as 1975, the company set up a
division called the “ Mammary Task
Force” to oversee the developement
and marketing o f the hot new product.
And this early on an o fficia l o f Dow
C om ing had noted the “ the gel had
migrated through the bodies o f ani­
mals” and that “ rabbit tests showed
persistent, disturbing inflam ation o f
tissue.” The technical director told the
F D A that the form ation o f lumps called
granulomas m ight be benign - b u t they
m ight also “ S IG N A L A SERIOUS
R E A C TIO N IN T H E B O D Y ’ S IM ­
M U N E S Y S TE M .” Can AIDS be far
behind?
Do you get the impression that
none o f these people know what they
are doing? And, further, that few o f
them care? We do indeed need a health
care revolution. But more that that, we
need a SPECIAL PROSECUTOR to
put a ll o f these crim inals away for a
long, long time.
Special
Sports
Editorial
Peer Group
Dynamics
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Special Edition Section
by Bill Barber
Page 11
Page 6
Page 2
Page 2
t
Gordly To Announce
Campaign With Food Drive
State Representative A ve l G ordly
w ill announce her candidacy for House
D istrict 19 Thursday, January 16 at
12:15 p.m. at the Westminster Presby­
terian Church, 1624 NE Hancock Street.
Representative Gordly - appointed
to f ill the seat vacated when Ron Cease
was appointed to the Oregon State
Senate - has asked her supporters to
bring a can o f food to the event which
w ill be donated to the North East
Emergency Food Program.
“ Politics means more to me than
campaigning fo r votes,” said Rep.
G ordly. “ It means actively using the
p olitical pulput to make a difference
in the lives o f people. That’ s what I ’ m
about and that’s what my campaign
w ill be about.”
Appointed to the Legislature in
September, Rep. G ordly serves on the
Inner-City Kid Makes Good: Spears
Receives UNCF Scholarship
BY TEAL N. THOMPSON
250
EDITORIAL
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ENTERTAINMENT
SPORTS
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RELIGION
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CLASSIFIEDS
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