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Page 2... The Portland Observer...September 30, 1992
“ Gang Banging” Is a Business, Too.
JAMES L POSEY
James Posey is a local small busi­
ness owner with a background in social
w ork and comm unity activism.
“ Gang Banging” - It may not fit
the traditional notion o f a business en­
terprise but a close look reveals some
surprising sim ilarities. For example, a
lot o f successful people have developed
their own business because they could
not gam oppoitunities through regular
employment. I ’d say that’s real true o f
“ gang bangers.” Surely everyone knows
that one goes into business to f ill an
unmet need, to satisfy a market. Young
people know that there is an unlim ited
market fo r violence and corruption sea­
soned by fear and frustration, particu­
larly in Northeast Portland. There is a
sense that they can have a fie ld day
because when they weight the other
options, there is very little risk o f fa il­
ure, and success is virtually assured.
Just ask the little young dudes riding
around on bicycles selling crack co­
caine in broad daylight!
The not-so-obvious benefits to our
alienated youth is the recognition and a
sense o f rcspectthey obtain. Recogni­
tion is important to an otherwise invis­
ible existence, labeled by many a lost
generation. Negative attention is better
than no attention at all. One wonders i f
a more sophisticated business could
have gotten as much attention and pub­
lic ity as these “ gang bangers” are get­
ting. This publicity has been a w indfall
for the “ gang banging” business. As far
as respect is concerned, young people
have discovered that everybody in­
stantly respects a .45 or a 357 magnum.
And, since many young people can’t
seem to gain respect in traditional ways,
to them, negative respect is certainly
better than no respect. True, it may be
a false sense o f respect, but many see
their stock rise w ith every T V news
report, newspaper portrayal, or special
youth program designed to contain their
activities. The M afia, Jesse James, A1
Capone, Bonnie and Clyde combined
couldn’ t raise enough hell to get scared
NE residents to demand calling out the
National Guard.
The most powerful comparison to
business and gangs is the notion o f
ownership and belonging. Check out
General Motors, IB M , Nike or som eof
the other big boys when they come
under attack and their p ro fit position is
compromised. It may not be from the
b a n d o f a gun, but you can bet there is
guts i f not blood involved. When it
comes to the need to belong, hey, le t’ s
face it; it is a major, i f not the most
powerful, m otivation in human behav­
ior. That’s largely what gang colors,
“ home boy” , and the other gang sym­
bolism is all about. A ctually, it ain’ t too
much different from the swoosh and
N ike Town.
But more than anything else, it ’ s
about economics. As one form er young
“ blood” members said on a T V inter­
view, “ We a in ’t stupid, i t ’s about eco­
nomics. I f we had other options, we
would take 'e m .” I guess to me that’s
why it ’s a sad irony to hear residents
asking fo r the intervention o f the Na­
tional Guard. Instead o f asking that the
National Guard come into the commu­
nity to quell the unrest, residents should
be demanding that the National Guard
make sure it hires and trains as many o f
these Black youth as it does a represen­
tative number o f white youth. I have
first hand knowledge that the National
Guard is not a part o f the solution, but
in fact, is a part o f the problem. The A ir
National Guard, in particular, is main­
taining a v irtu a lly all-w hite, private
flyin g club. The Guard is a large, far-
ranging economic system in which
Black youth, especially those with a
poor education or crim inal record, w ill
never participate. Northeast residents
should be sure that when they are at­
tempting to drive out the demons, they
don’ t risk getting the devil himself. The
N ational Guard has re la tiv e ly few
people o f color in their ranks, and many
in the Guard are likely to come from
places like Grants Pass, M edford, North
Bend, and Albany. They would arrive in
the com m unity, packing M-16s, w ith
little or no training in how to contain
riots and c iv il disobedience, or conduct
law enforcem ent operations. Some
guardsmen have never seen a Black
person alive and up close. It m ight be a
b it hard for them to distinguish between
a gang member and a teacher at the
Black Education Center. Residents
should be careful what they ask for; they
just m ight get it.
As far as economics goes, the local
police are not much better. It was about
four years ago that I had breakfast w ith
then Captain Potter at the L lo yd Center
Red Lion Inn. The discussion was about
how the police hiring process through
the c iv il service system and police union
politics almost totally excludes the re­
cruitm ent and hiring o f Blacks. We dis­
cussed a strategy to address the problem
by establishing a pre-employment train­
ing academy made up prim arily o f North­
east residents. The police already have a
reserve o ffice r or deputy program that
has fo r years been serving the same
purpose, p rim arily for w hite residents.
W ell just the other day, I saw now C hie f
Potter coming o u to f the K ing Neighbor­
hood Center. He had j ust finished a news
conference outlining measures to stop
the latest outbreak o f gang violence in
Northeast Portland. I asked him about
our discussion o f several years ago. He
indicated that his o ffice is trying to
establish acitizen training academy, but
it has been slow in coming. I ’d say it ’ s
damn slow in coming, about five or six
deaths too slow. I hope Northeast resi­
dents demand that he get on w ith making
this happen w ith the same insistence that
they are demanding the intervention o f
the National Guard. Because it w on’t be
the armed forces or the National Guard
that w ill put the “ gang bangers” out o f
business. Rather, it w ill take the efforts
o f the National Guard and the rest o f the
com m unity to include them and share
the fruits o f their business.
- V-
Letter To The Editor:
I deeply disagree with Senator Mark
H atfield’ s stand against Oregon in itia ­
tive 9. Environmentalists must agree
that Homosexuality is not ecological.
As an unnatural behavior. Homosex
should be eligible for medical assis­
tance. There is a fu ll medical cure fo r
Homosexuality practiced in China. Per­
haps another cure could be found. Mea­
sure 9 w ould redefine Homosex as an
illness thus making victim s eligible for
medical aid.
Even stronger is my disagreement
w ith reasons H atfield cited fo r taking
his stand. H atfield wanted Christian
love for homosexuals. Im plied was to
support and do nothing to cure them.
This reasoning applied to AIDS frus­
trates many sufferers who want a cure.
True Christian love helps heal prob-
lems, not hide them.
H a tfie ld claim ed separation o f
church and state. That fallacy has been
disproved on Christian television and
the Supreme C ourt by Christian lawyer
Jay Sekulow. The same Congress that
approved the firs t amendment also es­
tablished m ilita ry chaplains.
M ilita ry chaplains have Federal
support to spread the gospel but their
command authority is separate. This
prototype should be duplicated through­
out government, all the way to public
schools. Instead o f fo llo w in g the o rig i­
nal prototype, modem liberals rede­
fined separation o f church and state to
im ply total abstinence from God in
affairs o f state. Congress must reestab­
lish the correct interpretation and act
accordingly.
H a tfie ld said C h ris tia n view s
should come from the heart and not be
legislated. Legislation should reflect
the highest ideals, providing an envi­
ronment which supports a society o f
virtue and continuous growth toward
perfection. The heart needs training to
be right; such training is no longer
given in schools, by the examples o f our
elder statesmen, business leaders, or
many traditional churches.
H atfield could be healing major
social problems by turning this nation
toward God. Instead like any liberal he
uses misapplied, twisted, illo gica l, and
false reasons to condone, thus spread
the mental disease Hom osexuality, now
growing in epidemic proportions. Be­
cause o f gross incompetence, H atfield
doesn’ t deserve another term in office.
Sincerely,
K irk W . Fraser
Portland Observer encourages our readers to write letters
to the editor in response to any articles we publish.
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t y Professor M cK inle y B urt
▼ ▼ ▼
▼ ▼
“I Will Do Anything To Win This
Election” Sincerely, George Bush
W ho said the man was a liar? You
watch your mouth. Who are these Demo­
crats and media pundits, not to mention
B ill C linton, that maintain you should
not expect to hear the truth from these
presidential lips. That headline state­
ment above is absolute proof -positive
there are times when you may safely
read his lips (and he does mean “ any­
thing” ).
As the administration was telling
it, there was no money fo r many o f the
vital programs and initiatives being
offered up by congress or requested by
federal and state agencies seeking to
maintain a decent service level in a
deteriorating economy. The number o f
“ vetoes” exceeded the number exer­
cised by any president since the found­
ing o f the republic, despite the fact that
m illions more (including children) were
dropping below the poverty level. And
though growing unemployment and pro­
jected layoffs are approaching “ depres­
sion” ’ not recession, levels.
But suddenly, as the polls in d i­
cated that the president’ s confidence
level had slipped by double digits in
many places, Bush did exactly what he
has been accusing congress o f doing the
past four years. He dipped into the old
“ pork barrel’ and began handing out
money like a sailor on leave. Bush
quickly indicated the targets o f his “ gen­
tler-kinder” philosophy, scrapping a
ca m p a ig n s ch e d u le to v is it the
M cDonnell Douglass plant in St. Louis
where they were told they could sell 72
F -15s to Saudi Arabia. This move re­
quired billions in advance payments to
finance the company just as in the re­
cent sale o f fighter aircraft to Taiwan.
During the same tw o week period,
Newsweek Magazine reported that Bush
announced $23 b illio n in foreign arms-
sales contracts, federal subsidies and
disaster relief (“ Bush has made a career
o f doing whatever it takes to win an
election” ). Now, this is the man who
paints B ill C linton as a “ Tax and spend
democrat’ and who says that the thou­
sands o f American schools that are ill-
equipped w ith the modem science
equipment needed to reach the goals o f
yesterday, let alone any “ Year 2000”
projection, “ do not need more monies
to w aste-give’ em choice” . The schools
are having trouble just financing the
removal o f the lead from the plumbing.
Then, o f course, we have the b il­
lions the Department o f Agriculture
used to subsidize grain shipments to
Iraq not long before the invasion o f
Kuwait. As though we were stupid c h il­
dren, we are told that this was a “ non­
m ilita ry transaction” . A well-rounded-
idio t could perceive that i f a nation did
not have to spend its money on food,
then, it could spend that same amount
on “ weapons” -a n d Iraq certainly did
just that!Perhaps, i f none o f this idiocy
seems to make sense, we should re­
member that George Bush is a former
head o f the C IA , and that the region
;.
where the “ Comedy O f Errors” plays
daily, is the o il-rich M iddle East. “ Who
knows but the shadow, what goes on in
the hearts” and schemes o f man? E vi­
dently, a number o f folks do , as a
number o f defectors blow the whistle
before congressor a special prosecutor-
-or write a book. The Iraq-Iran war is
now seen in a new light.
The strangest scenario is where the
Bush administration fla ils away at the
“ arms dealers” and asks for penalties
against those nations who are jeopar­
dizing world security by selling weap­
ons o f mass destruction to third world
countries, the United States is now the
w orld ’ s biggest arms dealer, nd this
country screams in dismay as Russia
tries to sell three elderly submarines to
Iran, the “ defectors” mentioned above
now document, along w ith foreign jo u r­
nalists, that this country happily sup­
plied both sides in that Iraq-Iran war
which left m illions upon m illions dead
on the desert k illin g floor. D id we ever
collect on these bills? That w ill not
raise the dead, o f course.
We note in passing, that Bush be­
trayed his beloved “ fam ilies” by veto­
ing the “ Fam ily Leave” b ill, and that
other potential republican voters and
campaign contributors are being wooed
by dangling before their eyes the huge
profits that w ill result i f all those jobs
are shipped to M exico under that “ Trade
A c t” . Things may get better, but I don’ t
know when.
•.....
•••• g B
’ * S? *'•
Dear Fellow Oregonian:
As a concerned Oregon citizen, I
am asking you to jo in w ith me in voting
No on Measure 9, i f passed, would be
the first piece o f legislation in this
Nation’s history which would take away
C iv il Rights from any o f its citizens,
and would encourage hate, intolerance,
distrust, and violence.
Measure 9 was designed by the
Oregon C itizens’ Alliance (O C A ) and
is intended to amend the Oregon State
Constitution to relegate gay men and
lesbian women to the status o f second
class citizens. It would make it legal to
discriminate against them in housing,
insurance, finance, employment, po­
lice protection, health care, and in all
other aspects o f daily living.
The O C A is a neo-Nazi, fanatical
religious hate group, which is targeting
a vulnerable segment o f our society by
spreading half-truths, and out and out
lies about the sexual orientation o f gay
men and lesbian women. The O C A,
w ith its Measure 9, is attempting to
equate the sexual orientation o f a large
segm ent o f o u r p o p u la tio n w ith
pedophilia, sadism, and masochism,
none o f which has anything to do w ith
sexual orientation.
Gay men and lesbian women do
not want “ Special Rights” , they want
Equal Rights, and Measure 9 is struc­
... .
tured, not only to take away their Equal
Rights, but to take away the Equal
Rights o f all those perceived to be gay
or lesbian and from all those who sup­
port them.
Measure 9 is a dangerous piece o f
legislation and has the a b ility to open
doors to a ll kinds o f abuse, not only to
gays and lesbians, but to all minorities,
as well, and to any person or group o f
people, whom the O C A considers not to
be in agreement w ith its own biased,
hate-filled and bigoted agenda.
Please jo in w ith me in voting NO
on Measure 9 in November.
Sincerely,
John Kurka
This Way For Black Empowerment
By Dr. Lenora Fulani
T -E • D • D • Y
On Monday, September 14-the day
before the New York primary-Congress­
man Ted Weiss died. M r. Weiss, who
had represented the predom inantly
white and Jewish 8th Congressional
D istrict on the West S ide o f Manhattan
fo r 16 years, was one o f the few liberals
left in his party. It was common k n o w l­
edge that M r. Weiss, who had under­
gone m ajor heart surgery twice in the
last few years, was dying.
W ith in hours o f his death, state
Democratic Party leaders swung into
action. New Y o rk election law allows
party leaders-without consulting the
voters-to appoint a replacement i f the
winner o f the prim ary dies or is other
wise unable to run in the general elec­
tion (in a one-party town such as New
Y o rk, whoever wins the Democratic
Party prim ary is assured a victory in
November). So party leaders needed to
make sure that Congressman Weiss,
though deceased, would win the Demo­
cratic prim ary.
This would not have been a serious
problem except fo r the fact that the
New Alliance Party, which I head up,
had mounted a challenge to M r. Weiss
(who otherwise would have run unop­
posed) in the person o f A rthur Block, a
progressive Jewish attorney w ith im ­
peccable credentials as a legal scholar,
an educator, and a c iv il rights and de­
mocracy lawyer.
Suddenly all hell broke loose! There
was achancc-remotq, but theanti-demo-
crats don’t like to take any chances­
urging voters in the 8th C .D. to pull the
lever for M r. Weiss despite the fact that
he was dead in order t6 make sure that
the candidate o f the New Alliance Party-
which he said “ opposes democratic idc-
als” -lost. David Dinkins, the c ity ’s first
Black mayor, said they should vote for
Ted Weiss and against the New A l l i ­
ance Party, whose Policies he called
“ offensive.” The Manhattan district
leader, a Black state assemblyman from
Harlem, chimed in on the same note. In
response to reporters’ questions, M r.
Block extended his condolences to M r.
Weiss’ fam ily, colleagues and friends-
and that was thaL He refused to partici­
pate in turning Ted W eiss’ death into a
political football.
On Primary Day voters woke up to
editorials in every major newspaper
obediently echoing the shamelessly
antidem ocratic scare tactics o f the
Democratic Party honchos.
I was appalled that these Demo­
cratic Party politicians and their friends
in the press had turned the death o f a
human being into a platform for a p o liti­
cal attack on the New Alliance Party. 1
was particularly offended by the com ­
ments made by M ayor Dinkins.
The mayor chose to attack the New
Alliance party in the liberal Jewish
comm unity he routinely courts at the
expense o f the Black and Latino com ­
munities which delivered his victory in
1989. As his own re-election bid next
year looms on the horizon, he is again
seeking to ingratiate him self w ith Jew­
ish electorate; trashing the Black-led
N AP is one way to do it.
Now if M r. Dinkins is so dead set
against my “ offensive policies,” I chal­
lenge him to bring this anti-NAP atti­
tude up to Harlem! I challenge him to
level the same charges against Barbara
Taylor, an African American educator
and New Alliance Party leader running
in Harlem’ s 70th Assembly D istrict! I
dare him to run the same line on the
Black youth in the Crown Heights seo-
tion o f Brooklyn-the same youth I pre­
vented from rushing the cops last year
in what would have been a bloodbath
(justifiably angry, they had come out
into the streets in the hundreds when a
seven-year-old Black child was kille d
in a hit-and-run accident and the cops
helped the driver and his passengers get
away before the little boy was even
treated)! M ayor Dinkins (who is more
at home at the U.S. Open Tennis Cham­
pionships than in the Black commu­
n ity) had to sneak in and out o f the
comm unity w ith a police escort.
1 nstead o f taking pot shots at Arthur
Block, why didn’ t the mayor come into
the Black comm unity and take a shot at
me? Because, like the state chairman o f
his party, David D inkins is playing a
vulgar and opportunistic political game.
He’ s using N AP as a smokescreen to
cover the crim inal and imm oral corrup­
tion o f the Democratic Party. Just as he
forced N A P ’ s candidate for the U.S.
Senate, the prominent Arab scholar,
Dr. M .T. Mehdi, o ff his Christopher
Columbus Quincentcnnial Commission
underpressure from New Y o rk ’ s Z ion ­
ist mafia, he is using the occasion o f
Congressman W eiss’ death to score
some more points w ith Jewish voters.
He w on’ t come to Harlem to take me on
because he doesn’ t think it w ill help
him p olitically. He doesn’t have the
guts for that fight. The only balls he has
arc tennis balls.
To speak to Dr. Fulani, call 212-
996-4700. For inform ation or fo r media
booking, call Madelyn Chapman at
C a stillo C om m unications 212-941-
5800.