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A ugust 11, 1993 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age A2
^PurManb (©bseruer
St. L o u is Still B a ttlin g P e r c e p tio n s
Hotels and A ttractions Remain
Unaffected by Midwest Floods
Mark Twain, so the story goes,
once remarked after reading about
his demise in a newspaper that " re ­
ports of his death had been greatly
exaggerated "Today the Mississippi
River's most famous pilot might sym­
pathize w ith St Louis' predicament
as misperceptions and rumors con­
tinue to develop from coverage o f the
recent floods I n effect, rumors o f our
flood have been greatly exagger­
ated
To set the record straight for
travelers, the St Louts Convention
& Visitors Commission (SLCVC) is
answering questions about the Hood
on its toll-free visitor information
number, 1-800-888-3861.
So what is the real picture in St
Louis' visitor industry this sum m er9
The community ’s main interstate
highways and bridges remain safe
and open None o f the hotels has
been affected by high w ater and the
only visitor attractions not open are
the riverboats along Sullivan Blvd
The Gateway Arch, visited by
two and a h alf million people each
year, has reported a dramatic in­
crease in attendance over the last
few weeks due to curiosity about
the Mississippi River The grounds
o f th e 6 3 0 - f o o t- ta ll n a tio n a l
St. Louis' visitor attractions and hotels - before and during the flood o f 93 - have stayed dry and open for business
Nation Of Islam
I bear witness that there is only
one god, and I bear witness that the
oppressed people of the earth are
valuable in God’s sight
1 thank Allah (God) every day for
blessing us to understand more and
more the importance of reaching out
to other people, regardless of their
color, in an attempt to break down
barriers of hostility and misunder­
standing. The following article was
written July 19, 1993 in the New
Federalist Newspaper: “We wish to
c o n g ra tu la te
M in iste r
L ouis
Farrakhan on choosing to celebrate
his 60th birthday by performing Felix
M endelssohn’s beautiful violin con­
certo. This is also an opportune time
to correct some mischaracterizations
of Minster Farrakhan and the Nation
of Islam that we (colleagues and asso­
ciates of Lyndon LaRouche) previ­
ously published.
Several years ago. New Solidar­
ity, the predecessor to New Federal­
ist, based on information that we be­
lieved to be reliable, reported that
Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of
Islam w ere advocating the use of ter­
rorism and domestic violence against
the U.S. government. Since then, we
have found Minister Farrakhan and
his associates to be honorable and
truthful, and accept their assertion
that their organization then and now
absolutely rejects terrorist activity
against our government. It is unfortu­
nate that this dialogue had not oc­
curred earlier, which would have al­
lowed us to come to this understand­
ing sooner
Our joint appreciation of the up­
lifting beauty of great classical music
provides a common ground for us to
move forward Hopefully there will
be many areas of mutual interest and
work where our parallel and joint
efforts will be of some benefit to man­
kind in this time of deepening world
crisis As Salaam Alaikum Col leagues
an d A sso c ia te s o f L yndon H.
LaRouche, Jr.” The abovearticle made
me very happy and confident that
more people will listen to Minister
Farrakhan before making a judge­
ment. For this is the most intelligent
posture that we should hold." If in the
court of law, a man is considered
innocent until he is prosen guilty,
beyond a reasonable doubt, then 1
would hope that you w ould savejudge-
ment of brother Farrakhan until you
have heard what 1 have to say.” Min­
ister Louis Farrakhan Self-Improve­
ment speech. Phoenix. Arizona.
Mixed feelings and controversy sur­
rounded Brother Farrakhan as they
surrounded his teacher, the Honor­
able
Elijah Muhammad We all mis­
understand or mispcrccivcat onetime
or another Whatever errors we have
made, whatever misperceptions we
have expressed have been the conse­
quence of action without thought
Thank you for reading this.
Sincerely, your brother Elijah-
G het to Rise
MHCC Fall Term Open Registration
Open registration for fall term
classes at Mt. Hood Community Col-
lege will be held Monday-Thursday,
Aug. 18-Sept 2 ,8am to 7:30pm The
college is closed on Friday s until after
Telephone registration will be
available Sept 13-24 for students tak-
ing eight credit hours or less w ho will
be paying by VISA or MasterCard
Telephone registration hours will be
labor Day, Sept.6. From Sept. 7-24.
open reg istratio n hours w ill be
monday-Thursday , 8am to 7:30pm;
and Friday 8am to 4:30pm Fall-term
classes begin Sept. 27. Photo idcntifi-
cation is requiredofall students w hen
they register
Monday-Thursday, 1 lam to6:30pm:
and Friday 9:30am to 4:30pm Stu-
dents registering by telephone should
have their credit card number, social
security number, course and section
numbers ready when they call To
register by telephone call 667-7238
---------- -------- Z---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------
Full-time students and those who plan
to take an english composition, math­
ematics or reading course must take a
College Placement Test (CPT) The
test is free and helps direct students to
classes suited to their ability. For
information about placement test
times, call 667-7644.
For additional registration infor­
mational call 667-7392.
'
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i a . v
The Rivers Flow Deep With Genius
I appreciate the response of read­
ers to last week' s double a rticle on the
’Midwest Floodsof 1993' that related
the successful solutions of ancient
African engineers to current failures
to “control nature". Especially sig­
nificant was the comment of a teacher
who correlated the depth of the Afri­
can commune w ith nature to the feel­
ings expressed in the black spiritual.
"Deep River”.
While it is certainly future that
today's so-callcd-
m astersofthc earth
are failing every
day in such a mis­
sion which leaves
the environm ent
devastated, is it not
equally true that
African Americans
as well have ignored the treasure trove
of invention from a well-documented
past9 I barely touched the tip of the
iceberg in my book. "Black Inventors
of American ”,
As several teachers say. they can
sec the basis for dozens of practical
lesson plans evolving from just these
two articles
Even a superficial examination
reveals that, historically, these an­
cient peoples dealt very competently
with the major components of a
nation's infrastructure and technol­
ogy: Agriculture, shipping, construc­
tion projects of great magnitude, the
management of workforces number­
ing in the tens of thousands, support­
ing record-keeping and accounting-
not to mention astronomy, mathemat­
ics, instrumentation and other tech­
nology.
Given, that it is going to be good
MONEY ORDER,
P ortland , O regon 97208 |
The Portland OOserver welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts
and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if
accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads
become the sole property of the newspaper and can not be used In other
publications or personal usage, without the written eynsenl of the general
manager, unless the client has purchaseo the composition of such ad. ©
1993 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,
REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART Wl 1HOUT PERMISSION IS
p e r s p e c tiv e s
to get back into the schools again w ith
key programs for motivating both
black and white youngsters—and as­
sisting them to relate the sometimes
dry recitation of textbooks to real­
time exam ples-one can still be sad­
dened that much w as not done earlier
I have reference to the many youths
on the street today who have no idea
of w ho they really are, and no idea
whatsoev er of their real and innate
capabilities. 1 know that 1 had the
historical and the
contemporary role
models, and can­
not imagine hav­
ing dev eloped and
matured without
them
As might be
indicated, there
were many relevant profiles in those
"flood articles” that there was not
room to develop It is very interesting
and significant that many of the great
"black inventors’ of this century and
last were inspired and motivated by
similar accounts of the accomplish­
ments of our ancestors. I would cite in
particular, “Norbert Rillieux” (1806-
1894), the inventor of the 'Sugar
Refiner’, a multiple-stage evapora­
tive process not only key to the eco­
nomic production of ‘w hite’ sugar,
but in paper making and dozens of
other chemical processes; Patent No.
4879. Dec. 10, 1846.
In nty personnel workshops for
the U S. Forest Service Civil Rights
Office, the profile of this great black
inventor, Egy ptologist and engineer
was always an effective and welcome
presentation. I can especially remem­
ber the satisfaction of the then head of
the Mt Hood National Forest. Dale
Robertson,
Who is now Chief of the entire
U.S. Forest Service in Washington,
D C. The U.S. Forest Service is a
div ision of the Dept. of Agriculture
and th is agency had d escribed
Mr. Rillieux’s innovation as “the
greatest invention in the history
o f chem ical e n g in eerin g ” . T his
component of my presentation al­
ways had a rather sobering effect
on many of the racists in the audience
who were wont to deprecate the cog­
nitive abilities of minorities. There
were pronounced changes in person­
nel office attitudes in many of the 19
F o rest D is tric ts I co v ered in
Oregon,Washington and Idaho (Just
sent him a new program).
In regard to 'floods’, Rillieu
developed an elaborate engineering
plan to drain and protect the city of
New Orleans This was last century
before the Civil War The plan was
rejected, but we find that a hundred
years later the project was imple­
mented in almost exactly the same
detail We cannot say that the rejec­
tion was due to racism, but consider
the following
So essential was the Rillieux in­
vention to Southern industry and ag­
riculture in that slavocracy, that the
planters who found it necessary to
have the great black engineer on their
plantations for weeks at a time for
consultation—actually built special
quarters for him halfway between the
'Big House’ and the slave quarters.
These became known throughout the
sugar cane country as “ Rillieux
Houses "-alw ays available for his
comings and goings.
Self Enhancement Tips
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m onum ent are one o f the few
places in the Midwest where vis­
itors can get a good look at the
height o f the river without interfer­
ing with relief efforts in outlying
areas Some other local visitor at­
tractions have seen a recent dip in
attendance which they attribute to
visitors who have a false impression
about the effects o f the flood
o f 93 on St Louis. On the average,
St Louis hotels are reporting a mixed
reaction from customers - some
m in o r and u n n e c e ssa ry c a n ­
cellations, some telephone calls ex­
pressing concern, and some increases
in business
“ We have great sympathy for
people affected by the flood,” said
SLCVC President Bob Bedell. “ But
visitors shouldn't compound this
problem by staying away from popu­
lar vacation and meeting destina­
tions such as St. Louis for no rea­
son .” Tourism is as $2.5 billion a
year business in St Louis, employ­
ing more than 45,000 local people
w ho depend on a healthy visitor in­
dustry for their jobs
Travelers with questions are en­
couraged to call 1-800-888-3861
where St Louis Convention & Visi­
tors Commission visitor information
operators are prepared to answer their
concerns
city, S l a t e __
opcode
T hank Y ou F or R eading
T he P ortland O bserver ¡
•
P o rtland School D istrict
O utreach For the first time in its
history, the Portland School District
has contracted out its elementary
school academic enrichm ent pro­
gram SEI has been selected by the
school d istric t to conduct this
sum m er's program, vv Inch helps pre­
pare second through fifth graders for
standardized achievement tests SEI
counselors arc working throughout
the summer vv ith students to enhance
their test-taking and academic skills
•
Kids and sum m er. SEI's
summer program is in full swing
Three hundred fifty SEI students,
ranging from second through 12th
grade, participated in organized aca­
demic and athletic activities that fo­
cus on improv ing self-esteem Tours
of the program and interv iews with
the children can be arranged
•
SEI graduates first full
class. The first group of kids went
through SEI's entire academic pro­
gram, from eight grade till gradua­
tion from Jefferson High School this
spri ng AI I of t lie students arc college-
bound this fall For individual inter­
views, please call Tony Hopsou or
Ray Leary at SEI. 249-1721
•
SEI students get a taste of
the business world. Self Enhance­
ment has paired up six of its high
school-age students with four compa­
nies around the Portland area for
summer work experience The paid
internships prov ide theyoung people
with a valuable look at the working
world, and help keep them olT the
streets Participating businesses ar
■■. •..
» » I
Directors Furniture, Copeland Lum­
ber. Jubitz Tire & Truck Center and
McCall Oil
•
Form er high school a th ­
letes take a step hack in tim e...to
1972. Basketball teammates from the
1972 JcfTerson, Grant, Benson and
Washington High Schoolstcams meet
again on the Washington High School
basketball court August 21 Not only
will they be reliv ing their youth, but
the net ticket sale proceeds will go to
support SEI (Local basketball trivia:
the Benson High School team was
state companion 1971, 1973, 1974
and 1975; JcfTerson took the prize in
1972 SEI's founders, Tony Hopson
and Ray lcary, led Jefferson’s team to
the championship )