S eptember 15, 1993 • T he P ortland O bserver P age A2 (Dp ^ParHanh (©bsertter p e r s p e c i i r e s /c w t.- .¿¿Z ¿ y “¿ y^íac/íó ' We Said We Were Unhealthy, Not Virtuous W hen I asked last week. “Can Politicians Reform Health Care In A m erica?'’ 1 had no idea that we would have had such an apparently negative answer this past weekend Following Saturday's leak' of the president C linton's comprehensive panacea for our aches, pains and dis­ abilities Sunday brought us an un­ precedented White House press con­ ference that disagreed with ninety percent of the in­ terpretations place u p o n th a t docu­ ment. No one, but no one, ever expected a H e a lth -C a re model that would meet the needs of all people, the pro­ fessional standards of all practioners. or the structural imperatives o f all providers. What I do think the public had a right to expect (including all of the above) was a sincere and commit­ ted approach to solutions w hich evi­ denced a recognition of the serious­ ness of the problem and the long-term threat to the w elfare of our nation. It is our somewhat fanciful hope that all this confusion and strident clamor does not indicate more business-as- usual and dedication to the ‘bottom line.’ T H IS We note that campaign contribu­ tions from health-related business interests have soared 46 percent dur­ ing the first half o f 1993; This is according to data from the Federal Election Commission The very new members of congress that the public has placed so much faith in to reverse business as usual in the health field are the principal targets of the deter­ mined political action committees Everyone in the sy stem seems to be gam in g ; S id e show s abound All of us taxpayers w ant the government to c o lle c t its money from those who have borrow cd funds, but really! These doctors, prin­ cipally chiropractors, osteopaths and podiatrists who owe the feds $3.2 million for their medical education (Oregon figures) are having their delinquency touted by some of the media as a major charge upon health­ care dollars. Rubbish! This is a tiny fraction of that amount ripped off by over-charging, over -billing pharma­ ceutical chains and drug houses. Who is kidding who? Many of the new medics have barely setup practice and certainly have yet to pay i W AY for expensive facilities and instru­ ments. or the rigged malpractice pre­ miums now under investigation. The D epartment of Health and Human Services reports that, nationally, the delinquency figure stands at $279 million Well, that is just the amount one group o f testing laboratories is al­ leged to have defrauded the gov ern­ ment of as they face indictment. True, there are m alingers and dead-beats in every area o f life, but a number o f us think that some of the media reports have been grossly unfair. There is a grow ing realization in this country that what we have to deal w ith in the case o f our health-care sy stem is a gigantic money machine (scheme) every bit as under-regulated and free-wheeling as w as the Savings And Loan industry'. And as we watch the frantic scrambles and m anipula­ tions to preserve turf and perks, we fear the same collapses and debacles. But, given all that for the current system, we still have the big question, “who is going to pay for the new ’ health plan with all its ambiguous ram ifications and projections—all obviously poorly understood?” I've seen a common inquiry in the head­ lines at the out-of-town newspaper stand. “Cl inton Tcam Looks For Other FOR Money Sources?” Oh, yes. that they are doing because they have been rebuffed early by some of their biggest projected sources. As 1 said early, the big boys are scrambling to protect their turf For instance, the big cam paign co n trib u to rs in the liquor indus­ tries h av e said no w ay on their slated bu rd en o f the contem plated "S in T a x e s” . T he tobacco industry is also m aking unpleasant noises ab o u t ta x in g sin, so w h at about tliat $ 105 billion dollars the adm in- is tr a tio n e x p e c te d fro m th e se sources? W e m ust keep in mind, too, th at T H E ST A T E S a re going a fte r this type o f econom ic support as hard an d fast as they c a n —plus m o re g a m b lin g c a sin o s, R iv er B oats and lotto gam es (D o n 't leave out the Indians, th e y ’re m oving up fast). W ere the Feds also looking this w av? A re som e o f us m istaken o r ill- advised w hen w e say th a t there is som ething not quite right ab o u t all o f th is; not ju s t financially w eak p lanning and stru ctu rally d isas­ tro u s, b u t m orally and ethically as w ell? I m ean, really—b asing the health a n d future o f our nation on three o f o u r m ost d isastro u s h a b ­ its? W e can do better! BLACK 5T0t> d»TME.»P W ' ON « B naaxy ûHClSlim CO he. a rssuli k Fà+ctfj., Ê jnseûuencés Z e EMPOW ERMENT B u ild in g B r id g e s by Dr. Lenora Fulani The Perot “phenom enon” isn 't going away. Polls conducted this sum ­ m er indicate that in a three-way race for the presidency, Perot would top President Clinton by four percentage points and Republican Senator Rob­ ert Dole by five points In a two-way race betw een Perot and Clinton, Perot would gain the W hite House w ith a 9% margin. No wonder leaders of both major parties are pay ing atten­ tion. Some folks w ith in the Perot movement believe that a third party’ can be built by appealing to voters from the same constituencies (prim a­ rily white and middle class) that gave Perot his 19% of the vote in 1992, rather than reaching out to include other under-enfranchised com m uni­ ties. As they see it. this approach could double the numbers to 38% and. with this base, a third party could take the W hite House in a three-way race. They favor what might be called "A Better M anagement Party”-o n e which would promise to manage the economy and the gov ernment better, but would not create a qualitatively different kind of party from the Derno- cratsand the Republicans This “new” old-sty le party would run the risk of stifling the social movement that be­ gan as Perot-style populism. Perot and his millions of followers saw the “revolution at the center" they were launching as having more to do with the need for a revolutionary overhaul of the entire way politics is done in this country , than with some abstract notion o f being “at the center,” half­ way between the left and the right Any effort to organize Perot's popu­ list mov ement, into a third party must be. in my opinion, equally revolution­ ary. There are others in the indepen­ dent movement, including myself, who are putting out a more radical strategy’ for building a new party. It involves reaching out to other under­ enfranchised communitiesand. in the process bringing about a conserva- tive/liberal synthesis and a new kind of party —one with a national m ulti­ racial majoritarian base which can produce a third-party v ictory in the 1996 presidential election The majority of ordinary A m eri­ can-conservative and liberal, right and left, white and B lack-share a desire for a radical democratic re­ structuring of the political process and. through politics, of economic policy. T hat's the bridge between us. th a t’s what we have in common, and th a t’s why the old political categories have become so meaningless. Some in the independent move­ ment believe that the Black commu­ nity is not ready to go independent. They rest their conclusion, presum­ ably, on the fact that in 1992, unlike millions o f white voters, the Black community did not go for Ross Perot. This analysis fails to take into ac­ count a most critical determ ining fac­ tor: In 1992. Ross Pcro, did not go for the Black Community Added to Perot's passivity to­ ward the Black v ote was the aggres­ sive cam paign waged by the Demo­ cratic Party to contain its most reli­ able v ot ing bloc. Cli ntons; entire strat­ egy was to hold on to the party’s l ibcral/left w ing vv h ile competing with Bush and Perot for moderate and conserv ative white voters. Had Perot reached equally aggressiv ely into The Black community and the rest of the old New Deal coalition, he might be sitting in the White House today. The possibility of a mass break from the Democratic Party' has been on the agenda o f the African Ameri­ can community for some tim e In 1984. du ri ng Reverend Jesse Jackson's first run for the presidency. hundreds of Jackson delegates to the Demo­ cratic National Convention in San Francisco urged him to walk out and continue his candidacy as an inde­ pendent. After Mondale operatives and party officials double-crossed him on a rules change agreement and floor whips muscled votes to defeat every one o f Jackson’s platform planks, the largely Black delegation was ready to go the third-party route. But Jackson squelched the “revo­ lution” and pledged his loyalty to the Democrats. Since then he has used the threat of going independent to strengthen his own position as a power broker inside the party. O f course, w hile w ielding that threat. Rev. Jackson and the C o n ­ gressional B lack C aucus a re am ong th o se B lack le a d e rs w h o h av e play ed a key role in dissu ad in g the A frican A m erican com m unity from breaking w ith the D em ocrats. Even so. B lack particip atio n in the 1992 election w as dow n by 13% from , 1988/ Perot received 7 % o f the B lack vote. B oth my presidential cam p aig n s and my d ecade-long efforts to create a B lack-led, m u lti­ racial independent ca ta ly st fo r a m ajor coalitional third party have show n me th a t the day is fa st a p ­ proaching w hen the B lack co m m u ­ nity will m ake th a t break en m asse. B lack elected leadership is w ell a w a re th a t w hile C lin to n ’s c am ­ paign tactic o f sm ooth talking Black voters w ithout giving any th in g o f su b sta n c e to the B lack agendas w orked in '9 2 , it will not w ork ag ain in "96 The Black community has a long history in the straggle for democracy The civil rights movement was. after all. largely about the right to partici­ pate in and be empowered by the political process. It was Dr. M artin Luther King. Jr who told the country that Black people would never be truly free without “ a radical restruc­ turing” of that process In so many words, that was Ross Perot 's message to under-enfranchised white Ameri­ can in 1992. That Black community is rev ol u- tionary in its sensibility’. So is the w hite “center." The coming together o f these two vast elements of our society in a new third party, will precip itate the second A m erican Revolution The BrainwashingOf Black Youths highest grades, raise a family or unify with their people to overcome a com­ mon oppressor To prove how potent the music is and how the organized plotters recog­ nize this; when the record Cop Killer came out, the perpetrators immedi­ ately recognized that cops would be killed once this message got out and was picked up through repetition of hearing. The record was pulled but now protests arc made over the v ideos of African American sisters nude and displaying what should be covered, nor the rap music that lead African American teenagers further and fur­ ther away from being civilized citi­ zens of cities, states and the w orld A national push should be made to educate the rap artist themselves as to the effects their music is hav ing on the nation and future world of African peoples. Though the 1st Amendment protects them, an effort, a serious effort should be made to reach them D J 's who play rap music should be moved to interject positive mes­ sages throughout the day warning youths that there is no future in disre­ specting yourself or your kind. That gang bangers vv ho arc not kil led stand the chance of spending 20 or 30 years in prison, that dope money is sweet for a short time only, but prison sen­ tences arc long, hard and lonely. I keep abreast of what is happen­ ing nationally and I see very little if any, open messages or adv ertisement to deter African American self de­ structions. African American Com ­ munities should destroy (throw paint on or set afire) bill boards advertising alcohol in the communities. You won't find these bill-boards in'upper class communities of whites, Chinese or other civilized people. T his is a w ar and every B lack m an and wom en in A m erica w ho is healthy should Icel obligated to som ething, be it ever so sm all. Ifw c c a n ’t, w e will be as the A m erican Indian, vv iped o u t- b y the effects o f m usic. The older generation is able to cope for the moment, but when the young generation becomes the old generation, what shape will they be in? What w ill they be able to do in a world that is space age? The outlook isn’t good if we don't make serious efforts to clean up the cars and minds of our children Alvin Concll Salem, Oregon ENROLLMENT CLIMB CONTINUES Oregon school enrollment should continue its record climb this school year, according to State School Supt. N orm a Paulus. An estimated 549,000 students are expected to enroll in O regon’s elementary and secondary schools. about 14,000 more than last year Enrollment has climbed since it hit a record high of about 510,000 in 1990-91. Most o f the growth is due to an increase in the number of Oregon births which began in the late 1970s. All grades, except the first, are expected to increase. The largest class should be the sixth grade That class- thcClassof2000-should number more than 44,000. • • • • z v