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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1994)
P age A2 F ebruary 09, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver Wishing You A Happy, Healthy And Independent New Year! CO A L I T I O N Predicament Of The Young Black Male by F rank E. W atkins On Sunday, Jan. 23 the S F E xam iner ran a frontpage headline: “Jesse’s Son Named In Drug C ase” with a sub headline,'Jonathan Jackson Suspected In Alleged International Heroin Smug gling Ring, court Documents Say.’ The Exam iner also ran a picture o f Rev. & Mrs. Jackson and Y uscf (the Jackson’s 3rd son), wrongly identify ing him as Jonathan. On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the SF Chronicle ran a story headlined: “AnothcrSon O f Jesse Jack- son Named In Federal Heroin Probe”, referring to Jesse Jackson, Jr., the National Field Director o f the R ain bow and editor o f the JaxFax. Thus, the press “involved” all three sons. The stories report that a Nigcrian national, Pius Ailcm en, the son o f a former M inister o f Transportation of Nigeria, along with 14 others were indicted on January 3,1994 oncharges o f smuggling China white heroin into the United States via a network o f globetrotting couriers. M r Ailcmen is named as the alleged head o f the drug trafficking network. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) d escribed M r. A ilem en ’s alleged heroin organization as “the largest volume heroin dealer in the Oakland area,” selling their drugs in Chicago, Miani and elsewhere. The DEA had sought and received permission to wire-tap Mr. A ilem en’s phone. Mr. Ailemen had represented him self to the Jackson brothers as the ow ner of the Ailemen Trading Com pany, d o ing legitim ate business. W ith M r. A ile m e n ’s p h o n e tapped, the DEA recorded separate conversations with Jonathan and Jesse Jr., and Mr. A ilem en, which the DEA identifies as possibly involving “drug- related m atters.” The eavesdropped conversations were made public last Friday in a U.S. District C ourt in SF. O ne affid av it regarding Jonathan states: “There is probable cause to believe that Pius Ailemen...Jonathan [misspelled] Jackson (and others) have com m itted, are committing, and will continue tocom m it heroin smuggling, conspiracy and money laundering.” The affidavit records a conversation about “a Lagos price o f 9” and “a London price o f 11 ”, “cash and carry”, with Jonathan at one point advising Mr. Ailcmen to call “ Killer M itch”, who the DEA infers to be a possible assassin. Jesse J r ’s recorded conver sations reveal discussions about the “cloth”, paym ent o f “the thing” to “ the tailor” with “the card.” A llo fth e se w o rd s-o il,9 ,11,cash and carry, Killer Mitch, cloth, the thing, the tailor, and the card - arc interpreted by the DEA as possible code words for drugs and drug related activity. They are, in fact, discussions about the price and availability o f oil (petroleum ), Killer Mitch is a nick name for the family barberof 30 years, and Jesse Jr’s discussion is about tai loring a suit of clothes. Jonathan and Jesse Jr. issued state ments which read in essence: “We know Mr. Pius Ailemen socially. The family m et him during the 1988 cam paign and, thus, we have known him for about 6 years. But we know noth ing o f Mr. Ailcmen and any involve ment with drugs. In all o f our years of knowing Mr. Ailcmen, we have never had a conversation about drugs, we have never overheard a conversation by Mr. Ailemen about drugs, we have never seen him use drugs nor have drugs in his presence. W e do not use drugs, we have never used drugs, and we arc not involved in any way, in cluding any business activity, directly or, to the best o f our knowledge, indi rectly, involving drugs. W e have no business relationship, and have never had any business relationship, and have never had any business relation ship, with Mr. Ailemen. As every one knows, we come from a very public family and, therefore, we know many people in this country and around the world, o f which Mr. Ailemen is one. W e are surprised and devastated to tSivil R ig k + s hear o f Mr. A ilem en’s alleged in volvement in narcotics.” Jonathan and Jesse Jr. arc gradu ates o f North Carolina A & T State University with business adm inistra tion majors. Jonathan is also an MBA graduate of the Northwestern Univer sity Kellogg Graduate School of B usi- ness, regarded by many as the Finest business school in the country. He interned on Wall Street, interned with the biggest brokerage house in Beverly Hills, has his own business, has trav eled extensively doing business in Africa and is a clerk at the Chicago Board o f Trade. After A & T, Jesse Jr. graduated from the Chicago T heo logical Seminary (1990), graduated from the University o f Illinois School of Law (1993) in Cham paign-U rbana, is one o f the youngest members o f the Democratic National Committee, and currently works for the Rainbow C oa lition. N either o f the Jackson’s nor any one in their family has ever been contacted by any governm ent agency with respect to this m atter. T he Jackson ’shave had to respond to press reportsonly! Rev. Jackson said that he “loves and believes in his children. These boys have played by the rules. They have operated in the arena with the best and the rest. And they have prevailed. I stand with them. I can say with no fear of contradiction that my sons are innocent, and I have absolute confidence and no doubt whatsoever regarding the character and integrity o f my sons.” End Note: W hile the NRC con siders the character assassination in the media to be irresponsible, and the Accusations of alleged drug-related activity with regard to Jonathan and Jesse Jr. in a SFDEA affidavit to be totally undue and absurd - and the part about“Killer Mitch” is even laugh able - such defamation of character and smearing o f names is certainly no laughing m atter and has grave legal and political implications. oum al Celebrating Black History by B ernice P owell J ackson February is a very important time o f the year for African Americans. It is Black History Month, a time set aside for lifting up and celebrating the contributions o f African Americans to this country’s rich and varied his tory. Begun as Negro History Week nearly 70 years ago by Dr. Carter G. W oodson and the Association for the Study o f Negro Life and History in W ashington, D.C., it has evolved into a m onth-long period of study and fo cus. But for too many Americans, Black History Month and the many contributions o f African Americans are still unknown. Often we concentrate on those fam iliar names in African American history - names like W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. W ashington, Harriet Tub- man and Mary McLeod Bethune. But there are thousands o f others who have made history as well, often over com ing nearly insurmountable odds created by racism and sexism. There arc hundreds o f African American inventors who have made our lives better and easier to live. G arrett Morgan invented the gas mask and the traffic light in the early de cades o f this century. In 1881, Lewis latim er invented the first incandes cent electric light bulb with a carbon filam ent and later supervised the in stallation of electric lights in thccitics o f Philadelphia, New York, Montreal and L o n d o n . A fric a n A m erican women were inventors also - Sarah G oode invented the ironing board and Sarah Goode invented the folding cabi net bed, both in the late 1800’s irz- f w - < . There are African American phy sicians who have made enormous con tributions to the life o f our country. Charles Drew invented a technique which separated blood plasma and saved thousands o f lives in W orld War II. James Derham, the first African A merican physician, was bom a slave in 1862 and, after purchasing his own freedom, became one o f the outstand ing doctors in New Orleans. Susan M cKinney became the first African American woman physician in the late 1800’s and served the Brooklyn, New York community for 20 years before m oving to Ohio. Despite the myth that African Americans have never owned busi nesses, there arc African Americans w ho b u ilt sig n ifican t businesses. Maggie W alker built the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company in Virgina and W est Virginia. Barney Ford be came a prosperous hotel ow ner in D enver and C heyenne during the 1860’s, while at the same time George T. Downing was a Rhode island c a terer and hotel ow ner who ultimately managed the House o f Representa tives restaurant in W ashington, D.C. PaulCuffcc Was a wealthy shipbuilder in the late 1700’s. There is a rich legacy left by these business owners and thousands o f others like them. Indeed, African Americans have made enormous contributions to the fields o f science, the arts, sports, reli gion, education ever since we first arrived on these shores. But, in the words o f Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., executive dircctoroflhcN A A C P, “the best way tocclcbratc black history is to make some history yourself.” And today there arc thousands o f African Americans across this country doing ju st that. There is Rachel Robinson, chair person o f the Jackie Robinson Foun dation and widow o f the famous his tory-making baseball player. She is working to provide college scholar ships and mentoring program s for young people all over the country, and thereby furthering her own and her husband’s vision for a better tom or row for our youth. There is Rahim Jenkins, execu tive director of the Righteous M en’s Commission, a people’s organization in W ashington, D.C. which is w ork ing with gang m em bers and planning a gang sum m it as their way o f cel ebrating Black History Month. There is Rev. M argaret Hairston o f Black Com m unity Solutions in C olum bus, O hio, a program she founded and designed to reduce A fri can American youth and families from the court system and assist them th ro u g h c o u n s e lin g , tu to r in g , mentoring and a generous dose of love. There is Raymond Reid in C leve land, Ohio who on his own initiative, during his own time, using his own money, began a com m unity basket ball team which works with young African American men and teaches them not only the rules o f the game, but the rules o f life. These are my heroes and as we celebrate African American History Month I notonly give thanks for those who have given so much in the past, but to those who make their own A f rican American history today. As 1994 gets underway, I have been thinking very intently about the scene at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in M anhattan on D ecember 18, when I was one o f three guest speakers invited to address the audi ence o f 25,(XX) African Americans who had come to hear M inister Louis Farrakhan deliver an urgent appeal to “ Slop the K illing.” That scene - 25,000 Black people in the audience, an independent Black woman on the stage with M inister F arrak h an and the R ev eren d A1 Sharpton (who had also been invited to address the crow d beforehand), and not even one Black elected official in sight - said everything there is to say about why the African American elec torate m ust go independent...or con tinue to face the consequences o f be ing dependent on professional politi cians whose allegiance is not to us. Look back to 1993 and you will sec what some o f those consequences are: the continuing escalation o f the violence crisis in the Black com m u nity, despite the fact that there arc solutions to the crisis; the ongoing political crisis in Haiti, despite the promise o f the Clinton adm inistration to ensure that the dem ocratically elected p resid en t o f H aiti, Jean- Bertrand A ristide, would be restored to power; and the replaccm entof Black mayors with w hite reactionaries in several large cities, including Los Angeles, Philadelphiaand New York, where the incum bent, David Dinkins, was defeated despite the fact that reg istered Democrats outnumber regis tered Republicans in the city by five to one. Black Democrats w on’t stand up for our people if they believe that to do so would get them in trouble with the corporate powers-that-be and thereby jeopardize their political careers. A case in point is the behavior o f New Y ork’s Black Democrats on D e cem ber 18. How could it be that not one o f these Black elected officials thought it necessary, or possible, to attend a major address on the subject of violence by one o f this country’s leading Black religious figures? The shocking answer is that the city *s Black Democrats - elected by thousands, in some cases tens o f thousands, of people - aren’t allowed to go where they need to go on behalf o f the people who elected them. Because while Black elected offic ials ha ve power, that power is given to them by the permanent governm ent (the right-wing Republi cans and “ liberal” Democrats who, in tandem, rule New York on behalf o f the Zionist-influenced corporate elite which owns the city ’s economy). And Louis Farrakhan is not on the Z ion ists’ official list o f “legitim ate,” “re sponsible” Black leaders. )T hat’s be cause he doesn’t kowtow to them.) So no Black Dem ocrat can go to him, despite the fact that the Minister knows a good deal about how to stop the killing. If you violate the rules which define who is a “good” Black, you get called an “anti-Sem ite” - this is the pseudo-religious stick with which the Zionists beat up on the competition. New York’s Black elected offi cials are terrified of this weapon, and act accordingly. It is their “ the people be dam ned” attitude that explains why the Black community docsn ’ I trust Black elected officials, despite the fact that they vote for them. When Black people want real help, they turn to other leaders - the ones who aren’t in the back pock ets of the corporate powers-that-be. The ones who do n ’t kowtow to the Zionists. The ones who are outspoken enough to have gotten ourselves in trouble with the perm anent govern ment. W e’re not part o f the existing power arrangem ents - which is why Black people do trust us. I am one of the Black leaders the community trusts. I ’m also one the Zionist corporatists regard as danger ous, because o f my practical com m it ment to a political solution to the problems the community confronts; that political solution is the break-up o f Democratic and Republican Party control and the creation o f a new national independent political party which stands first and foremost for democracy and genuine (not politically expedient and repressive) solutions to the social and economic ill affecting all Americans - Black, Latino and white. 1994 will, in my opinion, bring new breakthroughs and growth in our fight for democracy, devclopm entand justice. I wish all my sisters and broth ers a very happy, healthy and indepen dent new year. p e r s p e c t l V 6 s The Education Establishment, II by P rofessor M c K inley B urt A t the c lo se o f last w e e k ’s a rtic le , I m ade re fe re n c e to very p e rtin e n t c o m m e n ts by tw o te a c h e r s a t H u m b o ld t E le m e n ta r y S ch o o l in N orth P o rtla n d : “ T h ese tw o p ro fe ssio n a ls g et at an im p o r tan t e le m e n t o f the p ro b lem w h ich is a need for a sp e c ia l n u rtu rin g o f c h ild re n e c o n o m ic a lly and dem o- g raph ic a lly h a n d ic a p p e d .” F ifth -g ra d e te a c h e r M a la ik a Askan Tamil, whose dedication to the profession I’ve ad m ired for tw enty years, had the fol lowing comment to highlight her frustrations)” I set the highest of expectations for all stu dents, prom ptly calling their parents whenever they do not do their hom e w ork”. Some have been brought to the pointof successful remediation o f aca demic or economic handicaps only to be lost to a family tragedy, “eviction”. Annie W estfall, a fourth-grade teacher at the same school, observes, “many poor and minority children have difficulty in school because they arc expected to compete with children the same age who have boarder ‘expe riences’. They are behind from the start and ‘pushed ahead’ before they arc ready...if we keep moving them up they are going to get even more lost.” A long-time friend of mine whose daughter has two children enrolled at Humboldt thinks that different teach ers sec the same problems and the very same remedies from a different van tage point or experiential context. W estfall believes (hopefully) the School Reform Act of 1991 will solve the problem because “The act not only sets high standards for all children, but also advocates flexible, individu alized schools that will allow students to meet those standards at th e ir ow n p a c e s ...G iv e Burt them a f a ir chance.” Surely, “hope doth spring eternal from the hearts o f the naive”, to para phrase somebody. I hope that appraisal is not applicable to Bill Graves of the Oregonian staff who wrote the Jan. 23 article from which I quote. I cannot tell whether the latter half of the fol lo w in g o p in io n is a ttrib u te d to W estfall, “ I believe the states 1991 school reform act will help solve this problem, as do most school officials and minority leaders’”. Certainly, most o f the minorities I know, leaders or not, do not have such grand expecta tions. Joyce Harris, a m ember o f the Black United Fronts’ Education C om mittee, says, “W e keep hearing what we can ’t do!” Both H arris and M alaika, the teacher at Humboldt, have had exten sive and successful experience at teach ing m inority children in an alterna tive school setting, and it has been my good fortune over the years to have been invited by both to make special presentations to their students on m i nority contributions in m athematics and inventions. I get very few calls these days (none from ‘black’ schools) as the school district pleads its case of increasing poverty. W hich makes me wonder how teacher W estfall sup poses the system is going to fund all those marvelous promises o f the 1991 School Reform, Act. Fortunately, for the continued im plementation o f the Science and mathem atics lesson plans and cu r riculums I’ve been designing for the past 30 years, I was able to fall back on my industry background and r e sources. For instance, in rejoining the “Association O f Oregon Industries” last year, I ‘rediscovered’ scores of contacts or their business successors who were quite w illing to lend a hand in order to dem onstrate a comm i tment to a vested interest in im proving O regon’s education system in a ‘real- tim e’ context. Some o f these families I’ve known for forty years. Next Week: Resources and what to do with them. D on’t let the inept and the hustler block out your contri butions. Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 D ear E d ito r, To all tax payers w ho arc tired o f su p p o rtin g an e v e r g ro w in g b u r e a u c r a c y w ith h ig h e r and h ig h e r ta x e s, we arc in the fin a l m onths o f g e ttin g the 125,000 sig n a tu re s n eeded to p u l the 2% E qual T ax M easure on the b a llo t n e x t fall. If the 2% E qual T ax p asse s in N ovem ber, you w ould pay 2 cents o u r o f every d o lla ry o spend but n ev er ag ain w ould you pay s ta te in c o m e ta x e s , p r o p e r ty ta x e s, lic e n se fees, re g istra tio n fees o r any o th e r stale tax. YOU w o u ld b e in c o n tr o l o f y o u r m oney. N ev er again w ould you file a sta te tax form , or have sta te taxes d e d u c te d from your p a y check . T he a sse sso rs o ffic e s and tax c o u rts w ould be c lo se d , sav in g tax p ay ers 45 m illio n do llars a year. B u sin e sse s w ould m ove to O r e g o n w hen th e y d is c o v e r th ey w ould have o n ly on sta te tax to d eal w ith - T he 3% E qual T ax. also , to u rist, fo re ig n e rs, drug d e a l ers and tax c h e a te rs w o u ld pay th e ir fa ir sh a re a lo n g w ith the re st o f us. F ig u re o u t how m uch you paid la st y e a r in sta te in co m e tax es, p r o p e r ty ta x e s , g a s o lin e ta x e s (a p p ro x . 23 c e n ts on ev ery g allo n p u rc h a se d ), lic e n se fees, v eh icle re g istra tio n s, then c o m p a re it w ith w h at you w ould pay a t 2 0 -c c n ts on ev ery d o lla r sp e n t. Send $ 2 0 ,0 0 0 in o n e y e a r - yo u r tax es w ould be $800. T h is tax w o rk s b e c a u se e v e ry one pay s a little , - no one is o v e rb u rd e n e d b e c a u se it is fair, and you arc in c o n tro l o f yo u r m oney. As it sta n d s now , if you d o n ’tc o m e up w ith yo u r p ro p e rty taxes ev ery y e a r... you co u ld lose yo u r h o m e., Y ou have no c o n tro l o v e r e sc a la tin g p ro p e rty ta x e s - you pay or else! If you need m ore in fo rm a tion and w o u ld lik e to h e lp g e t th is on the b a llo t w rite to: D irect L e g is la tio n L e a g u e , P .O . Box 15023, P o rtla n d , O reg o n 97215 o r c a l l 5 0 3 - 2 3 9 - 5 9 4 9 . In R o seb u rg a rea call N ora L cB cau at 6 7 9 -4 4 2 7 . Sincerely, Janette Kirkland Glendale, Oregon 97442
