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