J uly 06,1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age A2
f ilm
3 S S S É
"Returning...Of The Fathers”
p e r s p e c tiv e s
by Sam Pierce
ast month I had the
*| | J fortunate occasion to
Q * attend a national gang
conference in Orlando, Florida.
W hile I was there 1 had the op­
portunity to visit may family who
lives in Vero Beach. Although I was
bom in the state of G eorgia, at age
eleven, we moved to Florida where
my parents and most o f my siblings
still reside. Since 1 had not visited my
birth place for about thirty years, my
father I decided to make the four-
hundred mile trip together. It gave us
personal time to catch up after two
years and to visit a place we are both
very fond of.
My other siblings were older
when we left G eorgia and still had
bad m emories o f working from dawn
to dark in the bean, com , cotton,
peanut and tobacco fields. Therefore,
it was the very last place on earth they
wanted to visit. Not so for my dad and
me! For him, G eorgia held the pre­
cious m emories o f a loving father
who had literally worked him self to
death on the very land he was so eager
to show me. Also, it cradled the boy­
hood memories o f a kind m other who
died too young at age thirty-six. I
could still see the sadness in this eyes
as he talked about it and hear in his
voice, even after all these years, the
respectful questioning of G o d - “why ”.
As for m e, the one my father and
others declare was the “spitting” im­
age o f my grandfather, G eorgia was
the place where I was b o m -p u re and
simple. And since 1 could have been
bom anyplace else on the planet, but
G od and my parents chose Eastm an,
Georgia, well, to me that meant some­
thing! Furtherm ore, I felt the em ­
brace of my father’s longing. For in
spite of the Jim Crowe laws and overt
racism I too experienced, I yet felt the
responsibility to keep my family’s
legacy alive. My sense o f justice told
me that I must pay homage to the land
where my grandparents worked and died.
The four hundred miles passed
quickly as my father entertained me
with more memories and his dry hu­
m or kept me in stitches. At Cordelle
we turned right off of 1-75 and drove
east to towns that had fam iliar names
like Rochelle, Abbeville, and Rhine.
Finally we turned back north on route
117 and then it appcared-Eastm an,
Georgia! Chills ran up and down my
spine as the still c lay roads rolled back
time for me. I saw places where my
brother Joe and I played shenanigans
in the wooded pine forest. I saw the
dirt road we walked a mile on to catch
a bus that would take us past a very
nice “white school” to the “Negro
one”; and I remembered wondering
why w e couldn’t stop.
A short distance from our desti­
nation my father slowed down as my
eyes caught the eerie spot where my
m other had fend off a man who had
attempted to strike her because she
dared to stop him from beating her
children. He felt he had the right to
make us work—even if it meant by
force. W e then stopped by the R oss’-
-Therm an, C.W ., and Russell. The
Ross’ were the white family my grand­
father and his sons, my father being
one, had worked for. Therman and
C.W . had died, only Russell, the
youngest, remained. At se venty-three
Russell Ross’ mind was still quite
sharp. A lump clim bed into my throat
as 1 found m yself fighting back the
tears as he spoke with sincere affec­
tion how loved and respected my
grandfather was. And how his brother,
C.W . literally saw my grandfather as
his father and was visibly broken
when he died.
Finally, we came upon the two-
hundred acre plantation my grandfa­
ther worked with only two mules and
five sons. The place where my grand­
mother died o f childbirth com plica­
tions. The place where my father,
although she made him wait four
years, asked my mother to marry him
at age fourteen because he had lost his
mother. The very plantation that con­
tains the cemetery where my grand­
parents graves lie next to each other.
As I kneeled to pray, I was careful to
thank them for giving me such a wise
and loving father. As we drove away,
a quiet hush fell upon the tw o o f us.
And although we did not hear an
audible voice, in our hearts we knew
they were glad we came.
Back in Portland I began to pon­
der the meaning and debt of that rich
experience. In doing so, it became
clear to me why I do the work that I do
with troubled youth. All I am trying to
do is give them a portion o f the love
that my father gave me. W hich is the
love my grandfather gave him; which
in turn is the same love my great­
grandfather gave to my grandfather
and so on. Way dow n deep in the
reservoirs of my soul and spirit, some­
how I know that if African American
fathers would return to their sons and
sons would return to their fathers, if
fathers would receive the love of their
sons and sons their fathers’ whether
they be in prison or in e x ile -th e black
community would be changed over­
night. Because the father who truly
loves his son would never recruit
another father’s son to sell crack co­
caine; and the son who truly loves his
father would never sell crack cocaine
to another father’s son.
As I struggled to find a place to
close the article, my son interrupted
by informing me that his team had
won their Little League playoff game.
W ithout warning he walked up be­
hind me and gave me a kiss. A nd as
we embraced and exchanged “I love
you’s,” I suddenly realized what fa­
thers are for. Fathers make children
believe in themselves. They make
them feel safe and give them the
permission to be carefree. They show
them that it is okay to cry or say “I love
you” without fearing loss o f man­
hood. In particularly and more im ­
portantly, fathers teach the next gen­
eration o f sons how to be men. How to
love their wives and daughters. How
to assuage their anger and give self­
lessly of themselves in this tumultuous
yet glorious experienced called life.
I think a prophet o f old said it
best; a father has the power to “Turn
the Hearts o f the Children to their
Fathers.” Perhaps he too understood
that if our hearts are turned to our
fathers, then surely, we will turn our
hearts to our fellow men.
Sam Pierce is a freelance writer
whose column appears bi-monthly.
His work is in the process o f syndica­
tion. He can be reached at (503) 281 -
9741.
THIS WAY FOR BLACK EMPOWERMENT
Break The Chokehold On Our People!
D r . L enora F ulani
ccording to a Civilian
com plaint
Review
Board memorandum on
the death of 22-year-old Ernest
Sayon at the hands of Staten
island police officers on April
29, the cops who killed him in
the presence of dozens of
eyewitnesses did not have the
legal authority to arrest his
young Black man in the first
place.
by
T h e in te rn a l m e m o ra n d u m ,
which was prepared by an attorney
w ho sits on the Board, said the offic­
ers lacked “probable cause” for the
arrest, the law requires that the police
link a suspect with a felony or have
reasonable suspicion that their lives
are in danger before they can stop and
search anyone. Ernest Sayon was
walking down the street with a friend
w hen the cops grabbed him during a
so-called “drug sweep” o f the hous­
ing project where he lived.
They choked Ernest to death as
he lay face down on the sidewalk with
his hands cuffed behind him. The job
o f the Civilian Complaint Review
Board is to determ ine w hether the
cops exceeded their authority; the
grand jury investigating the case will
determ ine if they com m itted a crime.
The police story is that the three
officers involved, one o f whom is also
Black, used “necessary force” to re­
strain Ernest. But if the arrest itself
w as illegal then presum ably any
amount of force used by these officers
would have been - by definition -
excessive.
Meanwhile, New York Gover­
nor Mario Cuomo, who is seeking
reelection to a fourth term - and
desperately needs a high turnout in
the Black community to succeed - is
dragging his feet in deciding to ap­
point a special prosecutor in the case.
Cuomo is, once again, playing poli­
tics with an issue that is literally a
m atter of life and death in the African
American community; this is one of
the many reasons that I am running
against h im for governor i n the Demo­
cratic primary.
As the advisor to the Sayon fam ­
ily, 1 wrote to G overnor Cuomo in
M ay to demand that he appoint a
special prosecutor in the case. On the
evening of W ednesday, June 1, ac­
companied by a member o f the Sayon
family, I confronted Mr. Cuomo in
the parking lot behind S L John ’s Bap­
tist Church in Buffalo, where Rev. A1
Sharpton and I had ju st addressed the
congregation on the importance o f a
Black insurgency in New York State.
Cuommo, who was there to pay his
respects to Rev. Sharpton, had just
made an appeal to the all-Black audi­
ence to help him get reelected. In the
presence o f the entire New York press
corps, 1 demanded that he meet with
the Sayon fam ily and me while he was
in town for the Democratic Part con­
vention (which was to give him the
gubernatorial nomination the next
day). He agreed to “ sandwich it in”
Civil Rights Journal:
B ernice P owell J ackson
m
undreds of thousands
4 r 4 of Rwandans have died
over the past few
months as the rest of the world
has looked on, seem ingly
paralyzed and unable to stop
the slaughter.
by
Bodies have washed up on shores
in neighboring countries. Hundreds
o f thousands have fled for their lives,
becom ing refugees in countries little
prepared and unable to finance the
costs o f receiving them. The sad real­
ity is that the civil war in Rwanda has
been going on for decades, receiving
little of the world’s attention until now.
Sim ilarly, the political situation
in Somalia was an old conflict which
continued to worsen until tens o f thou­
before he left Buffalo on Thursday.
A t 1:30 in th e m o rn in g o f
Ju n e 2, I re c e iv e d a p h o n e cal
from an a id e to the g o v e rn o r w ho
sa id th a t C u o m o w ould n o t have
tim e fo r a m e e tin g th a t day but
w ish ed to re sc h e d u le it fo r som e
tim e in the fu tu re . 1 re sp o n d e d
th a t th is w as “ u n a c c e p ta b le .”
A t 2 a.m ., the phone rang again.
This time it was Richard Girgenti, the
state director o f criminal justice in
New York. Mr. Girgenti, who heads
the panel which is evaluating the
request for a special prosecutor, said
that he was calling on the governor’s
behalf to give me an update (and,
presumably, to “smooth things over”
so that I w ouldn’t do anything to mar
the occasion o f his nomination). Mr.
Girgenti told me that Governor C uomo
had decided to have the state police
jo in th e N ew Y o rk P o lic e
D epartm ent’s investigation into the
conduct o f the police officers respon­
sible for Ernest Sayon’s death. The
governor had m ade this decision, Mr.
G irgenti said, in response to the con­
cern that I and others have expressed
about the propriety of the police in­
vestigating themselves.
W hile Mrs. Sayon and I welcome
this important concession on the part
o f the governor, I am determined to
keep up the pressure, from every side,
to insure that the Sayon family gets
justice.
it’s com m on know ledge that
Mario Cuomo is hurting, a lot of
liberal Democratic Party politicians.
Black as well as white (along with
their friends in the liberal media), are
trying to convince our people that it’s
our job to save his behind. Otherwise,
they say (relying on the usual scare
tactics), the Republican might win!
But they prefer to forget that a year
ago Cuomo - who as the governor is
the leader o f the Democratic Party in
the state o f New York - helped engi­
neer the defeat of his fellow Demo­
crat, David Dinkins, New Y orkC ity’s
first Black mayor, thereby enabling a
rig h t w ing R epublican, R udolph
Giuliani, to become the m ayor in a
city w here D em ocrats outnum ber
Republicans five to one. The election
o f Giuliani, a former federal prosecu­
tor who cam paigned on a strident
“ law and order” (that is, anti-poor
and anti-Black) platform, sent a m es­
sage to the members of the NYPD that
as of that moment it was open season
on young men o f color like Ernest
Sayon.
I d o n ’t ag re e th a t w e o u g h t to
sav e C u o m o ’s skin. I th in k now is
the tim e to pay him b a c k . M y
m e ssa g e to N ew Y o rk ’s B lack
e le c to ra te is this: G iven th at M ario
C u o m o is e ith e r a lo se r o r a lam e
duck g o v e rn o r, we need to do w hat
is in the best in te re sts o f o u r ­
se lv e s, o u r fa m ilie s and o u r c o m ­
m u n ity .
And the best way to do that, in my
opinion, is for Black voters to pull the
lever for me in the primary on Sep­
tem ber 13. Let the governor sweat for
a change.
Human Rights, Africa And Us
sands were dying o f starvation and
the world was confronted with the
pictures of thousands o f dying chil­
dren. Only then did the United Na­
tions and the United States intervene
in the internal conflict o f that nation.
Now, a similar situation exists in
another part o f Africa. Liberia has
long and close historical ties to the
United States. Indeed, Liberia was
founded in 1847 by freed American
slaves, who chose to return to Africa
rather than stay in the country which
enslaved them . The capital city,
Monrovia, was named for U.S. Presi­
dent James Monroe. Its official lan­
guage is English and its uses Liberian
dollars, which are actually old U.S.
dollars as its c urrenc y. For many years
rubber was Liberia’s largest cash crop
and it had strong ties to the U.S. rubber
companies, especially Firestone.
Liberia has faced political insta­
bility for nearly two decades but this
has escalated over the past four years
as a civil war continues to be fought
and wide-ranging human rights vio­
lations and abuses continue to be com­
mitted by the various parties of the
conflict. Indeed, since 1990, Liberia
has been a divided country with one
armed force controlling Monrovia and
several other factions controlling
much of the rest of the country.
Human rights violations have
been a part o f the continuous and
bloody civil war. In late 1992, five
American nuns and four novices were
killed, drawing much international
attention and finally forcing the
United Nations to take action in the
form o f an international arms imbargo.
During this lime, several cease-fires
and peace agreem ents have been
signed, only to falter once the warring
parties left the peace table. Moreover,
the military intervention sponsored
by other west African countries and
originally hailed by the rest o f the
world has yet to bring peace to Liberia
and this military force, mainly staffed
by Nigerians, is now accused of align­
ing itself with two of the warring
factions and perhaps even supplying
arm s and am m unition to them.
Hum an rights groups remain
concerned about the status o f human
rights in Liberia and President Jimmy
C arter’s C arter C enter has had an
office in M onrovia for the past two
years. The C arter C enter is m onitor­
ing the situation closely, as arc the
other human rights organizations.
Oregon Ship Of State:
Dead In The Water?
ome of us remember
that story from high
school literature or
English classes, “The Ancient
Mariner”
— d e sc rib in g s a ilo rs h e lp le ssly
b e c a lm e d w ith o u t a w ind to fill
th e ir s a ils , “ lik e a p a in te d ship
upon a p a in te d s e a .”
W h e th e r
s tu d ie d
fo r
sim ile o r m e ta ­
p h o r, th a t a n ­
c ie n t ta le c e r ­
ta in ly p ro v id e s
a num ber of
p a ra lle ls to the
p r e s e n t c o n d itio n o f O re g o n
S ta te g o v e rn m e n t -- an in s titu ­
tio n se e m in g ly p o sse sse d o f a
c e rta in e n n u i o r w e a rin e ss o f
s p ir it an d m a k in g little h e a d w a y
in th e w a te r. C e rta in ly , e le c te d
o ffic ia ls , h ire d h a n d s, a p p o in te d
h o n c h o s and th e ta x p a y in g p u b ­
lic a ll m ill a b o u t in th is se a o f
u n c e rta in ty , b u ffe te d by v a rio u s
an d su n d ry fin a n c ia l s h o rtfa lls
lik e “ M e a su re 5 .”
F irm a n d p ro m isin g s o lu ­
tio n s fo r c rise s in th e e c o n o m ic
an d e d u c a tio n a l a re n a s a re in
sh o rt su p p ly . T h e sta te le g is la ­
tu re from w hom w e m ig h t e x ­
p e c t su c h a h e lp fu l re sp o n se is
its e lf u n d e r a b a rra g e o f c r iti­
c ism . T h is is th e g ro u p o f p o liti­
c ia n s th a t in 1975 c h a ra c te riz e d
th e m s e lv e s a s “ p u b lic - s a f e ty
e m p lo y e e s” so they c o u ld b e ­
co m e the b e n e fic ia rie s th e m ore
g e n e ro u s p e n s io n fo rm u la s
g ra n te d
to
p o lic e
and
fire fig h te rs . T hey h a v e lo st none
o f th e ir fin a n c ia l a s tu te n e s s as
w e sh a ll se e la te r.
T h o u g h I w ill p r e s e n t an in-
d e p th e d u c a tio n a l a n a ly s is d u r ­
ing the c o m in g m o n th , o n e p a r ­
tic u la r f a c e t o f th e c r is is in
O re g o n ’s e d u c a tio n a l sc e n e m ay
se rv e to illu m in a te m ore le g is la ­
tiv e in e rtia . B etw een 1 9 9 1 -1995,
m o re th a n 22 p e rc e n t o f th e O r­
e g o n S ta te S y ste m o f H ig h e r
E d u c a tio n a d m in is tr a tio n and
su p p o rt c o sts h av e b e e n c u t and
th e re so u rc e s tra n s fe rre d to the
c la ssro o m . S u ch c o n tin u in g f i­
n a n c ia l loss is c o n sid e re d an e f ­
fectiv e b a rrie r to a c h ie v in g a year
2 0 1 0 ta rg e t o f a c c e ss fo r 8 0 ,0 0 0
O re g o n ia n s in h ig h e r e d u c a tio n .
L ik e th e long su ffe rin g p u b ­
lic sc h o o l d is tric ts o f the S tate
th e B o ard o f H ig h e r E d u c a tio n
is n o t to b e n e fit from in n o v a tiv e
a n d c o m p r e h e n s iv e p la n n in g
fro m a c o m m itte d s ta te le g is la ­
tu re , b u t m u st do its ow n th in g
in o rd e r to “ a c h ie v e sig n ific a n t
p e rm a n e n t sa v in g s a n d to p r o ­
te c t stu d e n t a c c e s s to in s tr u c ­
tio n .” T h e H ig h e r E d u c a tio n
2 0 1 0 A d v iso ry P a n e l h a s p r o ­
p o s e d a tr e n d y , n a tio n - w id e
m ove: S h ift th e sta te sy ste m to a
“ P u b lic C o rp o ra tio n .”
In o th e r w o rd s, a n o th e r w ild
an d s p irite d ste e d w ill h a v e e s ­
c a p e d th e le g is la tiv e c o rra l, d e ­
te rm in e d and a p p ro p ria te ly c o m ­
m itte d — b u t
c e r ta in ly n o t
p a r t o f th e
k in d o f in te ­
g ra te d
and
c o m p re h e n ­
siv e p la n n in g
th a t
w o u ld
p e rm it e ffe c tiv e so lu tio n s to the
c ris e s in e d u c a tio n a n d o th e r
se c to rs o f in fra s tru c tu re r e q u ir ­
in g in te n s iv e c a r e . A n d , o f
c o u rse , the “ P u b lic C o rp o ra tio n ”
ro u te d o e s n o t e n s u re “ s ig n if i­
c a n t p e rm a n e n t s a v in g s .” T h e
ta x p a y e rs a re n o t th a t n a iv e , are
they?
It is understandable that many
more O regonians than usual are
subjecting their state legislature to
scrutiny. Som e are even saying that
perhaps the time has com e for O r­
egon to have few er but full-time,
b e tte r p a id le g is la to r s r a th e r
th a n “ th is ra g -ta g b o d y c o n s is t­
ing o f too m any u n em p lo y ed la w ­
y e rs a n d /o r lo b b y is ts .” It has
n o t g o n e u n n o tic e d th a t m any
m e m b e rs o f the le g is la tu re are
b e n e f ic ia r ie s o f th e “ O re g o n
P u b lic E m p lo y e e s R e tire m e n t
S y ste m ” (P E R S ).
A n d , th e r e in lie s a ta le , for
n e v e r in th e h is to ry o f th e te r r i­
to ry h a s an O re g o n in stitu tio n
b e e n u n d e r h o tte r an d m ore in ­
te n se fire . In o n e w ay th is is a
stra n g e s ta te o f a ffa irs fo r I th in k
m o st o f us h av e a lw a y s re g a rd e d
O r e g o n ’s p e n s io n fu n d a s a
b rig h t sp o t in th e s ta te ’s f in a n ­
c ia l o p e ra tio n s — an d o v e r a
lo n g p e rio d o f tim e . C e rta in ly
th e m e d ia h a s c o n s i s t e n t l y
to u te d th e “ s m a r t in v e s tm e n t
e a rn in g s ” o f P E R S . M akes
m o n ey lik e its g o in g o u t sty le!
However, as to be expected in
tight econom ic times it has com e to
the notice o f m any with less pros­
perous benefit plans (like taxpayers
who w ork for private enterprise) -
that the payouts and retirem ent
schedules are m ore generous than
those of five nearby states and most
industry (m any o f the latter have no
pension plans at all). Consequently,
there has been m ounted a full scale
assault on the legislative to “rem ­
edy” this situation. T his trend can
be expected to continue as cutbacks
in both public and private sectors
increase.
(Hlje ^rrrtlanit (©bserUer
(USPS 959-680)
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