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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1995)
A pril 5, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver P age A? bv A drian G . W ilson , D.D.S. P resident , D octors C o i sen. espite the inadequacy I of his plan, a year ago President Clinton was nonetheless highlighting the nation's healthcare crisis. The Republican Contract we face today, on the <->ther hand, does nothing to address the health crisis facing the working poor and uninsured across America. It blatantly ignores the vital health care needs of the urban poor. DC already has the worst health profile in the U S . It leads the nation in 8 o f 10 "causes o f death" catego ries, including: cancer, 256 vs. 200 per 100,000; Liver disease, 33 vs. 11 per 100.000; TR infection 24 vs. 10 per 100.000; syphilis, 125.9vs. 17.5 per 100,000; HIV. 130.2 vs. 18.2 per 100,000 (at least 20% o f the correc tional population is HIV positive)-- and 25° o o f DC residents are sub stance addicted. Without voting representation and the power to protect ourselves, a Republican-led Congress and a doc ile Democratic minority are putting the squeeze on DC to cut costs and services, and to privatize health ser vices. The result? Severely reduced health care services at the city hospi tal, neighborhood health clinics, DC’s publicly run mental health hospital and correctional medical facilities. R jinbo W C O A L IT IO N Health Crisis Deepens Nation’s Capital Omen For The Country At the same time, a plan is afoot to create a private entity to receive a huge DC subsidy to provide health care serv ices to the uninsured. Health care contractors already reap mil lions in DC contracts to provide managed care services at $212 per month per adult-one o f the highest rates in the country. The newest rounds o f budget cuts will virtually close the health care door to over 100,000 uninsured residents and undocumented immi grants. Local politicians facing a budget crisis-y es, because o f some mismanagement, but mostly due to past congressionally created d e b ts- are being forced to target even the unborn in their budget slashing fren zy They' are eliminating 1 st and 2nd trimester prenatal care to AFDC re cipients. plainly punishing the un born for being conceived by poor parents. D C's infant mortality' rate is already the highest in the nation. When guns and drugs are more ac cessible than preventive or prenatal care, we indeed are in the middle o f a health care crisis. Slashing and burning public health care budgets simply ripens the fruit forthe private health-industrial- complex, which is anxious to pick up the public share o f $950 billion in national health care expenditures. Yet private sector HM O’s and hospitals refuse uninsured patients. Only mon ey will get the most vulnerable among us through the door o f a health clinic or hospital when public hospitals are privatized or clinics are closed. W hose money? Taxpayer dollars currently used to subsidize uncom pensated care at public hospitals, in correctional medical facilities, men tal health and neighborhood clinics w ill be diverted to the private sector, which will profit from the patients they have traditionally and currently rejected. In DC, up to $1 billion currently spent on public health care will be diverted to the private sector. The potential savings by the pub lic sector will be transformed into prof its for the insurance industry and pri vate providers. Public savings can be used to enhance health services for those in need, while profits enhance only the rich. District contracts for medical care have been shown to cost over 5 times more than care provided by the public sector. Market share, not health care, is the focal point of the budget cuts and reorganization advo cated by the private sector. When we have privatized the urban public health systems, who will: Assure that comprehensive care is provided? Assure that clinics are accessible to the public and that res idents are not turned away? Assure that new services will be added when the need arises? Assure community input in decision-making on city wide health policy (e.t., HIV, TB)? And who will assure quality care for the homeless and incarcerated? This JaxFax is designed to alert Rainbow supporters to look for this pattern in their state and local com munities. If you would like to form a local and/or national network to re search, resist and fight this pattern o f neglect and waste, please contact Dr. Adrian G. Wilson at 202-408-3373. Civil Rights Journal Washington, Fiscal Crisis And Justice b \ B ernice P owell J ackson was born in the old Freedman’s Hospital, C part of Howard Univer sity, in Washington, D.C. You may meet many people who have moved to Washington, but you meet few who were born there. C l| It was not until 1 was in college that District residents were able to vote for President ofthe United States or mayor o f their city'. It was truly taxation without representation. Even today D. C. residents do not have a voting representative in the House o f Representatives, nor a representa tive in the Senate. Even today Wash ington must go to Congress for ap proval and appropriation o f its bud get. Now my hometown is facing a crisis which not only threatens its fiscal viability, but also threatens its dream o f real home rule. Shortly after his November election, Mayor Marion Barry found that the budget crisis that he knew existed was'much deeper than anyone had admitted. He found that the District o f Columbia is essential ly insolvent and owing some thing like $900 million. It was any mayor’s and any city’s worst night mare. In hearings on Capitol Hill since then, Mayor Barry has pointed to the debt passed on to the city by Con gress at the time it received limited home rule, to the facts that the city can tax only 43% o f its real estate due to the presence o f the Federal gov ernment and cannot tax commuters, to the reality that Washington must perform certain government func tions usually done by a state and to the administration o f previous May or Sharon Pratt Kelley. It is impor tant not to forget these factors, as well as Mayor Barry ’s own previous twelve years as Mayor. The city ’s enormous debt is due to all o f these factors, and. it seems, to a longstanding inability to curb its spending and make significant bud get cuts. In February W ashington's credit rating was dropped, further adding to its fiscal crisis. It appears that Washington will soon be in fiscal receivership, prob ably w ith some kind o f emergency financial control board placed in charge o f its financial well-being. Already city non-public safety em ployees have had tw o furloughed days off without pay, with others planned throughout the year. Already hun dreds o f jo b and service cuts are planned. Meanwhile, some Washington residents, led by a coalition o f clergypersons and community lead ers, are questioning why the city is not also looking at increasing its in come. In the months since the fiscal crisis came to the forefront it has been reported that some quasi-gov ernment and even non-government agencies do not pay taxes to the Dis trict. For instance, the Federal Nation al Mortgage Association (known as Fannie Mae) would pay some $300 million in taxes if it were taxable. Or, for example, the hundreds of lobbying groups in Washington to lobby Con gress are not taxed by the District. Washington is not the first city to find itself bankrupt. During the 1970’s New York had a financial control board and C leveland had sim ilar fiscal woes. Other cities have been on the brink o f bankruptcy as well. Washington, D. C is a city o f public monuments and cherry blos soms. But it is also a city with the poorest o f the poor, who have over whelming health, education and so cial service needs. Washington is also an African American majority population, a fact which has not gone unnoticed during home rule discus sions in the past nor in the fiscal questions o f the present. It is likely that W ashington’s fiscal crisis now puts its quest for real home rule on hold. Forthe sake ofthe whole nation, let’s hope that this fiscal crisis is soon resolved. For the sake of the children o f Washington, the poor and the elderly, let’s hope this fiscal crisis is fairly resolved. For the sake o f all o f the residents o f Washington, let's hope that this fis cal crisis doesn’t end their hope for real home rule totally. Along The Color Line p e r s p e c tiv e s The Education Scene, IV t w ould seem that there are many African American newcomers to the Portland scene - - 1 can tell by the notes and calls from those who follow my weekly column and article. And, most re c e n tly , but last weeks questions regarding my brief allusion to an “ Adams High school disaster” . This was an e ffo rt to ’ c o n c e rtiz e ’ by reference community fears c o n c e rn in g a new experim ental child of the D is tric t (“ N o rthea st C om m unity S c h o o l” ; ele mentary). jl O" T o d a t e , m ost o f us in the com m uni ty have been privy only to a few n eb u lo u s p ro je c tio n s as to pedagogical stru c tu re — and to only a few tenuous statem en ts on policy, c u rric u lu m , or e x p e c te d o u t com es. My point w as th at w here "e te rn a l v ig ila n c e ” is con stru ed as the price o f liberty, th at a tti tude is even m ore ap p lic a b le to an e d u c a tio n e s ta b lis h m e n t w hich is know n (d o cu m en ted ) to be prone to e x p erim en tatio n or m inority ch ild ren (e v e r hear o f th e m in d - c o n tr o l d r u g , “ R ita lin ” — often p re sc rib e d for school ch ild ren d eterm in ed to h av e b e h a v io ra l o r le a rn in g p roblem s (d e te rm in e d to have behavioral or learning problem s (d eterm in ed by w ho? T here are no resid en t p sy c h ia trists at each sch o o l, not that anyone w ould w ish such a situ atio n ). In any case, “ John A dam s High S c h o o l” was c reated in the m id -1 9 7 0 's am id a lot o f public re la tio n s ho o p la to the effect that it w ould answ er the prayers o f teach ers and parents, and stu dents who m ight have learning situ a tio n s d escrib ab le as d iffi cult. P o rtla n d ’s in troduction to the "g ru e so m e tw o so m e ” , as som e paren ts later called them , was through a long Tim e M aga zine article that describ ed a new a p p ro a c h to le a rn in g (h a n d s o ff), the innovation o f tw o very young A nglo S ax o n s” w ith new, b right, shiny d o c to ra te s in the e d u catio n fratern ity . F rom u p p e r m id d le c la s s f a m ilie s t h e m s e lv e s , th e T im e s’s article p u lled out all the stops w hen d e sc rib in g the “e d u catio n al m ira c le s” the duo had w rought in a B oston, M as sachusetts school d istric t - but w ith the children o f th e ir e c o nom ic peer group, kids, who for the m ost part could su rvive a hands off, d o -y o u r-o w n -th in g kind o f scholastic en vironm ent. They had p a re n ts w ho could afford to hire tu to rs to re p a ir a lot o f the dam age, and who had a head start ju s t from being "in to -th e -m a n o r-b o rn ” ; com ing up in a w ealthy fam ily is a c o g nitive in c u b a to r’ o f su p p e r ta ble input, plus social e x p o su re s and asso ciatio n s. N ot so w ith the low er e c o nom ic secto r o f m ainly black s and som e po o r w hites served by the e x p e r i m e n ta l John A dam s sc h o o l. Sy N ot only had I Professor know n m any o f Mckinley the p a re n ts in Burt v o lv e d -- an d th e ir c h ild r e n since birth — but as a te a c h e r at P ortland State U niversity, I was g e ttin g m uch o f th e p itif u l “ A dam s p ro d u c t” (n o t all ) in my classroom . In an sw er to the q u estio n , "w as th ere any a t tem pt by A lbina re sid e n ts to head o f f this d e b a c le ? ” T he answ er is yes. I rem em ber g o ing over to v isit th.e tw o p io neers in hands o f f p e d a g o g y ’ at th e ir staging area in the b a se m ent o f Jefferso n High S chool. It was a frig h ten in g e n c o u n te r and my fears w ere borne out in the u n iv ersity classroom . I w as h an d e d in re p o rts w ritten in b o x -c a r-siz e letters on paper ruled in w ide e le m e n tary school sp acing — and if not stopped the A d am ’s g ra d u a te s w ould show up for class ten or fifteen m inutes late ju s t as they did at the high school study habits w ere poor or nihl in many cases and d isc ip lin e w as d iffi cult to enforce. I was able to bring som e around, but m any w ere helped by an on cam pus co lleg e p re p a ra to ry program . T his very m orning I talked to a 35 year-o ld veteran o f the "A dam s" w ars. He said he was still feeling the e ffe c ts o f four years o f no n -d iscip lin e at a very critical age o f his d ev elo p m en t - as w ere his peers w ith whom he was still in co ntact: Select your own courses, study if you feel like i t , respect no one. teacher or student, gamble or light up a joint in the nearby park during school hours. Perfect training for the gang and drug culture. Let us have no more experiments, please! Racism On College Campuses bv D r . M anning M arable h ro u g h o u t the US, th e re has been an upsurgence of racism in recent years, characterized by re ce n t a tta c k s a g a in st a ffirm a tiv e a ctio n and the e ffo rts by the R epublican- controlled Congress to reverse programsand policies favoring m inorities. But one o f the sharpest exam ples o f racial prejudice within soci ety today exists at universities and colleges. Racial attitudes on American college campuses began to worsen, approxim ately in the m id-1980s. Across the US there were increasing incidents o f what seemed to be ra cially-motivated, random violence, harassment and intim idation o f black. Latino, and Asian American students by w hites. For example, in the spring o f 1986. the University o f W isconsin at M adison's chapter o f Kappa Sig ma fraternity sponsored a party fea turing what was termed a "H arlem Room.” Fraternity members wore blackface makeup and Afro-styled w igs. Fried chicken and watermelon were served, and ugly graffiti was painted on the walls. T he following year, also at the I Iniversity o f W isconsin at Madison, the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity held a "Fiji island" party which was high lighted by a caricature o f a black man with a bone through his nose In the fall semester, 1988, the university’s Zeta Beta Tau fraternity featured a “mock slave auction,” in which mem bers donned Afro-style wigs and blackfaced makeup. These events at the University o f W isconsin sparked w idespread condem nation on the campus as well as throughout the country. Researchers in race relations began to suspect that these incidents represented a broader, national trend which university officials and law enforcement authorities had largely ignored. In 1987, the Baltimore- based National Institute Against Prej udice and Violence began to collect documented cases o f racial harass ment and violence against minorities on college campuses. Between the fall semester, 1987 through the fall semester, 1990, about three hundred campuses reported racial incidents. Just a short list o f such incidents are both sickening and shocking. For example, at the University o f Illinois at Chicago, in May 1990. a penis severed from a medical school ca daver was hung outside the door of an African-American female resi dence hall counselor. At the Univer sity o f Texas at Austin. in April 1990. African-American students protest ed after one all-white fraternity paint ed a racist epithet on the trunk o f an automobile, and another fraternity printed a racist image on its ,-shirts At Teikyo Loretto Heights Universi ty in Denver, one dozen Japanese students were harassed, pelted with eggs, and several racists had even urinated in front o f them in public. At Brown University, students received hundreds o f misspelled computer- printed flyers urging them to "keep white supremacy (sic) alive.” At the State University o f New York at Oswego in October 1989, racist and anti-Semitic epithets were written in the campus library, the student union building, one dormitory and on the w alls o f an underground tunnel. White students who felt aggres sively hostile to blacks and other minorities soon began to demand the term ination o f A frican-A m erican Studies courses and a multicultural curriculum which emphasized diver sity and tolerance. They argued that whites had become the “new minor ities" on college campuses, and in sisted that "reverse discrimination" had relegated them to a second-class status. At Temple University in Phil adelphia, a group o f militant whites established the "W h ite S tudent U n io n ," which claimed for a time 150 members. At the U n iv e rsity o f F lo rid a in Gainsville, a group o f angry whites established a White Student Union, which called for the abolition o f mi nority scholarship and internship pro grams. The White Student Union quickly established contacts with Tony Bastanzio. a former Imperial Wizard ofthe Ku Klux Kian, to help establish similar groups at campuses across the state Today, it is estimated that one out o f four minority students becomes a victim o f racist harassment, intim idation and/or violence. Wherever I travel across this country, hundreds o f African-American students give accounts o f instances o f racist notes passed under their dormitory doors, or o f white college professors who crack racist jokes in the middle o f their lectures. But in general, patterns o f cam pus racism are not primarily the bla tant acts o f bigots, or racially moti vated random violence. Far more important are the intricate patterns of discrimination which marginalize blacks, Latinos and other students of color in campus life. Student govern ment associations often do not ade quately fund programs and events promoting cultural diversity. D eans’ offices may give emphasis to minor ity student recruitment, but often do little to ensure their retention. The only way to begin to reverse the trend toward racial discrimina tion is to foster an environment o f pluralism and diversity within edu cational institutions. This includes changes within the curriculum and re q u ire d c o u rse s, re fle c tin g multiculturalism and the full rich ness o f diversity within our society. It means supporting scholarship pro grams to increase access to college for blacks and Latinos, and increas ing the numbers o f minority faculty and administrators within white uni versities W ithout vigorous efforts, the prevailing racist stereotypes and prejudices which are being permit- A (Tlrv ■¡.Inrtlattb (©bseruer (USPS 959-680) OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERIC AN PUBLICATION Established in 1970 by Alfred L. Henderson Joyce W ashington-Publisher The PORTLAND OBSERVER is located at 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 * Fax 503-288-0015 Deadline fo r all submitted materials: Articles:Friday, 5 :0 0 pm Ads: Monday Noon POSTMASTER; Send Address Changes to: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Second Class postage paid at Portland, Oregon. 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