P age A 2
A ugust 2 8 , 1996 • T he P ortland O bserver
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Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
(Che JIartlan b © bseruer
j
Lawmakers, listen up
by the M etropolitan H uman
R ights C ommission
Ith President Clinton
poised to sign The Per
<
sonal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act of 1996, (Welfare reform),
the Metropolitan Human Rights
Commission unanimously passed
an aggreslve resolution.
In it they called on law m akers and
governm ent executives to “take ad
vantage o f all state and local options
allow ed by the law to insure contin
ued benefits to all needy residents
regardless o f im m igration status."
Lowen Berm an, M HRC Com m is
sioner stated, “O ur country and its
people are facing a crisis. In a matter
o f weeks, T h e R esp o n sib ility and
W o rk O p p o rtu n ity R econciliation
A ct o f 1996 is expected to take ef
fect. This bill will directly impact
mill ions o f our people, denying food
stam ps, m edical care, cash benefits
and dozens o f desperately needed
services. All o f us will be forced to
deal with the resulting increase in
poverty and social disruption.”
“The Universal Declaration o f Hu
man Rights, adopted December 10,
1948 by the United Nations, a docu
ment to which the M HRC is commit
ted, states that: “Everyone has the right
to a standard o f living adequate for the
health and well-being o f him self and
ofhis family, including food, clothing,
housing, and medical care and neces
sary social services, and the right to
security in the event o f unemploy
ment, sickness, disabil ity, widowhood,
old age or other lack o f livelihood in
circum stances beyond his control.
M otherhood and childhood are enti
tled to special care and assistance. All
children, whether bom in or out o f
wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
protection...” and further states t l \
“Everyone is entitled to all the rights
and freedoms set forth in this Declara
tion, without distinction o f any kind,
such as face, color, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth
or other status.”
Therefore, the M H RC calls upon
all Oregon, Portland, and M ultnomah
County lawm akers and executives to
use all o f their legal and other public
pow ers to take advantage o f all state
and local options allow ed by the law
to insure continued benefits to all
needy residents regardless o f im m i
gration status.
Violence in black and white
BY F.AKI vrrzitM
OtARl H t K HINSON,PlI.D.
p i
the FBI being so
on them? They’ve
got to do something.”
The resident of Jordan, Montana
was bewildered that more than a
month after beginning of the
siege, a small army of FBI agents
waited patiently for a band of 20
Freemen holed up in a Montana
ranch house to surrender.
u<w t hy ls
I L I soft c
The Freemen were wanted for land
theft, check fraud and the sw indling
o f banks, public institutions, and
businesses o f $ 1.8 m illion. The FBI
w ait-out cost the taxpayers $300,000
per day and M ontana residents an
added $250,000.
FBI officials say they w anted to
avoid a repeat o f the blood bath that
follow ed the siege at W aco and Ruby
Ridge, which touched o ff public o ut
rage and congressional investigations
over FBI tactics.
Ram ona A frica w as probably be
w ildered that law enforcem ent d id n ’t
take the same precautions to avoid
bloodshed and the destruction o f
property in Philadelphia more than a
decade ago. A w eek after the FBI
w ait-out in M ontana began, Africa
filed a m ulti-m illion dollar lawsuit in
federal court against Philadelphia city
officials for the M arch 1985 bom b
ing o f M OVE headquarters that killed
1 1 M O V E m em bers. The group was
aw arded $1.5 m illion in damages
this year.
Although local police confronted
M O V E and the FBI confronted the
F re em e n , th e re are sim ila ritie s.
M OVE, like the Freemen, was a rad
ical fringe group. T heir mem bers
were armed. They had m em bers in
jail and a history o f prior confronta
tions with the law. W om en and chil
dren were in the siege house. N eigh
bors and area residents com plained
about them. The bom b dropped on
M OVE contained C4 explosive, re
portedly supplied by the FBI.
In less than 48 hours, a Philadel
phia police helicopter dropped the
C-4 bom b on the ro o f o f the M OVE
headquarters. Six adults and five
children were incinerated, 61 homes
destroyed, and 350 residents were
left hom eless. T hree days after the
M OVE bom bing then A ttorney G en
eral Edwin M eese told the C alifornia
Peace O fficers A ssociation that the
bom bing was “a good exam ple for us
all to take note o f.”
The biggest difference, how ever,
betw een the tw o groups is that the
M O V E activists were Black men,
women, and children. The Freem en
are m ostly W hite males.
The public veil over W hite vio
lence is in stark contrast to A m eri
c a ’s open assault on Black violence.
In 1995, one o u to fth ree y o u n g B Iac k
men are in ja il, or prison, on parole or
probation. N early h a lf o f A m erica’s
one m illion prisoners are Black. The
top heavy num ber o f Black men in
jail reinforces the public view that
they com m it m ost o f the m ajor vio
lent crim es in America.
They d o n ’t. W hite m ales com m it
54 percent o f violent crim es in A m er
ica, 60 percent o f the urban hate
crim es and the m ajority o f serial and
mass murders.
The O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson,
Mel Reynolds, and Colin Ferguson
trial dom inated press headlines for
months. The legal actions involving
accused O klahom a City bom bers,
T im o th y M c V e ig h an d T e r r y
N ichols; accused mass serial m ur
d ers, G len W alters and C h a rles
Rathburn; accused child m urderer
Richard A llen Davis and accused
double m urderer Robert A crem ont
have barely m ade a m edia ripple.
There are thousands o f Freemen,
Militia, Patriot, Aryan Nation, Order,
and neo-Nazi members at large. They
are well-armed and financed. They
have the tacit support o f dozens o f
public officials, and the sympathy o f
millions o f Americans. Many o f their
members agree with William Pierce
who in the rabidly racist, anti-Semitic
fictional blueprint for terror Turner
Diaries wrote that “We are in a w ar for
the survival o f our race.” Their key to
victory is terror and mass destruction.
W hile they often get kid glove
treatm ent from law enforcem ent,
m ilitant groups lik eM O V E g etsw ift-
ly attacked and harshly prosecuted.
V iolence m ay com e in Black and
W hite, but law enforcem ent does not
treat both the same.
Did “Uncle Tom” miss his own funeral?
C a m ille H arper
h a tever ju s tific a tio n
there may have been for
calling successful Black
Americans “Uncle Tom” because
they catered to whites inorderto
succeed, that justification Is
dead.
by
W
It should also be buried and for
gotten. U ncle Tom belongs to the
culture o f dependency; he belongs to
the w elfare state thinking which e le
vated crim inal street gangs to the
level o f folk heroes.
In fact, if anyone deserves the title
o f U ncle Tom -- and no one does --
m em bers o f street gangs deserve it.
These crim inal groups loiter or stay
our o f sight, com m it crim e or d o n ’t
com m it it (often on other blacks),
participate in program s or ignore
them, give help or w ithhold it, ac
cording to their own agenda for gain
ing pow er and control. O ften this
m eans catering to a liberal w hite elite
establishm ent, yet no one calls these
members o f street gangs Uncle T oms.
No one should.
U ncle Tom is dead. He is a ghost
revived to suit the purposes and agen
das o f certain individuals and inter
ests; the tim e for U ncle Tom to attend
his own funeral is overdue. A fter
ward, he should remain in the grave
yard and rest in peace. Black A m er
icans have im portant work to do. The
leadership for the next century must
be identified and developed; schools
must be m ade to function; issues
must be understood and debated;
small businesses must be expanded
and created; the opportunities in tech
nology and research m ust be ex
plored; ineffective policies m ust be
replaced by effective rather than re
active ones; in short, there is a future
to build. T hat construction will take
much tim e, energy, and com mitm ent.
There is no tim e to conjure up ghosts
like “U ncle T om .”
U ncle Tom thinking has caused
too many funerals, even as he m issed
his own. The funerals he caused have
too often been for the young and the
innocent, the dream ers and achiev
ers, the poets and the businessm en o f
the future.
Uncle Tom belongs to the past.
The present belongs to us, and the
future belongs to our children.
The ghost o f Uncle Tom must not
be allowed to haunt that future. W el
fare dependency and the criminal cul
ture o f street gangs must not control
that future by waltzing with a ghost.
“ U ncle T o m ” m ust be exorcised,
buried, and forgotten. O ur children
on it.
¡and together for progress
o the Editor:
The attached is typical o f the treat
ment HMO's are giving their members,
especially senior We have had no way to
fig ht back. But this can be changed la m
inviting allpeople who have trouble with
their H M O to cqll or fa x m e at 541-547-
4663 or write me at P O Bax 1030,
Yachats, O R97498 By banding together
we can improve the system so we are
better protected
Mr. Preider:
"Your good health is our first primary
concern.” Those are the first words
one hears on the telephone when call
ing PACC.
That statement is a travesty.
My wife, Beryl, and I ( seniors) were in
Portland visiting friends Monday and
T uesday o f this past week T uesday night
we had dinner at Saylor's Old Country
Kitchen in Beaverton We left there at 10
PM and started walking to the car My
wife stepped over the divider in the park
ing area and her leg simply collapsed. As
she fell we heard a “pop" then another
when wc landed on her bent-under ankk.
She immediately said, “It’s broken”.
We picked her up and drove immedi
ately to St. Vincent's emergency in Bea
verton. Fortunately, there were few pa
tients and they tried to expedite the regis
tration because my wife was in so much
pain The pain was so excruciating that
she started going into shock. Finally they
determined that her ankle was indeed
fractured in two places, gave us the name
o f a doctor in Portland, and discharged
her about I 30 a m The treatment there
was performed because “ Y our good Ilea1th
isour first primary concern,“means some
thing to St. Vincent’s.
We decided that same morning that
because there would be further visits after
the ankle was repaired that we would
return to the coast. So, we called my
wife’s cousin, who is a volunteer at Lin
coln County Hospital, to find a good
orthopedic man in Newport and to notify
ou r P rim ary C are P ro v id er, Tim
Troutman, at Delake Medical Center in
Lincoln City that we would be taking
Beryl to the doctor she obtained. She was
able to get Dr. Gerald Butler in Newport
to see her. When she notified our PCP
about Dr. Butler nothing was said that we
couldn’t see him.
W e left Portland in a driving rain
storm that m orning about 11 am. All
the way, Beryl w as in a great deal o f
pain, but kept dozing o ff interm it
tently as we drove The pain increased
as we kept driving. A bout 2:30 p.m.
we reached Dr. B u tler's office and
w ere ushered into his care room im
m ediately. Bery l w as m ade as com
fortable as possible, and placed on a
gurney.
Di. Butlci piaciiccd “Your Good
Health Is Our First Primary Concern."
At this tim e, Dr B u tler’s sta ff was
on the phone to PACC people. They
cam e back to and explained that Dr
B utler was not one o f their referral
doctors. We w ould instead go to a
doctor in Florence, sixty m iles south.
N o way would I put Beryl through
the pain and delay driving another
sixty m iles after ju st having ridden a
hundred fifty miles to get to N ew
port, only to satisfy the greedy mo
tives o f PACC.
“Your Good Health is Our Primary
Concern.” ?
Shortly, his receptionist came in and
said PACC had rejected the claim. This
infuriated me. I called PACC’soffice and
took my venom out on Carol (wrongly).
She inteijected and said it was still pend
ing . She gave me the pre-consultation
number and said it would most likely be
approved, and if it were her, slie would
proceed with Dr. Butler.
Finally, about 4:30 p.m. Dr. Butler's
receptionist came in and told us our claim
had been rejected.
“Your Good Health Is Our Primary
Concern" Empty words motivated by
S ubscribe to
greed.
I am fighting fora principle here. How
many other PACC mem bers in regular or
emergency situations have been denied
necessary care because o f an entrenched
bureaucracy which is only bottom-line
oriented
“Your Good Health Is Our Primary
Concern” is simply a catchword phrase
which is not supported by its real intent -
to have people subscribe you want them
to think you have scruples.
While I think about it, I have called
your staff a number o f times requesting
that a doctor be signed up in Newport.
We have to drive sixty miles to our
PCP in Lincoln City because you either
don’t care how fai a patient has to travel
or you are satisfied with the status quo.
Actions like yours are what are giving
the whole HMO plan a bad name.
Disgustedly, Willis & Johnson
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Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
p e r s p e c tiv e s
The future of higher
education in Oregon
t has been suggested
by a number of readers
that It has all been well
ana good to have concentrated
on the ‘foundations’ so thor
oughly, but many of us parents
are “between our own rock and
a hard place when It comes to
‘higher ed’ choices for our kids.
We can’t afford an ‘Exodus’...
or to stay here."
I heard that! Let
me tell you w here
I’m at this m om ent.
C lip p e d to a b ig
poster board at one
e n d o f th e d e s k
w here I ’m w riting
are a num ber o f news clippings
relating to the state o f higher ed u
cation in O regon and across the
country. For an hour, now, m y haze
has focused on one, then the other,
seeking to synthesize this m otley
collection o f advice, cautions and
w arnings into a coherent statem ent
o f academ ic ship o f state.
“H igher Education Plays C atch
u p: O re g o n L o o k s E n v io u s ly
A cross T he R iv er”--P ro fe sso rs’
Pay W ill Rise; So Will T u itio n ”—
"O regon H igher Ed O fficials Plan
Reform s”- ”P S U ’s President Seeks
Fairness In R eform ”
“ P S U H ig h -T e c h P ro g ra m s
N eed M oney, N ot O S U ’sC o n tro l”-
-”The R eigning B rain Drain: O re
gon H urting” .
N ow , those are concerns that
have been raised in ju st the last
ninety days. C entering in collage
o f m ostly dire and unintended con
sequences, is a clear w arning o f
things to com e; “ The H igh-T ech
Boom : D iso rg an iz atio n D oom s
O regon E fforts.” This gem is from
the Sunday O regonian to r O ct. 1,
1995.
A fter m aking a lengthy point-
to-point com parison betw een the
innovative, resourceful and for
w ard-looking su p p o rt stru ctu res
provided to higher ed ucation in
ano th er state (T exas), our w riter
cone I udes that O regon doesn ’ t have
the research program s that w ould
attract the larger technology firms
(D oes it have the com m itm ent?).
“ But O regon higher ed u c atio n 's
attem pts to becom e a force on the
high-tech scene also have been
ham pered by the sy stem ’s ow n lack
o f o rg a n iz a tio n -p u t the various
sch o o l’s reso u rces together, co m
bine those w ith private industry
and eo v em m en t coonprafion and
y o u ’ve got som ething—there isn ’t
a strong coalition o f th o se three
groups in the state... but w e ’re
im proving."
W e will note that these assess
m ents were m ade alm ost a fu 11 year
earl ier than those more recent head
lines I cited
here earlier.
I have not
By
seen
any
Professor
g reat flurry
Mcklnley
of
m ove
Burt
m ent tow ard
a c h ie v in g
s u c h c o n n e c tio n s w ith th e s e
groups. I am a m em ber o f O re
g o n ’s largest industry g ro u p and I
have not detected any ground sw el 1
o f clearly enunciated and am b ig u
ous support o f a coop erativ e stru c
ture for the advancem ent o f higher
education. A m ong individuals o f
my acquaintance and th eir firm s,
yes; but, considering the lateness
o f the day, the expected m ovem ent
is not there. W hat future indeed,
have we?
O n the other hand, all o f the
articles I have cited focus a great
deal o f attention on the p erfo r
m ance o f the adm inistrators and
o th er officials o f the O reg o n State
System o f H igher Education. Here,
there is no lack o f energy e x e r
cised in the exploration o f their
hindsight, oversights an d ju st plain
“ lack o f vision.” In an inspired
caveat, the w riter o f that last article
(com paring O regon w ith T exas)
observ es that “officials in O regon
are painfully aw are o f the sta te ’s
rep u tatio n .”
T h o u g h the A m erican A sso c ia
tio n o f S tate C olleges and U n iv er
sities has m ade it o f fic ia l-th a t
“sin c e 1992, O re g o n ’s spen d in g
on h ig h er education has dro p p ed
m o re than 10%, the biggest cut in
the n atio n ”- t h e parents and stu
d en ts I know validated this ugly
turn o f events quite som e tim e
ago.
T h ey offer up their bank loans,
d e p le te d sav in g s an d d e fe rre d
dream s, all o f w hich w ere dashed
on the rocks o f steadily increasing
tuition and other costs.
N e x t W eek An in-depth look at
the state systems.
CLT lie ^ o rtla n h (Dhserucr
(U S P S 959-680)
E sta b lish e d in 1970
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S abrina Sakata
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Paul N ew feldt
G raphic D esigner
M ark W ashington
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