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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1996)
r /•A Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views Oj (Tlje ^Jortlaxth GObscrucr 1 t a joint NOW/NRC dem- onstration in front of the White House last month, Jesse Jackson and Patricia Ire land led a strong picket line de manding that the President re consider his decision [the sign ing of the welfare bill]. Rev Jackson pointed out: ‘When it conies to corporate welfare for the rich and powerful, it’s look but don't touch. When we talk about affirma tive action for the middle class, the President finally decided to mend it, not end it But when it comes to welf are for poor women and the ch il dren then the government decides to end it, by rending F D R ’s New Deal safety net—end it, by rending it.” This decision was made for only one reason—so that the political lead ership o f both parties could look tough to the voter in an election year, using poor women and children as N A T IO N A L g f lj According to the Center for Bud get and Policy Priorities, by the year 2002. this bill means $27 billion in food stamp cuts. It means that our poorest households, those with in comes below 50% o f the poverty line, w ill lose an average o f $785 in food stamp benefits per year The elderly poor w ill find their food stamps cut by one-fourth, while the working poor-those who are so of ten extolled for play ing by the rules, exem plifying the work ethic, reflect ing the true American sp irit-w ill find their benefits cut by 20%. The truth is, contrary to stereo type. most poor people are not on welfare. They work every day, but don't get paid a living wage. Most poor people are not Black; they’re white, and female and young. Two- thirds o f those on welfare are ch il dren 9 m illion in all; and 60% o f those children are under age 6. IhiiBaW C O A L IT IO N Stop domestic violence punching bags. B y the best current estimates, this assault on the poor will drive a min imum o f an additional one to one- and-a-halfmillion children into pov erty. It will not solve our problems, since the bill includes no resources for job creation, health care, job train ing, child care, or public works jobs- -in short, nothing that is needed to actually move from welfare to em ployment, except the threats o f poli ticians One quarter o f our children al ready grow up in poverty , in this, the wealthiest nation in the history ofthe world One half o f all Africa Am eri can children already grow up in pov erty. The bill will have an especially severe impact on low-income dis abled children, children in working poor families, and children o f legal immigrants This bill w ill make their lives worse, not better. I’m not a victim, I’m a man in M ichael S harp ’m not a damned victim so please quit treating * * me like one. I’m tired of your willingness to accept my failures without encouraging me to get back up. I’m tired of your willingness to accept the emas culation of the Black male. I’m tired of your willingness to ac cept less than what I'm capable of. In short, I’m tired of what is currently recognized as African- American leadership. I ’ve come to the harsh realization that Black people have been pimped, just like a woman o f ill repute, Black people have been exploited in every way imaginable, yet our leaders still expect us to keep coming back for more o f the same treatment. Even worse. Blacks who do become part o f the free market and start to enjoy the privileges o f being an American are either ridiculed or ignored by their leaders. This poses quite a dilemma. C iv il rights leaders have limited Black society to two choices: Either adopt the victim mentality, wait for the handouts and be praised—or accept responsibility like a man and risk being labeled an “ Uncle Tom .” Per sonally I was fortunate to have a father who taught me discipline so I chose to be a man. Being a man means taking control o f your situa tion and leaving charity for those who really need it. After years o f being ostracized because o f their re luctance to subscribe to the victim mentality, conservative Blacks have 1 better been continuously confronted by philosophical ignorance. It stands to reason that if current African-Am er ican leaders are upset because B lack conservatives use intellect and integ rity to make the best o f a situation, then the leaders need to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask them selves who are the real “ Uncle Toms.” I f promoting and dwelling in vic tim hood is the solution to our pros perity, why do we continue to suffer? I ’m sure that you are as aware as I am that as long as we’ve used this excuse our situation has worsened and so has the level o f self-hatred among our people. These negative conse quences may not be the intent o f our leaders, but the result is the same no matter their motives. It’s time for African Americans to think for our selves and for our leaders to start listening to us and stop preaching to us. After all, we are the ones who know what’s wrong with our com munities. Our world is changing and so are our political opinions. If we are to be a legitimate force to be dealt with, we have to disassociate our selves from the slave mentality and embrace the spirit o f the American Constitution. The fact is slavery was a Godawful experience and we should remember our people who were oppressed by it. But, the truth is today we are free to be victims or to be self-supporting individuals. Today, unlike our an cestors, we do have a choice. It’s time for us to tell our leaders that. If they don’t listen, then it’s time to elect new ones. TNic VTLïïitcr Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208* Judicial review s a result of my bitter and disappointing ex- ( perience with the judi cial system for the last ten years, I will be contacting members of Congress both at the federal and state levels to inform them and care less about their suffer ing. A s tragic as the injustice would do to the public because a judge breached a judicial obligation to the victims, our legislators should take notice that there is urgent need now to introduce a bill in the Congress making judges liable for breaking the law and for their betrayal o f public trust in furtherance o f injus tice. »» illiam Il I 1AM R I eed m W Committed to Bruggere 1 ou may not be able to judge a book by Its cov er, but you can judge a man by his actions. And if we were to judge Tom Bruggere's potential as a U.S. Sen ator by his conduct as a C E O , it would be clear that Bruggere takes his responsibility to his community very seriously. While head o f Mentor Graphics, Bruggere made a commitment to giving back to the community in a number o f ways. He established sound corporate policy to reduce and recycle waste and built a wet lands on company grounds to pro tect wild species. He paid all his employees a living wage and made sure they had generous health benefits. And he made sure that part o f corporate benefits were do nated directly to the community in the form o f funding for scholarships, public broadcasting, and cancer re search. Bruggere’s conduct as C E O shows he’s committed to Oregonians and their concerns. His visions and lead ership are what Oregon needs in Washington. —Jam es Manning Clinton’s ban on tobacco roving quickly to snuff out iQtrovinfi ^ JJ1reput republican charges that lost the war on drugs, President Clinton has giv en the Food and Drug Adminis tration (FDA) authority to regu late tobacco and crack down on teen-age smoking. Many say Clinton’s actions are politically motivated and designed to strike at a perceived weakness o f his presidential foe, Bob Dole, a former smoker who this summer questions whether nicotine is always addictive. Polls show that 80 percent o f Am ericans support restricting cig arette sales to teens But what should be o f most concerns to blacks, and their leaders, is no, the politics o f the situation for white people. The ministers and politicians, who w ill make a fuss about out tubawo smoking is higher than average among A frica-A m erican s. Although we compromise 12.5 percent o f the na tio nal population, among many brands we smoke 20 percent o f the cigarettes sold Blacks also chew more gum, per average, than whites, but marketplace opportunities, and philanthropy grants, from chewing gum s companies back to the black com m unity pales in comparison to the largess that comes directly to b lack asso ciatio n s, conventions, think-tanks, cultural programs, and other, and other events and projects, 4 Personally, I w ill intensify all my efforts to see to it that Congress will pass a bill holding judges liable for rulings they make that is inconsis tent with the moral and legal duty of our legal system. From now on, I will be proactive in this direction until the Congress acts on this issue in order to preserve the integrity o f our legal system as an assurance to those victims who are seeking ju s tice and protection. I am ready to testify and prove that judges act and rule unlawfully whenever they have opportunity to do so. Are the members o f Con gress ready to listen and hear my testimony. -Samir Tara from com panies such as P h ilip Morris, R J Reynolds and Brown & Williamson. The first steps towards curbing cigarette sales ofthe $45 billion busi ness are to allow the F D A to regulate nicotine as an addictive drugs, ban vending machine sales, curb adver tising targeted at teens and require tobacco companies to pay $ 150 b il lion a year into a fund for educating teenagers to avoid such products. B y declaring the nicotine in tobacco an addictivedrug.thegovernment could eventually rule it dangerous and out law drugs to adults. This boarders on being a severe infringement on hu man and consumer rights. The bot- ,om-l ine is C l inton’s decision tocrack down on smoking, in reality, comes from areportcitinga 105 percent rise in teen drug use from 1992 to 1995. Sucli a surge illustrates to the white community the scourge that African Americans have known first-hand for some time, that Clinton has lost the war on drugs. The sad fact is that the increases in k id s’ smoking are so far overshad owed by the geometric growth in drug use. Blacks should no, allow themselves to get caught up in the current Clinton policy o f smoke and mirrors If Clinton’s public policy is to break his own vow to reduce gov ernment regulations in everyday life and crack down on anything to save America, that crack-down should be on crack cocaine. Actually African- American teen sm oking is down, compared to white kids, but the epi demic o f crack cocaine has shattered lives o f the young, and old. o f black com m unities across the nation. Crim e, the breakdown o f the black fam ily and increasing violence and mayhem are living legacies o f crack among most B lack Americans in Am erica's inner-cities. The realities for most African Am ericans in not a problem o f Joe Camel tee-shirts, but one o f prison garb. One o f every four young adult black males is held hostage in the law enforcement system due to the war on us and drugs. While many blacks allege tha, some segments o f the government is engaged in sup plying us drugs, most o f our associ ation and politicians know o f the tobacco companies reciprocity to ward ourcommunities and programs. S ubscribe to Significant grants to African-Am er ican groups, such as the N A A C P , Urban League and others, have come from black tobacco executives such as R JR 's Ben Ruffin, Philip M orris’ Wanda Hopkins and B & W ’s G ail Strange. The ban on tobacco compa nies’ advertising billion-dollar-a- year expenditure w ill have a nega tive effect on black newspapers’ rev enues while chewing gum compa nies and others, who greatly benefit from African Am ericans’ consumer dollars w ill continue to go their way ignoring black in the work and mar ket-place. Blacks who rely on the govern ment and elected-ofllcials for their betterment should make sure that scourge in our community is ad dressed before we allow them to regulate legitimate businesses, fann ers and factory workers out o f exist ence w ijc | b r t i a « b <Db B c r frc r The Portland Observer Can Be Sent Directly To Your Home For Only $30.00 Per Year Please Fill Out, Enclose Check Or Money Order, And Mail To: S ubscriptions T he P ortland O bserver ; PO Box 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 Name:_________________________ _____________________ Address ( its. State: Zip-Code: ___________ T hank Y oi F or R eading T iie P ortland O bserver p e r s p e c tiv e s The Best Laid Plans for Mice and Men Mice Of Mice And Men” was the title of a famed book of popular 1930's author, John Steinbeck. He also wrote that a depression classic, "Grapes of Wrath”, but it is the first novel that draws our attention to the laws which say, "if anything can go wrong, it surely will.” F ir s , o ff, I gave the date 1982 for the fa m ous “ La n d G ran t A ct” (M o r r ill A ct, Document No. 216) in the last week’s description o f the “most important piece o f legislation on behalf o f education ever passed” , the correct date is July 2, 1882 (Abraham Lincoln, who signed the bill into law, didn’t really live for another hundred years). In the next instance, it seems that I completely ignored past experi ence when cited as a most reliable source for “documentation o f fact and law”, ‘Documents o f American H is to r y ’ , B y H e n ry Steele Commager(at your public library). Murphy’s Law ” took over com pletely when several key members of a planned fows group on ‘ H igher Ed Finance’ got lost in their explo ration o f other fascinating material in the historians erudite collection ‘o f the fundamental sources o f American History”. I make that reference to a mem ory lapse, because I have since re called that about ten years ago I cited this same valuable book sev eral times during a controversial series I wrote about the destructive impact o f European immigration on the black economic condition. A s in the present case the readers were completely overwhelmed by a rush o f factual information often ignored by the general media (“Lost, strayed or stolen” as B ill Cosby used to say about ‘Black History’). 1 say, “ ‘well and good” for it is all about learning isn’t it?’ So our Upper Alberta Street Conclave on Higher Education' will be delayed week or two, How much would we’ be able reduce that “one third” figure given for college-bound O r egon students who leave the state? How could we possibly help re solve the enigma o f the engineering schools-upstate or downs,ate em phasis? ( If enough citizens try?) This morning my cab driver in formed me that he has a recent engi neering degree from Portland State University, but found that he did better a temporary in the field—’’just didn’t get no respect!” He had some interesting and rather acid comments about PSU ’ “ R o g e D an ge rfie ld s o f fly Technology.” I ’ll Professor retreat to that fa McKinley m ous quote o f Burt yester-year, “A ll I know is what I read in the papers.” Actually, a number o f us have gone a bit further than that, especially the more well-con nected members ofthe Association o f Oregon Industry. For now, let us return to Mr C o m m a ge r’s docum ent ranch Among the key records and revela tions to be found are such evidentiary accounts o f ambition and empire as Document No. I. “ Privileges And Prerogatives Granted T o Colum bus” , April 30, 1492 (No. 2) Papal Bull, Inter Caetera, May 4, 1493 (No. 11) The Mayflower Compact November 11, 1620 (No. 66) Dec laration o f Independence, July 4, 1776 (No. 150 The American Anti Slavery Society Constitution And Declaration, December4,1833 (and Dred Scott to Gettysburg). The preface in my copy begins, “ Here are the fundamental sources o f American history which all stu dents o f the subject read ‘about’, but for the most part ha ve not ‘ read The literary historians in the mid years ofthe nineteenth century cared little where they found material as long as it molded well into a moving narrative”,. There is a further de scription o f the serendipity course that documentation took up until the present day. In the second halfofCom mager’s massive book (“since 1865” ), we find documents ranging from “The Freedmen’s Bureau”, to “ Pow ell’s Report on the Arid Lands o f the West”, “The Open Door In China” to the Clayton Anti-Trust Act” and “The Social Security Act” to “The Surrender o f Germany” . A s said, the documents are a fas cinating learning process, but next week we return to ‘Oregon’s educa tion process’. l^ortíanit ODhscrucr (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher & Editor Mark Washington Distribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business Manager Sabrina Sakata News/Copy Editor Daniel Bell Advertising Sules Manager Sean C ruz Consultant & Editor Portland Observador Gary Washington Public Relations Timothy Collins Photography Paul Neufeldt lesha W illiams Production & Design Contributing Writers: Professor M cKinley Burt Lee Perlman Pamela Jordan 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxobserv&>aol.com Deadline fo r all submitted materials: Articles:Friday, 5 :0 0 p m Ads: Monday, 12:00pm POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Second Class postage paid at Portland, Oregon Subscriptions $30 00 per year The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and w ill be returned ifaccompanied by a self addressed envelope. A ll created design display ads become the sole property o f the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent ofthe general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 1996 T H E P O R T L A N D O B S E R V E R . A L L R IG H T S R E S E R V E D , R E P R O D U C T IO N IN W H O L E O R IN P A R T W IT H O U T P E R M IS S IO N IS P R O H IB IT E D . The Portland O bserver-O regon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica- tio n -is a member o f the National Newspaper Association—Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New Yo rk, N Y , and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver.