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
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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
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