O ctober 9, 1996 « T he P ortland O bserver
P age A 2
I
J
I
''
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
^Jortlaxib ffibseruer
J
b \
P eter K ornbuh
“Z / T ’ C IA ,” R epresentative
f l
Cynthia McKinney (D-
VLJ»-'
GA) stated on the floor
of Congress, has come to mean
“Central Intoxication Agency.”
Around the nation, public fury
continues to mount over allega
tions of U.S. government com
plicity in the trafficking of drugs.
This controversial issue cam e back
into public view after a series o f
articles in the San Jose M ercury News
by reporter Gary Webb. It cam e up
again in both o f Rev. Jesse Jack so n ’s
debates with form er Reagan W hite
H ouse aide Lt. C ol. O liver N orth, the
first in Denver, and the second on the
Larry K ing Show (CNN).
D uring the D enver debate, Col.
N orth denied that the National Secu
rity m anagers o f the contra w ar ever
condoned drug smuggling. “ I have
never met in my 22 years o f govern
ment service,” he declared, “any gov
ernm ent official who would tolerate
the delivery o f drugs into this coun
try for distribution to anyone ”
T o the contrary, we know from
N o rth 's own diaries, m em oranda and
E-M ail m essages (obtained through
the Freedom o f Inform ation A ct by
the public interest N ational Security
A rchive), that U.S. officials knew
about, tolerated, p rotected—and in
som e cases, even paid—know n nar
cotics traffickers who had a contri
bution to m ake to the covert w ar
against the Sandinistas in N icara
gua.
C O A L IT IO N
CIA, Contras & Crack
C onsider just som e o f the evi
dence:
♦ O liver North, who to ld Congress
it was "a neat idea " to use the A ya
tollah K hom eni s m oney to support
the contras, also w a n ted to use drug
m oney f o r the sam e purpose. Two
DEA agents testified before C on
gress that North w a n ted to take S I. 5
m illion o f the M edellin C artel s m on
ey that was on a p la n e b eing used in
a drug sting a n d give it to the contras
The DEA ju s t sa id no.
♦ O n.July 12, 1985, N o r th ‘s m ain
weapons suppl ier rep o rted that "SI 4
m illion to fin a n c e " a n arm s "super
m a rke t" in H onduras, w here the
contras were b uying weapons, ‘ 'came
fro m drugs. " There is no re co rd that
North ever p a sse d this inform ation
on to the DEA and/or law en fo rce
m ent officials.
♦ O n A ugust 9, 1985, North s c h ie f
liaison with the contras rep o rted to
him that a "H onduran D C -6 which
is being used fo r runs out o f New
O rleans is p ro b a b ly being used fo r
dru g runs into the U.S. "Again, there
is no reco rd that North ever p a sse d
this inform ation on to the DEA a n d /
or law enforcem ent officials.
♦ Ten weeks after the New York
Times ran a fro n t-p a g e story on G en
e r a l M a n u el N oriega, "P a n a m a
S trongm an S a id to Trade in Drugs,
A rm s a n d Illic it M oney, ” W hite
H ouse andC IA officials a ll sought to
help N oriega "clean up his image, ”
a ccording to N o r th ’s diaries a n d E-
m ail memos.
♦ N o r th a d v o c a te d p a y in g
N oriega one m illion dollars—fro m
d iv e rte d fu n d s fro m the sa le o f arms
to Iran—to fin a n c e sa b o ta g e opera
tions N oriega a g reed to conduct in
sid e N icaragua. R ea g a n 's National
S ecu rity A dvisor a the time, John
Poindexter, a uthorized North to meet
secretly in London with N oriega to
work out the details. "I have nothing
a g a in st him other than his illegal
activities, " P oindexter sta ted
♦ A cco rd in g to a Sept. 1 7 ,1 9 8 6
E -m a il m essa g e, O liv e r N orth,
D uane ( 'larridge (the ( 'IA agent who
ran the co n tra w a r betw een 1981
a n d 1985), a n d o th er high officials
a ll "ca b a l[ed ] q u ie tly " to "look at
options: pardon, clem ency, d ep o r
tation, reduced sentence, "fo r a H on
duran g en era l n a m ed Jo se B ueso
Rosa. B ueso R osa h a d been caught
in a co n sp ira cy Io traffic 345 kilos o f
co ca in e into the U S — street value
540 m illio n —in p a rt to fin a n c e the
assassination o f th e civilian p re si
d en t o f H onduras! But since he was
a key CIA liaison in the H onduran
m ilitary w ho h a d h elp ed fa c ilita te
th e co vert war against N icaragua,
U.S. officials w a n ted to save him
fr o m a j a i l sentence to keep him
fr o m "spilling the beans " (E ventu
a lly he se rv e d less than fiv e ye a rs in
a w hite co lla r “C lub F ed " in F lo r
ida—th a t sam e sentence that is now
m a ndatory f o r 5 bags (529) worth o f
crack.)
These declassified docum ents cast
serious doubts on the integrity o f the
CIA. Did A m erican officials “ nod
and w ink," in Rev. Jack so n ’s w ords,
at the delivery o f drugs across our
border, into our central cities, and
into the bodies o f our young?
T his charge m ust be fully investi
gated, so that the rum ors can be re
moved, or the culprits captured. The
San Jose M ercury News story re
mains a hot topic on talk radio, and in
this natio n ’s ghettoes and barrios.
It will rem ain so until these allega
tions are fully investigated in a p u b
lic forum.
Light Rail: Coasting Towards An Ideal
To The E ditor:
he dream is alive and
thriving. From Septem
ber 8 -1 0 ,1 9 9 6 , 6 75 be
lievers In the dream descended
on Washington, D.C. for Rail-
Volution, a national conference
on light rail.
W e cam e from six countries and
we shared w ays in w hich to m ake the
dream com e true. W e reaffirm ed the
necessity o f brin g in g light rail to the
Portland M etro area as a m eans o f
im proving our neighborhoods, city,
and regional area.
I had the p rivilege o f attending
the conference as a scholarship p ar
ticip an t from the C itizens A dvisory
C o m m itte e fo r the S o u th /N o rth
Line.
I was inspired by the enthusiasm ,
d edication, and creativity o f the co n
ference attendees and left W ashing
ton, D.C. thoroughly convinced o f
the need to prom ote the active in
volvem ent o f my neighbors, co w o rk
ers, governm ent officials, and fel
low O regonians in planning co m
m unities around light rail stations.
S ocial ju stice , crim e prevention,
consolidation o f resources, en v iro n
m ental protection, em ploym ent o p
portunities, and energy co n serv a
tion w ould all be positively enhanced
by the developm ent o f light rail in
our area.
I saw several exam ples o f how
light rail has transform ed isolated,
concrete barriers w ithin cities and
tow ns to w elcom e, inviting g ath er
ing places w here people o f all ages
can work, shop, or ju st hang out.
I saw and felt the w arm th o f main
streets that have been resurrected
from m ajor arterial speeding vehi
cles through areas with total disre
gard to pedestrians, cyclists, or the
ow ners o f business.
W hat I saw and learned has en
couraged me to actively w ork for the
developm ent o f planned com m uni
ties focusing around light rail We
cannot continue to build m ore and
more suburbs, resulting in longer
and longer driving distances w ithout
further destroying the integrity o f
our beautiful state and negatively
im pacting the everyday lives o f our
citizens.
We have a chance to m ake a very
real and im portant difference in the
quality o f life we all hope to attain. It
is w ithin our pow er and ability to
create the kind o f place w here chil
dren thrive and people can live, work
and recreate in a safe, satisfying and
com fortable way.
—Irene J. Park
Reconsidering the death penalty
by
D eni S tarr J. D.
was reading about the
jl
slaughter in Rwanda on
the day that we, the Peo
ple of the State of Oregon, killed
Douglas Franklin Wright.
O’
“ H ow could this happen?” puz
zles Tergal Keane o f the BBC, w it
nessing the slaughter in a church. We
pass a classroom and inside a m other
is lying in the co m er surrounded by
four children. T he chalk m arks the
last lesson in m athem atics are still on
the board But the desks have been
upturned by the killers. It looks as if
the w om an and her children had tried
to hide underneath the desks. We
pass around a corner and I step over
the rem ains o f a small boy. A gain, he
has been decapitated. To my im m e
diate left is a large room filled with
bodies T here is blood, rust colored
now with the passing w eeks, sm eared
on the w alls. 1 do not know w hat else
to say about the bodies because I
have already seen too m uch. “ T his is
—unbelievable.” Tony w hispers in
my ear. W e are all w hispering, as if
we m ight som ehow wake the dead
with our voices. “ It i s ju s t- u nbeliev
able. C an you imagine w hat these
poor—w ent through?” And 1 answ er
that no, I cannot imagine it because
my pow ers o f visualization cannot
possibly encom pass the m agnitude
o f the terror.
A m illion people were m urdered
in R w anda in 1993, m ost o f them
hacked to death with m achetes by
th e ir n e ig h b o rs. R w an d a is not
unique. Such genocide is still going
on in Bosnia. Iraqis are still m urder
ing Kurds. G enocide, the m urder o f
Jews by the N azis, A rm enians by the
Turks, T usis by the Hutus, K urds by
the Iraqis, the indigenous peoples o f
the A m ericas by Europeans, is not
lim ited by tim e, geography, race, or
level o f technological developm ent.
W e in Am erica look at Bosnia,
Rw anda, K urdistan, and say, it can
not happen here. It has already hap
pened here. Ask the A paches about
Cam p Grant. Ask the Cheyenne about
Sand Creek. Ask the D akota about
W ounded Knee.
These killings are all done by ordi
nary people. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot,
Amin, Obote may all have been evil
and insane, but the tens ofthousands o f
ordinary people w ho helped them were
not. Ordinary people like your neigh
bors, like the guy your sister is married
to, will do things like this if two things
happen; they are convinced that kill
ings solves problems and they are con
vinced that a particular minority is
responsible for their problems.
M ost people believe that killing
other people can solve problems.
M ost o f the people who supported
the execution o f D ouglas Franklin
W right believed that killing him
solves problem s. It certainly keeps
him from killing anyone else. But
along with that doctrine com es its
logical, inevitable, horrifying sequel:
if killing people solves problem s,
then the more people w e kill, the
more problem s we will solve.
Do Am ericans really believe this?
C onsider that recently o u r D em o
cratic president and Republican con
gress ju st changed the law so that
instead o f three federal crim es being
punishable by death, now over 60
federal crim es are punishable by
death. The more people w e kill, the
m ore problem s w e’ll solve.
W ith the end o f the cold war, we are
also seeing an upsurge in scapegoating.
The Hutu people were told that the
T usi were responsible for all their prob
lems. The Germans were told that it
was the Jews who caused a 11 the suffer
ing in the world. Killing them was an
act o f self defense. The populace was
told over and over again “these people
are a threat to us, we must defend
ourselves.”
The more people we kill, the more
problem s w e’ll solve. W here is this
b elief taking us? Is that w here we
w ant to go?
Standing against measure 34
To th e E ditor:
ome misleading state
ments made by support
ers of Initiative measure
38 deserve a response.
In th e O re g o n ia n , S e p te m b e r
22nd, D enzel Ferguson, an activist,
says “ In 1920 populations o f all sp e
cies o f anadrom ous fish in the C o
lum bia R iver w ere in precipitous
decline 13 years before the first dam
(R ock Island) w as built.” He follow s
this with a sentence, “ Livestock graz-
ing is the leading im pedim ent to fish
and w ildlife production in the W est.”
It would seem that a voter is sup
posed to make a connection between
these two subjects. W hat he does not
say is that livestock, which came with
settlers in the 187O's had nothing to do
with the fish decline in 1920
T his decline, I'm told, was the
result o f over harvesting the fish,
particularly using huge “fish w heels”
that scooped salm on out o f the river
in areas w here the runs were co n cen
better ‘*£0 '£he (Svitar
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
A note of approval
*7d the editor... Just would like to
comment on your September 25, 1996
issue... thrilling and newswatching!...99
-Thanks, Anan Shachaq
/
trated. They w ere so deadly efficient
that they w ere outlaw ed, and the runs
began building up again.
I well rem em ber that when my
father took me to see a fish wheel in
the early 1920’s. It was aw esom e, for
me as a child, to view that stream o f
big silver fish sliding dow n its chute.
It should also be noted that the
D EQ w rote a letter to Bill M arlett,
the activist w ho started Measure 38
about another m isleading statement,
w hich said “the D E Q ’s assessm ent
S ubscribe to
o f w ater pollution found that range-
land livestock grazing is the leading
s o u r c e o f w a te r p o llu tio n in
O regon."T he DEQ said that it felt the
statem ent “ is m isleading and does
not accurately portray our position.”
These are only two o f the many
reasons why I’m against this pro
posed law. There are many others,
and I urge all responsible citizens to
study the issues closely and to vote
N O on m easure 38.
—Linda Bow m an
anje fliortianh onitacruer
The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00
per year Please f ill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to:
SUBSCRIPTIONS
T he P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137
P ortland , O regon 97208
N a m e :_______________________
A d d r e s s :_____
< ’ ity. State: _________ _______
Zip-Code:
______ ;______ __________________
___ _____________________________
T hank Y ou F or R eading T iif P ortland O bserver
P e r s p c c / i
p c s
Book Of Revelations;
according to McKinley
x
t seems that I made a
promise last week that
my copyright attorneys
pray was “not written in stone.”
O’
I
T he A frican
experience o f re
m ote an cesto rs
to the contrary,
s o m e tim e s
it
m ay b e ‘better to
conceal than to
rev eal-p articu larly when a prudent
delay in these much later and highly
com petitive tim es can avert theft,
trade-m ark infringem ent and litiga
tion. W e’re talking “bottom line”
h ere-ed u catio n al curriculum and
toys, vide cassettes, instructional
gam es com pany and product must
be named.
Ms Phyliss G aines, a local A fri
can A m erica business w om an, put
these and sim ilar issues in p erspec
tive during an interview in the Sun
day O regonian business section for
January, 14, 1996. H er experience-
based advice-”T he N am e G am e”-
has been cited by many as having
been extrem ely valuable in struc
turing legal protection from the very
beginning o f their new enterprise.
In any case I will hold back for
now on any vain revelations co n
cerning som e m ore-than-success-
ful applications o f finalized learn
ing m odels in trail runs ranging
from the “ Saturday A cadem y” as
I’ve described here several tim es
(M ichael Grice, D irector), to sever
al selected W ashington C ounty
Schools to a few trial tutoring en-
gage-with the children or g rand
children o f fellow m em bers o f the
A ssociation o f O regon Industries.
Several m odels for teaching the
very I ittle ones (head start age) have
developed over the years since that
1971 Lake O sw eg o M ontessori
School ex p erien ce o f d esig n in g
com puter program 'b o a rd s’ for the
five and six year o ld ’s; decision
trees built around sibling priorities
for bathroom , brushing teeth, school
day or not, etc . I w as successful but
not sure exactly why.
Now, twenty five years later, hav
ing plowed through the literature and
suffered accordingly--"M ontessori
Play And Learn, Young Children
Invent Arithmetic, The Life And
Growth o f Language, the Language
Instinct, Patterns
In The Mind, Lan
guage, T hought
By
A nd
R e a lity
Professor
(W
h
o
rf),
L an
Mcklnley
g u ag e T h o u g h t
Burt
A nd
A ctio n
(Hayakawa), The Alphabet Effect
and on and on" - 1 think I may have
the hang o f it Anyway its been fun.
There follow s tw o poem s that
have proved oh so useful in pro
voking older children and youth to
speculation about ‘tim e’ and posi
tions (hyperbation) so im portant in
understanding physics. O f course I
use my own as well (sm iles).
"Tim e p resent a n d tim e p a st
A re both perhaps present in tim e
future.
A n d tim e fu tu r e co n ta in ed in
tim e past.
I f a ll tim e is eternally p resen t
A ll tim e is unredeem able.
W hat m ight have been is an a b
straction
R em aining a p erp etu a l p o ssi
bility
O nly in a w orld o f speculation.
W hat m ight have been a n d what
has been
Point to one en d w hich is alw ays
p re se n t"
T.S. Eliot, Four Q uartets
"Som etim es / p la y that I catch
up with m yself.
/ run w ith what I was
a n d w ith what / w ilt be,
on the race o f w hat / cwt
A n d som etim es I p la y th a t! pass
m yself.
Then m aybe T run
in the race o f w hat ! ’m not.
But th e re's still another race
in w hich / 7/ p/cry that I m over
taken
a n d that will be the real one. "
R oberto Juarroz, Vertical P oet
ry, p 75
N orth Point Press S. F , ! 988
(N ext week: H Z,«/ works at the
b a rrica d es a n d w hat d o e sn 't -
B u rt’s solutions")
Attention Readers!
Please take a m inute to send us your com m ents. W e’re alw ays trying
to give you a better paper and w e c a n ’t do it w ithout your help. Tell us
w hat you like and w hat needs im provem ent... any suggestions are
w elcom ed and ap preciated. W e take criticism well! Get your pow erful
pens out NOW and address your letters to: Editor, R eader R esponse,
P.O. Box 3137, P ortland. O R 97208,
^ la r tla n h
O O b s e ru e r
(USPS 959-680) Established in 1970
Charles W ashington
P ublisher & E ditor
M ark W ashington
D istribution M anager
G ary Ann T aylor
Business M an ager
Sabrina Sakata
N ew s/C opy E ditor
Danny Bell
A dvertising S ales M an ager
Sean Cruz
C on su ltan t & E ditor
P ortlan d O bservador
G ary W ashington
Public Relations
Tim othy C ollins
P hotography
Paul N eufeldt
Iesha W illiams
Production & D esign
Rovonne Black
Business A ssistan t
C on tributing Writers:
Professor M cK inley Burt, Lee Perlm an, Pamela Jordan
4747 NE M artin Luther K ing, Jr. Blvd.,
P ortland, O regon 9 7 2 1 1
5 0 3 -288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015
Email: Pdxobserv(a)aol.com
Deadline for all submitted materials:
A r tic le s :F r id a y , 5 : 0 0 p m
A d s: M o n d a y, 1 2 :0 0 p m
PO STM A STE R : Send A ddress C hanges To: Portland O bserver,
P.O. Box 3 137, Portland, O R 97208.
S ec o n d C lass p o sta g e p a id a t Portland, Oregon.
S u b set iptiuns. 5 30.00 p e t y e u r
The Portland O bserver w elcom es freelance subm issions. M anu
scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned
ifaccom panied by a se lf addressed envelope All created design display
ads becom e the sole property o f the new spaper and cannot be used in
other publications or personal usage without the w ritten consent o f the
general m anager, unless the client has purchased the com position o f
such ad. © 1996 TH E PO R T LA N D O B SE R V E R . ALL RIG H TS
RESERV ED , R E PR O D U C T IO N IN W H O LE O R IN PART W IT H
O U T PER M ISSIO N IS PR O H IB IT E D .
The Portland O b se rv e r-O re g o n ’s O ldest M ulticultural Publica-
tio n - is a m em ber o f the N ational N ew spaper A sso ciatio n -F o u n d ed in
1885, and The N ational A dvertising R epresentative Am algam ated
Publishers. Inc, N ew York, NY, and The W est C oast Black Publishers
A ssociation • Serving Portland and Vancouver.