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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1996)
r ir n - O i io n i k 23, 1996 • Iin P oru and O rsi km k ______________________ ___ ____________ ____ ______________________— ------------------ ---—-------------- I ’ f < - P j -/Z" * Attention Readers! Please take a minute to send us your comments. We’re always trying to give you a better paper and we can’t do it without your help. Tell us what you like and what needs improvement... any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. We take criticism well! Get your powerful pens out NOW and address your letters to: Editor. Reader Response. P.O. Box 3137. Portland. OR 97208. Wfye |{.ìortlattò (Observer (VSPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher A Editor Mark Washington Distribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business Manager Sean C ru z Consultant A Editor Portland Observador Danny Bell Advertising Sales Manager Gary Washington Public Relations Timothy C o llins Photography Paul Neufeldt Production A Design Rovonne Black Business Assistant 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(S>aol.com / Ads: Monday, 12:00pm POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer, |».(). Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. /■ A Second C la ss postage p a id 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 if accompanied 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 o f the 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 I 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 Observer—Oregon'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 B lack Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. S u b s c r ib e t o ® i?e^ o rtia n i) (Obsmwr The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00 per year Please fill out. enclose cheek or money order, and mail to S ubscriptions T he P or i land O bserver ; PO B ox 3137 P o r i i and , O regon 97208 Name: Address: City, State: Zip-Code: T hank Y oe F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver The real statistics To the editor: The Predator Defense Institute (P D I) recently released a compre hensive investigative report on the cougar controversy in Oregon. Here are its major findings: ♦ More than 93% o f a ll cougar incidents " recorded by the Oregon Department o f F ish and Wildlife (O D FW ) from Ja nu a ry 199-1 to May 1996 were unconfirmed The m ajor ity o f the reports were based on noth ing more than phone calls to district offices o f the O D FW ♦ O f the S3 2 cougar incident re ported provided by the O DFW , 644 were recorded as sightings, and IB S as damage com plaints, but only 3.25% of the sightings and only 10 !0°/n o f the damage complaints were confirm ed These percentages represent only 2 1 confirmed sightings and / 9 confirm ed damage problems statewide in w ell over two yea rs' • There has never been a docu mented attack by a cougar on a p er son in Oregon history The PD I report invalidates the tro phy hunter’s claim that cougar inci dents are rampant. I, also demon strates that a trophy hunting season does nothing to reduce the remote risk o f an encounter between people and cougars. Existing law already allows pri vate landowners and state and feder al damage control agents to elim i nate individual nuisance cougars. It simply bars trophy hunters from ha rassing and k illin g cougars in (he wilderness with the aid o f packs o f radio-collared hounds. Voters should oppose Measure 34 and prevent cru el and unsportsmanlike means o f cougar hunting. —Brooks Eab y Hispanic view of Republican party To the editor: A s a Hispanic American busi nessman and a former active mem ber o f the Republican party. I would like to explain why this year, I will be supporting Picsideiit Clinton. Like the majority o f 11 ispanic busi ness owners, I feel the Republican party has become increasingly hos tile to Hispanics. When we see the Republican party abdicating control to anti-Hispanic racists like Pat Buchanan, Bob Dole. Pete Wilson and Phil Gramm, we see a party that has deteriorated into a mean-spirited entity headed by bigots. Choosing Jack Kemp as the Vice Presidential candidate is too little, too late. As result, Hispanic business own ers like me have stopped supporting Republican candidates for President e r N A T IO N A L C O A L IT IO N Stop Prop. 209 This bus tour generated enormous public and media response, and may have turned the tide against the ini tiative. A s D iC am illo also noted,” ...the more interesting aspect is that this has nothing to do with paid ad vertising. So all o f the awareness is being generated through the free media.” African American voters strongly oppose Prop. 209 by 52-25%. Latinos also oppose the measure by a small margin, 44-42% , while Asian Am er icans are split 41-41 % . Whites pro vide the plurality o f support for the initiative,by49-28% infavor. Wom s e P en currently favor Prop. 209 by a sm all m argin, which means that changing the minds of white women w ill be the key to victory. A s T V and radio advertising kicks in during the final weeks before the election, these numbers w ill change. The good news is that the trend is in the right direction—and Reverend Jackson w ill continue to keep the pressure on. He led a rally in San Diego the day o f the Presidential debate (10/16), and he is organizing a big rally in Los Angeles on Sunday, 10/27, to kick o ff the final effort to defeat this measure. c t / Once Californians realize who is supporting this measure - Newt Gingrich, Pete W ilson, David Duke, and the Republican Party — they w ill turn against it. Once Californians recognize that the biggest beneficia ries o f affirmative action have been white women, and thus, the white family, they w ill turn against it. Professions have opened up to white women, so that they can be doctors, lawyers, airline pilots, even astronauts. At the same time, corporations have been d o w n s iz in g and outsourcing the jobs o f white men, leaving women as the main bread winners for many families. Once Californians are clear that affirmative action is a majority, not a minority, issue-benefitting white women. African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and the disabled-then Prop. 209 will be defeated. A s Reverend Jackson puts it: “ We must feminize the face o f affirmative action, and remind the voters that it is a majority issue. Then we will win. T e Are You Caught Up In The Net (of Education)? Deadline fo r all submitted materials: A rticles:Friday. 5:00 pm J '• he tide is turning in Cal ifornia against Proposi tion 209, the anti-affir mative action statewide ballot initiative. Recent polling by the Field poll shows that support for Prop. 209 has dropped below 50%. Though the proposition is still fa vored by 47-32% , the percentage o f undecided voters has now grown to 21%. And as Field poll director Mark D iC am illo was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle: “ Y o u can al most see the public pulling back a little.” TheifieId Poll was conducted from October 1 -8. right on the heels o f the California bus tour organized by N O W , the Feminist Majority, and the Rainbow/PUSH Action Network. Reverend Jackson toured the state from south to north over a four-day period, joining with Patricia Ireland, Eleanor Smeal, and Dolores Huerta to campaign hard against Prop. 209 in San Diego, Lo s Angeles, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, San Jose, and San Francisco. ft Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f (tljc |Jo rt(a n b (Obscruer and Congress and have started sup porting Democrats. While Presi dent Clinton and the Democrats leave much to be desired with re gard to sensitivity to Hispanic Amer icans, they have been much more supportive and inclusive to us. Bob Dole has made a fatal error in embracing the anti-H ispanic pol icies o f the right-wing o f the Re publican Party. And Gordon Smith with his new image and supposed more tolerant attitude, doesn’t fool me ortherestofO regon’s Hispanic Americans. Come election day, I w ill be supporting President B ill Clinton and Senate candidate Tom Bruggere. Fran k E. Rivera, C h ie f Executive Officer, Advanced Data Concepts t number of parents, stu- dents and teachers are < making it perfectly clear that this is exactly how they feel about the media-driven onslaught from this audience with my sug gestion that the “Information Su perhighway” hooplah was remi niscent of the P.R. blitz which preceded the ill-fated “New Math' and “M etric” systems. I really seem to have hit a nerve when I asked, “w ill the Net’ also infinitely expand to conceal the fact there are many yet who cannot count, read or write very well, in front o f or behind some desks.” Several mem bers o f my industry organization, AO1, have voiced asim ilar alarm an<F like them, my years o f industry expe rience enable me to recognize a well- financed, m arket-driven crusade when I see one. T o d ay, I am w ritin g from a ‘ loaned-office’ out here in the Bea verton-Hillsboro electronic pastures where a number o f executives and managers are my former students at Portland State University. They say things like, “we already have too many in the work force who require remedial work in the basics because they have been ill-served by an edu cation system heavily given to hy perbole — and little to results.” And today at lunch we had the C E O , at a luncheon for supervisors and trainers, passing out photo cop ies o f page 27 o f the October issue of "Today," the journal o f the National Education Association. He has both a wife and a sister who teach in the Portland School District and pro ceeded to quote extensively, if not approvingly, from the journal’s hy perbolic excursion into the "Net" (Kickstart). “ Yo u w ill see students labeled ' learning disabled’ performing at the highest levels through technology -- parents connected daily to events in their children’s schools — aTinercity students engaged in virtual field trips to remote parts o f the world - paren tal involvement, individual instruc tion, active learning, self-motivation and more comprehensive assessment - only beginning to tap the exciting potential.” By Professor Mckinley Burt “ Heard enough," asked our chief executive, “here’s the bottom line o f their Operation Kickstart. It is clear that ...we must do a better jo b o f allocating the time and financial re sources that technology implemen tation demands!” ’ There was a murmur o f assent when he made the indignant observa tion that "these people should not have expected that industry, o f all sectors, would cheerfully endow their poorly-organized efforts with over a hundred m illion dollars o f our tax refunds. A s a matter o f fact our next speaker. Prof. M cKinley Burt, who, as a couple o f his former students here w ill attest, won a National S c i ence Foundation Award for an Ore gon School District by installing on line terminals in a middle school classroom. Thirty Years A go !” The speaker, who has three ch il dren in private schools, prepared to turn over the podium — but not before taking a parting shot, “These people admit that, computers w ill be o f I ittle use to students if teachers do not know how to use the technology to teach daily lessons'; like you would know how to teach a given subject with a computer if you didn’t know how to teach the same subject with out a computer. Could we get a prod uct o ff the line with that kind o f flawed logic? just what do they think a computer is ?” With an understanding nod to ward the previous speaker, I pref aced my presentation with a citation o f a coming book by Andrew Grove, president o f Oregon’s Intel Corp., the w o rld ’ s m ost su cce ssfu l chipm aker and O regon's biggest employer, “O nly the paranoid Sur vive" (fear is healthy). I ’ve met some very progressive folks from that firm and expect to make a presentation there as well. And perhaps gain some new consulting contracts. I immediately made the point that had I been sufficiently "paranoid” and “ fearful” o f the bureaucratic Portland School District in 1969- 1970 when I set up my 5000 sq.ft. “Telecommunications and computer Center" at the southwest corner of Belmont and S .E . 24th St. — the Portland education scene would be quite different today. In close agreement with this would be the many who came to my ‘open house’ in January 1969. No ‘enter tainment centers’ or ‘electronic play pens' for alleged “slow learners” , it was all about an innovative and effi cient new learning system — the fu ture! Those still around, from school, government, industry and the com munity who were there, are left to wonder as to “how far ahead o f the nation Portland schools could have been had they been able to see the future when they were eyeball-to- eyeball’ with the entire new technol ogy?” Here, up and running, was a complete computerized learning sys tem as evolved and sophisticated from my 1966 on-line demonstration in The Dalles, Oregon which won that National Science Foundation Award in 1966. I got blank stares and a big “duh” ’ A retired Urban League official and several retired teachers say that “The Net Was Born Right There” - on line with industries, government agencies and news bureaus like the Associated Press in an interactive mode with students at terminals in their classrooms — students/teachers could communicate with businesses, scientists, laboratories, Bell Tele phone facilities, Tektronix, Harvey Aluminum Computer at Torrance, C a„ Bauxite Ports in West Indies, R o llin g M ills in Adrian, M ich., Bonneville Power, National Bureau o f Standards etc. Sim ulating busi ness' practice I had the computer in California print checks in the class room. The local manager o f the A sso ci ated press helped me to design a nightly teletype news feed for 'broad cast' each night to unattended termi nals at each school so children could ‘make up their paper’ the next morn ing. In addition I had all the camera equipment, printing presses, bind ers. punchers and closed circuit T V to produce related curriculum and other support. I have no trouble at all demonstrating to interested industry people that just my original ideas are far ahead o f present day practice, “Now, what I ’ve got today for the 21st century is something else.” Continued next week No on measure 34 To the editor: I am one o f many llama ranchers in Deschutes County. I am, to my know ledge, the only llama rancher in the country to have had llamas killed by a cougar. In spite o f my experience, I op pose Measure 34, the baiting and hounding measure. The passage o f Measure 34 will do nothing to protect my livelihood or my livestock. It w ill only bring cruel and unsportsmanlike methods o f trophy hunting back to Oregon. It is rare for cougars to kill live stock. Cougars are efficient in k illin g traditional prey, such as deer, elk, rabbits, and porcupines. The rare cougar that kills livestock is usually a young animal seeking a territory; hound hunters don't want to ki II these juvenile cougars because they are not desired trophies. Hound hunters k illin g cougars deep in the wilderness do nothing to protect ranchers from cougars. These hound hunters seeking trophies are not helping ranchers, because they are not targeting problem animals. Farmers do lose money to w ild life, primarily to prey species such as deer, elk. and rabbits. Cougars prey upon these species, keeping their populations in check. Cougars help farmers and ranchers far more than they hurt them. We must be rational, not emotion al. Randomly chasing cougars in the wilderness and killin g them w ill do nothing to solve the rare problem o f cougar attacks on livestock. The Department o f Fish and W ildlife and ranchers can and should deal with the rare rogue cougar under existing law. 1 urge voters to oppose measure 34 and to support intelligent and responsible w ildlife management. Sincerely—B ill Boyer The other side of domestic violence To the editor: I am writing this letter because I am deeply concerned about the do mestic violence law that is in effect in Oregon. At the risk ofbeingjailed for perjury, I have something to say, and I hope that it is heard Less than a week ago, my husband and I got into an argument. In my anger, I went to the court house and filed a r e a m in g order against hint. I lied, I made up a story, and based on his criminal background, was grant ed an order against him. Duringcourt. I didn't cry, I had no black eyes, no busted lip, no marks what so ever to justify things that I said he had done to me. And I had said that he’d done some pretty violent things. I then called the domestic vio lence agency and had them serve the restraining order They came over to my house to pick it up. Again, not once did anyone ask to see any bruis es or marks. Theyjust took my word. After all. I'm a woman and he’s a man. I have set in on several hearings regarding the issue o f restraining or ders. In one such hearing, a woman alleged that her husband had beaten her, threw glasses and other dishes a, her, burned her with a lit cigarette, etc. She had no marks, didn't go to the hospital for the large lump she claimed she had from the thrown dishes. In the end, it was founds out that all the things she said that he'd done to her, she had in fact done to him. In this instance, there were actu al witnesses. His restraining order was thus lifted, and thejudge ordered them to go home and work th ings out. However, this man had been kicked out o f his house, separated from his children, all because she was a wom an. thus so easy to believe. M y husband now lives on the street Why? Because I was angry and knew that this great old justice system would work in my favor. I have an associate who claimed that her boyfriend beat her, filvd a re straining order against him, and had it granted. She did this because she wanted to get high, and he wouldn't give her the money to do so. Where is the justice in this state when our men, both young and old; black or white; rich or poor, have to suffer because women such as my self can’t stand the heat, and don’t know when to get out o f the kitchen? -- Tamia M urphy better Co Ote (Sfftór Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 > <