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
> <