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P ortland O bserver
(Elje Jlo rtlan h © bseruer
he upcoming Citizenship
Education Fund & Rain
b o w /P U S H C oalition
Public Policy Conference on Edu­
cation (Feb 23-25) is shaping up
to be a major event concerning
urban education.
Rev. Jackson first had the idea lor
the conference during the media
firestorm about Ebonics, believing
that educator could use the public-
debate about Ebonics to lift up the
real issues facing urban schools these
days.
In fact, Rev. Jackson's keynote
address on Monday morning Feb.
24th, is entitled “Turning Heat into
Light,” as a direct result of the
Ebonics debate (We should note
that due to space limitations, attend­
ees are by invitiation only. If you are
interested in attending, please con­
tact Ms. W ilma Brooks at CEF,
202.296.6726, and she can give you
more details.)
TheCouncil of G reatCity Schools
has agreed to co-sponsor the event,
which will attract many of the School
(The ^Iortlanò (©bseruer I
(USPS 959-680) Established in 1970
Charles Washington
Publisher A Editor
Mark Washington
Distribution M anager
Gary Ann Taylor
Business M anager
Paul Neufeldt
Production A Design
Danny Bell
Advertising Sales M anager
Rovonne Black
Business Assistant
Gary Washington
Public Relations
Contributing Writers:
Professor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, Eugene Rashad
4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97211
503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015
Email: Pdxobserv@aol.com
Deadline for all submitted materials:
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T hank Yot F or R eading I he P ori land O bserver
In Memory o f Ennis William Cosby
On a long lonely road
you waited for help
hut instead of help
the devil came.
He raised his cruel weapon
and shortened your young life
but God intervened
and carried you to Heaven.
Your mother and father and
four sisters you left behind
sonless and brotherless
but your spirit lives on
in them, in us, in the world.
In the beautiful
"special children ”
that you loved so much
and taught to be brave and free.
We shall miss you sorely
but we shall carry on
the work that you began
and through loving one another
keep your love and memory
alive in our hearts.
p
e
r
C O
A L I T I O N
Closing the gap
Superintendents o f our nation's larg­
est school districts. Among those
who have agreed to participate are:
*U.S. Secretary of Education Ri­
chard Riley, who will speak at lunch
on I uesday, 2/25, discussing Fed­
eral priorities for the next 4 years, a
timely presentation given President
Clinton’s emphasis on education in
his State ot the Union address.
*Dr Mary Francis Berry. U S .
Commission on Civil Rights
♦Chicago School Superintendent
Dr. Paul Valias.
*Dr. William Julius Wilson, Uni­
s
p
e
versity of Chicago, an expert on
societal problems caused by unem­
ployment, whose keynote address at
lunch on Monday, 2/24, is entitled
“Economics & The Social Impact."
*Dr Charles Ogletree of Harvard,
who has agreed to serve as facilitator
tor the event.
♦Dr Henry G ates, H arvard’s
DuBois Institute, who will keynote
dinner on Monday with an address
entitled 'Racism & Education.”
*Dr. Barbara Sizemore of DePaul
University, who will lead a Town
Hall session on "Standards, Stereo-
c
t
i
types, and Student Performance" on
Monday afternoon.
♦Dr Samuel Proctor, who will
keynote breakfast on Tuesday, 2/25,
on "The Challenge o f Character
Education."
*Dr. Wayne Watson of Kennedy-
King College, which is hosting the
conference.
The conference participants will
also visit the new Cook County edu­
cation, jail vs. Yale. This nation is
spending more every year on pris­
ons, while finding it harder every
year to maintain its urban schools.
Urban education, particularly for
minority students is in a state of
emergency with ramifications that
go far beyond radio talk show rheto­
ric about Ebonics.
This conference will not only dis­
cuss the current state of emergency;
we will also discuss “best practices”
from A m erica's urban schools, and
issue a 10-point plan of action for
the urban schools of the next cen­
tury. We will, in short, turn heat into
light concerning urban education.
F
e
Have I Got An Education Plan For You!
ou might very well ask
what brought on this
new brain storm? No
mystery; President Clinton said,
“My No.l priority for the next
four years is to ensure that all
Americans have the best educa­
tion in the world.”
Whoa! How many times and in
how many ways have we been told
this in some form or fashion over the
last forty years? Eversince that catho­
lic priest upset the education estab­
lishm ent w ith his book, “ Why
Johnny C an’t Read”, we the people-
public, parent-have been hammered
besieged and beguiled with a zillion
promises and protestations to the
effect that “things are going to get
better.” From politicians and educa­
tors alike.
Well it just so happened that my
reading of the White House polem­
ics coincided with a phone call from
“The Black Inventors M useum” in
St. Louts, Mo. It seems that they had
just discovered that the author of
their best selling book - my “Black
Inventors of America” - was a “home
town brother” They also would like
Ï
a special late spring appearance on
my part. Right on' But the best part
of our half-hour conversation was
our absolute agreement on an effec­
tive education process.
IF
The principal agenda for our
mutual admiration society turned
out to be a common interest in re­
pairing a disabled education system
that “might not yet be beyond re­
trieval." As a fact, my electronic
correspondent was as her mother
had been, a teacher in the St. Louis
school system. Add that to the fact
that my mother and aunt had sim i­
larly been employed in the same
city, and you have the makings of a
very, very productive discussion.
Particularly, we reached co n ­
sensus on tw o very im portant is­
sues. Q uite naturally, I suppose -
since her forte also is A frican
A m erican technology - she sup­
ports my thesis that in an age of
technology, nothing could be more
logical and productive in the m o­
tivation and education of black
youth than the use ol such superb
role m odels as the many African
A m erican inventors and scientists
of the industrial revolution.
Secondly, since our ‘love affair'
with the role of the pedagogue goes
back for several generations, we
achieved mutuality in another per­
ception as well; that schools were
much belter 'back then - certainly
in St. Louis. And here, of course, is
where I began to see very clearly that
the restoration of a competent edu­
cation system in America - and the
implementation of effective learn­
ing systems — does not depend upon
the importation and imitations of
systems in China, Japan. Germany,
Sweden or anywhere else.
“My Plan” is simple. Not so much
“back to the drawing board” as “back
to the future”. A future that was
more than adequately prepared for
back then’ before World War II
when even in the Jim Crow ghetto
schools it was thoroughly under­
stood that language was a precise
code that would not only expedite
upward mobility and economic suc­
cess -- but would unlock the myster­
ies of science and mathematics.
A number of times in these col­
umns I have cited the very basic,
curriculum of a southern ghetto high
school in the 1020’s and 1930’s.
Algebra I & II, Geometry I & II,
General Science I & II, Biology I &
II, Physics I & II and Chemistry I &
II. Then there was History, Geogra­
phy, a mandatory ‘choice’ of either
Latin or French, with English all
four years. Oh yes, there was man­
datory music — general, band, glee
club or choir. Also gym and sports.
That is if you wished to get a di­
ploma!
O f course, you could handle this
rigorous academic exercise because
in grammar school you had learned
all the parts of speech by the fifth
grade, and by the eighth grade you
didn’t split infinitives, end a sen­
tence with a preposition, or mis­
match verbs and subjects. Have I got
a plan for you!
Chicken Rights VS Human Rights
bv
B ernice P ow eij . J ackson
T
J^l
—Gina Bettis Lawrence, (1/16/97)
Send Donations To: The Ennis William Cosby Foundation; c/o The
Brokaw Com pany; 9255 Sunset Blvd, Suite 804; Los Angeles. CA 90069
Ennis Cosby graduated fro m Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1992. He
was teaching special needs students at a school in New York and was
perusing a doctorate degree in Special Education at Columbia Univer­
sity in New York. His goal was to dedicate his life to the teaching o f
special students to help them overcome learning disabilities. Ennis,
^him self
t
‘"overcame
dyslexia as a college student.
J
erhaps you remember
the news story. It was
TT
1993 and 2 5 workers
were killed in a fire in a chicken
processing plant in North Caro­
lina. Most of them black women.
All of them dead because the
doors to the plant had been
chained by the owners, who had
accused workers of theft.
Perhaps you d o n ’t rem em ber
that it was a Perdue plant in Ham­
let, NC, a tiny town w hose only
significant em ployer is Perdue A
tow n w ith a m a jo rity A frican
A m erican population, in one of
the poorest counties in the state A
county where the chief o f police
and school board arc w hite and
there is still a baseball park which
was donated on the condition that
it rem ain for whites only.
A recent report by the Fellowship
of Reconciliation (FOR), an inter­
faith organization dedicated to non­
violence and economic and racial
justice, was the outcome of the work
of its Women of Color in the Work­
place Project and a series of hearings
and interviews conducted as a result
o f the 1993 fire. FOR found that
employees work in conditions haz­
ardous to their health and that the
plant doctors are not adequately treat­
ing injured employees.
I also found that workers are re­
quired to clean and gut chickens at
the rate of 120 per minute on the
processing line and to sort and pack
30 to 40 wins a minute. As a result,
many ol the workers are experienc­
ing carpal tunnel syndrome; some
alter only three or four weeks work
ing on the line.
When workers report to the plant
doctors, they are given pain reliev­
ers and told to return to the line
Many workers have been perma­
nently disabled, with crippling in
their hands, muscle spasms and se­
rious back problems.
W orkers reported to FOR that
government officials and others rou­
tinely call the plant before inspec­
tions. Thus, when they arrive, the
line is slowed down and “hand-
picked" workers answer questions
with guarded replies.
Some of the women also reported
that working conditions are degrad­
ing in addition to being dangerous.
For instance, workers are only al­
lowed to leave the processing line
during lunch and the two breaks
they are given a day. Sometimes
they have no choice, therefore, hut to
urinate on themselves. One woman,
suffering from a urinary tract infec­
tion, was forced to stay on the line
even after urinating on herself. When
she did report to the nurse, she was
refused permission to go home and
change her clothes. She had to re­
turn to the line in soiled clothes,
despite working in very cold condi­
tions.
According to the FOR report, the
Perdue Lew iston plant is “very
clearly divideil by gender and race,”
with 95“% of the workers being A fri­
can Americans who work primarily
in none-managerial positions, while
the other 5% are white and work
primarily as managers, doctors, su­
pervisors or secretaries in the office.
Processing line workers earn about
$ 12,000 a year before taxes.
There is no union at the Perdue
plant, although unions have twice
had votes, they did not win. H ear­
ings conducted by the National
Labor Relations Board confirm ed
that there had been violations in
the lirst election and prior to the
second vote, Perdue is reported to
have offered w orkers cash bonuses
ol up to .$ 1,000. The union is seek­
ing to have the second vote set
aside as well.
The FOR report reminds us that
we live in a consumer society where
everything comes packaged for our
convenience. We take for granted
buying boneless, skinless chicken
breasts, the women who work on the
processing line - in unsafe working
conditions and at very low w ag es_
are invisible to us.
(You can write to Perdue at Per­
due Farms, Old Ocean City Rd.,
Salisbury, MD 21801 or to the NC
Commissioner of Labor and O ccu­
pational Safety and Health Adm in­
istration, Harry Payne, at 413 N.
Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC 27603.
Tell them you support a safe work­
ing environment, adequate medical
treatment and the right to organize
without interference.)
An Open Letter From The Marine Corps To the Mothers and Fathers Of America
Many of you have seen the video of
a hazing incident that took place in
the Marine Corps in 1991. I was
outraged by the images on that video
The fact that this video was made in
1991 makes no difference- not to you.
not to me. I am the Commandant
today and I am responsible to you for
the conduct o f the Marine Corps My
duty in this matter is clear.
This so called "ceremony" is con­
trary to that which is most dear to
Marines ... the ability to count on
one another to take care of one an­
other, to be faithful to one another
s
Civil Rights Journal
In m emory o f E nnis William Cosby who was slain on January 16,
IV97 R ill a n d Camille Cosby have set up a foundation Io help special
education children.
I
• -• •
Editorial articles do not necessarily
reflect or represent the views o f
I
Si
**
12, 1997 • T he
F ebruary
r
r—l
.
‘
Tradition in the Marine corps has
nothing whatsoever to do with hurt­
ing or humiliating each other. It has
everything to do with Marines ex­
hibiting mutual respect, a strength
of character, and a willingness to
sacrifice for one another.
You have entrusted your sons and
daughters to my care, believing that
they will be treated with dignity and
respect. They have become like my
sons and daughters ... that is how
strongly I feel about my responsibil­
ity and your trust.
My policy for the treatment of
Marines is also clear. All Marines
will be treated with the utmost dig­
nity and respect There is no place
for hazing, sexual harassment, dis­
crimination, or any other form of
degrading or immoral behavior in
the Corps No part of what makes
the United States Marine Corps the
w orld’s premier fighting force has
ever relied on brutality. These ac­
tions are anathema to our core val­
ues ol honor, courage, and commit
ment, and those who cannot live
these basic moral tenets do not de­
serve to wear the Eagle. Globe and
Anchor I will not allow them to
tarnish the scared trust between you
and one of A m erica's most depend­
better
able, steadfast institutions ... The
United States Marine Corps
I want you to know that the over­
whelming majority of your Marines
are magnificent they sacrifice daily
tor this great nation of ours. They do
it willingly because they are men
and women of character. It is with
an eye towards strengthening such
Uhe (SJditor
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
character that we have, in the
year, enhanced the battle-proven
we make M annes. The “Trans
mation” process that has rece
been so prominently covered in
media, produces stronger Mari
more capable warriors, but n
importantly, Marines of chara
and sound values, prepared to f
and win not only the warfigh
challenges of today's world, but
ethical challenges as well.
Sem per Fidelis, C .C Krul
General, U.S. M arine Corps; Ct
m andant o f the M arine Corps