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A 2 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ M arch 19, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver
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Z ip -C o d e._____
erh ap s th e g r e a te s t
paradox in the current
scandal about foreign
influence-peddling in D.C. is that
the biggest foreign influence-
peddler of all is leading the
charge against the Clinton Ad
ministration. We speak here, of
course, about the Washington
Times, the Moonie rag.
The W ashington Times is Rev.
M oon’s pet project, his attempt to
bend the course of American public
policy to the right He has spent
literally millions and millions of
dollars trying to pin scandals on
various Democratic leaders, defame
liberals, puff up right-wing ideolo
gies, and lend credence to numerous
far right conspiracy theories.
To a great extent, he has suc
ceeded. He has launched a whole
series of them into "talking head”
p
by
D r . L enora Ft ia n i
s we approach the 21st
century the fundamen
tal challenge to our na
tion remains the same as it was
at the end of the 1 8 th century:
the problem of racism.
Racism is not easily eradicated
from America because it is such an
integral part o f the American expe
rience. Slavery was the economic
backbone o f the original thirteen
colonies, and the idea that an Afri
can American counted as only 3/
5ths o f a person was institutional
ized in the Constitution.
Certainly, the character o f Ameri
can racism has changed over the
past two hundred and twenty years
African Americans are now legally
entitled to all the rights o f full citi
zenship Though this enfranchise
ment has not been powerful enough
to overcome the social and econom ic
obstacles to full equality. Can racism
ever be overcome?
Not in America as we have known
it. As long as power in America is
concentrated in the institutions that
pre-date the abolition o f slavery then
racism will never be overcome Re
forms, concessions, increased toler
ance, yes, we have won these things
But racism has not been overcome.
The Republican Party ended sla
very One hundred years later, the
Democratic Party put itself at the
head o f our civil rights movement
But in neither case were African
Americans frill partners in building
a new America. We wrenched our
freedom and dignity from a basically
white power structure that was more
or less disposed - at that particular
time in history - to accommodate our
demands The major parties enlarged
American democracy to “ include”
<
us and other "disadvantaged” con
stituencies not as partners, but as
purely passive voting(or non-voting)
blocs.
The politic o f coming to white
America to get things for Black
America has failed, and will con
tinue to fail This approach locks us
into the politics o f identity victim
We have to reach out to other Ameri
cans willing to work with us as full
partners and build a new American
democracy.
A new democracy means increased
citizen participation where all Ameri
cans are activists, and take responsi
bility for the country. It means re
structuring the decision-making pro
cess to give all citizens a stronger
voice, using technology to update the
electoral process and make it more
accessible. And enacting term limits
to eliminate "professional politi
cians.” It means getting the two par
ties out o f over-controlling America;
it means depoliticizing government,
our economy andourculture. It means
completely overhauling our election
laws so that we have truly free elec
tions that are not determined by spe
cial interests and providing equi
table access to mass communica
tions and debates.
Building a new American democ
racy requires that Black and white
Americans engage in a new kind of
activity together We have complex
and diverse feelings about one an
other But I think it’s very clear that
there isn’t a shared commonality of
interest, o f collective ownership of
the country. T wo hundred and twenty
years o f struggle within this unequal
partnership yielded toleration, but
not cooperation. The way to create
cooperation is to build something
together
r
status on TV He has helped drive
the Washington Post to the right, to
the point where the Post's once-
liberal reputation is now almost com
pletely at odds with its conserva
tively-slanted opinion page. He has
used his money (foreign money!) to
purchase credibility in conservative
ranks, despite what should be their
uneasiness about his weird marriage
s
p
e
theories, and his even weirder belief
that he ranks up there with Jesus!
Rev. Minin is a prophet in his own
mind- a position which we would
think should make most conserva
tives shun him, rather than embrace
him Meanwhile, the foreign-funded
Moonie Times is leading the attack
on Bill Clinton for foreign money
laundering! Only in America...
c
t
i
P
0
Many Alleged Army Rapes Just That, Alleged!
AACP President Kwesi
Mfumu staged a prece
dent s h a tte rin g news
conference Tuesday, March 1 1,
p re s e n tin g a re p re s e n ta tiv e
group of five w hite female sol
diers who promptly shocked the
nation by recanting previous tes
timony that they had been raped
by African American Training per
sonnel.
"W e were coerced into making
false statements... I agreed to te 11 them
what they wanted to hear in order for
them to leave me alone... I never
admitted that I was raped, but I was
told that under military law consen
sual sex was considered rape... They
are not allowing me to speak' what I
feel because they are afraid it would
help defense... everything they said
was a lie.”
Such blatant and perverted ob
struction o f the criminal justice sys
tem is a felony (to “suborn... induc
ing a witness to commit perjury").
However, “this is the army” as the
old maxim goes, and by their very
nature m ilitary institutions have
never been noted for any departure
from the most rigid codes o f justice
(or injustice). The case will be made
that the military could not operate in
any otherfashion, but that, o f course,
does not appear on any recruiting
posters.
Although the NAACP press con
ference was held just outside the
Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground
in Maryland where over 50 women
recruits have made official com
plaints o f sexual abuse against one
officer and about 20 drill sergeants,
the nation’s media appears to have
uncovered a scan
dal at any installa
tion large enough
to support a post
exchange.
But
those suspiciousof
the entire process
like Hollywood’s
m ercilessly intim idating and de
meaning helpless young whites. That
created a lot o f resentment, but who
cared? It made a lot o f money.
Now. this last observation brings
us around to another time-tested
maxim, one I frequently use in this
column, “ Eternal vigilance is the price
o f liberty.” Could have, should have
this sorry state o f affairs been antici
pated? My correspondents tell me
that there have been mumblings and
rumblings on the bases for the past
three years. It is also said that the
Pentagon, eager to retain its widely-
advertised success story' of friction-
free integration, deliberately ignored
the many danger signs that should
have forewarned o f disaster at hand.
T y p ically , these w ould have
ranged from a pronounced increase
in racist graffiti on the walls o f la
trines and recreation areas to the
appearance o f vitriolic right-wing
hate publications that were printed
either on or off the
base. And I am
told that accom
By
p a n y in g th e se
Professor rather overt mani
M ckin ley
festations o f a de
Burt
generating racial
clim ate are the
more subtle indications o f discon
tent, childish pushing and shoving
in lines for food and other services,
racial epithets yelled out in dark
ened theatres.
It is interesting that Togo West, the
African American Secretary of the
Army -- described by some o f the
black media as the least effectual o f all
the administration appointees in terms
o f being the expected ombudsman in
achieving and maintaining an ethnic
equity in his realm - suddenly and
loudly called for an "internal investi-
S
gation by the army, not by outsiders.”
Contrariwise, William Coffer, the
Secretary o f Defence, very sensibly
calls for an “ immediate independent
investigation.” It is well understood
by any thinking person that it is
critical to restore the highest level of
credibility to the legal and civil pro
cedures involved here. The nation
has not come as far as it could have
in matters o f race and discrimina
tion, but, certainly, this is no time to
retrogress
It has occurred to quite a few that
there are some significant economic
factors at work here. We have dis
cussed in this column the fact that
there has been an increasing degree
o f jealousy and envy o f African
Americans in the public sectorof the
workplace. For decades racism kept
them out o f the more lucrative posi
tions in business, industry and the
craft and trades, so blacks gravitated
to the civil service and the armed
forces for job opportunities.
The net result is that in today’s
unsettled economic climate o f lay
offs, mergers and outsourcing many
blacks are in the enviable position o f
having relatively secure job and pen
sion security via civil service. It was
time to win one.
Legislator in progress
T hank Y ou F o r R eading T he P o rtland O bserver
Overcoming Racism
In America
e
Influence Peddling
W atching the pathetic attem pts
ol former D em ocrat, now R epub
lican Senator Richard Shelby of
Alabam a, as he tries to play Perry
Mason, we are rem inded o f the
wonderful Frank M ankiew iczjoke
about John C onnally--that when
he sw itched parties, he raised the
intellectual level of both parties
(In truth, transferring that joke to
Shelby is not really fair to the rest
ol the GO P.)
Shelby is clearly not playing by
the rules with Anthony Lake. This is
right-wing payback for L ake’s prin
cipled resignation from the Nixon
A dm inistration during V ietnam /
Cambodia, a quarter of a century
ago The national press should be
ashamed of itself for even consider
ing treating this as a serious investi
gation, rather than merely a ven
detta
To The Editor
The 1997 Oregon Legislature is
now in progress. Thousands of ideas
and proposals are being discussed at
the state capitol and many will be
passed into law.
The bill most important to every
property owner is HB 2 5 15 This is
the landowner notification bill Cur
rently, a citizen can buy a home or a
piece o f property under one set of
zoning laws and the government
can change those laws without noti
fying the property ow ner that a
change has been made.
For many years, landowners have
complained that the state's land-use
agency is unfair. It is wrong when
rules are proposed and put into law
which restrict the use o f private prop
erty without informing the property
owners prior to the change. In many
instances, landowners have been
totally left out o f the land-use pro
cess. Citizens may not learn until
years after laws have changed that
they cannot use their property for its
intended purpose.
The state land-use system has
made a serious error by not includ
ing landowners in the process HB
2 5 15 is the first step to return needed
ba lance to Oregon ’ s prob lem p lagued
land-use system and to bring land-
owners back into the process.
Sincerely, Joan McConoughey
Imbalanced Constitutional Budget Amendment
B y C ongressm an J esse L. J ac k -
J r .___________________
son ,
he federal government
should balance Its bud
get like families, busi
nesses and states do!
But since it does not, we need a
Balanced Budget C onstitutional
Amendment to guarantee that the
federal government will balance its
budget. That is the essence o f the
argument for the amendment.
The amendment may sound good
on its face, but it falls flat on its face
when examined more critically.
A fe d e ra l B a la n c e d B udget
Amendment (BBA) would: damage
our economy by making recessions
deeper and more frequent; heighten
the risk o f default and jeopardize the
full faith and credit o f the U S . Gov
ernment; weaken the principle of
majority rule; lead to reductions in
needed investments for the future;
favor w ealthy A m erican s over
middle-and-low-income Americans
by making it harder to raise rev
enues and easier to cut programs;
would likely lead to cuts in Social
Security checks, but more impor
tantly affect Social Security 's financ
ing, not be the same as state bal
anced budget mandates; not be nec
essary because we are m aking
progress on reducing the debt with
out it; and, therefore, passing the
BBA is not a prudent path for the
nation to follow.
The rigid fiscal policy prescrip
tion o f the BBA proposed by both the
House and the Senate would require
the budget to be balanced (or in
surplus) every year, regardless o f
whether economic growth is strong
or weak A sluggish economy, with
fewer incoming revenues and more
outgoing expenditures, would cre
ate a deficit that needs economic
stim ulation to reverse the cycle.
Under a BBA, more deficit reduc
tion would be required in periods of
slow growth than in times o f rapid
growth — precisely the opposite o f
what is needed. Thus, a constitu
tional amendment risks making re
cessions more frequent and deeper.
Under the BBA, the government
could no longer borrow funds unless
there was a three-fifths vote in both
houses o f Congress to raise the debt
limit. Under that scenario, a budget
crisis, where a default is threatened,
is more likely, and it would heighten
the risk that such a default would
actually occur A default o f only a
few days could have long-term im
plications. It would erode confidence
in the binding nature o f U.S. finan
cial obligations. The government
pays relatively low interest rates on
its loans because it pays its debts
back in full and on time A default
would shake that confidence and,
therefore, raise interest rates and
government costs paid by taxpayers.
The requirement that the budget
must be balanced at all times unless
three-fifths o f the members o f Con
gress agree to raise the debt ceiling,
also weakens the current principle
o f majority rule. It would empower a
minority (40 percent, plus one), will
ing to threaten economic turmoil
and disruption unless they get their
way, with the ability to extort con
cessions or exercise unprecedented
leverage overour national economic
and fiscal policy.
Public investment that improves
long-term productivity growth —
such as investments in education,
infrastructure, research and devel
opment - encourages increased pri
vate-sector investment that results
from lower deficits. A BBA, requir
ing a balanced budget that did not
borrow to modernize could not re
main competitive. Most families, if
they could not borrow, could not
purchase homes or finance college
educations. State and local govern
ments borrow judiciously to finance
road construction, to build new
schools and to make other capital
improvements, thus assuring their
future economic development.
The BBA, while formally flexible
in approach to deficit reduction, fa
vors wealthy Americansovermiddle-
and-lower-income Americans be
cause, undercurrent law, legislation
can pass by a majority of those present
and voting by recorded or vice vote.
The BBA, however, requires that
legislation raising taxes be approved
on a roll call vote by a majority o f the
full membership o f both houses.
Thus, the BBA would make it
harder to cut the deficit by curbing
the special interest tax breaks o f the
oil and gas industries, and easier to
reduce such programs as Medicare,
veterans’ benefits, education, envi
ronmental programs and assistance
for poor children Wealthy individu
als and corporations receive most
their government benefits in the form
o f tax entitlements (more than $400
billion in 1995), while low-and-
middle-income Americans receive
most o f their government benefits
through programs
better ^0 'Uhe (^Editor
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
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