P agi A ?
M arch 2 ó , 1997 • T he P ori land O bserver
EDITORIAL
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 appreci­
ated. We take criticism well! Get your powerful pens out NOW and address
your letters to: Editvr. Reader Response. P.O, Bo» 3137. Portland. OR 97208.
Jfîo rtlan it (©bseruer
(USPS 959-680) Established in 1970
Charles Washington
Publisher & Editor
Mark Washington
Distribution Manager
Gary Ann Taylor
Business Manager
Paul Neufeldt
Production & Design
Danny Bell
Advertising Sales Manager
Tony Washington
Arts & Entertainment
Gary Washington
Public Relations
Audrey Washington
Business Assistant
Contributing Writers:
Professor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman,
Neal Heilpern, Eugene Rashad
4747 N E M a r tin L u th e r K ing, J r. Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97211
503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015
E m ail: Pdxobserv@ aol.com
Deadline fo r all submitted materials:
Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday, 12:00pm
P O S T M A S T E R : Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer,
P.O. Box 3137, Portland, O R 97208.
Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Oregon.
Subscriptions: $30.00 per year
The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manu­
scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned
it accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display
ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in
other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the
general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of
such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITH­
OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED.
The Portland Observer-Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica­
tion—is a member of the National Newspaper Association-Founded in
1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated
Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers
Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver.
S ubscribe to
Cbe |io rtia n b <if)b aerucr
The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00
per year. Please fill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to:
S ubscriptions
T he P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137
P ortland , O regon 97208
Name:
Address:
City, State:
Zip-Code:
__
__ ___________
T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
Gun control can work
Gun Control can work, now that we have instant background check and
all the honest citizens fingerprinted that buy firearms, maybe we should
work on drying up the Gun Supply to the Criminals
To keep the Guns out of the hands o f criminals and teenagers, why not
give a Tax Credit fo r Gun Safes. While gun cases do display our gun
collections, they do not protect them, and burglars walk o ff with 5 or 6
firearms at a time
Since 95% of all firearms used in Crimes, have been stolen and sold on
the street, these guns are obtained through burglaries
A good share of these burglaries are committed by teenagers who are
hooked on drugs and have no other way to support their habit.
Even though 80% o f all crimes are drug related, Politicians, don t
mention drugs too much, because 40% o f our work force uses drugs and
another / 0% are so disabled by drugs they can't work. They don't want
to offend them, after all, they do vote
They have even tried to outlaw "Saturday Night Specials ", these are
guns that are so cheap you can throw them away after committing a
crime Well, the street guns are all "Saturday Night Specials" A
Firearm that would cost $300 00 or $400 00 at a Gun Shop or Gun
Show, they can be bought on the street fo r about $60.00
A Tax Credit fo r Gun Safes, would be the best Gun Control fo r drying
up the guns to the criminals.
Maybe the drug pushers fighting for their territory, would go back to
knifing each other, at least innocent by slanders wouldn 't be getting shot
—P.M. Lister, Concerned Citizen
p
e
Editorial articles do not necessarily
reflect or represent the views o f
|Jnrtlanb (©bseruer
r s p
e
c
t i v
e
s
“Small Is Beautiful - Or Is It?
everal decades ago an
innovative economist by
the name of Schumacher
caught the world’s attention with
a little book that very quickly
became a best seller. “Small Is
Beautiful” was the title and it
changed some of the thinking
toward development in ‘Third-
World* countries.
Today, there is a comparable ap­
preciation for the diminutive-size
business enterprise, a process driven
by the nation’s escalating mergers,
downsizing and layoffs. “Small is
not so much a thought-out process
or a academic exercise with this
sudden expansion o f micro-com­
merce, but rather the result o f a
survival strategy utilized by tens-of-
thousands o f highly skilled but
newly-unemployed members of the
workforce.
Professor Schumacher’s little text
highlighted a number of inventive
processes that could be used to
“down-size" the agricultural and
manufacturing techniques that west-
em nations were forcing upon the
small countries they intended to aid.
Unlike much of academia, this sa­
vant actually went into the Held
(jungle, bush and savanna) and dem­
onstrated his successful small-scale
economics that took into account the
culture and tradition of the popula­
tion.
We are immediately led to reflect
that this great
surge in small
business en ter­
prise in our own
country may dras­
tically modify a
number o f social
relatio n sh ip s —
both within and without the family.
It is especially significant that a
great deal of the new economic ac­
tivity will be conducted from the
home. Obviously, there is already a
shifting and modification of tradi­
tional duties, many previously sex-
assigned
In Prof Schumacher’s econom­
ics realm o f the “undeveloped
r
peoples" there had been a series of
financial and social disasters as
westerners attempted to install the
technologies ofmass production and
similar “cold, impersonal” forms of
trade and commerce. Schumacher
quickly perceived that any workable
system would have to take into ac­
count certain traditional roles that
had been firmly established over the
centuries. ‘Work
must have dig­
nity!’
By
1 particularly
Professor
remember the case
Mckinley
study on ‘chicken
Burt
and e g g s’. The
Im p o rt-E x p o rt
Bank and anotherhugh International
agency had teamed up to make this
small country a regional mass pro-
ducerof frozen chickens and ofeggs.
Tens of millions of dollars and the
most sophisticated equipment avail­
able could not make a success of the
ill-fated venture with its acres of
sophisticated brooding pens and re­
frigeration and an uncomprehend-
ing populace
Schumacher’s solution was to
downscale the venture to a network
of ‘family-sized’ ventures, where
individuals had meaningful roles in
the production process and, very
importantly, could visualize the pro­
cedure from start to finish. What he
did in so many of these models was
to ‘restore the human equation ’
Now, local people made the egg
cartons.
I know that it must have occurred
to you, “could such a process be at
work in our own country?” We do
not have an identifiable Prof.
Schumacher, but certainly, under
the pressure of expanding layers
the fam i ly un it business enterprise is
becoming more and more important
in our economic system.
We must ask several other ques­
tions, like is this a long term trend in
domestic relations? Or will the pow­
erful economic giants, created by
the mergers and buyouts move
quickly to sop up and trade they may
have missed the first time around.
Children that have families that trully care
To the Editor:
C *"
am writing this letter is
hopes you will be able to
help my family and other
like me in a nightmare situation.
You see I have been at the mercy
of a merciless agency for almost
two years now.
It all started when two children,
(teenagers) conceived a beautiful
baby girl, my granddaughter. The
child was injured, no one know how
or who. No charges were ever filed.
Children's Services took the child.
This is where the nightmare and
pain, also the games, ups and dow n^
hope and despair begins
The agencies incentives are Fed­
eral funds if adopted to non-family
members. Their agenda is to divide
and conquer. They try and break
down families with their constant
games. They make a person think
they are nothing and count for even
less. They choose families they think
cannot defend themselves and are
not wealthy enough to retain legal
help of any caliber to fight them.
They make up lies and put on
record things that have been proven
the opposite to be true We are not
allowed to speak, even if we were
allowed to speak we are not heard.
It s a bad script. This is the worse
travesty of justice and denial of our
civil rights that I have personally
ever come in contact with as an
American citizen How this could
ever be justified is beyond all belief.
They tell you things to do that might
help you only to come back later and
say they didn’t tell you this and they
said that. I feel all the time that I
have just been taking up space and
going through the motions to no
avail. As time goes by and I speak
with others, it’s the same agenda
they have used a thousand times
before me and after me.
Our families have not been di­
vided as they have tried to do. But
our families have been beat down to
the point of depression and not be­
ing able to move. Even if we knew
how to move But this is common
practice for this agency.
I am a law abiding citizen. I work
hard, pay iny taxes, pay my bills,
don t drink or do drugs, and live in
a society where children are ripped
from their families, played with
emotionally and put up for adoption,
and never have the right to know
who or where they came from or how
better
much they are loved!
I am not wealthy or from money
or this would not be happening. I am
not poor but I don't have the kind of
money it lakes to fight this agency
either. So just because I am not in a
position to know what to do they
think they can get away with mur­
der. CSD tells me what I can do but
in the same breath they tell me it
won t do any good anyway. They
discourage and lie to you and turn
around and say they did not tell you
the things you know they did. I was
told it would cost me around three
thousand dollars for home studies,
psychological evaluation etc. and
there is probably not a chance I
would get her I would have to go up
against two or three other perspec­
tive adoptive parents and some god
panel would chose the one who they
deemed to be the best family. I can­
not believe this injustice to the hu­
man race! Why in the world would
you own family be given to strangers
when you are a perfectly good and
loving person that wanted to raise
your own grandchild? Instead of
PShe (SJfator
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
checking out my background, they
put my granddaughter in foster care,
which must cost the state a fortune.
I am not trying to minimize my
granddaughters injuries. As they
were not something to take light of,
they were quite serious. That’s what
I have been told anyway. But due
process is denied. Their due process
is a joke because its their laws, made
up as they go along. Their due pro­
cess is to leave the grandparents out.
There are many like me that do
not have the know how or have the
funds to fight these people that play
god with our lives. That does not
justify our loses. I believe this is why
they choose people like me. All I can
do is hope and pray that this letter
gets into the hands of someone that
will take me seriously. I am nol a
crack pot or a lunatic, or even delu­
sional. I have been living in hell
long enough. Thank you for listen­
ing to me. May God bless you and
open your eyes and heart to what is
going on. No matter what they call
themselves next week it’s the same
agency with the same agenda.
People seem to forget that chil­
dren are people and have feelings
and should have rightsjust like any­
one else!
Sincerely, Micaela E Dunkel-
berger, Portland, Oregon
Is partial birth abortion justified?
' he pro-abortion industry
and those office holders
' who supported the grue­
some procedure of partial birth
abortion built their defense of
the horror on the lie that the
abortions were done rarely and
only on ill women or deformed
children.
After last w eek’s New York
Times story, the abortion lobby's
one, hollow, wooden leg of lies
has collapsed, and abortion advo­
cates have no leg to stand on,”
said Family Research Council
Associate Director of Government
Relations Amy Myers on Wednes­
day “Physicians from C Everett
Koop to the American Medical
Association agree that no medical
reason exists to perform a partial
birth abortion, and therefore par­
tial birth abortions must be banned
to stop what is tantamount to legal
infanticide.”
Myers issued her statement as
Rep. Charles Canady (R-Fla.) and
Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) held
a joint news conference in the U S
Capitol announcing the re-introduc­
tion of the Partial Birth Abortion
Ban Act and upcoming hearings on
the horrid procedure
Partial birth abortion is an abor­
tion technique used after the 20th
week of pregnancy in which the feet
of a child are grasped and pulled
down into the birth canal. The bahy
is partially born — body outside,
head lodged inside — when a scis­
sors is stabbed into the base of the
skull and living brain tissue
suctioned out. Reasons an abortion­
ist uses such a horrible procedure
include the fact that it’s easier to be
sure that the baby’s entire body has
been removed. In many abortions,
the baby is dismembered in the womb
and pulled out piece by piece. That
is more difficult with an older child,
and one complication from abortion
is infection and bleeding because a
part of the child is sometimes left
inside.
"The next lie the media must un­
cover involves the smoke screen the
abortion industry uses when it tries
to hide behind ‘health’ talk," Myers
said
The Supreme Court, in Doe v.
Bolton, defined the word “health" so
broadly that ALL abortions were
made legal through the ninth month
for any reason whatsoever.
"The life of the mother has al­
ways been protected in the Partial
Birth Abortion Ban Act,” Myers
noted. “The abortion industry is
attempting to gut this vital legisla­
tion with legal word games while
wearing the sheep's clothing of
health talk. Unfortunately, womeiT s
lives will not be saved because of the
health language. Only children’s
lives will be lost.”
by the Family Research Council
Civil Rights Journal: In Support of Alexis Herman
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
am a native Washingto-
nian, so I guess I should
1
not ever be surprised at
the politics of that city. As an
African American woman, I know
that It is never easy for any of us.
But the delays surrounding the
nomination of Alexis Herman as
Secretary of Labor have surprised
and saddened even me.
1J
Alexis Herman is a woman who
has spent much o f her professional
life working on behalf o f working
men and women. She began her
career in her native Alabama as a
social worker for Catholic Chari­
ties, working to develop skilled
training opportunities for unem ­
ployed youth and unskilled work-
f
ers.
I first heard her name twenty
years ago when she was director of
a special training program at the
Recruitment Training Program to
get m inority women into high-
paying non-traditional jobs. Work­
ing with Ernest Green at RTP, Ms.
Herman was responsible forchang-
ingthe lifeo ptionsofthousandsof
African American men and women
and their families.
In recognition o f this signifi­
cant accomplishment and her ex­
traordinary talents, only a few
years later, during the Carter ad­
ministration Ms. Herman became
the youngest person ever named to
head the W omen’s Bureau o f the
Department of Labor. Both of these
<
experiences required Ms Herman
to work closely with both labor
and management, with men and
women, with a variety of commu­
nity groups and captains of indus­
try. She mounted new programs to
help low -incom e and younger
women with employment-related
problem s and was elevated to
deputy undersecretary.
Continuing to hone her politi­
cal skills and acumen, she went on
tocoordinatethe 1992 Democratic
Convention in New York City and
to work as Director of Office of
Public liaison in the White House.
Thus, it seems that Alexis Herman
has spent her professional life pre­
paring herself to be Secretary of
Labor o f the United States
Yet her nom ination remains
mired in the muck and mire of the
105th Congress and is only sched­
uled to reach the Senate Labor
Committee floor on March 18,
some two months after her nomi­
nation In the words o f Boston
G lo b e
co lu m n ist
T hom as
Oliphant, “The fact is that white
men from both parties with Alexis
Herman’s background and record
in government, business and poli­
tics have been confirmed by the
dozens for senior positions in de­
fense, intelligence, energy, hous­
ing, transportation, scientific work
and Jeffords (the Labor Commit­
tee Chair) has routinely voted for
them ”
And whilea lot of unproven innu­
endos have been heard in cloakroom
co n v ersations about President
Clinton’s fundraising activities and
her lies to them, there have been no
formal face-to-face accusations
against Ms Herman. Indeed, she
has met individually with a number
of Senators and answered their ques­
tions In the words of Dr. Dorothy
Height, President o f the National
Council ofNegro Women, “Is it fair
that the professional career and stel­
lar reputation of Alexis Herman is
being buried in the ashes of decep­
tive and damaging delay, spins of
repetitive misinformation and innu­
endo all to the point of the possible
abuse of the hearing process.
But it seems that once again, when
it comes to the nomination of an
African American woman to high
office that the United States Senate
is not seeking the truth Rather, it
prefers to let the nominations wal­
low, to let support for the candidates
wane and to kill the nominees’ repu­
tations without ever letting them
answer their anonymous accusers. I(
sounds a lot like McCarthyism It
feels a lot like racism and sexism in
our nations'corridors of power And
we all lose from it.
(Note: You may write Senator
James Jeffords in support of Alexis
Herman at 728 Hart Senate Build­
ing, Washington, DC 20510 or fax
(202)224-8330. You may also write
your own Senators asking them to
confirm her nomination at the same
address.)