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A prii 16, 1997 »Tm P o ru
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Editor, Reader R esponse. P.O. Box 3137. Portland. OH 972Q8.
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T h a n k Y ot F o r R e a d in g T h e P o r t l a n d O
bser v er
Standing for
Children in 1997
in B e r n ic e P o w e l l J a c k so n
Last year on June 1, over 3(X),(XX)
Americans came together in W ash­
ington, D C at the single largest
demonstration ever on behall of
A m erica's children Sponsored by
the C hildren's Defense Eund and
co-sponsored by 3,700 plus other
organizations. Stand for Children
showed that Americans do care
about what happens to our children
and re-committed themselves to
caring for all our nation’s children.
In 1997 the C hildren's Defense
Eund is once again sponsoring
Stand for Children on June I, but
this year's version will not take
place in the nation's capital, but in
our own communities. This year,
Stand for Children will focus on
the health of our children because
there are 10 million children (one
in every seven children) who have
no health insurance. Nine in ten of
them live in working families. Like­
wise, every day 466 babies arc be­
ing born to mothers who received
little or no prenatal care and 788
babies are born below norm al
birthweight.
Stand lor Children will focus on
the health of our children because
one in four children under age two
are not fully immunized and one
million babies and toddlers have
anemia ami hundreds of thousands
suffer from life threatening asthma
and undetected and untreated vi­
sion, hearing and learning prob­
lems Stand for Children will focus
on health of children because every
day 16 children die from gunfire.
This year the Honorary Chair­
persons of Stand for Children arc
r
Rosa Parks and Rosie O 'D onnell,
who believe that the precarious
health of so many American chil­
dren is morally wrong and unnec­
essary. Indeed, meeting all our
children’s health coverage needs is
an urgent and achievable goal for
our nation.
Each community will partici­
pate in Stand for Children in its
own way. Some will have a rally or
parade, some will have immuniza­
tion fairs, some will have play­
ground clean-ups, some will have
student-led drives against cigarette
smoking and alcohol abuse, some
will have church-sponsored pro­
grams for safe spaces for children.
Complementing the local Stand
for Children Day activities will be
a "Virtual Stand for Children." an
online event that will take place on
the Internet from May 25-June 7.
During these two weeks people will
be able to come together at the
Stand for Children web site to sign
a petition, to find out about local
events, and get inform ation on
children’s health.
If you are interested in partici­
pating in Stand for Children 1997,
write to them at 1835 Connecticut
Ave., N .W .. W ashington. D C .
2(XX)9 or call 8(X)-663-4032 or tax
202-234-0217. Their internet c-
mail address is
TellStand@ stand.org
and the web page address is
w w w.stand.org.
(Bernice Powell Jackson is Ex­
ecutive Director of the Commis­
sion for Racial Justice of the United
Church of Christ in Cleveland,
Ohio.)
O rsi
rvi k
Editorial articles do not necessarily
reflect or represent the views o f
MR
Attention Readers!
and
(El]c 'JfJortlanh ©bseruer
s we mentioned in last
week's message, the
Rainbow/PUSH Public
Policy Institute was meeting in
Memphis, to honor the life and
vision of Dr. King.
As we revisited Dr. King’s words
and remembered his teachings, I
was reminded of a wonderful essay
written about the time of President
Clinton’s inaugural address, by col­
umnist Holly Sklar (author of the
book “Chaos or Community?).
Since progressive columnists like
Ms. Sklar are rarely given space in
A m erica’s major newspapers, most
of you never got a chance to read her
essay. We think it is worth seeing,
especially as we reflect on the three
decades since Dr. King’s murder.
Ms. Sklar has graciously given us
permission to re-run her copyrighted
column below:
Imagine that today was Martin
Luther King's presidential inaugu­
ration. What would he tell us?
I believe he’d tell us how to make
the American dream real for every­
one. He told the students of Lincoln
University in 1961, “The substance
of the dream is expressed in these
sublim e w ords...’We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are en­
dowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.’”
King preached in his last Sun­
day serm on that “if a man doesn’t
?
e
N A T IO N A L
C O A L IT IO N
W hat Dr. King Would Tell Us
have a jo b or an incom e, he has
neither life nor liberty nor the pos­
sibility for the pursuit of happi­
ness.”
To make the American dream
real for everyone, President King
would say,"We need an Economic
Bill of Rights. This would guarantee
a job to all people who want to work
and are able to work."
President King would focus our
attention on the "glaring contrast of
poverty and wealth."
Since the 1970s, the top I percent
of families have doubled their share
of the nation’s wealth, while the
percentage of children living in ex­
treme poverty also has doubled.
President King would not take
the low road of ending welfare, but
the high road of ending poverty and
unemployment. In his book, "Where
Do We Go From Here?”, he wrote,
“The time has come for us to civilize
ourselves by the total, direct and
immediate abolition of poverty."
President King would tell us,
“There is nothing but a lack ot social
r s p
F
vision to prevent us from paying an
adequate wage to every American
citizen whether he be a hospital
worker, laundry worker, maid or
day laborer. There is nothing except
shortsightedness to prevent us from
guaranteeing an annual minimum—
and livable-incom e toevery Ameri­
can family."
President King would show us
the wisdom of having full employ­
ment instead of full prisons. He would
encourage the states to stop shitting
money from education to incarcera­
tion.
President King would tell us why
we still need affirmative action: "The
roots of racism are very deep in our
country, and there must be some­
thing positive and massive in order
to get rid of all the ef fects of racism
and the tragedies of racial injus­
tice.”
He would tell us that discrimina­
tion has not been reversed. The Black
unemployment rate is still more than
twice that of Whites. White men
hold 95 percent of senior corporate
F
management positions, while the
United States imprisons Black men
at a much higher rate than South
Africa did under apartheid.
President King would lead us in
changing our national priorities. As
he told students at Lincoln Univer­
sity, “I never did intend to adjust
myself to economic conditions that
will lake necessities from the many
to give luxuries to the tew."
President King would not slash
aid to impoverished Americans, dis­
abled children and elderly refugees
to close a budget deficit produced by
excessive m ilitary spending, tax
breaks for the rich and subsidies for
globetrotting corporations.
“A nation that continues year
after year to spend more m oney on
m ilitary defense than on program s
o f social uplift is approaching
spiritual death,” he warned in his
famous 1967 speech at Riverside
C hurch.
President King would show us
the meaning of leadership, just as he
did in his last Sunday morning ser­
mon: "On some positions, coward­
ice asks the question-is it expedi­
ent? And then expedience comes
along and asks the question—is it
politic? Vanity asks the question-is
it popular? Conscience asks the ques­
tio n -is it right?”
King never had a chance to be­
come president. But we can con­
tinue his work by opposing coward­
ice and expediency-and by stand­
ing up for w hat's right.
t i v F
f
Business Information You Can Trust
3$
hile I’ve expressed con­
siderable concern that
neophyte small business
persons might be mislead by the
jumble of alleged business infor­
mation on the market-much pro­
duced by hucksters who have no
more experience than those
whom they presume to advise-
there are some excellent guides
based upon the ‘real’ world.
For openers I suggest, “Starting
& Operating A Business in Oregon:
A Step by Step Guide”, Jenkins and
Sniffen. The Oasis Press, 1996. (300
North Valley Drive, Grants Pass,
OR 97526) Should be available at
your local bookstore.
This comprehensive 8X10 1/2
manual does in fact take you step by
step from “making the decision to go
into business” and “choosing the
legal form" through “a trip through
the red tapejungle”,“ licensing-busi­
ness pointers-sources o f help and
information" to "Federal and State
laws and taxes.” The well-designed
manual contains a number of rel­
evant form sand worksheets includ­
ing valuable self-evaluation check­
lists for going into business.
Many long-term readers of the
Portland Observer may nod their
heads in assent when I place a stamp
o f approval on a business text, but
that is because they are familiar with
my decades o f real-time business
experience. Others know only of my
academic tenure at Portland State
University although it was said by
both the business school faculty and
older-students from
the ranks o f indus­
try that I brought a
high level o f real­
ism to the genre of
urban economics.
When a text like
this meets with my
unstinting approval it is because 1
am drawn back in time to consider
how hazardous was the domain o f
commerce when I started out as a
young accountant in 1949. One had
to put together one's own “How-,o-
do-it” guide book; perusing federal,
state, county and city forms and law,
begging and borrowing critical in­
formation from wherever and whom-
ever.
However, it is not as though the
development of such technique and
discipline is a w aste o f effort.
Through the years o f public and
industrial accounting or business
ownership and office management,
the ability o f organize and classify
the information relevant to a process
always kept me a step ahead of the
game and competition. This proved
to be a very effective tool in design­
ing meaningful curriculum at the
university.
So w hat we
are saying here
P roi essor
is th a t even
Mt KIM EA
th o u g h
you
Bl Kl
didn’tcollectthe
inform ation in
this business text
from all the diverse sources, it nev­
ertheless has an intrinsic value as a
model for the process; study it care­
fully.
A number o f years ago I cited two
valuable sources o f classified and
specific information for either the
new or the experienced entrepre­
neur; for the very small or for the
large scale operation. Find both of
these at your downtown public li­
brary; the first is described below.
For marketing or operating infor-
mation see “G ale’s Encyclopedia of
Associations.” America is the most
organizing country in the wo;ld as
you w i 11 qu ick ly learn from this book.
Every association is listed from farm­
ing and manufacturing to religious
and fratemal-from ethnic and aca­
demic to military and retail. From
the National Association o f Super­
markets to the Association o f Chari­
table Foundations or those groups
related to foundations, recording
industry, foundations, prisons (pris­
oners), w hatever. And, all have
membership lists.
As they say, it should not take a
rocket scientist to see what a valu­
able tool this book can be for market­
ing. Another aspect is that most of
these groups develop crucial operat­
ing and accounting materials spe­
cific to their function. This would
include marketing, personnel, equip­
ment, materials quality control.
How do you think I was able to set
up the Union Avenue Finance Com­
pany for those used car dealers back
in I949andonlyayearoutofschool.
I got a complete set up from the
National Association o f Auto Fi­
nance Companies in Utah.
This ]\>ay ¡or Bladi Empowerment
“Remaining awake through a great revolution”
bv
D r . L en o ra Ft i . ani
O ’
► t
< »
recently read in the New
York Times of President
Clinton's plans to Issue
an apology on behalf of the Fed­
eral Government for the secret
syphilis experiment run on Afri­
can Americans from 1932 to
1972.
On the same page o f the newspa­
per was another article headlined,
“ As His Legacy, Clinton Seeks to
Improve Race Relations.’
The writer o f the second article
stated: Under fire fo r months over
Democratic campaign fin a n ce prac­
tices, the White House has been
searching fo r issues and events that
make Mr Clinton appear intent on
the people's work, rising above what
his aides hope will seem by contrast
to be inside-the-Beltway nattering
A high-profile stance on race would
seem to fit snugly with that strategy.
T he tortured and incom plete
struggle for civil rights and economic
inclusion for Black Amerians is, in
the eyes of our President (and the
political party to which we have given
our uninterrupted loyalty for60years),
an opportun ity to score pol itical points,
deflect public criticism and create a
“ legacy” for himself.
Perhaps Mr. Clinton, ever on the
lookout for chances to use his “trian­
gulation” form ula-zigging and zag­
ging from left to right in the hopes o f
identifying a center he can cling to -
wants to counterbalance the “legacy"
of his welfare bill and other assaults
on the poor and people o f color.
This month marks 29 years since
the assassination o f Dr. M artin
Luther King, Jr. I recently read the
text o f Dr. King’s last Sunday morn­
ing sermon entitled "R em aining
Awake Through a Great Revolu­
tion," delivered just five days before
his death. It is a stirring response-
three decades early—to Mr.Clinton
and other advocates o f his brand of
welfare reform.
Now there is another myth that
still gets around: it is a kind o f
overreliance on the bootstrap phi­
losophy There are those who still
fe e l that i f the Negro is to rise out o f
poverty, i f the Negro is to rise out o f
slum conditions, i f he is tc rise out o f
discrimination and segregation, he
must do it all by himself. A nd so they
say the Negro must lift him self by his
own bootstraps.
They never stop to realize that no
other ethnic group has been a slave
on American soil. The people who
say this never stop to realize that the
nation made the black m a n ’s color a
stigma: but beyond this they never
stop to realize the debt that they owe
a people who were kept in slavery
244 years.
In 1863 the Negro was told that
he was fre e as a result o f the Eman­
cipation Proclamation being signed
by Abraham Lincoln But he was not
given any land to make that freedom
meaningful. It was something like
keeping a person in prison a number
o f years and suddenly discovering
that the person is not guilty o f the
crime fo r which he was convicted.
A nd you ju st go up to him and say,
"Now you are free, " but you don t
better TFo 'T5he
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
tor
give him any bus fa re to get to town
You don 7 give him any money to get
some clothes to put on his back or to
get on his fe e t again in life.
...It s all right to tell a man to lift
him self by his own bootstraps, but it
is a cruel je st to say to a bootless
man that he ought to lift him self by
his own bootstraps.
We must come to see that the
roots o f racism are very deep in our
country, and there must be some­
thing positive and massive in order
to get rid o f all the effects o f racism
and the tragedies o f racial injustice.
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
March 31, 1968
Lenora B. Eulani twice ran fo r
President o f the U.S. as an inde­
pendent, making history in 1988
when she became the first woman
and African American to get on the
ballot in all fifty stales. Dr. Eulani
is currently a leading activist in the
Reform Party and chairs the Com­
mittee fo r a Unified Independent
Party. She can he reached at 800-
288-3201 or at www.Eulani.org
H