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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1997)
A prii . 23, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver P ao » A? Editorial articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f EDITCR’AL Attention Readers! Please take a minute to send us your comments. W e’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 appre ciated. We take criticism well! Get your powerful pens out NOW and address your letters to: E ditor, Reader Response. P.Q. Pox 3137, Portland, OR 97208, (The ^Jortlanb ©bseruer (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher & E ditor Mark Washington Dislsribution M anager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Danny Bell, Yvonne Lerch A ccount E xecutives Paul Neul'cldl Phil Carpenter Production & GraphicDesign Contributing Writers: Professor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, Neal Heilpern, Eugene Rashad 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxobserv@aol.com Deadline fo r all subm itted materials: Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday, 12:00pm POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer. P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 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 if 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 ol such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PAR I’ WITH OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED The Portland O bserver--O regon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica- tio n -is a member of the National Newspaper A ssociation-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. SU B SC R IB E TO 311^ $lortlani» (Oharmer lhe 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: SUBSCRIPTIONS T iie P or i land 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 ori land O bserver Article retraction eter Edelman resigned last fall from his posi tion as Asst. Secretary for Planning & Evaluation at the Dept. of Health & Human Ser vices, due to his opposition to the welfare bill. Last month, he wrote an in-depth article for the Atlantic Monthly, entitled “ The W orst T hing Bill Clinton Has Done,” in which he explained what was so wrong with this welfare repeal. We think excerpts from it are worth sharing' The hill that President Clinton signed is not welfare reform h does not promote work effectively, and it will hurt millions o f poor children by the lime it is fully implemented “ What's more, it bars hundred o f thousands o f legal immigrants-in- cluding many who have worked in the US. fo r decades and paid a considerable amount o f Social Se curity and income taxes-from re ceiving disability’ and old-age assis tance and fo o d stamps, and reduces food stamp assistance fo r millions o f children in working families. ” This [the Republican proposal] was a truly radical proposal. For 60 p e regarding the efforts made by the Mallory Avenue Blockwatch and the Portland Police Bureau in resolving the Drug House on North east Mallory Avenue. We know that the Observer makes tremen dous effort in reporting the facts accurately and we wish to note the following corrections to that article: Mrs. Y oung's son's names are Bruce and Nathaniel (not Edwin as reported). We have seen and have been told that Cocaine was sold from the premises (Not Heroin as reported.) The Kent's friend' Kenneth Edwards from theG -StreetO ld Timers raised the funds for new locks for Mrs. Young. (Although we know o f and respect Ray Leary we did not say he was a personal friend (as reported)-(he may be a part oftheG-Street group we are not certain.) Finally, it is very important to note that we are only the organizers o f a wonderful group of diverse neighbors who care enough about our community and their neighborhood to be involved in an active Blockwatch. Kenneth Edwards taught us how to form an effective Blockwatch and the Portland Police Bureau, in particular. Officer Marcia Barbourenabled us to be an effective part of law enforcement’s on-going efforts to eradicate Drug Houses from our precious communities. This definitely was acoopcrative effort! Although we appreciate very much the O bserver’s reporting o f this crucial community issue-we insist that your readers understand that it is the cooperative effort o f neighbors, law enforcement, neighborhood associations, the m ayor’s office, the city attorney and the judges that enablesourcontinued success in m akingourcom m unities safe and livable. Thank you for your courageous effort on reporting about issues that really matter to the average citizen and reader. God’s Blessings. James and Elizabeth Ken, and Family RAINBOW PUSH C O A L IT IO N The Worst years Aid to Families with Depen dent Children had been premised on the idea o f entitlement ‘Entitlement has become a dirty word, but it is actually a term o f art It meant two things in the A FDC program • a federally defined guarantee o f assistance to families with children who met the statutory definition o f need. . • a federal guarantee to the states o f a matching share o f the money needed to help everyone in the state who qualified fo r help.. “The block grants will end the entitlement in both respects, and in addition the time limits say that federally supported help will end even if a family has done everything that was asked o f it and even if it is still needy. ” “This time the Hill Republicans s p e wanted the President to sign it The game was over Now no one could ever say again with any credibility that this President is an old lib eral ” “How bad, then, is it? Very bad. The story has never been fully told, because so many o f those who would have shouted their opposition from the rooftops if a GOP President had done this were boxed in by their desire to see the President re elected “ [note To some extent, this would include us, though we did picket the White House the very next day ] “The same defacto conspiracy o f silence has enveloped the issue o f whether the bill can be easily fixed The President got a free ride through the elections on that point because no one on his side. .. wanted to call c him on it “Why is the new law so bad? To begin with, it turned out that after all the noise and heal over the past two years about balancing the bud get. the only deep multi-year budget cuts actually enacted were those in this bill, affecting low -incom e people. " “The magnitude o f the impact is stunning. Ils dimensions were e stim a te d by the U rban Institute To ensure credibility fo r the study, its authors made opti mistic assumptions; two thirds o f long-term recipients would fin d jobs, and all states would main tain their current levels o f fin a n cial support fo r the benefit struc ture. N o n eth eless, th e stu d y showed, the bill would move 2.6 million people, including !. I mil lion children, into poverty “ “The new study showed that a total o f I / million families-10% o f all American families-would lose income under this bill. This included more than 8 million families with children, many o f them worktngfami- lies affected by the food-stamp cuts, which would lose an average ofabout $1,300 per family. ” t i v e s Business Information You Can Trust, Part II hey tell you to, “Please stay on the line... Your call is important to us.” You certainly hope that Is the case, for someone is sorely test ing your patience; but when you receive the requested informa tion, will it be reliable, experi ence-based? As promised, this week I will describe the second o f those “excel lent business guides based upon the real worW’, and available at your downtown\>ublic library.” Today’s revelation is, “ Thom as’ Register o f Manufacturers." What we have here in this most comprehensive listing o f American manufacturers avail able is the purchasing m anager’s dream publication; who makes what and where — what it does, how does it do it, and how well. But it also is an indispensable guide to any entrepreneur who is making, servicing, repairing, deliv ering, mining or growing any type o f product, device or material imag inable; whether a one-person shop, a limited partnership, an IPO O p eration or Intel or General Motors. The need and the utility is there in all cases, though no, always recog nized. Your prpduct may be dolls, bunk beds, pickles or Web Sites. I introduced this classic source o f commercial data to my urban eco nomics class at Portland State Uni versity. An assignment for the se mester was for self-selected groups of students to examine ‘Thom as’ Register', then develop a business plan for a commercial venture that would use a mix oftools, equipment and materials offered by the vendors advertising in the register. As I had learned through years o f ex p erien ce, this operation proved to constitute a busi ness course in it self and rather than a mere academic exercise, it opened the minds o f the students to new parameters for the projected enterprise. True to form, several other University departments adopted an innovation o f mine (1 was siphoning off an awful lot o f their students for my classes, even though their faculties included pro fessors with degrees from the busi ness schools o f Harvard, Wharton, UCLA and Stanford). The To The Editor: Mr. Washington, We appreciate very much the article written by Lee Perlman on the April 16, 1997 issue of the Portland Observer, r ^ a rtla n b (©bseruer b > D r . M anning M arahi . e ____ m t n the aftermath of the 1 9 9 5 “M illio n M an O ’ March,” many African- Americans felt a renewed com mitment to become active in civic and political affairs. There is striking evidence from last N ovem ber’s presidential elec tion that this new attitude has di rectly contributed to much higher voting rates. In November, 1996, the number o f black men who voted was about 4.8 million. This was a 1.7 million increase over the number who had voted in 1992, an increase o f 55 percent in four years. This massive increase in black male voting power was even more remarkable when considered against the voting patterns o f everyone else. In 1996, less than one-half o f all registered Americans actually voted, the lowest percentage o f the elector ate since 1924. The percentage of both African-American women and white males who went to the polls respectively declined by 8 percent. For white women, the drop in voter participation was 14 percent from 1992 figures, or about seven million fewer voters. President Clinton won 84 percent o f the African-American vote, a sub stantial part o f his margin o f victory over Republican challenger Robert A study o f the wares offered in ‘ Thomas Register’ soon reveals that contrary to the belief o f most lay persons, few if any manufactures make or fabricate ‘all’ ofthecom po- nents o f their products. Whereas it is c o m m o n ly u n d e rsto o d that automakers do not make the wind shields, tires, ash trays, sparkplugs orclocks fortheir vehicles, few real ize that it is much the same for most companies, large or small. This not only applies to the nuts, bolts, screws and fasteners, but to the ‘wheels’ for any vehicle. Pro d u c tio n space, capital and craft expertise is not tied up in these type o f operations. Startled students find that there are a thousand specialty “wheel” manufacturers supplying the mak ers o f baby carriages, tractors, lawnmowers, scooters, pulleys, shop ping carts, dune bugggies, you- name-it! The same structure holds true with the makers o f handles and knobs serving practically all o f in dustry with their specialties for fur niture, cabinets and devices o f all kinds - wherever something must be opened, closed or turned. And of course the same relationship tech nology exists for the electrical in dustry where each day more ma chines are electronically controlled or monitored — from household ap pliances to construction machinery and from medical devices to agricul tural (You don’t make the bulbs for your brand o f flash lights). Very soon the students realize that it is possible to greatly expand their ambitions and the scope o f their business projection. They will not need nearly so much money and space as first thought because so many components and materials may be bought “off the shelf.” Initially that large’ facility may be down- scaled to a couple o f store fronts, or a storefront to your garage, or your garage down to your basement. I’ve seen all this happen in my years o f accounting practice. This technique will work equally well today with so many laid-off workers becoming entrepreneurs. But note, industry has always been good at this ‘outsourcing - that's how it expanded so rapidly. “ Infor mation You Can Trust!” lack Male Vote Dole Even more influential was the impact o f the black male vote in key Congressional races. In New Jersey, for ex am p le, D em ocrat R obert Torricelli was locked in a bitter con test with Republican Dick Zimmer for a U S. Senate seat. In the elec tion, Zim m er won 54 percent o f New Jersey ’s white voters. But Torricelli won 85 percent of the African-American vote, and won the election by an overall margin o f 53 felony conviction. In short, about 14 percent o f all black men are unable to vote, either because they are in prison or because they have been convicted o f a felony. According to the study, felons are barred from voting while in prison in 46 states. Thirty-one states also disenfranchise convicted felons while they are on parole or proba tion. And there are thirteen states, mostly in the South and the West, “ The greatest factor undermining the full power of the black male vote is the criminal justice system. „ percent to 47 percent. Observers noted with amazement that New Jersey's black turnout o f registered voters had almost doubled compared to 1993 election figures. Most o f this growth in the black electorate came from black men The greatest factor undermining the full power o f the black male vote is the criminal justice system. Ac cording to a study released by the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit or ganization, o f a total voting age population o f 10.4 million African- American men in this country, nearly 1.5 million have had the right to vote taken away from them due to a that permanently prohibit former felons from voting. A fric a n -A m e ric a n s currently comprise 51 percent o f the 1.1 mil lion Americans incarcerated in Fed eral and state prisons. About one-third o f all young black males in their twenties are, at any given time, either in prison or jail, on probation, parole, or awaiting trial. The criminal justice system is the chief means o f warehousing unem ployed, undereducated and poor black men. Denied economicopportunity, Af rican-American men are dispropor- tionately locked up by a penal sys tem which is designed to ensure that their full voting power is reduced and, for many, completely elimi nated. As David Bositis, a researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, explained to the New York Times. “You havea prison system where black men are back in servitude, along with an economy where blacks are in the low-paying jobs.” So, to many black Americans, “the system is basically rigged to diminish their political power and recreate the plantation system with prisons.” Civil rights organizations like the NAACP need to consider initiating campaigns to change election laws, permitting people who have served time in prison for felonies to be restored their full voting rights. To be denied the right to vote is to become a non-citizen in one's native land. And for A frican-A m erican men who still enjoy the freedom to vote, we must continue to do so in ever-increasing numbers. Voting by itself won’t solve all our problems, but it is an indispensable tool in the struggle for black freedom. (Dr. Manning Marable is Pro fessor o f History and the Director o f the Institute fo r Research in Af rican-American Studies, Columbia University, New York City.) better TTc TThe (3LÏÏitcr Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
