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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1997)
A pril 30, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver P a ììi A? Editorial articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f ^Rortlanh ©bseruer Fair Elections Bill supported (Elje 'Portland ODhserorr (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Mark Washington Charles Washington Publisher & Editor Distsribulion Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Director o f Operation Danny Bell, Yvonne Lereh Account Executives Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Paul Neuieldt 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.eoni Deadline for all submitted 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 of such ad © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGH TS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PAR T W ITH OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland O bserver—O regon’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. SUBSCRIBE TO 3Ilje JJortlanb (JDbseruer The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $3000 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 N am e:__________ Address: City, State: Zip-Code: T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver better 'Vo rOif Qfiitor Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 Coping: A Woman Being “Used” by D r . C harles F aulkner Dear Dr. Faulkner: "I had a wonderful relationship with a man ! recently met For the first two weeks, things were going ju st great Then he started being unreliable He would promise to pick me up at 9 hut wouldn t come until II. He would promise to take me out but would cancel the date at the last minute (Sometimes he wouldn t bother to call to cancel the date). So, one evening when he called to say that he would be two hours late. I simply told him that I was tired and had gone to bed. Now he calls once a week What have / done wrong? " —Hillary, Portland, Oregon Dear Hillary: You certainly have my sympa thy, but you may have blown the relationship Here is why. Your friend must have found you attrac tive in order to have shown the initial interest in you that he did. Then, it happened You probably submitted too easily in either a sexual or social way. Inotherwords, your behavior suggested to him that you were easy, and desperate, that you were not popular with other men, and that he did not need to be on his best behavior in order to befriend you. This may not have been true, but he probably believed that it was The fact that he has apparently lost great interest in you could well mean that he has relegated you to the status o f his “available anytime girl," the person he calls when no one else is available. Considering that you selected an intelligent man, because you are also intelligent, he probably inter preted your statement, that you were “tired and had gone to bed" differ ently from the way you wanted him to. You intended to suggest that you were “hard to get” but he prob ably thought that you were angry at his tardiness. To him, this meant that you wanted desperately to be with him and were angry because you couldn’t be. He knew that you would be available whenever he called again. I’ll bet that if you had told h im that you were getting ready to go on a date with another man, he would have begged you to wait for him. Strategy is everything. You attracted him initially, by conveying the impression that you were a highly selective lady who was “choosy” about the men she wants. (W omen want men who other women want, also). How ever, after his first weeks with you, he concluded that you had no other male friends to compete with him. Dating you no longer enhanced his ego. You allowed “the chase" to end. Or, in simpler terms, you failed to play “the game.” Being sincere unfortunately does not always have its rewards. However, please do not stop be ing sincere. In the future, deter mine the extent o f your friend's sincerity before releasing your emotions. Accept him. initially, as a friend and no more. Just as you attracted him, you will attract other men. so maintain your dignity and accept this as a learning experi ence. If you have questions, com ments or suggestions fo r Dr. Faulkner, write him at 5722 Green Street, #302, Philadelphia, P i, 19144. D r . L eaner Ft by lani s regular readers of this column know, I ran for President of the United States twice as an independent, becoming (in 1 9 8 8 ) the first woman and the first African American to appear on the bal lot in all 50 states. One o f the things that I demon strated in that campaign (and the many other independent campaigns I have run or supported) is that the cards are stacked against indepen dent cam paigns and independent parties. The American electrical system has a structural bias in favor o f the two major parties. And as the third party options become more impor tant to the evolution o f black poli tics. el im inated these biases becomes and important part o f the black agenda. State legislatures, controlled by the D em ocrats and Republicans, have passed laws that erect incred ible barriers to independents. Take ballot access, for example. Independents have tocollect many more signatures, in a shorter period o f time and face many more hyper- technical requirements than do ma jo r party candidates running for the same office. When black and Latino insurgent candidates for public office are thrown off the ballot by the party machine, they often turn to indepen dent candidacies. This often means having to negotiate prohibitive bal lot access requirements. The Fair Elections Bill was origi nally written by Ballot Access News publisher Richard W inner and Gary Sinawski, my national elections at torney and one o f the foremost ballot access lawyers in the country. C o n g re ssio n a l B lack C aucus member John Conyers (D-M ich.) Federal Reserve by J esse L. J ac kson , J r . resident Clinton w ill soon n o m in ate tw o people for the Board at the Federal Reserve. Recently, Lawrence Lindsey an nounced his resignation for the board and Janet Yellen moved to the Coun cil o f Economic Advisors. The board o f governors has seven members, each appointed to 14 year terms. Counting Alan G reenspan’s reappointment as chairman. Presi dent Clinton will have chosen five o f the seven. Next year, the term o f Susan Phillips expires and then he will have chosen six o f the seven governors. The primary responsibly o f the board is to set monetary (money supply) policy. They also develop and administer the major federal p e r Here are some recent examples. When three African Americans in Union County, Ark. wanted to serve on the county board o f direc tors, they ran on the Reform Party and won. And in 1994 in Alabama, Nate Robertson became the nation’s first elected official o f the Patriot Party, the independent party that is now a part o f the Reform Party coa lition, with his successful run for county co m m issioner in G reen County. The Fair Elections Bill, like many other structural democratic reforms such as term limits, equal access to delegates and campaign finance re form, are very important for the black community. We need a level playing field in the electoral arena to allow indepen dents to impact. W riteyourCongressman. Tell her or him to sponsor and work for the passage o f the Fair Elections Bill. oard needs diversity laws governing consumer credit. So far, the president has not nomi nated a singe person o f color to be a member o f the board. With the two nominations he is about to make that record must change. The Board o f Governors, the presi dent o f the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four other regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents make up the Federal Open Market Commit tee. This group meets regularly to decide the cost and availability of money and credit in the economy. All o f its members are white. T h e ir a c tio n s can slow the economy, making it difficult to cre ate jobs. Sometimes, the mere sug gestion they may act to slow or speed the economy can send the bond and stock markets reeling. Like some industrial countries, s p was the first to introduce the bill in 1985. Former Congressman Tim Penny (D FL-M inn), a good friend o f the independent political movement, sponsored and championed the bill in the 101 st and 102nd Congress. I applaud Ron Paul for carrying the banner this year. The political balance o f power is beginning to shift in American politics, as new independent par ties com e onto the scene and begin to impact. The Reform Party, for example, which ran Ross Perot for President last year garnered enough votes to win ballot lines in over 30 states. I am active in the Reform Party, along with an expanding network o f Black activists around the county who are finding that the indepen dent option adds a new dimension to black empowerment dynam ics at the local level. e we have made our central bank inde pendent. We insulate it from open partisan political pressures. The eco nomic policies the Federal Reserve pursues can, in theory, best benefit America without the political fall out of making the tough decisions needed to curb inflation or generate jobs. The policies they decide have at least as important an influence on the everyday lives o f Americas as those we take in Congress to tax or spend. When the Federal Reserve Board took action, the effect o f wh ich was to slow the economy in 1994, em ploym ent growth slowed, and manufacturing employment in par ticular declined. Real people lost jobs and board policies affected real peoples lives. The costs o f fighting inflation are c t i v not felt uniformly. Some segments o f America are still reeling from the deep recession o f 1981. Parts o f the district I repre sent, Chicago and the south sub urbs, have not yet recovered. Jobs that were lost have no: come back. Until 1994, adult African Ameri cans had to endure double digit un employment and still suffer twice A the unemployment rate o f w hites,t despite tremendous increases in the educational attainment o f that work force during that 13 year period. So, it is vital that the Federal Reserve Board have people who are very sensitive to how economic poli cies affect different communities, especially its impacton employment. The President must strive to give those communities a voice in setting economic policy. So far, he has not. e s Business information you can trust,III o repeat an old fashioned phrase, here are several more ‘absolutely trust worthy' formats for structuring business enterprise in the most e n e rg e tic , e ffe c tiv e and proactive manner you may wish to achieve. In previous ‘ Perspective’ columns we have discussed, “Starting & Op erating A Business In Oregon: A Step By Step Guide”, and “G ale’s E n cy clopedia o f A sso ciatio n s.” These extrem ely useful tools for structuring or improving a commer cial enterprise were reviewed on April 16; both can be found at your downtown public library the - first at your bookstore. Last w eek's column featured that w ondrous listing and display o f A m erica’s principal manufacturers and suppliers o f every possible ma chine, tool, material, part and ser vice a business enterprise might in volve. It was pointed out that this “T hom as’ Register o f Manufactur ers” could, on the one hand demon strate to a new entrepreneur that he would not need as much expensive space as thought since others were making parts essential to his prod- ucts and they could be bought-off- the-shelf (like wheels or lights); but on the other hand with more space available, the neophyte could ex pand h is p ro d u c tio n . Today we will evaluate another im portant guide that can lead to the formation o f a successful business; I introduce the “Standard Industrial Classification manual (SIC).” The p re fa c e sta te s, “ .. used to promote the comparabi I ity of establishment data describing various facets o f the U.S. economy. The clas sification covers the entire field o f economic activities and defines industries in accordance with the composition and structure o f the economy.” As we review its structure here, you should see many opportunities to gain insight in respect to how certain areas o f industry and com merce are structured — leading to new ideas o f how your expertise or training might occupy a profitable niche. You might see a commer cially viable nook or cranny within “ Industry Group No. 571, Industry No. 5712, Furniture Stores, or No. 5713, Floor Covering Stores or how about No. 5719, M iscellaneous Home Furnishing Stores?” Out o f the many subvariables, some opportunity for enterprise may leap out from the page; “aha!, thats how I can use the skill and perceptions I gained several summers ago. And looking at Thomas’ Registerof Manu factu rers, the space and capital could be within I’ roi I SNOB my reach. Fur Ml K IM I Y ther, I can use B l Rl G ale’s Encyclo pedia o f Associa tions to contact organizations of firms that are either in the same field or are close enough fortheirexperiencetobeuseftil” (mar- keting, accounting, advertising, equip ment, personnel). Critical correlations not taught in school. Write! Learn! Now , the process I just described is an elaboration o f a technique I used to ‘expand my student’s mind’s’ when theirselection ofpossible busi ness ventures seemed pretty well limited to what they saw in Portland. I would have them study the yellow sections o f out-of-town phone direc- tories where they would o f course come up with many, many new en trepreneurial prospects. Just try San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Etc. (All to be found at the Public Library). There are ‘thousands o f such major groups listed in this “Stan d ard In d u stria l C la ssific a tio n Manual”, perhaps 10,000 or more is a better description They range from the generic: fisheries, fur farms, log ging, fish hatcheries, all types of farms, orchards, dairies, timber com panies, etc., to the Extractive Indus tries: Mining, oil and gas wells. Then there are the financial ser vices, theatrical, amusement, trans portation, lodging, food, health and gift, retail, electronic, building, con struction, nonprofit, com m unica tions, electrical, Direct Mail, etc. But most importantly, there are thousands of ‘between-the-line’ in dustries that service, repair or other wise support the more conventional or standard types o f enterprises with which most o f us may be more famil iar You are certain to find new and possibly profitable commercial niches which would never have otherwise occurred. Concluded next week. Tuskegee syphilis study’s terrible legacy by B ernice P owell J ackm in o m e tim e s European Americans find it diffi cult to understand the reaction by people of color to events and believe that we over act or are a little paranoid. But to really understand our reac tions, one must know the history o f people o f color in this nation. For example, one must know that Japanese Americans were put in concentration camps during World W ar II One must know o f the many treaty violations which have been experi enced by native Americans A nd one m ust know o f the Tuskegee syphilis study undertaken by the federal government using African American men as its sub jects. Earlier this year, four o f the eight living survivors of this terrible ex periment gathered at the Shiloh Bap tist Church in Notasulga, Ala. to ask President Clinton to publicly apolo gize for the government’s actions in this horrible study. The president has indicated a willingness to do so. It is a peculiarly American trag edy o f race and medicine,” said James H. Jones, author o f a 1981 book on the Tuskegee study, inarecent Wash ington Post story. In 1932, the government began a study on the treatment of syphilis and lured 399 men, mostly poor and un educated African Americans, to par ticipate with the promise o f free lunches, transportation and medicine. The study followed the progress o f this dreaded disease in these men, some o f whom were told they were being treated, but who actually were being given placebos. The subjects were told they had “bad blood.” Bu, the most horrible part o f this 40 year study is that even after peni cillin was introduced as a successful cure for syphilis in the late 1940s, the study was continued until 1972 and only ended then after it was exposed publicly. Thus, men who could have been treated successfully for this disease, went untreated It essentially reduced black men into unwitting laboratory animals,” said the Washington Post story. There is some evidence that some of the researchers continued the study based on the incredibly racists belief that African American men would respond differently than European American men. In addition, there is also evidence that the government got local Ala bama doctors to cooperate with them by agreeing not to treat the Tuskegee subjects with antibiotics. After the study’s public exposure, the federal government did agree to pay $10 million in compensation to the victims and their families, but it never apologized for one o f the most blatant examples o f racism in our nation’s history. It is that apology that the survi vors and their families now seek.
