J uly 16, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views Of (¡Ilje jjjortlauii © bseruer (E h i' p o t t i a n i » (© b s e r lie r (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher & Editor Mark Washington Distsribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business Manager Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Yvonne Lerch Account Executive Mike Leighton Copy Editor he flrat annual confer en ce of th e new ly- merged Rainbow/Push Coalition will be held In Chicago, from W ednesday. July 3 0 th through Saturday, August 2nd. Please join us-thls will be an Important convention. Contributing Writers: Professor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, Neil Heilpern 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxobserv@aol.com 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 relumed 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 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 $ o rtia n i» ® b « r w r 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: T he S ubscriptions P ortland O bserver ; P O B ox 3 1 3 7 P ortland , O regon 9 7 2 0 8 Name:__________________ __ ________________________ Address: __________________ '.' "...------------------------— --------- City, State:_____________ .. . ------------------------------ - — Zip-Code:__ ______________________________________ T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver Letter to the Editor Attention Portland to Vancouver Commuters: I have been intently watching the number of vehicles that travel to and rom Portland/Vancouver with one person in the car tor quite some time. Jnfortunately, I am one of these people, but not by choice. (Granted, tor hose of you who may argue, I do not live and work in the same city), ¿owe ver, I have contacted Tri-Met carpool matching programs and they’ve 5een looking for a match for 8 months now. I am shocked and displeased hat there is no match yet, but I understand that the number of requests they •eceive is still low. I am very surprised and somewhat irritated by this. I thought more people living in the Northwest would be more involved when it comes to protecting the environment. Even if you Don t care about the air we breathe or what all the pollutants are doing to our health and the environment, do you not care about how much money you spend on wear and tear on your car or on gasoline? Ok, if that doesn’t bother you either, then how about the headaches and hassles from driving back and forth to/from Vancouver every day? Don’t tell me you Enjoy it! Everyone I know complains about it I personally am tired of it for all the reasons above. I am personally asking you to please consider carpool ing - even One day each week will make a difference. It may seem like too small a thing to bother doing, but really, if each ol us (look at the number ot cars) didn t drive one Day, it would make a big difference. Perhaps we could even lessen the traffic problems this way. Or, il you want you could alternate with another person and carpool two days or more. Some people list that they would prefer to be a driver only, a rider only or both. The options are limitless. How does it work? Actually it’s very simple. You call the carpool match office, they ask you some questions, they add you to their list, and you wait for a match. It is your choice as to what pick-up address you list. They will not give out your home address or your last name, rhey will give out whichever phone number you list. And you can decide it you d like to commute with a person of the same gender if you like. So really, why not at least give it a try? Here are the phone numbers: If you live in Portland, Tri-Met, Von at 503 238 5833; if you live in Vancouver C-Tran, Lori at 360-696-2824. I encourage you to consider it and at least give it a try. II more people don’t join, the people who have already joined may not get a match (like me). And then, the whole idea will never work A concerned resident o f the beautiful Pacific Northwest. The conference, which is entitled “Equal Educational Opportunities: Opening New Markets,’ will be held at the Chicago Hilton & Towers Hotel, 720 S. Michigan After a morning Rainbow/Push Board meeting, the conference reg­ istration starts at 1 pm on Wednes­ day, 7/30. The afternoon focus is on “School Finance Reform,” examin­ ing the unequal property-tax-based funding systems that leave inner city and rural public schools under­ funded, crumbling, and without the high-tech infrastructure necessary to train our kids for tomorrow * ■ r' /M /A »O M . > slavery, but contrition carries conditions. A government apology for sla­ very is a valid collective symbolic act, but it is appropriate only if it is accompanied by substance that re­ pairs the damage that is the basis for the apology. I do not question the intentions of those who are sponsoring this legislation, because I believe their intentions are good and their con­ cern is genuine. But just a simple apology, without anything attached to it, seems a little hollow to me. My Bible tells me, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” It does not say, “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” Jesus had an objective mea­ surement for the ’human spirit.' Therefore, it would be inconsis­ tent for the Congress to say that America s heart is with an apol­ ogy, but we cannot do anything about the unjust legacy of slavery, segregation and discrim ination because our treasure is consumed with balancing the budget, not in re s p o n sib ly re in v e s tin g in Am erica’s future. Obviously, it is appropriate for the federal government to apolo­ gize for slavery, since the federal governm ent was intim ately in­ volved in establishing and perpetu­ ating slavery. It passed laws (e g., the Fugitive Slave Law and the Missouri Compromise of 1850) which furthered slavery. There were also Supreme Court decisions that bolstered slavery and estab­ lished seg regation (e g., Dred S c o tt, 1847, and P lessy v. Ferguson, 1896). But I am a little perplexed over all of these apologies - apologies for syphilis, apologies for slavery - - because they always seem to come when the country says it is broke (we are not), that we must be fis­ cally austere, that we must balance the budget or reduce the budget deficit. In other words, contrition without content. Roman Catholic theology ex­ plains that you cannot just apolo­ gize to God and be admitted into the kingdom of Heaven. You must first go to purgatory and pay a kind of reparation for your sins before you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. W ebster's Dictionary ex­ plains it this way, “Purgatory is a place or state of punishm ent w herein, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, the souls of those who die in G od’s grace may make satisfaction for past sins and so become fit for heaven ” It is not politically possible for the country to apologize just for slavery and grant reparations to African Americans exclusively. So I have a different recommenda­ tion. We should provide a full employment economy with jobs for All Americans, create a health care system that provides comprehen­ sive and universal health care for All A m erican, create a mixed economy that provides affordable housing for All Americans, invest in a public school system that pro­ vides a quality and multicultural education for All Americans not just something for African Ameri­ cans. In such a climate of Economic TO BE EQUAL: THE COSTS OF “COLOR-BLINDNESS y ii a banquet and concert. Saturday morning, 8/2 from 7:30 to noon, will feature an open Town Hall discussion on "Vision 2000,“ as we hone our game plan and priorities for the remaining few years of this century. The regular Saturday morn­ ing radio broadcast will feature Con­ gresswomen Maxine Waters. The noon luncheon will honor and involve ministers from all across the nation, and the conference will close Saturday night after a "Next Leader­ ship Generation" youth town hall meeting. Adult registration for the conven­ tion is only $35, and even less for students and semor-$20! (Meals and concerts are charged separately.) Please call Ms. Velma Wilson at 773-373-3366 for more information Don't miss the first Rainbow/Push annual conference! the University of Texas law school: There, 3 black and 20 Hispanic stu­ dents are expected toenroll in the 500- student Class, compared to 31 black and 42 Hispanic students in the Class above them. Stark as the declines are, in fact, quite a few people fully expected the impact to be this severe. But Ward Connerly, of all people, the black regent of the University of California system who led the cam­ paign to ban affirmative action in the state, expressed dismay at the figures “It’s a bucket of cold water in the face," he said. “I am obviously con­ cerned. 1 am petrified at the fact that we have as far to go as we do. You cannot look at the situation and come away with it than anything other than dismay." More credible was the shock and disappointment expressed by others, including some white students and faculty. "It’s so stunning, it’s almost unbe­ lievable,” said Marjorie Schultz, a Berkeley law professor “The leading public university in the most diverse state and the most diverse educational system is going to just withdraw be­ hind some siege wall and be a white institution? It’s preposterous." Saying that the enrollment figures at Boalt Hall were “wotse than our predicted worst-case scenario," its dean, Herma Hill Kay, said that some whites had also declined to attend the school an had cited the reversal of affirmative action as the reason. What is happening at these institu­ tions, which have worked assiduously Security, the American people will be better able to hear a message of racial reconciliation, and will be more amenable to understanding the need for and be more open to supporting affirmative action, majority/minor- ity congressional districts, immigra­ tion, economic set-asides and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Like Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. I too have a dream that we can make such economic progress if we orga­ nize and create the political will. I have adream that if we make America economically more secure for Ev­ eryone, we can make tremendous progress on the race question. I have a dream that we can move from racial battleground to economic common ground and on to moral higher ground. Yes, I too have a dream for America that makes America better and includes every American And I'm going to spend the time I have in Congress working on that dream. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. is a sec­ ond term congressman from the Second Congressional District of Illinois who serves on the House Banking & Financial Services and the Small Business Committees. to overcome their own exclusionary pasts, show that the costs of these bad policies and bad judicial decisions are going to be borne not just by the black and Hispanic students whocould have ably matriculated at them. No, those costs will be shared by the institutions themselves and the larger society as well. It is not just African Americans and Hispanic Americans and Native Americans who need policies that promote inclusiveness and opportu­ nity; its the entire society.