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A ug . 6, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age A 2
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A ddress
sending a such a program to a re
mote location.
I may have a compact disk or
NET address king before then, but
in any case I am appending some
useful citations at the end of this
article.
In the interim it is essential that
very early on certain basic concepts
must be thoroughly understood if
one is not to be found ‘disposable’
atevery merger, layoff or belt tight
ening.
In the same mode as my demon
stration for the mathematics class
of Mr. Grace, I emphasize the study
C ity, State
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o f “ p erm u tation s” and “C om b i
n ation s” ; the basic logic o f “ how
m any ways m ay things (devices)
be con n ected or arranged or d is
tributed? - one at a tim e, or ‘not
at a tim e?”
Understanding these formulas
and paradigms is crucial to design
ing or relating to systems - people
or machines (like computers).
In fact, comprehension of the
several number systems and their
bases (radix) require this. But only
if you wish to move your expertise
beyond that of sitting before a com
Contributing Writers:
Professor McKinley Burt.
Lee Perlman,
Neil Heilpern
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B y H ugh B. P rice
P resident
N ational U rban L eague
«
he news across much ot the
nation’s economic front has
been splendid recently.
The stock m arket is soaring. In
fla tio n is low. A s is the overall un
em ploym ent rate. A n d m ost o f the
nation ’s cities are on solid fisca l
footing, a rem arkable turnaround
fro m a decade ago.
I and other critics of the new law
have al wavs said that those receiving
welfare assistance must themselves
make a meaningful elfort-by work-
T
ing for the government, a private-
company or nonprofit group, or tak
ing jo b -tra in in g or educational
courses-to get off the welfare rolls.
But should those in workfare pro
grams have to work for less than the
minimum wage or the area's prevail
ing wage for the work they do?
Should they not have the job-re
lated health and safety protections
other A m erican w orkers enjoy?
Should they not be eligible for over
time, promotion, the earned income
tax credit, unemployment insurance,
Social Security?
Because workfare recipients can
be paid below the minimum wage,
should cities and state and private
companies be allowed to use those in
workfare programs to displace low-
wage workers who w eren't on wel
fare?
And just this week President
Clinton, speaking at the National
G overnors' Association, declared
that w elfare recip ien ts in state
New Budget Deal Is Reagan Tax Rerun
eorge Santayana
once wrote ihai“those
who do not remember the past
are condemned to relive it. ” Un
fortunately, they try to make the
rest o f us relive it, too.
In the early 1980s, Ronald
Reagan and his “supply-side ” tax
cut allies conducted a major pub
lic policy experiment.
They claimed that they could
lower taxes (especially on the
rich), while simultaneously rais
ing more revenues.
Rational people knew that was
a ludicrous proposition, but the
right had the political power at the
time, so this experiment in greed
went on.
It was a total Hop. The rich and
pow erful received m ajor tax
breaks; the average American took
G
B y B ernice P owell J ackson
ur grandmothers' old saying
O
that when w hile fo lk s get
a cold, black fo lk s get p n e u
m onia took on new meaning with
the release of a new Centers for Dis
ease Control and Prevention (CDC)
report on HIV/AIDS.
The report showed that we have
entered anew era in the treatment and
prevention of this disease, with the
number of deaths dropping a dra
matic 19% last year.
But while deaths among whites
decreased 28%, they dropped only
10% fo r blacks and 16% fo r Hispan
ics. Thus, much o f the progress seen
in the treatment o f AIDS has been
experienced by white men.
home a few extra dollars a month;
and the poorest Americans found
themselves worse off, especially af
ter service cuts were factored in. The
most irresponsible part of the whole
experiment was the tripling of our
public debt, a burden on our children
and grandchildren which remains the
real Reagan legacy.
A critical mass o f GOP legisla
tors believes they were sent to Capi
tol Hill to make life easier for the
rich, and tougher for the poor.
and declining deficits stemming from
the 1993 tax increase that president
Clinton and the Democrats forced on
the wealthy, the conservatives are
offering up relief from estate taxes, a
decrease in the capital gains tax, and
achild tax credit tilted away from the
working poor.
What would be the effect o f their
new tax loopholes? According to
R obert M c In ty re and M ichael
E ttlingerof the Citizens I’orT ax Jus
tice, in a recent Washington Post
So, th ey’re back. The GOP
tax cut o f 1997 would once
analysis,
“m o re th a n h a l f th e ta x cu ts
again benefit the rich, hurt in b o th th e H o u se a n d S e n a te
the poor, and increase public defi p la n s are ta rg e te d to w a rd the
b e s t- o ff ta x p a y e rs, th e 5 % o f
cits after 2002.
A m e r ic a n s w h o m a k e m o re th a n
t a time of increasing wealth
polarization, stagnant wages
$ 1 1 3 ,0 0 0 a y e a r .”
forageneration of working families, McIntyre & Ettlinger continue:
A
Indeed, it is w om en, w ho a c
count for 20% o f the A ID S p o p u
lation. and who are seeing fewer
benefits from the progress made
against this dreaded disease.
eaths of women decreased
by just 7%. while deaths ot
men dropped 22%.
D
M ost infected w om en are
women of color and most are
poor and uneducated. Once again,
black women arc in the category
of the “least of these."
Women with HIV/AIDS. it seems,
are less likely to be properly diag
nosed.
The HIV Law Project in M anhat
tan had to bring suit in 1993 in order
to get the CDC to expand its official
list of AIDS-related illnesses to in
what this medium really is all about
and, even more importantly, where
it is headed - and what demands
should he placed on yourchild and/
or his teachers.
I recall that in 1969 a Lake Os
wego resident saw an Oregonian
article describing my approach to
leaching computer logic to small
children. Very quickly I was called
by the Montessori School there to
come out and demonstrate.
I was engaged to design small
“program boards” whereby 5 to 7
year olds could envision logic gates,
decision trees, binary choices and
the like: built around easily com
prehensible routines like getting up
in the morning, dressing, catching
the school bus.
My most immediate suggestion
is that even before getting one of the
large, detailed books on computers
or programming ( or if you already
have one), get the "Dictionary of
Computer Words: An A to Z Guide
to Today’s Com puters’, Revised
Edition. Houghton M illiin Co.,
(1995 or later). This book is excel
lently designed, easily readable and
has good illustrations.
To Be Equal
Storm Warnings on Welfare Reform
D e a d lin e f o r a ll s u b m itte d m a te ria ls:
A r tic le s:F rid a y , 5 : 0 0 p m
puter screen getting carpel tunnel
syndrome from days of repetitive
data entry orchestrated by some eas
ily learned (too easily) rules. Or by
programmed reaction to certain vi
sual ‘icons’ toward which you can
point your mouse.
As I made these points before the
youthful “Saturday Academ y” class
Mr. Grice would always have me
reinforce the lesson - say, when I
made the connection to the ham-
burgerchain’s highly-publicized sub
stitution o f ’ icons’ like the picture ot
a pop or Big M ac’ for numbers on
the cash register keys.
The point was made that there was
not too much difference between that
and the routine that management has
implemented for tens of thousands of
public sector employees, or at many
banks, insurance companies and fi
nancial services.
By the carloads, the media depicts
them leaving $ 15 an hour jobs for $6
ones. This is not to say, of course,
that learning how computers work or
that becoming facile with their use
and applications is a waste of time.
To the contrary, its time to get
down to basics and to understand
“This s h o u ld n 't su rp rise a n y
body. A fte r all, the co n g ressio n a l
tax b ills p ro p o se red u cin g the
c a p ita l g a in s tax by as m uch as
h a lf (from an e ffe c tiv e rate o f
28% to as little as 14% u n d e r the
H ouse bill), low ering in h erita n ce
ta x e s on the la rg e st 1.5% o f e s
ta te s, exem p tin g a big ch unk o f
in v e stm e n t incom e o u trig h t an d
p ro v id in g a v a rie ty o f new c o r
p o ra te tax loopholes.
“A l l th e s e ite m s d isp ro p o r
tio n a te ly b e n e fit th e w e a lth y ,
w h ile th e b ills ’ o th e r p ro v isio n s
h a v e b e e n d e s ig n e d to g iv e n o th
in g a t a ll to 4 0 % o f th e ta x p a y
ers, th o s e w ith th e lo w e st i n
c o m e s.
E v e n th e h ig h ly to u te d $ 5 0 0
c h ild c re d it h a s b e e n s tr u c tu r e d
so th a t a lm o s t h a l f o f a ll’c h il
d ren , m o stly in low - a n d m o d e r
a te -in c o m e fa m ilie s , w ill be in
elig ib le. ”
McIntyre & Ettlinger have con
structed a table, which breaks down
how the GOP tax breaks would go to
different Income groups in America.
The top 1% of all A m ericans,
what Jesus m ight call "the m ost of
these” - certainly the m ost pow er
ful - w ould take home 33.8% of the
tax breaks under the Senate GOP
plan, and 38.0% under the House
G OP plan.
The next 4% wealthiest Ameri
cans would take home 18.9% and
18.2%, respectively.
The next 15% of the rich would
take home another 31.3% under the
Senate GOP plan, and another 26.6%
under the House GOP plan.
Sisters and ÄIDS
clude ailments that are particular to
women and even now many doctors
fall to recognize these conditions as
signs of HIV infection. In addition,
women have only been allowed to
participate in AIDS clinical trials for
four years and only account for 16%
of the patients in such studies.
But even when properly diag
nosed, women are less likely to be
placed on the new antiviral therapy
which is largely responsible for the
dramatic decrease in AIDS-related
deaths.
“Women, especially women o f
color, don't have the time or money
or the energy to be sutfing the Internet
to know what is the new and im
proved latest treatment. " said Dr.
Janet Mitchell in a recent New York
Times story, adding, “ They tend over
whelmingly to be mothers. They don't
have that leisure to make AID S the
only focus in their life, ”
The result is that AIDS is now the
leading cause of death for African
American women ages 25-44 Black
women are almost 15 times more
likely to test positive for HIV than
are white women.
Nationwide, AIDS cases are now
increasing m ost rapidly am ong
women, particularly women of color.
With at least 40,000 new infections
of HIV/AIDS occurring nationally
each year. HIV/AIDS will threaten
the black family’s very survival in
the 21st century.
Doctors are warning that as trou
bling as these statistics arc. the gen-
dcr/race gap will only increase over
the next few years as the full impact
workfare programs should be paid
the equivalent of the minimum
wage.
He also said that state officials
should use the savings they gain
from moving people off welfare
for programs for the remaining
welfare recipients, and not divert
that money to other uses.
First, there is no indication yet
that current workfare programs can
quickly move a sizeable number
of welfare recipients into jobs that
pay a liveable wage
T hat m eans th at, w ith re la
tiv e ly
few
e x c e p tio n s ,
w orkfare is likely to ju s t add
to the ranks o f the w orking
p o o r - t h o s e w ho w o rk , but
whose w ages barely surpass the
federal p o v erty -lin e stan d ard s.
T hat was one fin d in g o f a
recent study by the C e n te r on
B udget and P olicy P rio ritie s, a
W a sh in g to n -b a se d th in k tank.
It said that b ecau se “p ro je c te d
em p lo y m en t tre n d s show that
jo b grow th in the near future
will be c o n c e n tra te d in low -
paying in d u strie s,” m o st w e l
fare fam ilies w ill find it m ore
d iffic u lt to find w ork that can
support a fam ily.
This is not a p re sc rip tio n for
successf ully m oving people off
w elfare. In stead , i t ’s part o f
the accu m u latin g evid en ce that
a storm o f huge d im e n sio n s is
gathering force out in the co u n
try behind all the good e c o
nom ic new s.
J
of the new drugs takes af fect in the
white male community. We must
come to grips with the presence of
HIV/AIDS in communities of color.
We must demand that our com m u
nities receive medical and preven
tive services.
We must offer treatment and sup
port to women of color who arc
living and dying with this disease.
We must open our hearts and our
doors to our children who are or
phaned by this disease. Our sisters
with HIV/AIDS cannot shoulder this
burden alone. Nor should they.