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Rebuilding our
families and our
communities
Welcome Brian
Grant, goodbye
Clifford Robinson
PSU introduces
Chicano-Latino
studies this fall
Author says modern culture
erodes the family.
Blazers wheel and deal to
sign free agent..
Students to study forces that
shaped Mexicans and Latino
Americans in the U.S.
See Metro, inside.
See Metro, inside.
^ìnrflatih (B
Jryant begins duties at Hu
Diplomats defect
Two North Korean diplomats are in
the United States after defecting at the
U.S. embassies in Egypt and France. Ana
lysts said at least one of the men could
shed light on suspicions that communist
North Korea sells missiles and other
weapons to Syria, Iran and Libya.
DeKlerk quits party
Former South African President F.W
DeKlerk, who won a Nobel Peace Prize
for his role in dismantling apartheid, is
quitting politics. DeKlerk said he’s re
signing as leader of the opposition Na
tional Party once a successor is chosen
and plans to leave active politics alto
gether. DeKlerk said he will write his
memoirs in order to give his version of
South Africa’s turbulent and racially di
vided recent past.
Beef plant on block
Hudson Foods reportedly wants to un
load the beef-processing plant that’s at
the center of a contamination scare The
Wall Street Journal says the company
will try to sell the Columbus, Neb., plant.
The federal government ordered Hudson
to recall 25 million pounds of beef this
month after potentially deadly E. coli
bacteria was traced to meat produced at
the plant.
Sergeant’s fate pondered
The fate of the Army’s highest ranking
enlisted man is now in the hands of a chief
investigator. Colonel Robert Jarvis pre
sided over nine weeks of pre-trial pro
ceedings in the sexual misconduct case
of Sergeant Major of the Army Gene
McKinney. McKinney faces 22 prelimi
nary counts ofassault, maltreatment, adul
tery and obstruction o f justice. Six
servicewomen are making the charges,
which McKinney denies.
More problems on Mir
New principal says
parents will support
changes when their
children come home
excited about
school
B y N eil H eilpern
hen Judy Bryant was selected
as the new Humboldt Elemen
tary School principal last
week, she said she wasn’t going to let
controversy keep her from being focused
on upgrading student test scores.
“Failure is not an option,” she empha
sized, during a press conference Wednes
day at the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist
Church, when Superintendent of Schools
Jack Bierwirth named her to the post.
“It is important to get students up to
standard,” said Bierwirth, who recently
replaced most of Humboldt’s administra
tive and teaching staff in hopes of raising
the school’s sagging test scores.
Bryant, 45, will replace popular Princi
pal LaVerne Davis, who Bierwirth said will
be reassigned to Applegate school, also in
north Portland.
Bierwirth cited successes" Bryant has
had at Hosford Middle School, where she
taught seventh grade for seven years and
was assistant principal last year. She also
spent three years as assistant principal at
West Sylvan Middle School, two years
teaching at Whitaker Middle School and
Judy Bryant answers questions after Superintendent o f Schools Jack Bierwirth
seven years in the district’s curriculum
(right) names her the new principal for Humboldt Elementary School. Rev. Amzie
department.
Bailey (center) o f the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church hosts the
No child is pre-ordained to succeed or
announcement.
(Photo by Nell Heilpern)
fail,” said Bierwirth, noting the need to
have a “community partnership” in which
and someone believed in me.”
changes in the school’s faculty.
“we will all have to work hard to get each
M ost of the students at Humboldt
The parents who object to the change will
child to a level of success.”
come from economically challenged fami
come around, she noted, “when they see
“We selected a woman with an out
lies.
their children coming home excited about
standing career in Portland,” he said. "Most
One of her first challenges will be fac
school.”
important, she believes what the district is
ing parents who said they would keep
“That will win the parents over,” she
trying to do is possible.”
their children out of school in protest if
said.
Susan Hagmeier, chairperson of the
outgoing principal Davis w asn’t rehired.
Bryant also noted that some criticism
Portland school board, described Bryant
“That is using children as a pawn” for a
ol Humboldt parents who do no, show up a,
as an "excellent problem solver and ener
political statement, Bryant said. "We want
schools is unjust because many hold two
getic” person.
students at school, learning.”
or three jobs.
“Children can succeed,” said Bryant. “I
Bryant said most parents had expressed
▼
know this. I came from a poor background
support for the plan to create wholesale
Continued to page A3
W
Arafat promises security
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
says that security ties with Israel have
improved to an extent that would enable a
visit by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright. Albright has conditioned her
first visit to the Middle East on a build-up
in Israeli-PLO security cooperation dis
rupted by a crisis over Jewish settlement
expansion and a surge in violence.
Nuke waste leaks
A radioactive waste storage facility at
a state-run nuclear reprocessing plant
northeast of Tokyo leaked low-level ra
diation over a period of about 30 years. A
nuclear official said radiation leaked from
about 2,000 drums each containing 53
gallons of low-level radioactive waste
produced by uranium processing.
j
Berlin Wall conviction
Egon Krenz, East Germ any’s last
hardline communist leader, lodged an
appeal of his manslaughter conviction
for the deaths of refugees killed in the
1980s as they tried to flee over the Berlin
Wall. A Berlin court Monday sentenced
Krenz to 6 and a half years in prison.
r25f
Violence
outdoes
resolve
(Editor’s note: The following is written
as a "statement o f the Portland Observer
to the community it so proudly senes. ")
The crew of Russia’s ailing space sta
tion Mir fixed the oxygen generating sys
tems after a brief time without fresh air
but hit another snag Tuesday try ing to aim
the solar panels they repaired last week.
The oxygen problem proved to be short
lived and now the two Russian cosmo
nauts and their American colleague are
looking at the malfunctioning system that
controls the station’s solar panels.
!
►
SEI kids benefit from challenge
Olympic Dream-Teamer David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs is joined by Portland achievers Ahquoya Brooks (from 'eft)
Brandyn Brooks, Garland Neal Brown, Brandy Offord and Rodrick Edwards at a Nike-spcnsored community challenge golf
tournament at Pumpkin Ridge. The event is a major fundraiser from Portland's business community for Self Enhancement,
Inc., the non-profit organization dedicated to keeping our youth o ff drugs and away from gangs and violence.
(Photo by David Brunkow)
hey say that a community is re
quired to raise a child but what is
required to raise a community? To
raise the lives o f its residents to that level of
security and sense of well-being as permits
the enjoyment of “ life, liberty and the pur
suit of happiness.”
The escalating wave of murder, assaults
and other violence being inflicted on the
persons and property of our loved ones,
acquaintances or strangers has brought about
a frightening perception of an imminent
danger to our well-being at any time o f day
or night; in our homes, in our cars, on public
transportation, a* our workplace, at school,
wherever!
This ever-increasing crescendo shows no
sign of abatement.
We are all of us, youth or adults, the
elderly or babies, motorists or gang mem
bers, imminent victims of the stray or in
tended bullet.
The loud, but sporadic concerns expressed
by our leaders, legislators and other politi
cians do not evidence a sufficient resolve to
bring about an early end to this murderous
and unpredictable social chaos that has be
sieged us.
Whatever our social station or walk-of-
life, we all seem so terribly vulnerable, and
markedly so because the sources o f the
violence are as equally diverse. No longer
available is that clearly identifiable “crimi
nal element” to which we may smugly assign
our woes.
And there is no further refuge in statistics
such as those recently released by the FBI or
in the social analyses released by the ‘think
tanks’ in Washington and at the major uni
versities - “our problems result from an
array of complex and interacting forces”
(well, so does the weather).
We are in serious trouble in our nation, in
our communities, and consequently, there
must be a serious problem in the organiza
tions that serve them, and quite likely in our
homes and in ourselves to a great extent.
It is quite natural that being at the hub of
communications in the community, this
newspaper receives a great number of ideas
and comments on this traumatic situation
from its readers, from community leaders
and activists as well.
As you might suppose the suggestions
and directives are as diverse as the popula
tion we serve But then, too, the amount of
thought and concern expressed in these re
sponses is in itself a reassurance that within
our community (and other communities)
lies the social structure, commitment and
the spirituality that can retrieve our lives
from the current chaos.
We even have had the viewpoint expressed
that the right people are not marching on
Washington: "Why haven't 50,000 of the
nation's police and sheriffs stood on the
White House lawn demanding that the bor
ders and ports be closed to the drugs that are
making law enforcement all but impossible.
The government has no difficulty sealing the
border to fruits and vegetable contaminated
with insecticides.”
Others, after viewing the thinly supported
demonstration by the Rev Willie Banks
who recently lost his son to the senseless
violence that is destroying our youth, have
asked “why weren't there a hundred minis
ters of all races and denominations march
ing down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
that day - and on City Hall?”
The Portland Observer wants to hear your
opinions on these matters and wishes to play
a major role in aiding in the implementation
of needed solutions.
T