Page B2
DEC. 30, 1997
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Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The View s O f
(Tlic |Jo rt(an b (Dbsertier
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Editor, Reader Response, P.Q. Box 3137, Portland. O R 97208,
^ J J o r tla n h ( B b s e r u e r
(D S P S 9 59-680) E stab lish ed in 1970
Charles Washington
Publisher & Editor
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Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
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r hank V ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
Put >1 I ESSI IK
M c K innley
B i kt
B y P rof . M c K inley B urt
T h a t's right, go for it this year! Go
for the gold, or even the platinum .
Ignore the "A pocalypse N ow " people
and the “doom sayers.” G et your
co n tain er’ ready for the long haul.
Make those resolutions real
For 52 straight w eeks, The Port
land O bserver' has identified and
highlighted as many as possible of
those caring and m otivated residents
and o rg am /atio n s o f our N ortheast
com m unity responsible for signifi
cant advances in our quality o f life.
Only the restriction o f space and
tim e have prevented a broader cita
tion (including those very helpful
‘ou tsid ers’). Thank you!
A nd here in my w eekly colum n, I
strive to place a realistic and infor
m ative "perspective’ on those events
and forces that may either advance or
constrain our am bitions and aspira
tions - and sim ilarly m otivate and
structure the future o f our children in
House M inority Leader Richard
G ephardt let the cat out of the bag,
when he picked a fight with the
"D em ocrats for the Leisure C lass"
in the midst o f a thoughtful, well-
w ritte n , an d tim e ly s p e e c h at
H arv ard 's K ennedy School.
T h is is no o rd in ary p o litica l
squabble-G ephardt w asaco -fo u n d er
and the first chairm an o f the D LC, a
co rp o rate-fu n d ed , m edia-oriented,
Beltway organization founded in the
m id-1980s with the specific purpose
of moving the Dem ocratic Party away
from its base, aw ay from unions.
Blacks & Brow ns, and w o m en 's
rights.
D esp ite his D L C roots, D ick
G ephardt stripped the bark o ff Al
F ro m ’s hide, with these pointed re
marks:
"A n d n o w m o re th an e v e r,
pragm atism ...cannot be a substitute
for the principles that give us purpose
and direction in a lime of rapid change.
ToBe Equal
Reading Is Fundamental
B\ H ugh B. P rice
P resident N ational U rban
L eague
A colleague and I were talking
recently about the distressing new s
o f the poor perform ance o f black
seventh-grade pupils in reading in
the suburban W ashington, D.C. ju
r is d ic tio n o f P rin c e G e o r g e 's
County. M aryland
There, in a county that is 62 p er
cent A frican A m erican (and those
A m ericans are basically w orking
class and m iddle class), XI percent
o f while pupils passed the reading
lest, 75 percent ol A sian-A m erican
students passes the tests, and 46
percent of H ispanic-A m erican pu
pils passed the lest-bul only 40 per
cent of A frican-A m erican pupils
passed the lest.
My colleague, visibly upset, re
sponded by telling me this story of
Ins childhood
"For all my adult life," he said,
"I'v e had to acknow ledge that I
d o n 't know, because I never read,
most of the fairy tales and com ic
books that com prised ihe typical
ch ild 's reading list ol ihe 1950s.
"I never read those tales because
I was iixi busv-loo enthralled with-
reading the twenty-volume 1947 edi
tion of the W orld Book en cyclope
dia. and wiih Hipping through the
new spapers and m agazines that lay
on the floor, on tables, and on chairs
in the living room of my fam ily 's
apartm ent in C hicago. I read an y
thing I could get my hands on. in
cluding the R eader's Digest con-
lensed Books series they also sub
scribed to. I d id n 't need tairy tales
and com ics; this was the reading
lhal took me far beyond the world ol
C h icag o ’s South Side ghetto.
"M y father, who was a longshore
man all my life, and my m other, who
was a hom em aker until I w as a teen
ager. had bought the W orld Books
set brand spanking new when my
brother was horn in late 1946.
"I d o n 't know whal dam age buy
ing the W orld Bixik set did to my
parents' finances I do know that
purchase was ihe single m ost im por
tant foundation of my life. For me.
reading-and absorbing all sorts ol
inform ation, as much by accident as
by d e sig n -b e c a m e as fundam ental
as breathing."
I understood then w hy he found
the new s from P rin ce G e o rg e 's
C o u n ty ’s so painful. It's painful to
m any b la ck p a re n ts th e re , too.
T h e y 're open arms. Any they should
be. It's inexcusable that the school
districl-any school d istrict-sh o u ld
allow this to happen. So. those who
m anage the educational system must
be taken to task
Bui when the parents go home,
they need to look in the m irror and
ask w hether th ey 'v e done all that
they can do and must do lo make
certain they have pul their own c h il
dren on course, and that their ch il
dren are staying there.
I hey need to ask them selves: Do
they have books, new spapers, and
m agazines prom inently available in
their hom es? Do they read with their
youngsters al home, and prom inently
available in their hom es? Do they
read m onitor how their children are
doing in school? Do they talk with
teachers about how then children are
taring? Il this is beyond them , do
they seek out ihe help of pastors and
friends ’
s
In saying this, we al the National
U rban League are doing more than
just talking the talk, lo u se a popular
expression. O ur new C am paign lor
A frican-A m erican A chievem ent is
intended to help black parents-and
theircom m unilies-puttheirchildren
on the path to high scholastic per
form ance and keep them there.
F in d in g and p u rsu in g that path
is m ore c ritic a l then ev er, says
Jam es C o m er, the ch ild p sy c h ia
trist and school reform er, because,
lo r the first lim e in h um an h is
tory. in d iv id u als need a good e d u
c a tio n in o rd er to earn a good
living. G o n e are ihe d ay s w hen a
facto ry w o rk er co u ld earn a d e
cen t w ag e o ft the sw eat o f their
brow and the stren g th o f th eir
back. N ow and in the fu tu re , the
stre n g th and su p p le n e ss o f o n e 's
m ind is the o nly route to that end.
T h at m ean s lhal it you c a n 't
read: Y ou c a n 't h an d le the w ord
p ro b lem s in alg eb ra. Y ou c a n 't
h an d le the read in g assig n m e n ts
in so cial stu d ies You h a v e n 't a
p ray er ol w ritin g w ell. You w o n 't
be able lo n av ig ate the Internet
Y ou w o n 't pass the read in g test
to b eco m e an au to w o rk er You
w o n 't d o w ell d o w ell en o u g h on
the S ch o la stic A p titu d e T est lo
get in to c o lle g e -m u c h less handle
ll e w orkload o n ce you get there
A nd on and on
W e’re all conscious at this time
o f the year ot ihe presents we give
to o th ers as expressions o fo u r love.
And perhaps we parents are more
conscious al this lim e o f year o f our
w ish to give our children what
th ey 'll need fo ra productive, boun
tiful life.
p
e c t i n
e s
New Year 1998-
Accentuate The Positive
a world that is known best for its
uncertainty.
But having said that and hopefully
m aking the case that we may replace
your "psychic", what serious state
m ents can we make about the future?
It we refer to this colum n and/or this
new spaper generally, then be assured
that we will "k eep -o n -k eep in g ’-on."
How better can we put it then to state
that it is our resolve to continue in the
tradition o f journalistic excellence
established by our late past publisher.
Joyce W ashington.
I (eel privileged tohave been given
the opportunity to provide critical
inform ation and som e degree o f in
sight - not only to the com m unity and
the m etropolitan area with its ex
tended Portland O bserver readership,
but increasingly to other parts o f the
nation. A nd occasionally abroad,
since it appears our readers are rather
em phatic about com m unicating their
opinions and faxing news clippings
to other media, organizations and
politicians, w hoever and w herever (
Journals-N et-W orldw ide Web).
As I said on the front page o f The
Portland O bserver, "The legacy of
Joyce W ashington" (3/20/96)," ...
my appreciation for the opportuni
ties Joyce provided for many o f us to
reach our com m unity (and the world)
with the news and inform ation so
vital lo our w ell-being. And the
ch ance to m otivate our youth to
greater achievem ent and fuller lives
through the m edium o f The Portland
O b se rv e r"
I can assure the readers that this
tradition and com m unity spirit is not
only intact but is being aggressively
pursued. And another m easure o f an
organizations ability to interact ef
fectively with the external is its ow n
internal sensitivities expressed in re
lations with staff. Earlier in the year
I was incapacitated by a very serious
illness but few in the com m unity
/L4//VB<?MZPU$H
C O A L IT IO N
T hisisadifferentapproach from some
who now cal I themselves New D em o
cra ts-b u t who set their com pass only
oil the direction o f others-who talk
about the political center, but fall to
understand that if it is only defined by
others, it lacks core values. And who
tixi often market a political strategy
m asquerading as policy."
(In other words, those, as Jesse
alw ays says, who choose the po liti
cal center over the moral center. |
The D L C ’s founders were the origi
nal triangulator, long before Dick
M orris popularized the phrase. Their
whole strategy was based on “push-
o f f ’ politics, to attract corporate fund-
ing for public policy research that
sought a "third way" between artifi
cially-defined "old D em ocrats" and
the rising right-wing Republicans.
The D L C 's real selling point, how
ever. was that its strategies and poli
cies supposedly offered N ew D em o
crats a chance to win at every level.
And the election o f Bill C linton in
1992, another former DLC Chair,
seem ed to vindicate the DLC strat
egy. at least to the W ashington E s
tablishm ent.
The truth is far different. The truth,
in the immortal words of Mark Shields,
is that "if the Clinton Democrats have
written a new political chapter, sadly.
were aw are o f this situation due to
perform ances ‘beyond-the-call-of-
duty'.
B ecause o f the c o o p e ra tio n and
sup p o rt o f the P o rtlan d O b serv er
sta ff and my c a rep erso n (C athy
G a lb ra ith (P ro je c t C o o rd in a to r.
" C o r n e r s to n e s o f C o m m u n ity :
B u ild in g s o f P o rtla n d 's A frican
A m erican H isto ry "), not a sin g le
d ead lin e for my articles was m issed
- ihev w ere eith er faxed from the
h o sp ital or d eliv ered to the p ap er
for me.
Further cooperation from this ‘ex
tended fam ily' - type operation kept
physical and econom ic situations in
tact during a m o n th 's hospital stay
and a long recuperation. Things are
looking better all the tim e and I plan
to "accentuate the positive with a
vengeance. "Black History M onth"
contributions should be broader and
more m otivating than ever. Happy
New Y ear to you a ll!
it must be called Chapter 11."
This basic truth has been pointed
out by Shields, by Kevin Phillips,
and by M ichael Barone in The A l
m anac of A m erican Politics 1996-
that w hile C linton him self has been
successful al the politics o f triangu
lation, every other level o f the D em o
cratic Party has literally collapsed.
We would say it is dying o f "stran g u
lation by triangulation."
The R ainbow ’s view is that the
D L C 's original "p u sh -o ff' political
strategy, its strategy of running away
from the base voters o f the party, is
the main reason for this collapse.
A pply the DLC logic to sports-
using DLC strategic thinking, C h i
cago B ullscoach Phil Jackson would
build his entire offense around Steve
K err rather than M ichael Jordan.
True. Steve Kerr often provides the
"sw ing points needed to win big
gam es, as he did in the NBA Finals
earlier this year.
Ron Brown May Have Suffered Gunshot Wound
B y E i . aine H egwood B owen
S pecial to the NNPA from i he
C hicago N ew C rusader
A fter the su d d en d eath in A pril
1996 o f U S. C o m m erce S ecretary
R on B row n, so m e in the A frican -
A m erican com m unity said the crash
o f his p lan e in B osnia reek ed o f
co n sp ira cy . N ow , m ore than 18
m o n th s later, a P ittsb u rg h T rib u n e
R eview ex p o se, w hile not clearly
su b sta n tiv e , p o in ts to trag ic c ir
cu m stan ces.
A hole in B row n’s skull could
have been a gunshot wound, wrote
reporter C hristopher Ruddy. Ruddy
interview ed several m ajor players in
the ensuing plane crash investiga
tion. w hich d id n 't prompt an autopsy
o f B row n's corpse.
One reason that an autopsy w asn't
perform ed is because W hite House
officials were pressured to speed up
the return o f B row n's body to the
United Stales tor his funeral. Ruddy
wrote.
A ccording to Ruddy, Lt. Col. Steve
C ogsw ell, a doctor and deputy m edi
cal exam iner w ith the A rm ed Forces
Institute ol Pathology, said that ev i
dence that Brown may have been
m urdered has been ignored. A 22-
volume report issued by the A ir Force
said the crash, w hich killed Brown
and 34 business executives and o th
ers, resulted from pilot error and
faulty navigation equipm ent
C ogsw ell said an X-ray show ed
small metal fragments inside B ro w iis
head and he claim s according to
Ruddy, that this X-ray has disap
peared.
Ruddy wrote. "The pathologist
said the fragm ents could be what
pathologists som etim es call a 'lead
snow storm ' pattern from a d isin te
grating b u lle t."
And w hileC ogsw ell d id n 'tex am -
ine B row n's corpse. Ruddy wrote, he
(C ogsw ell)did interview colleagues
w ho were part o f the exam ination
team. C ogsw ell also review ed re
ports. records and photographs of
the crash scene and victims.
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S C It N C IS
W here Healing. Teaching a n d D iscover)’ C onte Together UMvomrr
An ti|u«l nppnnuiiit,. altirma«\« uttnn inMiiuuon