Page A4 MARCH 11,1998 (El|r IJorthuib © bseruer Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f (Ebe JJnrtlanb ODhseruer Attention Readers! Please take a minute to send usyour comments. We’re always trying to give you a better paper and we can’t do it without your help. Tell us what you like and what needs improvement... any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. We take criticism well! Get your powerful peas out NOW and address your letters to: Editor. Reader Response, P.O, Box 3137, Portland, QR 97208, p e r s though they be....and w ould have quoted fifth-hand testim ony w ith as clear a co n scien ce as docu m en ts them selves." E ffe c tiv e e d u c a tio n a l u se o f d o c u m e n ts is p r a c tic a lly im p o s ­ s ib le u n le s s th e ir c o n te n t c a n be re trie v e d by m e a n s o f an in f o r ­ m a tio n s y s te m w h o s e o p e r a tio n an d in te n t is as c o n s is te n t an d tr u s tw o r th y as th e h u m a n c o n d i­ tio n w o u ld se em to p e rm it. L a w ­ y e rs, ju d g e s , s ta te s m e n an d p o li­ tic ia n s , s c h o la r s an d s tu d e n ts , w rite rs , p u n d its a n d k n o w le d g e ­ a b le c itiz e n s h a v e all c o m e to a c c e p t C o m m a g e r ’s m a g n u m o p u s as a c r e d ib le p r o d u c t (B u t C a re fu l, fa c ts ca n m is le a d y o u ). E v e r s o o f t e n I d r a w th e r e a d e r ’s a tte n tio n to th is ty p e o f e v id e n tia r y s u p p o r t fo r u se in th e ir e f f o rts to a u th e n tic a te m an y o f th e fa c tu a l = b u t n e v e r th e le s s c h a lle n g e d - a c c o u n ts o f A fric a n A m e ric a n h is to ry . N o w , it is th e c a se , s o m e tim e s , th a t th e s u p ­ p o rtin g fa c ts a n d d o c u m e n ta tio n (DSPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Mark Washington Distsribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business Manager Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation lesha Williams Graphic Design Tony Washington Associate Editor Contributing Writers: P rofessor M cKinley Burt, Lee Perlm an, Neil H eilpern Joy Ram os 4747 NE M artin L uther K ing, Jr. Blvd., Portland, O regon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Em ail: P dxobserv@ aol.com Deadline for all submitted materials: Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday, 12:00pm Send A ddress C hanges To: Portland O bserver, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Subscriptions: $60.00 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 ot 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, Oregon Federation ol Advertising. American Minorites Media, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. S ubscribe tö W P o r t i a n i » ( liih s c r w e r The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home lor only $6000 per year Please till out, enclose check or money order, and mail to: S ubscriptions T he P ortland O bserver ; P O B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 Name:_________________________________ ___ _____ Address: _______________________________ ___ ____________________ 'E hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver We Need To Heal, Not Hurt, Children In Trouble B y M arian W right E delman A harsh S enate bill that w ould treat children as young as 14 like hardened adult crim inals by tossing them in adult jails has a serious chance o f becom ing national law this year unless our com m unity takes action. S enate Bill 10 (S. 10) threatens to w ipe out m ore than tw o decades o f progress in p rotecting children from adults in jail. T he C h ild re n ’s D e­ fense F und’s(C D F ) w ork in the early 1970s to expose the horrors faced by children locked in adult ja ils helped lead to passage o f the Juvenile Jus­ tice and D elinquency A ct w hich guar­ anteed that children w ould be sep a­ rated from adult prisoners. N ow politicians are poised to re­ m ove those safeguards. T he H ouse has already passed a com panion bill to S.IO and election-year politics could put this m isguided, m ean-spir­ ited law on a fast track. B esides su bjecting ch ild ren as young as 14 to adult jails, the bill will treat nonviolent offenders and run­ aw ays and truants harshly by allo w ­ ing them to be locked up for up to 14 days, and held in adult ja ils up to 24 hours. O f all youths arrested, only one in 20 youths is arrested for a violent crim e, yet the bill allow s the juvenile ju stic e system to be underm ined based on a m inority. S. 10 is based on fear, not facts. M ost children are arrested for nonviolent offenses like vandalism and shoplifting. “T he current politically driven debate ignores not only the signifi­ cant recent drops in crim e, ju v en ile crim e, and hom icides, but ignores the lessons o f the past decade on how to reduce crim e,’ says C D F A ssistant G eneral C ounsel Kim W ade. T h ere’s clear evidence that S.IO poses a serious danger to o u r young people. C hildren jailed with adults are eight tim es m ore likely to com m it c t i v e H ave you ever heard that fam iliar legal phraseology delivered in such solem n and serious tones as when V em on Jordan, the P resident’s good friend, described his ow n testim ony w ithin the grand ju ry room ? Or, as it had been put, “nothing but the facts, m a’am !” But the W hite H ouse aside, w e w onder how m any o f our readers m ay have noticed the passing o f noted historian, H enry Steele C om m ager at age 91. A nd if the nam e proves fam iliar, it is, because I have so often cited his best know n w ork in support o f facts that might raise eyebrow . For alm ost fifty years Steele edited the authoritative, “D ocum ents o f A m eri­ can H istory.” His forew ord says it quite well, “ Here are the fundam ental sources o f A m erican history w hich all students o f the subject read about, but for the m ost part have not read; in this they share em barrassm ent w ith m any o f their teachers, w ell-read scholars B y T he R ain B ow P i sh C oalition dressed this issue and hosted the sec­ ond annual “C losing the G ap” E du­ cation policy conference Sunday, March 8-T uesday M arch 10. The h igh 1 ight o f the conference was a three-stoptourofasuburbanhighschixil (N eu q u a V alley H igh S chool in Naperville, IL), an urban high school ( DuSable High School in ( Chicago), and the Cook County Corrections Center. Rev. Jackson said, “This tour is a poignant illustration o f the disparities between the haves and the have-nots and why poor children end up in jail Thirty years ago, the Kemer Com­ mission reported that America was in danger ofbecoming two societies - “one black, one white; separateand unequal.” This week the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation’s report finds that the Kemer Commission’s predictions have been realized. The structural, vertical gaps are widening despite the 1954 SupremeC’ourt ruling in Brown v. Board o f Education. The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the C itizenship Education Fund ad- a re c o r o lla r y , r a th e r th a n d ire c t. For instance, w hen I w as m aking the case that the o p p ortunity for A m erica to obtain all those tens o f m illions o f acres o f land through the “ L ouisiana Purchase” com e about because o f the indom itable courage o f the revolting H aitian slaves u nder the leadership o f the black generals, T o u ssain t L o u v eratu re and Jean- Ja c q u e s D e ss a lin e s - N a p o le o n B onaparte realized he could never hold the far-away W est Indies against these freedom fighters - 1 used sp e­ cific docum ents from “C om m ager’s” to illum inate the stage. “D ocum ent No. 107. Jefferson On I he Im portanceofN ew O rleans April 18 ,1 8 0 2 .” In this letter to the A m eri­ can m in iste r in F rance, T h o m as Jefferson expressed his extrem e n er­ vousness and “concern o ver the o c­ c u p a tio n o f N ew O rle a n s an d F lorida.” At the sam e tim e Jefferson tells British he w ould rather “m arry their fleet” than see France control the M ississippi.” “ D o c u m e n t N o . 1 08, T h e suicide, five tim es m ore likely to be sexually assaulted, and twice as likely to be assaulted by prison staff. This bill will m ake an already unfair system even tougher on Black children. Even though Black chil­ dren represent only 15 percent o f all children in the United States, they constitute m ore than h alf o f all chil­ dren transferred to adult courts. Even w hen prior records are sim ilar, Black youths are m ore likely than W hite youths to be arrested tried as adults, convicted, and im prisoned. This bill does nothing to address the higher rate o f m inority youth confinem ent. It is particularly distrusting that S.IO also fails to break the deadly link betw een children and guns, al­ though the availability o f cheap guns lies at the root o f the problem o f youth violence. In 1995, 83 percent o f m urdered children over age 12 w ere killed w ith a gun. S.IO w ould not spend a penny on program s that prevent crim e. T he city o f Boston has lost only one chi Id to gun violence since July 1995, a dram atic record m ade possible by church-led efforts to give children opportunities to be nurtured and grow so they can becom e productive, law- abiding citizens ready to take their place in the world. C learly new strategies are needed to address a violent crim e problem that has left too many neighborhoods unsafe and too m any young people in prison, injured, or dead. But politi­ cians shouldn ’t overlook proven pre­ ventive m easures in favor o f politi­ cally popular approaches that will surely m ake youth crim e and vio­ lence worse. Join D C F ’s Black Com m unity C rusade for Children (B C C C ) in opposing S.IO and call your Sena­ tors today at the U.S. Capitol sw itch­ board at 202-224-3121 to urge them to vote against S.IO. s and affluent children end up at Y ale.” N euqua V alley H igh School - A $62 M illion Model * N ine specialized com puter labs, tw o gym s, and exercise room , and an O lym pic-size sw im m ing pool. * T each ers’ salaries are as m uch as $20,000 higher than their inad­ equately funded urban counterparts. DuSable High School, by contrast, simply does not have the resources to compete. It is the ultimate statement o f cynic i sm for the state to ha ve con fidence in jails over schools and to fund them C essaition o f Louisiana A pril 30, 1803" Jefferson and his advisors in a “state o f consternation” as they learn o fa secret agreem ent by w hich C atho­ lic Spain ceded all o f the territory W est o f the M ississippi back to France. A lm ost overnight a frantic U .S . C o n g ress a p p r o p r ia t e s $2,000,000 for the purchase o f this “ L ouisiana T errito ry .” H ow ever, in the forew ord to this quite ‘ factual ’ docum ent, C om m ager supplies this historic fiction. “For reasons prim arily concerned w ith the critical m ilitary situation on the ‘co n ­ tin e n t’, N apoleon decided to sell the w h o le o f L o u isian a.” (W h at you say!). W hat happened to the “slave re ­ v olts” that struck terror in the hearts o f A m e ric a n c o tto n g r o w e r s ” ? T o u s s a in t L o u v e r a tu r e a n d to D essalines? See "B efore T he M ay­ flow er” by L erone Benne Jr. and see books by J.A. Rogers. N apoleon got m ore m ileage out o f these tw o black generals than the 12 on E uropean staff. accordingly. A c c o rd in g to th e E d u c a tio n T ru st’s 1996 Education W atch State and N ational Data Book... * School districts with less than 5% o f their children in poverty spent on average $6565 per student. * School districts w ith m ore than 2 5 % o fth eirch ild ren in poverty spent $5173 per student. Poor children, w hether urban or rural, need m ore support, not less, to overcom e the obstacles to learning in their daily lives. ___ City, Stale:____________________ _____ _________ __________ Zip-Code: ___________________ . e “The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth” (The P ortiani) (Dbscrucr Charles Washington Publisher & Editor p BUILDING BETTER COMMUNITIES: Supporting Family Strengths UTT Then our VV family faces a challenge, we face it head on. With all our minds put together, we’ll come up with something to meet that challenge.” -G EN EVA JONES, grandparent of six, great-grandparent of three ly”-