AUGUST 12, 1998
Page A4
(The Jînrtlani» ODbseruer
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views Of
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(SJditor AWhat Could Be More Interesting Than "A
History Of Redding?”
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SENd youR I eiiers to the Edito» to:
Edito»- PO Bo* J 1 >7, PoRtlAisd, OR 97208
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¡£lte Jarliani» (©bseruer
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Charles W ashington
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O U T PERM ISSIO N IS PROHIBITED.
The Portland O b serv er-O re g o n ’s O ldest Multicultural Publica-
tio n -is a m em ber o f the National N ew spaper A ssociation-F ounded in
1885, and T he National Advertising Representative A m algamated
Publishers, Inc, New Y ork, NY, and The W est Coast Black Publishers
A nd how is it, you may ask, that a
“history” may effortlessly involve
the past, present and future? W e do
not usually see these states o f tim e as
coexistent-doesn’t tim e flow like a
river?
Oh, but w hen you im m erse your
self in the intriguing w ork o f the
w riters art, “A History o f Reading”
by Alberto M anguel, it will all b e
com e understandable-also rew ard
ing for years to com e (Viking, 1996-
paper or cloth).
It is a different perspective en
tirely that M anguel brings to the ‘a rt’
o f reading, and reading ‘is’ an art;
som ething the author m akes clear,
both directly and indirectly. More
than that he sets new param eters for
either pure enjoym ent or for extract
ing som e ulitarian relevancy.
A nd w e are distracted for pre
cious m om ents by our exasperation
w ith an educational system w hose
gross failures shall have deprived
m illions o f sufficient literacy to en
jo y ‘an y ’ book-let alone, a ‘good’
book. Again, our Dr. Silber: “A
telling indictment o f A m erican edu
cation.”
.
But let us m ove on to the revealing
a n g g u u el’s
é is beautiful
Deautiiui
passages o f M an
w ork. I f you number am ong those o f
us w ho have belatedly discovered
ju st how fortunate those o f us who
have belatedly discovered just how
fortunate w e are to be literate in this
com munications citadel o f the world,
you will smile and savor many a
nuance.
W hile at one o f several underly
ing them es, com monly term ed “clas
sic” by literary cirtics-E gyptian,
G reek, Rom an, C hristian, Pagan,
novelist, playw right-our author will
tease our memory (or conscience)
with a personal anecdote. At the age
o f sixteen, he had an after school job
at a book store and a life-long love
affair began at once.
As it has happened to many in this
situation, he was soon to begin tak
ing unfinished books hom e to read,
intending to return them. O f course,
that never happened and Manguel
goes on to quote black author Ja
m aica Kincaid confessing to a sim i
lar escapade at her childhood library,
“it w as ju st that once I read a book I
couldn’t bear to part with it,” I know
the feeling.
N
here, ■
I have an opportunity
rw ow
w «civ,
------ j
to illustrate in an uncom m only clear
manner, how it is that without the
prior years o f specialized training
devoted to the researcher’s craft, I
was able to present so m any new and
docum ented revelations in my very
first book. I always answ ered inquir
ies, “ I read alot.”
M any readers are fam iliar with
my research and writings on the famed
“A lexander D um as,” France’s black
poet and novelist extraordinare; “The
Count o f M onte Cristo, The Three
M usketeers, The M an In The Iron
M ask,” over 67 plays, 92 novels,
plus histories and travelogs.
A nd certainly, neither I nor the
readers would expect the selection o f
a book like “The History o f Read
ing” for som e basic research on
A lexander D um as; now then there
are dozens o f titles with a direct
reference to or that have a firm infer
ence relating to the subject matter.
But as I say, “I read alot,” so low and
behold!
In the 1870’s the U.S. Supported
Cubans fleeing a revolution, these
immigrants making Key West Florida
the ‘Havana C igar' m aking capital o f
r
th»
the ivnrlH
world.
T
h e v hro
uo ht rea
They
brought
reading
habits.
“The w orkers who im m igrated to
the United States took w ith them,
am ong other th in g s,, the institution o
the lector: an illustration in the Ameri
can Practical M agazine o f 1873
show s one such lector, w earing
glasses and a large brim m ed hat,
sitting with legs crossed and a book
in his hands w hile a row o f w orkers
( a ll m a le ) in w a is tc o a ts an d
shirtsleeves go about their cigar roll
ing with w hat appears to be rapt
attention.”
“T he m aterial for these readings,
ag reed upon in ad v an ce by the
w orkers (w ho, as in the days o f El
Figaro, paid th e lector out o f th eir
ow n earnings), ranged from p o liti
cal tracts and histories to novels
and collectio n s o f poetry both m od
ern and classical, they had th eir
favorites: A lexandre D u m as’s T he
C ount o f M onte Cristo, for instance,
becam e such a popular ch oice that
a group o f w orkers w rote to the
au th o r shortly before his d eath in
1870, asking him to lend the nam e
o f his hero to one o f th eir cigars.
D um as co n sen ted .”
Next week w e will get into the real
beauty and depth o f this book.
C ornerstones of E quality
B y H ugh B. P rk e
P resident
N ational U rban L eague
As we stand at the cusp of the 21st
Century, America must pay heed to the
clarion call tolling across the land. The call
issounding
i s ^ A g l from
t a m many
a . y quarters:
^ i r s n It’stimeto
m e«,
and from our institutions and to commit
ourselves to achieving a true equality of
opportunity in America
We at the National Urban League have
sounded that clanon call ourselves at our
annual conference this week in Philadel
^ o rtla n b (©baeruer
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phia.
True, that call to arms has often been
couched in terms o f achieving greater eco
nomic opportunity and economic power.
The new world order of today- popularly
known as globalizahon-demands that we
all be extremely sensitive to the economic
N a m e :_____________________ ______________________________ —-----
A dd ress:__
City, State:
Zip-Code:
. .
fundamentally the same clarion sounded
88yeaisagobythefbundingoftheNational
Urban League itself (and of our sister
organization, the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People). It is
. . . . .
. «
«
a call for jobs and freedom.
Those were the words on the placards
carried at the March on Washington in
1963-inthat era when thegainingofftinda-
mental civil rights necessarily had to take
precedence.
Times have changed considerably, and
the opportunities for people of color have
expanded, it must be acknowledged, enor-
•
mously.
But one can still sense that slogan s
imprint if you will, underneath the words
on the “placaids”-their business cards-
many AlricanAmericanscanytoday.Black
A
o are
w c still
t d l r pursuingtheirhistoncal
u ir c i
Americans
dual agenda of jobs and freedom.
to honorthe
spirit
and
letter of theConsbtu-
tnhnnnrthp
«iirit
and
lette
tionbywelcomingAfricanAmericans,and
other people ofcolor, as lull-fledged mem-
bersofthe American famtly.Noexceptions
and no excuses. No discrimination and no
more procrastination. It’s high time we
relegate racism to a sorry chapter in the
American institutions, including the busi
nesses, universities, and federal agencies
that have come to our conference, of the
society-widebenefitsofequal opportunity
shouldn’t blind us to the work still to be
I to if ™
h ™ the
America can do that
we honor
guarantee in the Bill of Rights of equality
andjustice for all, ifwepledgeallegianceto
the cornerstones of equality.
Those cornerstones are com pas
sion, o p p o rtunity, and econom ic
done.
It’s time, once and for all, for the nation
power.
winds of change.
Nonetheless, the call we make now is
T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
D an g ers In The P riso n
In d u stria l Complex
B y B ernice P owell J ackson
O ne o f the fastest grow ing indus
tries in the United States is the prison
industry. As states and the federal
governm ent rush to build prisons,
as local com m unities vie to have
them located w here their low-skilled
and unem ployed residents can get
jobs and as politicians use crim e as
a scare tactic to get elected, w hat
used to be a governm ent-operated
small business has now becom e an
industrial giant. At least one private
com pany w hich operates prisons is
traded on the stock m arket and more
and m ore states are looking at priva
tizing their prison systems, in an
attem pt to keep costs to a m inim um .
But in O hio, w here I live, at least
one prison is proving that the rush
to privatize the prison industry is
prem ature at best and dangerous at
worst. In the year or so since the
Corrections Corporati on o f Amen ca
w as given the contract to manage
the new prison in Y oungstow n, two
inm ates have been killed, at least 13
have been victim s o f stabbings and
now six have escaped. T he Y oung
stow n prison, the N ortheast O hio
C orrectional C enter, is supposedly
classified as a m edium security
prison, but four o f those w ho es
caped w ere convicted o f m urder
and tw o o f arm ed robbery. Clearly,
som ething is w rong in Y oungstow n.
Part o f the problem seem s to be
that in the prison industrial com
plex m entality, prisoners are com
m odities or profit centers and are
traded betw een states. So, in this
case, D istrict o f C olum bia prison
ers w ere sent to O hio since D.C.
prisons are overcrow ded. T he O hio
prison then m ade m oney from these
nation and that free m arket should
prevail, the free market should pre
vail over m orals and ethics - the
m orality and ethics o f prisoners be
ing sent out o f state long distances
from their families, m aking visits
nearly impossible. The free m arket
should prevail over our concerns
that the m ajority o f people incar
cerated in this nation are people o f
color. The free market should pre
vail over questions o f hum ane treat
ment by private prison officials who
m ust only w atch the bottom line,
cutting costs in som etim es ques
tionable ways. T he free m arket
should prevail and force local com
m unities to choose between prisons
w hich provide jobs and unem ploy
m ent for their low -skilled and un
em ployed citizens.
The prison industrial complex
concept is a dangerous one to a free
and dem ocratic society. W e do need
prisons in this country, but w e do
not need private ones. W e do need
prisons in this country, but w e need
a fair and ju st crim inal justice sys
tem which offers alternatives to sen
tencing and drug and alcohol treat
m ent program s and w hich provides
recreational and educational pro
gram s for young people who need
help navigating difficult waters. We
do need prisons in this country, but
w e do not need politicians w ho use
crim e to scare voters.
W e do need prisons in this coun
try, but w e do not need politicians
w ho use crim e to scare boters. We
do need prisons in this country but
we need to bring back the concept
o f rehabilitation w hich we have
abandoned for the sake o f punish
out-of state prisoners. But it seems
that either the D.C. officials or the
Northeast O hio Correctional Center
m is-classified these prisoners, inten
tionally or not.
After early indications o f prob
lems m ade O hio legislators leery,
they began to look more closely at
the Y oungstow n prison. But when a
delegation led by O hio legislators
m ade an unscheduled visit to the
prison a few m onths ago, they were
not allowed in. The com pany pleaded
ignorance, saying they had not real
ized who the visitors w ere and prom
ising to be open to future legislative
visitors. Now the state is looking into
closing the prison or at least turning
it over to the state prison system.
O ne could get caught up in the
trees o f the N ortheast O hio C orrec
tional C enter case and not see the
forest. T he forest in this case is the
concept o f the prison industrial com
plex. A concept w here prisoners -
human beings - are profit m akers. A
concept which in some prisons means
that prisoners w ork for cents an hour
for private em ployers, m aking cloth
ing, furniture and other com m odi
ties. A concept w here the future o f
hundreds o f thousands o f young
people is planned for incareration
rather than education since w e as a
society are choosing to spend our tax
dollars on building and running pris
ons rather than educating young
people and proventing their initia
tion into-crime. A choice w e have
m ade in spite o f the fact that it is
m uch cheaper to educate than to in
carcerate.
The underlying concept o f the
prison industrial com plex is that pris
ons are a growth industry in this
ment.
<
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