AUGUST 19, 1998
Page A4
(Elje Jìortlauò ©hseruer
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views Of
^ o r tl a n h ffibseruer
r e s
Please lake a minute to send us vour comments. W e’ re always trying to give you
a better paper and we can't do it without your help. Tell us what you like and
w hat needs improvement... any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. We
take criticism well! Get your pow erful pens out N O W and address your letters
to: Editor. Reader Resuon s r,
P,O. Boi 3137. Portland. QR 97208.
(The pottiani» (©bseruer
(U SP S 959-680) E stablished in 1970
Charles Washington
Publisher & Editor
Mark Washington
Distsribution M anager
Gary Ann Taylor
Business M anager
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
Director o f Operation
Iesha Williams
Graphic Design
Laphael Knight
Graphic Design
Contributing Writers:
Professor McKinley Burt,
Lee Perlman,
Joy Ramos
4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97211
503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015
Email: Pdxobserv@aol.com
Deadline fo r all submined materials:
Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday, 12:00pm
POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer,
P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208.
Periodicals postage p a id at Portland, Oregon.
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 o f the newspaper and cannot be used in
other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the
general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition o f
such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART W ITH­
OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED.
The Portland O bserver-O regon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica­
tion—is a member o f the National Newspaper A ssociation-Founded in
1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated
Publishers, Inc, New York. NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers
Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver.
SUBSCRIBE TO
TTuxn “A
Its all about the art o f reading - you
can’t curl up in the NET with a good
book. It won’t allow you to reach up
on your shelf and effortlessly turn to
that awesome paragraph or chapter
which is hard-wired in your mind for
life.
Occasionally, the page is a work o f
art where some inspired ink slinger
has made ornaments out o f the letters
o f the alphabet with his use of swirling
serifs. And sometimes an equally strik­
ing illustration will adjoin the script.
You can close your eyes and re-read
the message on the bus, on the plane,
or between servings at that good res­
taurant; you will never lose a fact.
I received some interesting com­
ments on last week’s introduction to
this series, “McKinley, I knew you
would find a way to get us’ in there
some way.” You certainly got that
right! I’ll be on my job as long as we
have rascally main-line’ historians
who somehow always manage to leave
out the warm, human element ot A fri -
can interaction with other races o f
mankind.
The reader had reference to my
account o f the ‘Havana Cigar-Mak-
<Thr ^ o r t l a n b (tflb B eru er
The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00
per year. Please fill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to:
T he
History of R e d in g ”, 11
B y P roe . M ckinley B urt
S ubscriptions
P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137
P ortland , O regon 97208
Name: _______________________ _—-----------------------------------------
Address:__________________ __ _____ —— —-------------------------------
City, S tate:---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -
Z ip-C ode:_____ ______________— ------—-----------------------------------
ers’ in Key West, Florida who wrote
to Alexander Dumas, the noted black
French author (“The Three Muske­
teers, The Count o f Monte Cristo,
Etc.” ). These workers (1870) sought
permission to name their prize prod­
uct after a character in his novel. It
seems that they employed a narrator
to read to them
during their boring
task and Dumas-
was their favorite
author. R equest
granted.
1 have written an
o rg a n iz a tio n in
Key West to learn
if the Cuban expatriates still follow
this practice. Thistechniqueofa ‘read­
ing’ is followed in our neighborhood
book clubs today and on a regular
basis at popular bookstores. But I’ll
warrant you that even the most knowl­
edgeable military buff doesn’t know
that his didactic practice began al­
most 1500 years ago on a craggy
Ita lia n
hill
c alled
“ M onte
Cassino”( scene o f a bitter World War
II siege).
Civil Rights Journal
Environmental J ustice And Convent
B y B ernice P owell J ackson
Convent, Louisiana is a little town
o f 2700 or so people located be­
tween New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Sitting right alongside the M issis­
sippi River, Convent is in an area
which the state calls the Chemical
Corridor because o f the dozens of
chemical plants located there. Those
o f us who are concerned about envi­
ronmental justice have another name
for that area however. We call it
Cancer Alley because of the incred­
ibly high incidence of all types of
cancer found in the residents. And,
oh, by the way, the majority o f the
residents o f Convent are African
American and most of them are poor.
For hundreds o f years the area
between Baton Rouge and New O r­
T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
Tragedy and Hope in Africa
afterm ath of the tragedies an ocean
away actually reaffirm som ething
enormously positive: they reaffirm
O nce again, the w orld is con­
the essential decency o f hum an­
fronted by the scourge o f evil, by
kind, and its determ ination to per­
the aw ful w illingness o f some hu­
sist despite crushing setbacks.
man beings to inflict pain and su f­
So, as in Oklahom a C ity, we see
fering upon the innocent in order
not only the organized governm en­
to, by their perverse reasoning,
tal response. we also see ordinary
make a political statem ent.
citizens rushing to the sites o f the
Once again, we endure the agony
tragedies to, if necessary, help in-
o f the afterm ath.
and, equally im portant, to bear
We see, w ith a shock, the physi­
w itness to-the search for survi­
cal dam age that has been done to
vors.
human bodies. Because the shock
They com e because they know
w aves o f the horrendous crim e
that
the hope o f finding survivors
reach every place human decency
is
in
itse lf a repudiation o f the
exists, w e feel the psychological
barbarism
o f the killers. They un­
traum a o f those who were at ground
derstand
that
in bearing w itness
zero and survived, as if the broken
against
atrocity,
we declare our­
w indow glass and shards o f metal,
selves
for
decency
in the conduct
w ood and concrete w ere lacerat­
o
f
human
affairs.
In
N airobi and
ing our ow n souls.
Dar
Es
Salaam
as
in
O klahom a
The bom bings o f the American
C
ity,
that
universal
reaction
rep­
em bassies in N airobi, Kenya and
resents
the
hope
o
f
the
w
orld.
Dar Es Salaam , T anzania are trag ­
In that way, the tragedies in
edies in w hich the human costs-o f
Nairobi
and Dar Es Salaam also
lives cut short, o f prom ise not to
offer
the
Am erican people a more
be fulfilled, o f suffering loosed
positive way o f looking at Black
around the globe yet again-for-
Africa, a region o fthe world whose
ever dim inish into insignificance
reality, still, is so often skew ed by
the tw isted souls responsible for
some observers’ untrustw orthy at­
it. they have forfeited their con­
titudes.
nection w ith hum anity. They are
A frican A m e ric a n s’ feelings
as w orthless as dust.
about the rela tio n sh ip to Black
W e in A m erica know, now to
A frica has long been subjected
our sorrow, that individuals o f such
to the sam e kind o f racist d isto r­
profound malevolence lurk not ju st
tion as our p ercep tio n o f our re ­
in A sia, A frica, Europe or Latin
latio n sh ip to A m erica itself. The
A m erica. They are not ju st o f
reality is that B lack A m e ric a ’s
“ th o s e o th e r p e o p le .”
The
true feelings have alw ays been
crum pled wreckage in Nairobi and
m ore com plex, m ore nuance than
D ar Es Salaam should rem ind us-
th e ra c ist fa n ta sie s have su g ­
in case w e’ ve forgotten-that a simi-
gested.
lar horrific act happened in the
M ora M c C le a n , p re sid e n t o f
American heartland, destroying the
th
e
A fric a A m e ric a In stitu te ,
lives o f A m erican men, women,
sk
e
tc
h e d one fa c e t o f th a t r e la ­
and children, as these have d e­
tio n s h ip w hen she w ro te in a
stroyed the lives o f A fricans and
r e c e n t is s u e o f th e U rb a n
Americans.
L e a g u e ’s m a g a z in e , O p p o rtu ­
But we m ust not fail to recog­
n ity J o u rn a l, th at an atta c h m e n t
nize that, in its awful w ay, the
H ugh B. P rice , N ational
U rban L eague P resident
by
f
Alberto Manguel in his “History of
Reading” (Viking 1996) tells us that
Saint Benedict o f Nursia founded a
monastery on this cragg hill halfway
between Rome and Naples. "Believ­
ing like sir Thomas Browne, that God
offered us the world under two guises,
as nature and as a book, Benedict
__ decreed that reach­
ing would be an es­
sential part o f the
monastery’s daily
I I’ k o i essor
\ 1 ( K IM I V
life.”
We rem em ber
Bl R I
that the Cuban ci­
g ar-m akers
in
F lorida had a
‘reader’ to reveal the beauty or inspi­
ration o f literary gems which could
relieve a boring task. Saint Benedict
anticipated them with his “Article 38”;
that there should be an appointed
reader during meal times and that
there should be the greatest silence at
the table. “Whatever is needed in the
way o f food, the brethren should pass
to each other in turn, so that no one
need ask for anything.”
You may not wish to “ask for any-
thing” while being enthralled with
this beautiful and oh-so-informative
book. One o f the joys o f reading
Alberto Manguel’s text is that this
author himself often invokes that
“whole page” image for the reader;
imprinting a message that can easily
be recalled anytime; anyplace. That is
communication.
As I said earlier, “you cannot curl
up in the NET with a good book”, and
peo p le are fast learn in g that
cyberspace is for the storage and re­
trieval o f data. Book publishing and
distribution is accelerating weekly -
new catalogs in your mail each day.
And have you seen “Reader’s Digest”
big new entry into the fray; and I do
mean big’. You won’t stick these
new issues in your pocket or purse.
Yes, there has been a major para­
digm shift-back to the printed page
for true knowledge. The WEB pro­
vides the data; titles, authors, pub­
lishers, booksellers and prices. You
know, I remember a page from child­
hood, Herman M elville’s descrip­
tion o f becalmed sailors in “Moby
Dick, like a painted ship on a painted
sea.”
Cont’d next week.
to o n e ’s a n c e s tr a l h o m e la n d
do es not a u to m a tic a lly d im in ­
ish th e a tta c h m e n t to o n e ’s own
n a tiv e lan d . In fa c t, the e x p e r i­
ence o f A m erican e th n ic groups
as a w h o le in d ic a te s th a t it o f ­
ten le a d s to a g re a te r c iv ic in ­
v o lv em en t.
The joyous embrace of that com ­
plexity can be seen in the lives o f
Julian Bartley, the A m erican C on­
sul G eneral in N airobi, and his
son, Jay, both o f whom perished in
th e e m b a ssy b o m b in g .
M r.
Bartley, 55, was a 24-year veteran
o f the Foreign Service having pre­
viously served in the Dom inican
Republic, C olom bia, Spain, Israel
and Korea, his son, 20, a sopho­
more at United States International
U niversity, in N airobi, was w ork­
ing at the em bassy for the summer.
A ccording to the N ew York
Times A ugust 9 account o f the m e­
morial service in N airobi for the
American victims, “ By all accounts
the father and son w ere an im­
m ensely popular duo w hose head­
long em brace o f Kenya life had
been lovingly retu rn ed by the
people they met and befriended.”
The larger point is that the trag­
edy also underscored that it was
not ju st A m ericans o f A frican de­
scent who saw the beauty in Black
Africa.
A friend told the Tim es that
M olly H uckaby H ardy, 51, an­
o th e r career Foreign S ervice em ­
ployee w ho w as w hite and who
also died in the N airobi bom b­
ing, “ju s t loved being th ere, I
think. She found East A frica a
beau tifu l p la c e .”
It is this-the stories o f the ca­
pacity o f hum an beings to see and
em brace the beauty o f their sur­
roundings, be they in O klahom a
or Black A frica-w hich transform s
the horror o f this tragedy into a
declaration o f hope.
leans was an agricultural and fishing
area. Before the Civil War it was an
area full o f plantations and in the
century or so after the war it re­
mained a rural area where people
fished in the river for oysters and fish
and grew crops which fed their own
families. But about forty years ago
all o f that changed as the state ot
Louisiana decided to give tax abate­
ments to huge chemical corporations
to locate their plants there, along the
-
river where transportation was easy
and cheap. The trade-off for this new
development, or so the residents were
led to believe, was good jobs.
After nearly two generations o f
this development most o f the people
who live along Cancer Alley remain
poor and few o f them work in the
highly-technical jobs which the plants
offer. A drive through the parking
lots around the plants shows license
plates from other states and other
. • and i only
_1__ a X* tew
_ families have
counties
really benefitted from the plants.
Now the state o f Louisiana wants
to locate a new plant in Convent.
They want to locate one o f the most
toxic o f all chemical plants in little
Convent, promising jobs and eco­
nomic development. They want to
allow Shintech, a Japanese-owned
plant to build the w orld’s largest
polyvinyl
C ontinued T o P age B4
Yes! It's your time! You couldn't
have dreamed it better if youd
tried. You've learned that hard
work and long hours definitely
pay off and that getting ahead is
easier when there's family behind
you. That's the way it is with
American Family Insurance. Like
you, we understand it's consistent
performance that builds strong
reputations. That's just one of
many reasons why year after year,
we're awarded an A+ (Superior,
rating from the respected insurance
r a tin g a u th o rity , A .M . Best.
have family behind you.
Before you make your move,
make one call and a helpful,
friendly agent will be delighted to
tell you more Then go out there
and conquer
the world...
we ll be right
behind you.
All Your Protection Under One Roof.
Ay
American Family Mutual Insurance Company and Subsidiaries, Madison. Wisconsin 53783-0001 wwwamtam com