Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1998)
Oct. 7, 1998 (Ehr Fortiani» (Obsrrucr Editorini Articles Do Not Net essttrily Reflect Or Represent The Views Of (Ebe ^Jartlanb (Observer * J Attention Readers! Please takeam inutetosend us your comments. W e’re always try ingtogiveyou a better paper and we can't do it without your help. Tell us what you like and what neJds Unprovement... any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. W e take criticism well! Get your powerfui pens»•«»J Editor. Reader Response P.Q. Boi W7, Port l M d . Q B ^ o r tla n b Columbus Sailed The Ocean Blue, Was In 1492, II 912Q& (© b s e ru c r (U SP S 959-680) E stablished in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher & Editor Mark Washington Distsribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business Manager Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Laphael Knight Graphic Designer Iesha Williams Graphic Designer 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 submitted 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 paid at Portland, Oregon. Subscriptions: $30.00 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 of such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITH B y P rof . M c K inley B urt We proceed now with a further inquiry into perhaps the most endur ing example ofMurphy s Third Law, that of “unintended consequences." Certainly, the four voyages o f Chris topher Columbus to the “New World" will more than suffice for our pur pose. Last week I placed in stark con trast, the savage behavior ot the Span ish explorers and their continuous call to Heaven to “ordain them as an instrument by means o f which the high purposes o f Heaven might be accomplished.” I remember very well a Native American Student o f mine saying, “These people always seem to page God, before they rip off some OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland Observer—Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica tio n - ^ a member o f the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885 and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers body.” to by H ugh B. P rice , P resident , N a tional U rban L eague $ o r t i a n h (© b a m ie r 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 S ubscriptions P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 N am e:____ Address:__ City, State: Zip-Code: _ T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver 1 better ~öhe (SJditor Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 Peter Bhatia Executive Editor The Oregonian 1320 SW Broadway Portland, Oregon »7201 D ear M r. Bhatia: This letter is written in re sponse to an article which ap peared on Wednesday, Septem ber 23, 1998, on the front page o f the M etro section. The ar ticle “ Hundreds W ill Witness Community Policing” written by Maxine Bernstein, depicted me, George A . Sm ith, as a drug dealer, using my business for a dope dealing operation. I am distraught over the ac cusations this a rticle brings forth. M s. Bernstein indicates I was evicted and my business shut down after Portland Police built a case implicating my busi ness as a front for a “ dope deal ing” operation, and that I mis lead clients to believe “they w oald ‘come fu ll circle' w ith a makeover i f they came in for a buzz.” For over 28 years, I have been a hair stylist, provid ing professional services to cli ents including, C h ie f o f Police, Charles Moose, politicians, ath letes, business folks,public ser vants (police officers, parole and probation officers, etc.) as w e ll as the overall community. Never has my intent been to do anything ille g a l or unlaw ful. », I have on numerous l, called the police in an effort to make the commu nity a safer environment, free o f drugs and violence. M y only detriment is believing every one deserves a second chance. I hire Aaron Peterson, a con victed felon, sex offender and drug dealer, after he reassured me he had been rehabilitated and needed someone to believe in him and give him a second chance. M r. Peterson was ar rested in connection to “distrib uting drugs” from my salon, however, 1 had no knowledge o f his selling dope. The “set-up’ referred to by Ms. Bernstein, in her article, 1 believe is directly linked to M r. Peterson. To date, I have been unable to obtain reports regarding or related to this case, have I been im p li cated by M r. Peterson? I be lieve so. Is there any truth to me knowingly having drugs sold from my business? Absolutely, NOT! I totally support Community Policing, however, I do not sup port being used as a scapegoat for the Portland Police to shine and make themselves appear to be doing so much to abort crime in our neighborhoods. 1 am re questing an article be written and carried w ith equal im por tance, detailing what actually took place. Your immediate response is requested. Thank you in vance for your assistan cooperation. Sincerely, George A. Si transition movement whose esthet ics and philosophy was a far cry trom the simplistic “Garden o f Eden vi sualized by Columbus, and earlier Americans. "Scientific Environmen talism” was introduced. Readers who are in need of more enlightenment in respect to the con tradictions within both the environ mental and urban planning move ments should read. Interpreting Environments”, Robert Mugerauer, University o f Texas Press, 1995. O f course, one might reflect that the forever-threatened inner city resi dents, having marginally survived the Urban Renewal/Removal cata clysm, must now face massive new a ssa u lts upon th e ir rem aining “Edens” by the advocates of subsi dized Light Rail. They may find the title o f that book, "The Geography of Nowhere to be a painfully accurate description o f their garden . “Aided by his wildly erroneous conception o f the earths circumfer ence, Columbus redrew the globe, perhaps encouraging others to re align the heavens” . Scientific Ameri- can, Nov. 1992 "Astronomy In the Age o f Columbus”. (Should have let the Moorish navigators prevail). However, it seems quite obvious that African voyagers had well-mas tered the knack o f seafaring to the "New World” - and beyond. And this was authenticated long before the late Thor Heyerdahl and his reed- craft voyages from the west coast of Africa to the New World and beyond (Kon Tiki, etc.). "...and he (Columbus) wanted to find o u t w h at the Indians o f Hispaniola had told him, that there had come from the south and south east Negro people, who brought those spear points made o f a metal which they call guanin, o f which he had sent to the king and queen for assaying, and which was found to have in thirty- two parts, eighteen o f gold, six ot silver and eight o f copper . This was the exact same for mula used by the people o f Ghana Africa. Q uote is from "A frica and the discovery o f A m erica", Leo W einer, H arvard University (circa 1920) Progressive Policies Do Matter Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. S ubscribe The "Garden o f Eden” concept carried right through from Colum bus and his contemporaries to the American essays and landscape paint- ingsofthe 19thCentury. Nature is to be the scene o f conquest and trans formation. A new paradise on earth was to be created; The American landscape was to be understood ac cording to the first Genesis account and the consequent moral mandate for work developed into the idea ot progress. Not very many seem both ered that much o f this “work” was to be accomplished by chattel slavery. Representative paintings in this genre include, “Home in the Woods”, Thomas Cole, 1847; “Twilight in the W ild e rn e ss” , F re d e ric k E dw in Church, 1860; “The Oregon Trail”, Albert Bierstadt, 1869; “Coming of the White Man”, Joshua Shaw, 1850. And in that same article last week, 1 introduced the name o f a patron Saint o f the en v ironm entalists, Frederick Law Olmstead. This in tensely religious landscape architect (Central Park, Berkeley Campus, National Parks, led a 19th century The U.S. Census Bureau’s annual report on income and poverty re leased last week indicates the Ameri can economy’s prolonged period o f economic good times is beginning to significantly raise incomes and re duce poverty among African Ameri cans and Hispanic Americans. Indeed, last year, the poverty rate among blacks fell form 28.4% to 26.5%, a record low, as the number o f poor blacks dropped by 600,000, to 9.1 million. For Hispanics, the census tally of 8.3 million poor represented a drop in the poverty rate o f more than 2%, to 27.1%. These groups’ declines in poverty were primarily responsible for house hold income rising and poverty rates falling for all Americans for a third consecutive year. In 1997 13.3% o f Americans, nearly 36 million people, lived in poverty, down form 13.7% in 1996, according to the federal agency. A family o f four was considered poor it its annual income was $16,400 or less; for a family of three, the poverty threshold was $12,802. Conversely, household income- again, driven by improvements in economic status among blacks and Hispanics-rose slightly. which he also vigorously champi oned. Those three measures likely had a great deal to do with the median income for single-women-headed households increasing by 4.4% even as many single mothers left the wel fare rolls. The gains were largest for Hispanic and black women. These statistics mean that there were a lot more dollars circulating in the communities where these women live-enough money for individuals and families to now buy a used car to get to that job on the other side o f town or in the suburbs, or to give the daycare lady o f the block some money, which, in turn, she could use to hire an assistant. It’s those kind o f “little” conse quences going on in these neighbor hoods which can make a significant difference in the status o f those at the bottom o f the wage ladder. Yes, this proves that a strong economy with low unemployment (now at 4.5%) and inflation is the best anti-poverty program one can devise. And it undermines that persistent rac ism myth that poor black and H is- panic workers either can’t compete or aren’t interested in competing. But it also underscores that-be- cause a rising tide alone doesn’t nec essarily lift all boats-progressive The median household income for all Americans-the number o f house holds above the median is the same •> as the number below it-rose 1.9% to $37,005. That increase was nearly twice the rate o f inflation and equaled the historical high-water mark it had reached in 1989 before the economy endured a recession. The median o f black households grew4.3% last year to $25,050. Since 1993 it’s increased by 15%, or $3,354, after adjusting for inflation. For H ispanic-American house holds the median income rose 4.5% last year to $26,628; since 1993 it’s increased by 4.8%. President Clinton said the good news proved that his economic-policy approach has been the right one. “Our growing economy is giving more and more families a chance to work their way out o f poverty. After six years, it can’t be an accident anymore.” The President’s entitled to a little boasting. He did lobby hard and successfully for increases in the mini mum wage, which took effect in 1996 and 1997. Those increases have made a difference: they protected the earn ings o f wage earners at the bottom of the wage ladder by keeping pace with inflation. So, too, has the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers. ■ • j ___ Am. Progressive we bo forward policies do matter. eco nomic and social policies can make a rising tide lift all the boats; they can expand social and economic op portunity to all o f A m erica’s citi zens. We need to keep that in mind as h we go forward form here tor two reasons. Now, more than ever, we must not relax our efforts to use progres sive policies to produce more eco nomic good news. Progressive poli cies do matter. lik e a good neighbor, State Farm is there.® See your State Farm Agent: Michael Harper 4004 SW BarburBlvd. Phone:221-3050 Auto • Home • Life • Health State Farm Insurance Companies Bloomington, Illinois Home Offices: Cfutpi^eCftanrs 430 N. Killingsworth Street Portland, Oregon 97217 503/283/1976 Complete Funeral Package Starting at $2895 (includes casket) Complimentary videotapes and books are available on coping with grief. Proud to be a member of the world's most experienced family of funeral homes I
