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May 19,1999
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T hank Y ou F or R eading J he P ortland O bserver
House Votes For Lottery Warnings
The Oregon House o f Representa­
tives voted44to 15 m&vorofHB 2968,
which attaches warning statements to
lottery advertising. The proposed law
would affect all forms o f advertising,
including billboards, print media, and
television and radio advertising.
The warning states “ Lottery games
are based on chance, should be played
for entertainm ent only and should
not be played for investm ent pur­
poses.” A shorter w arning is to be
used on billboards. T he b ill’s chief
sponsors are R ep resentative Je ff
M erkley (D-Portland) and Represen­
tative Bill W itt (R -C edar Mill).
The bill also requires advertising to
disclose the payout percentage o f ad­
vertised games. The payout percent-
Regarding Peace K eeping In The
alkans:
The U nited N ations C harter, Ar-
cle 2.4, sta te s th a t “ A ll m em b ers
hall re fra in in th e ir in te rn a tio n a l
stations fro m th e th re a t o r use o f
jrc e a g a in st th e te rrito ria l integ-
ity o r p o litic a l in d e p e n d e n c e o f
ny sta te , o r in an y o th e r m an n er
ic o n siste n t w ith th e P u rp o se s o f
le U n ite d N a tio n s.”
W e believe the current N A TO
ction in the B alkans is an act o f
ggression by m em ber states o f the
ecurity C ouncil and is in violation
f A rticle 2.4 o f the U.N. Charter.
T he N A T O b o m b in g is an act
f catastrophic enviro n m en tal con-
equences.
There has been strong opposition
i Belgrade w hich questions the le-
itim acy o f M ilosevic’s election in
996. T here continues to be opposi-
o n to M ilosevic; and now there is
age is the amount returned to the player,
on average, when the game is played.
Representative M erkley notes that
“this bill is im portant because lottery
advertising often tries to convey the
im pression that playing the lottery is
' all gain, no pain. ’ By pro viding play­
ers with the payout percentage, which
is alw ays less than $1 for each $1
wagered, and by stating that the lot­
tery should not be played as an in­
vestm ent strategy, we are rem inding
players that there really isn ’ t any way
to beat the odds. Playing the lottery
isn ’t an effective strategy for getting
ahead in life. I f this education cam ­
paign reduces the num ber o f prob­
lem gam blers in our state by even
one, it w ill be w orth the effort.”
increasing opposition to N A T O ’s
d e v a sta tin g b o m b in g in cid en ces
w hich are contributing to the m onu­
m ental m isery o f the Balkan people.
Therefore we urge the U.S. gov­
ernm ent to abide by the U.N. C har­
ter, cease bom bing the Balkans, and
recognize the rights o f those peoples
to organize their opposition to their
current political regime.
W e also u rg e o u r fed eral ad ­
m in istra tio n to in clu d e n o n -g o v ­
ern m en t, p ea ce o rg an iz atio n s in
th e n eg o tiatio n p ro cess w ith the
p u rp o se o f estab lish in g civ iliz ed
o rd e r in th e B alkans.
Cosigned,
C h e rie H o le n s te in , P a tr ic ia
H ollingsw orth, RoseM arie O pp, J im
Beyer, Pat Beyer, Rose M ary John,
B arbara D avis, A nna Faro, George
R. M o rg a n , B illy W a lk e r, L iz
C allison, Jody R obindotter, Tom
Cropper. Dr. Steven Bailey
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
/
'
e ^ o r tla n b © bseruer
>?
A Whole New Category Of Heroes
are n as- yes, he (or she) is very quali­
fied!— then, le t’s trum pet it loudly
enough for all to hear.
L et’s spread the w ord beyond the
n a couple o f years the m an com
ju n io r executive and m iddle-level
p le tely in c h a rg e o f o n e o f
manager ranks o f corporate America.
A m erica’s largest com panies—
w hose m ajor product is an Am erican L et’s spread it beyond the business
schools and law schools and colle­
icon— will be an A frican American.
giate campuses.
That was the w ord delivered in
L et’s spread it even beyond the
late April from the M anhattan head­
high
schools. L et’s get it dow n to the
quarters o f The A m erican Express
ju
n
io
r high schools and elem entary
C om pany. The international credit-
schools,
to the basketball courts and
and charge-card giant, a m ost presti­
football and soccer and baseball
gious m em ber o f the Fortune 500.
fields; to the churches and com m u­
announced that K enneth I. Chenault,
nity organizations; to the street cor­
currently its president and ch ief op­
ners (and yes, to the juvenile deten­
erating officer, w ill becom e chief
tion centers and prisons) and all the
executive in 2001.
other places young people gather.
W hen it occurs, K en C henault’s
L e t’s b e su re to tell th em ab o u t
prom otion will m ake him a m ember
the
K en C henaults and the Franklin
o f two very select groups.
R
ain
es, ab o u t som eone like A nn
O n e is c h ie f ex e cu tiv es o f F o r­
F u d g e, w h o ’s p resid e n t o f M ax ­
tu n e 500 co m p an ies. T he second
w ell H o u se C o ffee , and E m m a
is far m o re ex c lu siv e: A frican -
C h a p p e l l , th e p r e s i d e n t a n d
A m eric an C E O s o f F o rtu n e 500
fo u n d er o f P h ila d e lp h ia ’s U n ited
com panies. C u rren tly , th e re ’s only
B ank o f P h ilad e lp h ia , an d R oy
one: F ra n k lin D. R ain es, head o f
R o b erts, head o f G en eral M otors
th e m o rtg a g e -fin a n c in g co n cern
N o rth A m eric an sales, se rv ice and
F an n ie M ae.
m a rk e tin g div isio n .
T hat Ken Chenault, w ho over the
A nd let’s tell them about Earvin
past tw o decades has built a reputa­
“
M
agic” Johnson, too. N ot Magic
tion as an astute business leader, fully
Johnson
the basketball superstar, but
earned this future prom otion goes
Magic Johnson, the businessman who
w ith o ut saying. O r, it w ould if
is building a high-pow ered portfolio
C henault w ere not black.
o f business enterprises.
But, if we still have to answ er the
L et’s m ake sure they understand
“im plicit question” that always at­
w hat M agic said o f h im self in the
tends black success outside the sports
Bi H ugh B. P rice
N ational u r b a n lea g u e
I
story o f his business holdings in the
current Black Enterprise m agazine.
“Everyone looks at m e and still
sees basketball,” he said. "B ut I run all
my companies. People who d o n ’t
know me may not believe that. But if
they com e in here and want to do some
business, they’ll find out fast enough.”
T h at’s not cockiness. T h at’s the
confidence o f someone who has com ­
m itted him self to paying the dues
necessary to be successful.
O ne can say that th ese A frican
A m erican s, w hether clim b in g the
lad d er w ithin estab lish ed co rp o ra­
tio n s o r strik in g out to b u ild th eir
o w n co m p an ies, are a w hole new
categ o ry o f heroes we need to m ake
sure b eco m e as w ell-know n and as
em u lated w ithin B lack A m erica as
sp o rts superstars.
But, o f course, these achievers
aren ’t really a “new ” group am ong
black Am ericans.
In fact, entrepreneurship has a sto­
ried history am ong Americans o f Af­
rican descent, whether one is speak­
ing o f a particular individual, like
M adame C. J. Walker, who in the early
1900s built a beauty products empire
that stretched across most o f the United
States and into South America, or
com m unities, such as the Greenwood
district o f Tulsa, Oklahom a, called
the Black Wall Street.
In the m id-1980s, Dr. C lifton R.
W harton Jr. becam e the first African
A m erican to head a Fortune 500 corn-
pany w hen he becam e CE O o f the
m assive teachers pension fund called
TIAA-CREF.
Thus, w hat’s “ new” about all this
is not only the visibility given to these
achievements by African Americans,
but the size o f the cohort that is clim b­
ing the ranks behind them.
T h a t’s w hat R ichard P arspns,
president o f the m edia conglom erate
T im e W arner, who is also black,
m eant w hen he said, “O f course,
(Chenault’s promotion) is significant,
but these seeds w ere sow n back in
the 6 0 ’s when Jim Crow laws were
dism antled. Some o f those flowers
are starting to bloom now.
W e need to em phasize both the
storied past and the exciting present
even more now if Black Am erica is to
be able to stand on its own in a new
century in w hich economic strength
prom ises to be o f primary importance
for individuals as well as nations.
A nd we need to em phasize it to
our youth so they understand that the
qualities for success in business—
confidence in o n e’s self, the disci­
pline to learn, and a faith in the fu­
ture— are really the same as the quali­
ties for success in their schoolw ork
and in life itself.
I f w e succeed in getting that m es­
sage across, then there’s no doubt
w e ’ll soon be producing thousands
m ore o f w hom w e can say, Y es, they
are very qualified! For w hatever en­
deavor they pursue.
real persons. So their violence, in­
cluding suicide, was all for naught as
far as their real selves w ere con­
cerned. W hat a w aste all around! If
w e who rem ain alive can see the true
human nature more clearly, then we
w ill be able to grow a little w iser
through their horrible error.
N ext, w hat could w e see if we
saw our real hum an nature more
clearly? "W e are only h um an” is a
p hrase found in one form or another
in m ost cultures o f the w orld, im ply­
ing there is som ething w rong or
im perfect w ith being hum an. Im ­
plied also is that there is som ething
good and even perfect out there
som ew here. The “out there” is called
by various nam es including God,
C o n tin u e d o n A7
To The Editor
A group of us has listened to many
hours o f news reporting, analysts, inter­
views and talk show host discussions. It
seems good progress has been made as
to “How” but minimal progress as to
“Why” the massacre in the Littleton,
Colorado High School happened.
A ccess to guns, lack o f peer, pa­
rental or authority response to early
warning signals, m ovie andT .V . vio­
lence, the internet, taunts, bullying, 1
etc., etc. - all have som e validity but
it seem s to us, they are prim arily
m anifest sym ptom s o f a pervasive
and m uch deeper cause w hich under­
lies all violence. It can be helpful to
treat sym ptom s but the deeper cause
m ust also be found if we hope to stop
the cycles o f violence.
O ne com m entator, whose nam e
w e did not catch, pointed in the right
direction when he suggested that
young (or old) people w ho lash out
w ith such inhum an butchery haven ’ t
a clue as to their ow n “Core Person­
ality.” A nother w ay o fsay in g it: they
are totally unaw are o f their “True
N ature.” Such persons only sense or
feel an internal conflict o f discom ­
fort and dis-ease.
W hen any o f us, o f any age, have
little or no aw areness o f our true
nature, in frustration we tend to in­
vent one. The young turn to the rebel­
lious “pop” culture for a model, for it
is so available. The older o f us turn to
the traditional, habitual power cul­
tures o f wealth, fame, possessions,
politics, celebrity status, etc., in an
attempt to b e“somebody .” Even driv­
ing down the street in a Lexus feeds
our hollow hubris. If this frustration,
fed by pretense, is left unrelieved by
truth, it intensifies into anger, rage,
and hate for all, including self. In
Eric Harris and D ylan Klebold the
rage took the path o f killing as m any
as possible, including self, for “ev ­
erybody is a nothing” in their make-
believe family.
This sense o f “nothingness" is a
bad habit that has been around for
thousands o f years. The physically
w eak and defeated people in all o f
history w ere often enslaved and per­
ceived as o f no value in themselves
except as a possession o f their “m as­
ters.” C hildren b om o f impersonal or
recreational sex are mostly unwanted.
The consequence is that children very
quickly translate this unw antedness
into a fear that they are o f no value -
a terrible conflict w ith the unknown
truth that is w ithin them. T oday’s
m ovie and T. V . star, sports celebrity,
political elite and the like, all realize,
at least subconsciously, that the im ­
age created in the m inds o f the often
hysterical and “adoring" public is
not real. The drug, alcohol and even
suicide problem in so m any o f these
people is clear evidence o f the inter­
nal pressure betw een the real and
m ake-believe. They, and we all, want
some real attention to reassure us o f
our value and to relieve our fears o f
“nothingness” or worse.
The angry young people in Colo­
rado knew that they could get the
attention o f the w hole world but they
did not look beyond that, to see that
the attention would be focused on the
cruelty o f their act, and not on their
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