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July 21,1999
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Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views Of
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(The P o rtlan d OPbscruer
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An Open Letter To White Parents
~
B\ B e r n ic e Pou ell J ackson
D ear E uropean A merican P arents
and
^lortlanh (lObseruer
(USPS 959-680) Established in 1970
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T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
Letter to the Editor
Throughout this legislative ses
sion, I have listened closley to the
debate on education funding. I
have also heard the legislative
leadership say there is not enough
money to fund education at the
$4.95 billion level. Three months
ago, I brought forw ard a plan to
use part o f Oregon ’ s tobacco settle
ment m oney for education and
healthcare needs. This m oney
would have brought the education
budget up to an adequate level.
However, that plan has been re
jected, w hile at the same time the
legislature is underfunding the K-
12 education budget. As an A fri
can-A m erican who grew up in the
south, I know firsthand that edu
cation is the greatest gift that we
can give to our children.
I an angered that there are schools
out there in dire need o f new in-
structional materials deferred main
tenance and capital improvements.
In many schools, children are forced
to share tom, outdated textbooks,
many with missing pages and cov
ers, and it is not uncommon to find
children in classrooms with leaky
roofs. This substandard learning
environment is unacceptable. All
Oregonians, and I would think cer
tainly all legislators, should be bend
ing over backwards to provide our
children with the best education
possible. If that means $4.95 billion
then that is what we should pay.
After all, a quality education system
not only benefits our children, it
benefits all o f us.
It the legislators adjourn without
giving our children the money they
need to receive a quality education,
then they simply haven’t done the
job they were elected to do.
Please Advertise In the El
Observador De Portland
(503) 288-0033
or Visit us On The Web at
http://\v\v\v.portfand
observernet
e-mail
PDXOBSERV@aol. com
F riends :
I’ve occasionally written letters to
my own people, but this time I feel the
need to speak to you. I write because
1 know no other way than to warn you;
I write because the mainstream media
are not informing you; I write because
we are bound together in this nation
and what happens to you and your
families impacts us all.
I write because 1 am fearful that we
are losing young European American
males to hate. We are losing your
sons, your nephews, your neighbors
to hate groups, to white supremacist
groups, to so-called Christian identity
groups, to militia groups. W e’re los
ing the sons of doctors, of soldiers, of
teachers to the hate. W e’re losing
college students and bright high school
students to hate. Yet everyone seems
to be talking around it.
I first heard a warning back in
1996, when Rose Johnson, the attor
D ea d lin e f o r a ll su b m itte d m aterials:
A rticles .F riday, 5 :00 p m A ds: M onday, 12:00pm
S ubscribe
* ?
~ ~
ney from the Center for Democratic
Renewal who was doing the investi
gations into the arson o f African
American churches, warned that
white supremacist groups were court
ing young white males and that it
looked as if some o f the church
burnings were initiation rites for some
o f these groups. In the three years
since then Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold shot and killed 13 o f their
classmates at Columbine HighSchool
(including an African American who
was especially targeted) on Adolph
Hitler’s birthday; the brothers Ben
jam in and Jam es W illiam s o f
Redding, CA have been arrested in
the murders of a gay couple and are
being investigated in the arson fires
o f three synagogues in Sacramento;
Benjamin Nathaniel Smith murdered
two people, one African American,
one Asian American and shot a num
ber of others including orthodox
Jews, African Americans and Asian
Americans and dozens o f African
American churches have burned.
7 . U brothers
r - , a n and
d ^mith
Both the , M
W llliams
Smith
seem to be associated with the World
Church o f the Creator, and extremist
religious group which predicts a ra
cial holy war and which recruits on
the internet and on college campuses.
Its web-site has a coloring book for
children and a crossword puzzle with
racist clues for adults.
These hate groups want your chil
dren, especially your sons. The feet
that you are a professional, the feet
that you live in a middle-class suburb,
the fact that you have never used
racist epithets, the fact that your son is
in college or seems to be only inter
ested in computers is no protection.
These hate groups want your sons
and they will do whatever they have
to, to get them. They prey upon those
who are a little lonely, for those who
are isolated or have recently been
rejected or those looked down upon
by their peers. They come into your
home via your computer or the tele
phone, they seek out your children
on their college campuses and you
may never even
even know about it. They
mav
tell your children half-truths and out
right lies, they scapegoat people o f
color, Jewish people and gay and
lesbian people, They find ways to
give self-esteem to those who are lost
and attention to those who are lonely.
They ’ re using sophisticated language
and the wonders o f technology to
steal your sons, but they are just as
destructive and hate-filled as the Neo-
Nazis and the KKK o f the past.
Only you can stop this insidious,
secret stealing away o f your sons.
Only you can talk with your sons
about what is going on in their lives.
Only you can help them understand
what is going on in the world is not the
fault of blacks or Jews or gays or
Asians. Only you can help them to
cope with the storms of life as a teen
ager. Only you can conquer their fear
with unconditional love. Only you
can reclaim your sons. It’s not too
late, but only if you begin right now,
today. May God give you strength
and courage and wisdom to do so.
w
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Again, A Promising Kennedy Ufe is Cut Short
By
A R T H L R S p IEG ELM AN
NEW YORK, July 19 (Reuters)
- Once again, a K ennedy has been
struck dow n in the prim e o f life
before achieving what he might
have.
One sad undercurrent sw eep
ing through the national mourning
for John F. Kennedy, Jr. on M on
day was the thought that here was
a young man who was going to
make a contribution to American
life on a grand scale but never got
the chance.
“ This was a career cut short not
even at the m idway point,” said
K ennedy fam ily expert G erald
Posner as divers searched the w a
ters o ff M assachusetts for the air
craft that crashed Friday night car
rying Kennedy, his wife and sis
ter-in-law .
“John F. Kennedy Jr. would
have had the ability to run (for
office),” said Posner. “We will
never know if he would have had
the fire in the belly but the Dem o
cratic party would have embraced
him w ith open arms. W hatever he
w anted was there for the asking.”
K ennedy’s father had 1,000
days in the White House and, when
he was m urdered in 1963, many
Americans thought not o f what he
had accom plished but o f what he
might have done had he lived: the
alw ays u n fu lfille d prom ise o f
Camelot.
In three years in office, some
historians argue that President
John F. Kennedy had m iscalcu
lated by provoking a nuclear con
frontation with the Soviet Union
and dispatched Am erican troops
to Vietnam to fight in a war in a
far-away land that few Americans
knew anything about.
But after his death, there were
many who argued he would have
cut the Vietnam W ar short, avoid
ing the traumatic fall o f Saigon,
untold casualties and the student
p ro tests th at le ft an in d e lib le
polarising mark on A m erican life.
Then there was the president’s
brother, Robert Kennedy, assassi
nated in 1968 as he cam paigned
for the D em ocratic presidential
nomination.
Had he lived, most historians
agree, A merican politics o f the
next 30 years would have been
ra d ic a lly d iffe re n t: m aybe no
W atergate, maybe no Reagan revo
lution, no politics o f greed and
maybe no erosion o f confidence in
government.
And now John F. Kennedy, Jr.
is gone — at age 38 in a plane
crash. Friends and associates said
he died at a point when he was
about to make a m ajor life change,
including possibly entering the
fam ily business o f politics.
N ew sw eek M agazine quoted
one Kennedy confidant as saying
he was seriously thinking o f enter
ing politics and had even consid
ered running for the Senate seat
being vacated by New York Demo
crat Daniel Patrick M oynihan be
fore H illary Clinton declared an
interest.
I think that was obviously a
possibility. O bviously ‘G eorge’
(the political magazine Kennedy
founded and edited) was in trouble
and was a candidate to be folded
and I think it would have been a
difficult time in his life,” said
Laurence Laemer, author o f the
bestseller “The Kennedy W omen.”
“He was interested in the mesh
betw een politics and popular cul
ture and celebrity. It would not
have been a very big jum p to poli
tics,” Laemer added.
Historian Arthur Schlesinger,
Jr., a close friend o f the Kennedy
family, agreed. W riting for Time
Magazine, he said young Kennedy
“ seemed to be edging into politics.
... He was a cautious man, methodi
cally feeling his way, but I think he
sensed an evident opportunity and
acknowledged a dynastic responsi-
bility. He was destined, I came to
feel, for political leadership.”
Posner, the bestselling author
o f “Case C losed,” a m ajor book on
the JFK assassination, said that
the young K ennedy had left the
same questions behind as his fa
ther and uncle.
“The frustration here is going
to be that lingering question o f
what might have been. W hat would
Jack Kennedy have done if he had
eight years in the W hite House?
W hat would Bobby Kennedy have
done had he been able to pick up
the standard?” he said.
The New York Tim es, in an
editorial, said, “It would have been
interesting to see if Jack Kennedy’s
son w ould have developed his
father’s gifts for hard politics and
inspirational leadership."
K ennedy’s hom etow n paper
praised him for living his life the
way he did — “keeping his dignity
and sense o f hum our about the
mixed blessings o f inescapable
fame.”
He did it even when the New
York Post headlined “The H unk
Flunks” when he failed the bar
exam ination for a second time
years ago.
That failure led to a touching
tribute note left at his New York
apartm ent saying: “Thanks for the
inspiration from someone who also
passed the bar exam ination on the
third try.”
As was sa id o f JohnF. Kennedy
Jr’s father: “Johnnie, W e H ardly
Knew Y e.”
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