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Education week aids basic rights A
by
R eg W eaver
►
or T he P ortland O bserver
Wife
^ jn rtlan h
(Chserricr
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P
u b l is h e r
Charles Washington
E
d it o r
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
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E
opy
d it o r
Joy Ramos
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u s in e s s
M
anager
Gary Ann Taylor
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r e a t iv e
D
ir e c t o r
Shawn Strahan
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America Education Week will be
observed November 14-20 in cities
and towns across the country.
The week offers us all a good
opportunity to consider just how our
neighborhood schools are doing, and
provides the chance and challenge to
get personally involved in making a
difference for our school children.
Over the past several months, I have
had the privilege o f speaking before
gathering o f local chapters of the
NAACP. It’s heartening to share
concerns with these committed sister
and brothers, because through all the
struggles o f the last 50 years, the
labor and civil rights movement have
stood arm and Arm, braided together
in a conspiracy o f conscience and
bound by the ideal that quality public
education is a right o f all children not
for just a privileged few. Nothing is
more critical to the strong foundation
o fa child’s life than a solid education.
Public education is society’s great
equalizer. It is the engine that moves
the poor into the middle class, that
equips every child- regardless o f
color- the wherewithal to succeed.
Public education is about upward
mobility and economic opportunity.
Today, few would argue that all
children in this great country are
getting the good education they
deserve.
The sorry facts is that not all o f our
schools, and to many in the inner
cities, are serving our children well.
Too many are just not good enough.
The civil struggle brought us crucial
victories. But these hard-fought
Right means precious little to a child
who has been denied a decent
education. The right to quality public
education is abasic right- an enabling
rights and key to all others. So how do
we ensure every student is well
served by our public schools? We
are faced with a choice- a choice
between ’’throwing the baby out with
the bathwater,” essentially giving up
on our schools and turning to
vouchers as some sort o f salvation,
or joining together to make the school
work for all children. When only two
institutions remain today to anchor
inner-communities- the churches and
the public schools- 1 would argue
that we cannot afford to abandon
those schools. As the father o f two
sons, 1 understand that parents are
tire d o f sch o o ls that are
underperforming. We all want the
best for our children. But for public
schools vouchers are not the cure;
they would be one more cancer.
V ouchers are a fundam entally
d ish o n e st schem e. V o u ch er
advocates promise us that the free
market will fill our neighborhoods
with quality private schools. But
where is the evidence that the free
market values our neighborhoods?
Where in the inner city do you find
Wal-Mart or Macy;s or Home Depot?
In fact, poor folk are already given
one form o f vouchers. They’recalled
food stamps. Have these food stamps
vo u ch ers
b ro u g h t
q u a lity
supermarket chains into innercities?
No. Instead, w hat we see is a
proliferation o f run-down com er
stores, selling mostly malt liquor and
lottery ticket, the food in these stores
cost more- and it is lower quality.
Advocates tell us that vouchers will
give “choice” to inner-city parents.
In reality, however, parent have no
choice when the private school
admissions committee says, “sorry,
your child would not be appropriate
for our school. ‘Nor do parents have
a choice when private and religious
schools already have a long waiting
list, or when there is no transportation
to voucher schools across town or in
the suburbs. W hat’s more, it is a
profoundly terrible choice when
several thousand children are given
vouchers, but tens o f thousand
remain behind- in school that are left
little k n o w n
Veterans ’ Day story
with fewer resources, fewer high-
preform ing students, and few er
involved parents. For those who
would choose abandonment o f our
schools to succeed, however, they
first have to convince the rest o f
America that public education has
failed and that public schools are
beyond repair. The fact is, we have
thousands o f terrific public schools
in the country. By any measure, this
public schools-yes, most ot them in
affluent suburbs- are preforming at
world-class levels. Our challenge is
to create those same kinds o f schools
in every inner city, in every rural
town, and in every neighborhood will
be enabled to achieve at the same
high level as top students in the best
suburbs. Our challenge is to demand
they schools expert the - best and
produce the best- in every one o f our
children. We owe it to our kids to
crate something lasting and enduring
for them- something that will treat
them all equally, with nurturing and
respect. Something that will endow
them with hope, inspiration, guidance,
and the too for a better future. We can
all help make that happen. American
Education Week is a great time to
make a personal commitment to tour
local public school. Be an advocate
for the things we know work- smaller
class sizes, tougher standards for
students’ achievement and student
behavior, and teacher quality. Join
the PYA, volunteer in the classroom
oradministrationoffices. Offertoread
with younger students, or share tour
expertise as a guest speaker. Get to
know your child’s teacher. Just don’t
do an ything. T e a c h e rs ca n n o t
transform urban schools all by
themselves. But with help o f caring,
c o n cern ed m em ber o f every
community, working together, we can
prevail.
We owe it to the children. This
education week, let’s all resolve to
work together to ensure every child’s
civil right to quality education.
by
T he P ortland O bserver
There are many virtually unknown and untold veterans stories. They’re the
stories o f men and women o f color who risked their lives for a county which
discriminated against them, in some cases even unfairly incarcerated them
or dishonored and discharged them. On this Veteran ’ s Day let us remember
one group o f soldiers who served their country honorably but without
thanks.
The Navajo language is unwritten and complex, like many ofthe languages
o f native peoples. During World War II, it became the basis o f a code used
by Navajo soldiers who were recruited to transmit thousands o f radio
messages during the toughest battles in the Pacific. Called the NavajoCode
Talkers, these heroic soldiers never had their code broken by the Japanese
during the war and the code was kept secret until 1968, when it was
declassified.
But the Navajo Code Talkers were so successful not only because of their
ability to send and receive messages without error. They also devised an
even more complex variation on their language which they used for their
code. Thus, fighter planes were called hummingbirds and other planes and
ships were given nature-based code names.
They even transposed and changed letters in their language and created
alternative words in order to transmit names o f places in an extremely
complex code.
The idea for the Navajo Code Talkers came from Philip Johnston, the child
o f missionary parents who lived on the Navajo reservation as a child.
Johnston, who could speak the language himself, overcame the racism and
skepticism ofthe armed forces and persuaded the marines to train Navajo
men.
It was a wise decision. The Navajo Code Talkers, in the first hours o f the
battle at Iwo Jima, sent and received 800 coded messages without error.
Their code is one of the few in military history which was never cracked.
But while their service probably saved thousands o f lives and was part of
the reason for the U.S. armed forces’ success in the Pacific, the Navajo men
were themselves victims o f racism. More than once white soldiers, for
example, looked at their physical characteristics and thought they must be
Japanese.
Moreover, the Navajos are not the only native American people who acted
as Code Talkers for the armed forces - both Comanches and Cheyennes did
as well. Their stories, however, just have not receive the public attention.
And the irony is that these men who used their native language to help
protect a nation that often has not protected them, now see those languages
in danger o f extinction as fewer and fewer young people are fluent in them.
A recent book and History Channel program on the Navajo Code Talkers
have brought public attention to these brave men and their story. There are
even filmmakers interested in their story, but even a half a century later they
find themselves still fighting racism. One director, for instance, wants to tell
their story through the eyes o f the white bodyguards who were assigned
to protect the Code Talkers from the Japanese.
Even now, it seems, we are reluctant to let native people tell their own stories.
Even now we don’t know how to honor those who served this nation
admirably - the same nation that took their land and almost destroyed their
people and their way o f life.
Thank you, Navajo Code Talkers, Comanche Code Talkers and Cheyenne
Code Talkers for all that you have done and for all that you are. May you
have the opportunity to tell your own stories and may we listen. May you
always be remembered with gratitude and with respect.
Letter to the editor
youngest generation o f veterans, the
Bosnia, Iraq, at-sea and in distant
Veterans Day Reflects Common
men
and
women
o
f
the
Persian
G
ulf
remote
locations, it is appropriate for
Bond of Service
W
ar
These
are
A
m
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who
all
o
f
us
a nation to take the time to say
What is it about America’s veterans
continue to serve us in uniform These
‘thank you’.
that brings us together on Veterans
are Americans who will gather on
As veterans we have kept our bond
Day? Are we living in the past-
many more Veterans Days because
of service to our nation .For America’s
attem pting to capture a fleeting
they also feel that common bond. As
veterans are a special group o f men
moment in time that has long since
young American military members
and women bonded though service,
past? Certainly not! What brings
spend this day deployed to Kosovo,
committed to the future.
veterans together for Veterans Day is
a
bond
form ed in
uniform. It is
the bond that
is entwined
w ith in our
h earts and
minds, which
is
sim ply
stated: I shall
not fail those
with whom I
serve. It has
been m ore
than a quarter
century since
the guns fell
sile n t
in
V ie tn a m .
Longer still
fo r K orea-
and nearly a
lifetim e for
In Y o u r O re g o n ia n F O O D d a y
WorldWarll.
Y et,
that
in th e P o rtla n d M e tro Area
bond
of
m ilita ry
...a n d save m o re by s h o p p in g
s e rv ic e -
a t Safeway.
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