Page A4
February 16, 2000
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Articles do not
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Letters to the Editor
Cl|e
Jdortlanh
(Dhserricr
USPS 959-680
Established 1970
STAFF
E d it o r
C h ie f ,
in
P u b l is h e r
Charles H. Washington
E d
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Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
B
u s in e s s
M
anager
Gary Ann Taylor
C
opy
E
Dear Editor,
T his letter is concerning Jefferson
High School. The “unacceptable”
report card . T h is is O reg on
Department o f Education report on
the lack o f achievement for students
who attend Jefferson. I agree that the
la c k
of
a c h ie v e m e n t
is
“unacceptable”. The question I am
asking is what are the Governor, and
previous Governors, and the State of
Oregon doing, for their lack o f
leadership for so long to allow this
situation to manifest to this point of
deprivation. I would also like to ask
the M ayor o f Portland previous and
present, theCityCouncil, Multnomah
c h a irp e rso n , p re v io u s su p e r­
intendent o f the school. School
Board, as well as the Legislature, and
the C ity o f Portland. Everytim e the
budget was cut for schools, Jefferson
and schools in the A lbina area always
took the budget cuts in finance,
program cuts, and staff cuts. Once
the foundation o f a b u ild in g is
destroyed for so long as far as neglect
it is bound to crumble. Once children
have been m ise d u ca ted from
Kindergarten through eighth grade.
It isn’t fair to make Jefferson the
scapegoat for all o f your failures.
Every time something comes up they
blame the students, parents and
teachers. They always try to indicate
that the community and people do
not care. That’s untrue. In 1977 when
the school board had proposed what
was known as the Newman plan. This
plan would have deported all o f our
eighth graders going to Jefferson,
which was their high school, to send
them to schools in northiZ'st Portland.
1 was angry about unjust proposal. I
took on the School Board and the
Superintendent at a school board
meeting. Through my effort, the
Coalition for school integration was
formed. It consisted ofpeople from all
over the Portland metro area, al 1 races;
The Black United Front was also
organized with me being one of the
organizers, along with Ron Herndon,
pastor John Jackson, HerbCawthrone
and others.
It took five years to fight to keep
Jefferson in the neighborhood, get
Tubman middle school, and return all
o f our schools to K -f i ve. T his al lowed
students who didn ’t want to be bussed
to other schools to remain in their
own neighborhood.
W e all had death threats. 1 had earned
from Portland State University a
B a ch e lo r o f S cien ce Degree in
elementary education. I was told many
times I would never get a teaching job
in Portland Public School. T his did
not bother me. T h is is h alf o f my
report card. I have worked in this
neighborhood for over thirty years
for free. I do care; greater love has no
man that they would give up their
livelihood for the sake o f others.
O ver the last thirty years Portland
has received millions & m illions o f
dollars to educate the so-called
disadvantaged student. Ifthese funds
that had been ajZPH>pria.ts;d for
education, had been used properly,
most students should be Rhodes
Scholars.
Sincerely,
Vesia Loving
Dear Editor,
__ ______
I am deeply concerned by the health
o f our Willamette River, and state’s
apparent inability toeffectively bring
it back to life. The Willamette River
V a lle y is home to 7 0 % o f Oregon’s
population, flow ing through the
center o f our lifeline. It is a source o f
drinking water for many communities
in Oregon and California, it provides
o p p o rtu n itie s for fis h in g and
recreation, and is the natural habitat
for many plants and wildl i fe. How can
we allow m illions o f pounds o f toxic
chemicals such as dioxin, mercury,
lead and arsenic to poison its banks
and waters every year?
The US Environmental Protection
Agency has reported a 26-mile stretch
o f the W illam ette just north o f
Portland, toxic enough to qualify as a
Federal Superfund Site. Despite this
Disturbing fact, not one o f the 55
industries along the river has agreed
to help pay for its clean up. When w ill
these industries stop their flagrant
disregard for our environment and
take responsibility fortheir presence
in our communities?
I call upon Langdon Marsh, the
directorof the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, to complete a
strong proposal o f action by their
scheduled deadline o f March 3 1.
They must thoroughly clean up the
W i 1 lamette immediately and hold the
offending polluters accountable for
the b ill. I a lso in sis t that we
im m ediately hold to vig o ro u sly
fo llo w in g G overnor K itzh a b e r’s
executive order to phase out all
releases o f biocumulative toxins by
2020.
We all deserve a healthy W illamette
and a stable environm ent. W e
deserve it now.
Sincerely,
RyanMurtfeldt
Dear Editor,
When T im Bem ers-Lee (inventor o f
hypertext and the W orldwide Web)
First envisioned the Worldwide Web
in 1989, his hope was to develop a
m eans fo r people to access
docum ents
and
c o lla b o ra te
worldwide. He did not envision the
web as medium unto itself.
It is human nature to not consider the
forward evolutionary affect that
re su lts from p o w erfu l new
technology. But, as powerful new
tech n o lo g y sweeps the planet,
everything in its path is forced to
evolve. New society evolves from
new technology as surely as new
gizmos and gadgets do.
Converging media w ill evolve into a
w hole new creature, not ju st a
combination o f old and new. Next
generation media w ill spawn from the
c o n v e rg e n c e
to
to d a y ’ s
sophisticated video games and live
news shows; soap operas and chat
rooms; e-mail and free perfume sample.
The buzz w ill be all about relational
m e d ia ;
datab ase
d e sig n e d
infotainment and edutainment with
test, college credits, cash prizes and
rewards. M ostly through, news,
information and entertainment w ill be
extensible.
Extensibility is perhaps the least
recognized new media trends. In short,
extensible media is digitally formatted
media that contains actionable source
data. Stock market commentaries,
weather forecasts, and traffic reports
(and everything else) w ill contains
elements that can be viewed by
h um ans and in terrupted by
appliances and software agents that
directly respond and execute one or
more actions or tasks. The potential
is lim itless; the ram ification are
staggering. To envision the potential,
consider this; the current market price
o f a basic home computer system
with a 500M Hz processor, 64 Megs of
R A M , 13 gigabyte hard drive and
monitor is about $ 1,000. Ifw e assume
that the average computer becomes
5 0 % more powerful each year, then,
at the beginning o f 2005 a $ 1,000
computer system w ill featurea3,8OO
M H z processor.
d it o r
Joy Ramos
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ir e c t o r
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