M a rc h 1, 2000
Page A 4
(Dheeruer
mion
Articles do not
necessarily reflect or
represent the views of
(Che ^Iortlanb (Obaeruer
The paradox of our time
Halting the machinery of death
m G eo rg e C a h ii s
F o rtian i»
(©bserüer
USPS 959-680
Established 1970
STAFF
E
d it o r
P
C
in
h ie f
,
u b l is h e r
C harles H. W ashington
E d i T o R
The paradox o f our tim e in history is that w e have taller buildings, but
shorter tempers; w ider freew ays, but narrow er view points. W e spend
more, but have less; w e buy m ore, but enjoy it less. W e have bigger houses
and smaller fam ilies; m ore conveniences, but less tim e; w e have m ore
degrees, but less sense; m ore know ledge, but less judgm ent; m ore experts,
but more problem s; m ore m edicine, but less w ellness.
W e drink too m uch, sm oke too much, spend to recklessly, laugh too little,
drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired,
read too seldom , w atch TV too m uch, and pray too seldom. W e have
m ultiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
W e talk too m uch, love to seldom , and hate too often. W e’ve learned how
to m ake a living, but not a life; w e ’ve added years to life, not life to years.
W e’ve been all the w ay to the m oon and back, but have trouble crossing
the street to m eet the new neighbor. W e’ve conquered outer space, but
not inner space. W e ’ve done larger things, but not better things.
W e’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. W e’ve split the atom, but
not our prejudice. W e w rite m ore, but learn less. W e plan m ore, but
accom plish less. W e’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. W e build m ore
com puters to hold m ore inform ation to produce m ore copies than ever, but
have less com m unication.
T hese are the tim es o f fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short
character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the tim es o f
w orld peace, but dom estic w arfare; m ore leisure, but less fun; m ore kinds
o f food, b ut less nutrition.
T hese are days o f tw o incom es, but m ore divorce; o f fancier houses, but
broken homes. These are days o f quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway
m orality, one-night stands, overw eight bodies, and pills that do everything
from cheer to quiet, to kill. It is a tim e when there is much in the show w indow
and nothing in the stockroom .
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
I only d id m y d u ty
B
u s in e s s
M
anager
Gary Ann Taylor
refusing to fall. As he em erged from
the ditch, Sergeant Carney took yet
anotherbullet in the leg. Still mustering
extraordinary strength and courage,
he staggered on, clutching the flag to
his chest.
T h en a b u llet creased his head,
m om entarily stunning him. A N ew
Y ork soldier offered to take the flag,
but Carney w aved him o f f ” No one,”
he said,” no one but a m em ber o f the
54th will ever carry these color.
W hen Carney finally dragged him
self into the Union c a m p - the flag still
in tact - his com rades cheered, but
C arney him self w as em barrassed.
“ Boys,” he said, 1 only did my duty
O ur flag never touched the ground.”
F or heroism under fire, W illiam s
C a rn e y w as o n e o f 23 A fric an
Am erican soldiers awarded the Medal
o f H onor. But it’s significant that our
n atio n ’s highest honor w as aw arded
for protecting the United States Flag
- som ething the Suprem e Court says
w e can no longer do.
Like Sergeant William Carney, w e too
h a v e a m is sio n to p ro te c t o u r
co u n try ’s flag. U nlike C arney, our
battlefield is the United States Senate,
and our m ission is to pass S.J.R. 14,
th e Flag P rotection A m endm ent,
w hich w o u ld retu rn to “ W e the
people” the pow er to protect our flag
from acts o f physical desecration.
T he passage o f the Flag Protection
A ct on M arch 28th w ould be a fitting
tribute to W illiam C arney and the
m illions o f other A m ericans w ho
fought and died protecting Old Glory.
B i P a i rk k H . B a w l
C
E
opy
d it o r
Joy Ramos
C
r e a t iv e
D
ir e c t o r
Shawn Strahan
4747 NE Martin Luther King,
Jr. Blvd.
Portland, OR 97211
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Monday by 5 p . m .
W hen the call w ent out for Black
soldiers to fight forthe union, W illiam
Carney, a 23-year-old ex-slave put his
preaching plans on hold and becam e
a soldier. “ I felt I could best serve my
G od,” Carney said, “by serving my
country.”
W illiam C a m ey ’s unit was the 54th
M assachusetts Colored infantry. He
saw his first action on July 18,1863,
at Fort W agner, South C arolina - a
battle recently depicted in the m ovie
“Glory”
Early in the assault on the Confederate
stronghold, a bullet struck the 5 4 th ’s
color bearer. A s the w ounded soldier
staggered and fell, Sergeant Carney
d r o p p e d h is o w n w e a p o n an d
grabbed the flag before it touched the
ground.
A rebel bullet tore through C a m e y ’s
right leg, but he charged onw ard,
unarm ed, w ith his co u n try ’s colors
hoisted high.
Finally, C arney planted th eU .S . Flag
in the shadow o f fort, as his com rades
rushed the stronghold. But the tide o f
B attle turned. A half-hour later, the
54th w as forced to w ithdraw w ith
heavy losses, the rebel in hot pursuit.
Yet, before Carney retreated - at great
personal risk to his ow n safety - he
retrieved his flag. As he lim ped and
struggled across a m arsh in w aist-
high w ater, a bullet tore into his chest
and another one ripped through his
right arm.
B lee d in g b ad ly , h e p re sse d on,
Let us put your
» *
business in
ADS:
Friday by noon
black and
The c ru d e st exam ple o f human rights violations in the
United States today is the death penalty. Everyone
know s that the death penalty is not now, nor has it ever
been, a deterrent o f violent crim e. Social scientists for
decades have long established that the death penalty is
inherently racist. A frican-A m erican defendants found
guilty o f the identical crim e as a w hite defendants are
statistically at least four tim es m ore likely to be given the
death penalty. Black people currently com prise m ore
than 40 percent o f death row inmates. Regional differences
make it 160 tim es m ore likely that a person convicted o f
a capital offense in the South will be executed than one
in the N ortheast. And o f course, the capital ju stice
system can never guarantee that innocent people w o n ’t
be executed by the state. For these and other reasons, the
U.S. Suprem e Court, in the 1972 case o f F urm an v.
G eorgia, outlaw ed capital punishm ent.
Since the death penalty w as reinstated in 1976, there
h ad b een m o u n tin g le g a l e v id e n c e th a t c a p ita l
punishm ent cannot be im plem ented in a fair and impartial
manner. The state o f Illinois, for exam ple, currently has
161 people on death row. Since 1977,12 people in Illinois
have been executed, but 13 on death row w ere proven to
have been w rongly co n victed. Several death row
prisoners in Illinois w ere innocent and that others had
actually com m itted the crim es.
The Chicago Tribune recently exam ined the alm ost 300
cases in Illinois during the past 23 years, in w hich the
death penalty w as rendered. About one h a lf o f the 260
cases that w ere appealed w ere ultim ately reversed in
favor o f new trials o r sentencing hearings. In at least
thirty cases, the C hicago Tribune u n covered that
defendants in capital cases had been represented by
attorneys w ho w ere disbarred or suspended from legal
practice.
This overw helm ing evidence that innocent people w ere
being executed in the state prom pted Illinois G overnor
G eorge Ryan, a Republican, to order a halt on the use o f
the death penalty. Ryan is a long-tim e supporter o f
capital punishm ent. But as he explained to the press, “I
now favor a m oratorium , because I have grave concerns
about our state’s sham eful record o f convicting innocent
people and putting them on death row .”
T he opposite extrem e on the political spectrum from
Ryan is represented by another Republican, Texas
G o v e rn o r G e o rg e W. B u sh . A s e lf-p ro c la im e d
“com passionate conservative, “ Bush has been dow nright
vicious in his im plem entation o f capital punishm ent. In six
short years. Bush has presided over the execution o f m ore
than one hundred people-and according to him, every single
one o f them was guilty.
A recent N ew York Tim es article by Stephen B. Bright, the
director o f the Southern C enter for H um an Rights in Atlanta,
illustrates how the T exas “assem bly-line process” for
dispatching people to the “execution cham ber” works.
T exas has no public defender system , and attorneys w ho
have 1 ittle or no experience in the defense o f capital cases are
assigned. T hey are often unable to retain independent
investigators to review the evidence necessary to provide
p ro o f o f a d efen d an t’s innocence. Bright notes, “T he Texas
courts do not even require that defense counsels rem ain
aw ake during trials.” In several capital cases, defense
attorneys actually fell asleep, and the defendants were
sentenced to death. O ne o f those convicted, Carl Johnson,
w as executed in 1995.
T he struggle to halt the execution o f A m erica’s m ost
prom inent political prisoner, A frican-A m erican journalist
M um ia A bu-Jam al, has helped to spark a grassroots
m ovem ent to end capital punishm ent. L egislatures in 16 o f
the 38 states w ith death penalty laws have or are review ing
m oratorium s on executions. Eight cities have called for a halt
to capital punishm ent, o f w hich the m ost significant is
Philadelphia. Last m onth, in a 12 to 4 vote, P hiladelphia’s
C ity C ouncil approved a resolution dem anding a tw o-year
m oratorium on im plem enting the death penalty, and called
for the creation o f a new state com m ission to study
P ennsylvania’s capital punishm ent.
D em o cratic C ity C o u n cilw o m an D onna M iller, w ho
introduced the resolution, observed that “90 percent o f the
people on P ennsylvania’s death row are people w ho cannot
afford legal counsel, and 90 percent o f those from Philadelphia
are people o f color.”
In C ongress, D em ocratic U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has
called on the Clinton adm inistration to issue a sim ilar
m oratorium on all federal executions. Feingold explained
that “the problem s o f inadequate representation, lack o f
access to D NA testing, police m isconduct, racial bias and
even sim ple errors are not unique to Illinois.
T hese are problem s that have plagued the adm inistration o f
c a p ita l p u n is h m e n t aro u n d th e c o u n try s in c e th e
reinstatem ent o f capital punishment alm ost a quarter century
ago.” Several m onths before F eingold’s public challenge,
Attorney General Janet Reno authorized a review to determine
if racial disparities exist in federal capital punishm ent cases.
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