Page A3
May 30, 2001
Lake Oswego Students Bring Activist Angela Davis to Speak
Black Panthers, to speak at the school.
The student that was most respon
sible for bringing Bobby Seale last year
and Angela Davis this year is Nathan
Baptiste. “M y original motive was to
spread multicultural awareness, be-
By L orrainl -M ichelle F alsi
T he P or i land O bserver
A fter fighting forcivil tights in the
1960s, making the F B I’s m ost wanted
list and serving tim e in federal prison,
A ngela Davis spoke in Lake O sw ego
about racism in the crim inal justice
system .
D avis now w orks as a professor at
the U niversity o f C alifornia at Santa
C ruz and tours the country m aking
speaking engagem ents.
She recently addressed students
at Lake Ridge A uditorium , brought
th e re by th e effo rts o f A nd rew
D uden’s Political A ction Sem inar
class at Lake O sw ego H igh School.
“ W e think Lake O sw ego is kind o f
a close-m inded com m unity and we
w anted to open it up to students,”
said Jocelyn Bray, a L ake O sw ego
H igh School student.
The class gets involved in com m u
nity service events and political fo- .
P hoto by L orraine -M ichelle F alst /T he P ortland O bserver
rums. Last year, they brought Bobby
Angela Davis sparks a discussion on political action in Lake Oswego
Seale, one o f the founders o f the
but they are not hurting other people. ”
Davis spoke o f the violence against
w om en that occurs in prison, the de
nial o f medical treatment o f prisoners,
slave labor and many other abuses
that are overlooked because the of
fenses are perpetrated against prison
ers.
“I find it very interesting that we
d o n ’t seem to be concerned about
what it m eans to treat hum an beings
the way that they are treated when
they’re in prison,” said Davis.
“The assum ption is that all o f the
two million people who are in prison
have com m itted horrendous crimes.
Some o f them have, but others are in
prison because have been caught with
drugs,” she said.
Pointing out the many prescription
drug com m ercials on television, she
went on to say that people have doc
tors and can afford m ood altering
drugs and anti-depressants.
“ People in this country w ho d o n ’t
have doctors, also experience psy
‘ W e think Lake O sw ego
is kind o f a close-m inded
com m unity and w e w anted
to open it up to students,’—
— Jocelyn Bray, Lake Os
wego High School student
cause there is not m uch in the curricu
lum,” Baptiste said.
He read Angela D avis’ autobiogra
phy, wanting his fellow students to be
aware o f who Davis was and about the
problems she continues to fight to rec
tify in the criminal justice system.
“Less than 15 percent o f people in
prison are murders and rapists,’ ’ Baptiste
explained. * ‘The other people are people
with smaller crimes and drug offenses,
chological disorders. Often times they
medicate themselves by going to the
drug connection on the street,” Davis
said. She called prisons "industrial
complexes,” that use cheap labor and
buy vast quantities o f com mercial
goods.
The prison industry perpetuates
itself with prisoners on nonviolent drug
charges, because it is “profitable,” she
explained, pointing out how the crime
rate continues to go down, but that the
prison population keeps increasing.
Finally, Davis told how the prob
lems in the criminal justice system are
part o f the bigger problem o f racism
that many people like to believe has
gone away.
She says 70 percent o f prisoners are
people o f color, many o f which have
permanently lost their right to vote.
Davis says the only solution is to
spend more money on education than
on prisons.
The reason we don’t, Davis said:
“ Schools don’t make profits.”
Oregon Congressman Questioned Because of Race
(A P) — U.S. Rep. D avid W u, the
only C hinese-A m erican ever elected
to C ongress, w as briefly denied ad
m ittance to U.S. D epartm ent o f En
ergy headquarters last w eek by guards
w ho asked if he was an A m erican.
“ The conduct o f the D O E guards •
is both ironic and disturbing,” W u, o f
O regon’s 151 C ongressional D istrict,
said.
“ H ow ever, this is not about the
to d eliv er a speech to A sian-A m eri-
cans in celebration o f A sian Pacific
A m erican H eritage M onth.
W u said security guards asked him
tw ice w h eth er he w as an A m erican,
even though he presented his co n
gressional identification.
T he guards denied W u entrance,
along w ith an aide, w ho also is A sian
A m erican, W u said.
Lopatto said everybody entering
the building, including A braham ,
must present identification, and all
visitors are required to confirm whether
they are U.S. citizens under a presi
dential directive to protect sensitive
classified inform ation.
“This w as a mix up w ith procedures
and the fact that the congressm an
w as not expected to arrive through
the garage entrance,” Lopatto said.
“ It was really nothing m ore than
that.”
W u was allowed to enter the build
ing and give the speech after a super
v iso r intervened.
Energy D epartm ent officials told
W u ’ s office the caution was ju sti fied
because congressional IDs are easy
to fake.
treatm ent o f any individual,” W u
said. “ Iam disturbed that y esterday’s
incident is the tip o f the iceberg, an
choose any two
1000 extra night and
weekend minutes
or
200 extra anytime minutes
or
nationwide long
distance included
U.S. Rep. David Wu
indicator o f a m uch larger problem at
DOE w hich m ay be dam aging our
national security.”
Jeanne L opatto, an E nergy D e
partm ent spokes w om an, said it w as a
sim ple mistake.
t Lopatto said an escort w as w aiting
for W u in the building lobby, but he
entered through the garage, w here
security guards had not been told
about his appointm ent.
T he guards “d id ex actly w hat
they’re supposed to d o ,” Lopatto
said, but she added that “it’s unfor
tunate that the congressm an w as held
up on his w ay to his m eeting, and we
regret that.”
W u w ent to the D epartm ent o f
E nergy headquarters on W ednesday
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Oregon Moves To
Erase ‘Squaw’
From Geographic
Names
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‘Slur’ called state-
sanctioned racism by
Portland lawmaker
(AP) — rh e word “squaw ” would
have to be erased from official place
names in Oregon under a bill that has
neared final legislative approval.
O n a 44-5 vote, the House Thursday
endorsed a Senate-passed bill that would
eliminate from geographic names what
House Minority Leader Dan Gardner,
D-Portland, called a “slur” reference to
American Indian women. Allowing the
word to remain a part o f official place
names is “nothing short o f state-sanc
tioned racism,” Gardner said. The mea
sure, SB488, returns to the Senate for
action on amendments. The bill would
allow governments to keep “squaw” in
place names until Jan. 2 ,2005, or two
years after the federal Intenor and Ag
riculture agencies stop using the term,
whichever is later. A related resolution
passed by the Legislature urges the
Secretary o f the Interior and the U.S.
Board onGeographic Names to remove
the word from vanous geographic areas
andsites. Rep. BetsyClose, R-Albany,
disagreed that the term is a slur and read
a letter from a citizen urging lawmakers
to “leave history alone" and not waste
tax money changing place names.
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