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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2002)
PaKe A4_____________________________________________ ï b e ^ J o r t l a n h ( ß b s e r u e r _______________________________________ May os, 2002 Opinion articles do not necessarily rejlect or represent the views o f (Elji’|j n r t k i n b O fibscrurr Il’r^portíanh (Ohsmwr £ II I T I ) > - I K - C H I I F . P L1 I I I C o ry S H t I USPS 959-680 B u s in e s s Established 1970 M anag e » D A sst . P » M a n a g e Mark Washington u b l is h e s C » E A T I V E Michael Leighton Portland, OR 97211 d it o is t k ik u t io n Gary Ann Taylor 4 7 4 7 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., E Joy Ramos Charles H. Washington D I X E C T O K Paul Neufeldt P ostmaster : Send address changes to Portland Observer PO Box 3 1 3 7 , Portland, OR 9 7 2 0 8 Periodical Postage paid In Portland, OR • Subscriptions are $60.00 per year 503-288-0033 • FAX5 0 3 -2 8 8 0 0 1 5 • EMAIL: news&DOrtli subscnption@ixrtlandQbserver.CQm , R on H erndon S peaks prepared with a plan that antici pates resistance (the ‘N ’ word - NO), and takes the longer view. H erndon: White people in po sitions of power in Portland - when you go to them with your bill of grievances and they say no, what are you prepared to do? Are you going to write another letter, or go to the civil rights commission, what’s your next step? And this is my point: Without study, or a critique of the past, we short change our community. When vestiges of power said no to our entreaties for justice in the past, what was the response? Yugen: So what are the les sons, or strategies to wage a suc cessful battle on this front? H erndon: Know that you’re bringing people together to con front a status quo steeped in rac ism. So, if you’re going to bring black folks together and marshal changes in politics, education, employment, business - most gen erals will study past battles, and say: “Okay. Now I’mgoing to lead you on to the battlefield” . Yugen. So, we should value past victories and review those strategies and tactics that worked. H erndon: W edon’tchronicle even our local history, and end up lacking a practical founda tion to m ake decisions, and evaluate the present, or future The Portland Observer-Oregon's Oldest Multicultural Publication—is a member of the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Repre sentative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. LETTER TO Tl IE EDITOR Narrow Reading of History Hurts Blacks Ron Herndon Speaks is a Port land Observer series featuring community leader and activist Ron D. Herndon. The interviews and editing are done by corre spondent Yugen Fardan Rashud. Yugen: Ron, you’ve talked about how important it is for a community leader to reference history and use it as a compass in terms of what works. H erndon: Generally, this na tion puts very little value on learn ing from the past. History is con fined to books, and most of what w e’re taught or read, is a bastard ized form of American and world history - very Eurocentric, epi sodic, and based on revisionist thinking. This narrow reading of history ends up hurting black people the most, because our his tory is distorted the most. Yugen: What example would you give when self-conscience, unselfish leadership emerged and obtained a victory for Oregon’s black populace? H erndon: The question to ask in the beginning o f the very first strategy planning m eeting is, ‘What are you prepared to do when white folks tell you, ‘N O ’? Yugen. I suppose the ‘N ’ word is what brings black people to this moment o f redundancy, and im potence. So leaders need to be less arbitrary or reactive, and more » The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 199b THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. Progressives Back Bev Stein Ron Herndon p ro g ress. Ju st look back to W orld W ar II and the successes achieved by black w orkers from Portland and Vanport who orga nized at the (K aiser) shipyards. O r passage o f statew ide civil rights legislation, which was pretty difficult. Or, the death of Tony Stevenson during the 80s, and the successful push to ad dress police m isconduct that resulted in some officers loos ing their jobs! The successful push to end one-w ay busing of black students in Portland. Now, if you ask leaders in volved in our community today, ‘What did you learn from these victories?’ I would bet my pay- check it would be rare to find any one who studied these examples of successes in this community. And there is no systematic effort to translate any of those efforts to our struggles of the day. I was very disappointed when the Rainbow Coalition took no position on the race for governor. I was thrilled when my letter carriers union endorsed Bev Stein Several of us old-timers in the Rainbow Coalition felt that newcomers did not know enough about Bev, so were unable to make the obvious choice. Here are a few quotes from past Rainbow press releases, when Bev ran for county chair, a race we were very involved in. “Beverly has lived and breathed community organizing for the last 30 years. Whether as a legislator or as co-chair of our Rainbow Coalition, Bev has fought for and involved the grass-roots people, the left-out, the women, the people of color, the working people. "The Rainbow expects Stein to use her consensus-building skills and vast network of community and government allies to bring new confidence and people-power to county government. “A long time resident of inner-NE, she co-chaired the Rainbow Coalition with Macceo Pettis and spearheaded community crime-fighting, low-cost housing and anti-apartheid efforts. As a legislator from inner-SE, her human investment and community development strategies were nationally recognized.” In her term as county chair, I was privileged to work with her on successful community- based campaigns to raise the business income tax to benefit schools, to raise the living wage for county contracted.janitors, security and food service workers and to oppose corporate welfare. If we’re about building people power, real democracy and a fair economy, the choice is obvious. Bev Stein for Governor. Jamie Partridge Northeast Portland Spring Auto Loan Sale 3.2% Rates as low as Use a Critical Eye on Tax Claims Responding to the exaggerated claims about taxes, the Oregon C enterfor Public Policy is urging Oregonians to use a critical eye on the inflated claims of anti-govern ment activists. “Each year claims are made that taxes are too high and that they are rising even higher,” noted Jeff Thom pson, econom ist with the OCPP. “Nothing could be further from the truth - taxes on middle income Oregonians are not very high and they are actually declining.” Recent analysis o f taxes dem onstrates that both the federal and the state and local tax burdens have declined in recent years. A study by the W ashing ton, DC-based Center on Bud get and Policy Priorities shows that the federal tax burden of middle- income famil ies is at the lowest point in many years. Families in the middle of the income distribution paid just 16.3 percent of their income for all federal taxes (including in- . come, payroll, excise and other taxes) in 2001. This was the ’ lowest level in the 22 years for ! which the data exist. Additionally, the typical . four-person family with two dependents paid just 6.8 per cent of its income in federal ! income taxes, the lowest rate since 1957. A separate study, released earlier this year by the Oregon Center for Public Policy, showed that, as a share o f income, state and local taxes in Oregon have also declined in recent years. Additional analysis by the Or egon Legislative Revenue Office shows that the total state and local tax burden on middle-income households is 10.8 percent. “When read together, these two analyses suggest that middle-in- come Oregonians pay roughly 27 percent of their income for all fed eral, state, and local taxes,” said Thompson. AFFORDABLE * APR* Through May 31,2002 •APR = Annual Percentage Rate. 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