Page A4 ®t|c Çortlanh (fibserüer May 07. 2003 O pinion The Portland O bserver Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f The Portland Observer E o i r o t -i n -C H ie r , P u i l i s Charles H. Washington h c v __________ USPS 959-680_________ C • l .< T I £ D I I t c r o i Paul Neufeldt C ru rm Michael Leighton Established 1970 O r r i c t M . n a c Kathy Linder 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 o f 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 o f such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. e » 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., D U T IIW T IO V Portland, OR 97211 A s s o c n r e E a t TO K Wynde Dyer M 4 \ 4 6 t « Mark Washington The Portland Observer—Oregon's Oldest Multicultural Publication—is a member o f 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. PosTMAtTt»: Send address changes to P o rtla n d Observer P 0 Bos 3 1 3 7 , Portland, OR 9 7 2 0 8 P e r io d ic a l P o s ta g e p a id In P o r tla n d , OR i S u b s c rip tio n s are $ 6 0 .0 0 p e r y e a r Remembering Cesar Bernice Powell Jackson W arrior for ju stice proved that in unity there is pow er by B ernice P owell J ackson The son o f a poor farm w orker and general store ow ner, C esar C havez was a w arrior for justice, bom in Arizona in 1927. W hen his family lost their land during the D epression, he was forced to quit school and work in the fields. In the early 1960’s, he and his w ife and eight children m oved to California, w here he dedi­ cated his life to organizing farm w orkers, w(jo lived in dingy, overcrow ded quarters without electricity, bathroom s or running water. In his lifetim e he never ow ned a house or earned more than $6,000 a year. But when he died in 1993, 40,000 people m arched behind his casket. C esar C havez’s life was an inspiration to a w hole generation o f farm w orkers— men and w om en, som e even today living very closely to slavery. In helping to found the U nited Farm W orkers o f Americh, Chavez show ed that in unity there is pow er, even for the pow erless. For his organizing work, for his voter registra­ tion work, for his repeated jailings because o f this work and for his fearless and yet non­ violent approach to those w ho threatened him, C havez is rem em bered as a human rights advo­ cate and a m an o f justice and peace. But to do honor to this great man, it is not enough to recall his m anner or his accom plish­ m ents or his faith or his dedication to the poorest o f the poor. It is not enough to lift up his name as one o f the prophets sent to rem ind the w ealthiest nation in the world o f the plight o f those w ho w ork so that we m ight be fed. Bel I and others, are paid 40 cents for fi 1 ling a 32 pound bucket. Like the migrant farm w orkers w ho pick cucum bers for Mt. O live pickles in N orth C arolina, they have not had a pay raise in three decades. W hen they finish paying for their lodging, for the transportation and for the food which they receive (conveniently) from the nearby little grocery stores m ostly ow ned by their overseers, there is little or no m oney left over. If they try to run aw ay they are beaten and som etim es worse. Girls and w om en som etim es find them selves sold into lives o f prostitution by the sam e overseers. M eanwhile, the large cor­ porations— the citrus com panies, the food in­ dustries w hich use tom atoes and cucum bers for their foods— purchase w hat they need from these grow ers while w inking at these skirtings ofthe law and proclaiming theirow n innocence. C esar C havez was a fine man and a great A m erican w ho forced this nation to look at how we treated farm workers. Many o f us— people o f faith, people o f conscience, people who recognized injustice when we saw it— responded by not buying table grapes then. The spirit o f C esar C havez lives on and forces us to look at the below -poverty wages, the unsafe w orking conditions o f those picking pesticide-laden fruit, the unsanitary, sub-sub standard living condi­ tions and the involuntary servitude that thou­ sands o f farm w orkers face today. W ill we respond to this injustice now? Cesar Chavez was a fine man and a great American who forced this nation to look at how we treated farm workers. -Bernice Powell Jackson Rather, C esar C havez w ould w ant us to work for justice ourselves. C esar Chavez would w ant us to jo in the farm w orkers’ struggles against Mt. O live pickles and against Taco Bell and the grow ers who supply these large com pa­ nies. The farm w orkers w ho live in the little town o f Im m okalee not far from Ft. Myers, Fla. and w ho pick tom atoes which then are sold to Taco Bernice Powell Jackson is the executive minister fo r the United Church o f Christ Justice and Witness Ministries. Support Programs Should Help, Not Penalize by J ohn L ewis W hat do g ran d p aren ts raising ch ild ren , fo ster p aren ts, and single fathers have in com m o n ? T hey are the new est targ ets in the Bush a d m in istra tio n ’s w ar on the w orking poor. I f th e Internal R evenue S ervice gets its w ay, by 2006 m any low -incom e O regon fam i­ lies w ill have to provide exhaustive d o cum en­ tation b efo re they can claim the E arned In­ com e C red it w hen filing th eir tax returns. M ost EIC claim s com e from tw o -p aren t fam ilies or sin g le m others. A bout a third com es from g ran d p aren ts o r o th e r relativ es carin g for related ch ild ren , fo ster paren ts, step p aren ts or sin g le fathers. T he 1RS d e te r­ m ined th is second g ro u p is at high risk for erro n e o u sly claim in g the credit. L ater this year, 4 5,000 o f these “high risk ” fam ilies nationw ide w ill have to provide a d d i­ tional docum entation to the 1RS before they can receive the EIC. T he list o f a ccep tab le d o cu m en ts is m ore re stric tiv e than for any o th e r federal program that assists the poor. W ork-support program s should help people, not penalize them for applying. The IR S’s plan adds layers to the already com plex process o f claim ing the EIC. It will “succeed” by driving eligible fam ilies aw ay from the credit. C ertainly, only those who are eligible for the credit should receive it and the 1RS has proce­ dures for exam ining returns and tracking dow n errors. The 1RS exam ines about tw o percent o f EIC returns each year, about tw ice the rate they exam ine all returns. If the adm inistration’s “pre-certification"program is fully implemented almost one in three EIC recipients will be required to undergo w hat is essentially an audit before they have even subm itted their tax re­ turns. Imagine if a third o f all taxpayers were requ ired to “pre-certify” their m ortgage interest deduction, their m edical expenses, or their IRA contributions. Politically such a proposal would never fly; the outrage would be trem endous. So should it be w ith this proposal aimqd at the w orking poor. John Lewis is with the Oregon Center fo r Public Policy, a group working to improve the economic and social prospects o f low- and moderate income Oregonians, the ma­ jority o f Oregonians. [ 3 mtp:ZiMHMtM^}or1l«ndob*e rv e r.c o m / 11,1 ^Jnrtlani» (¡Observer EJ* Et» ïl e w Favor le s ... J Tools j Make Health Care a Civil Right E very A m erican should have m edical coverage U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cum m ings, D-Md., chair o fth e Congressional Black Caucus, joined hundreds o f participants last week at a rally for universal health care. The rally was spearheaded by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional H ispanic Cau­ cus, the Congressional Native American Caucus and the Congressional Asian Paci ftc American Caucus and is the culmination of the celebration o f Minority Health Month. A ccording to a report from the K aiser Family Foundation,44 million Americans are uninsured. A ccording to the C ensus Bureau, o f those uninsured, 12.4 m illion are H ispanic, 6.8 m illion are A frican- A m erican and 2.3 m illion are o f Asian Pacific Islander descent. T hism eansover h a lfo fth e uninsured are from racial and ethnic minorities. The United States is the only industrial­ ized country that does not have a health insurance program for everyone. A ccord­ ing to the W orld Health Organization, the U. S. spends m ore on health care than any other country in the w orld, but ranks 37,h am ong the 191 m em ber states in health care perform ance. C uba ranks 39th and France is num ber one. “ It is time to make health care a ci vil right for all A m ericans,” said C um m ings. Un­ less human rights are transformed into civil rights protected by law, they are not guar­ anteed rig h ts’ at all. That is the hard lesson that Americans o f color have learned from our experience with this nation's health care system . And that is the sam e hard esson that m any, many other A m ericans are learning today.’’ The Congressional BlackCaucus has made guaranteeing universal health care for every American its number one health care legisla­ tive priority for the 108th Congress. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-M ich., the dean o f the CBC, has sponsored H R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act. M icrosoft In te rn e t Explorer J jS e a c h jU F e v o rte s ¿ /M e d a J oh’ J 3 J O O fi 4 |O o June 19. ?0D> Sports As it quickly becomes more and more an electronic B Help <0 Irtemel I I