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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
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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.
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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.
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Volume
XXXH,
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Number ?1
(Elje |J o rtla n h (D h s m u r
Top Sto lies
Adam» High Aw»tt« Wrecking Bell
Metro
The Portland School District has proclaimed that
there will be a new Whitaker Middle School to
replace the empty and former Adams High School
at 5700 N E 39th Ave Of course the new building
will look very different and will bring new housing
with it — something that makes nearby existing
neighbors a little nervous
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Take a sigh of relief Multnomah County health officials are
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