Page A4 î,ieÏJortlanb © b e rn e r Combined Subject Scores Improved 8 Full Months In Just O ver 4 M onths This Spring) |ul>2l. 2004 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f The Portland Observer O pinion C alifornia Achievement Test Results H a ig 'n w eeo pat up M-80 % Tftw. w&o To 2a>3, While W orkers 6 et S£ ue & When Teachers and Students Take Learning More Seriously. Students Learn More! Register Today 6th Grade and 7th Grade A d din g 8th G rad e In 200 5 OPEN HOUSE Tuesday, July 27th 7:1 5 PM Located at Blazers Boys & G irls C lub 5 2 5 0 NE MLK African-American Voters Discovered Disenfranchisement of the black vote catches fire by (503) 890-1858 Apply For Admission Today! Space is Lim ited V ic to ry students are beatin g t h e n a t i o n a l ave ra g a I Test scores prove Itl Victory Has . . . G reg P alast L ike C h risto p h er C olum bus blinking in shock at first seeing an American Indian, John Kerry has just discovered African-American voters. On Thursday, Kerry landed at the NAACPconvention, steppedoff his slow-moving campaign boat and announced that he was exploring for one million missing black voters. Let me explain — because the New York Times won’t. In the 2000 elections, l .9 million ballots were cast which were never counted — “spoiled” is the technical term. Ballots don’t spoil because they are left out of the fridge. There’s always a technical reason: a stray mark, or my favorite, from Gadsden County, Fla., writing in Al G ore’s name instead o f checking a box. According to data from the US Civil Rights Commission and the Harvard University Law School Civil Rights Project, about half the nation's spoil ballots— one million — were cast by black folk. Just as African American communities get the worst schools, the worst hospi tals, they also get dumped with the worst voting machines which eat, mismark, mangle and void ballots. Poof! A mi 11 ion black votes gone, zapped, vanished. And the nasty secret is that for years, that suited many white lead ers o f local and state Democratic organizations— Zell MillerofGeor- gia is a case in point — who feared black voters as much as Republi cans. But change is coming, and not because John Kerry and the men who think for him have changed. Change is coming because Afri can-American leaders are getting a little uppity about the Democratic Party taking or leaving the African- American voter as the mood and Just when Edwards thought he could have a sip o f coffee, Jackson required him to watch the segment of our BBC television special, “Bush Family Fortunes,” with the latest analysis on the non-count o f black votes in Florida. In the 2000 race, 95,000 A frican-A m erican votes were dumped in the Florida swamps, marked as spoiled. Edwards, succumbing to hun ger, caffeine deprivation and Rev. Jackson’s intense interrogation, caved in and promised to take the message o f the missing black votes Change is coming because African-American leaders are getting a little uppity about the Democratic Party taking or leaving the African- American voter as the mood and arithmetic pleases. % arithmetic pleases. H ere’s how Sen. Kerry got the message. Two weeks ago, when I was in Chicago, Jesse Jackson asked me to join him for breakfast at the Marriott Hotel. To my surprise, h e’d also invited Senator John Edwards. Jackson had made copies o f my editorial for the San Fran cisco Chronicle on the missing one million votes... and wouldn’t let the wannabe Veep touch his bagel until he’d read every word. to the white side of his party. Congresswoman Corrine Brown joined us. When she read the story and saw the film, she was ready to spit bullets. She was especially upset that British television cov ered the story while, in the USA, the black story was blacked out. The film clip would get the Con gresswoman in hot water. This past T hursday, in W ashington, she again watched a preview of the BBC film, marched down to the Capitol and denounced the Repub lican Party for stealing the election in Florida. For telling this truth, she was censured by a straight-up party-line vote by the House of Representatives and her remarks stricken. Sen. Kerry is noC orrine Brown. The man who would be president is first trying out the ‘D ’ word in front o f the frien d ly n ativ es at the NAACP. But still, it’s a step: m en tioning out loud the massive, sys tematic disenfranchisement o f the black vote. But the real change w on’t come until Kerry can say the ‘D ’ word in front of say, a gathering o f the members of his wife’s country club, and until he confronts the boys holding the electoral lynchingropes in both parties. I have a dream. I imagine John Kerry taking this message to the floor of the convention next week, proclaiming, ‘T h ree decades after Martin Luther King’s murder, one million African Americanscast bal lots never counted. This will not stand!” Imagine it: at that moment, for the first time in a generation, the Democratic Party will have nomi nated a Democrat. Greg Palast is an investigative reporterfrom London. He is known for his reports on the theft o f the election in Florida and the con nections between the Bush family and the Bin Ladins which form the basis for Michael Moore's latest film "Fahrenheit 9/11. ” • 15:1 Student-to-Teacher Ratio • l‘REE Tuition (Equal Opportunity) • Certified Teachers •Them e-B ased Curriculum Letters to m .......... t the Editor Make Healthy Choices City Bureaus Outdated I hold no position on the merits o f police reform on the City C ouncil's • Grades Based on Performance agenda. However, I do believe that members of the council should have • Before and After School Help the right, at any time, to submit an ordinance or resolution or whatever on any topic. • 6 Annual Field Trips • ESL and Special Ed Welcome Our city needs a city manager or strong mayor with commissioners elected at large but required to live in defined districts similar to the Portland School Board. The current candidates for mayor and commissioner should immedi ately put this issue on their public speaking agendas. VICTORY Middle School This business o f “you d o n 't mess with my bureaus and I w on’t mess with yours” is outdated, counterproductive and should come to an end. Making good public policy is every com m issioner's business. Richard Ellmyer North Portland Another study by the U.S. National Institutes o f Health has called for a further reduction in the tolerable level o f cholesterol. The guidelines were endorsed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association and the American College o f Cardiology. So w hat’s new? Health authorities have been cautioning us for years to replace cholesterol-laden meat and dairy products with vegetables, fruits, and grains, which contain no cholesterol. How many more studies will it take? How many more people must die of heart disease and stroke, our nation's top killers, before consum ers get the message? Eating a cholesterol-free diet is a snap these days. Every supermar ket carries a rich variety of veggie burgers, soy dogs, soy-based lunch meats, microwave-ready dinners, dairy-free ice cream and other des serts, and of course, a huge selection of vegetables and fruits. We have the means to lead a healthy, productive life. All we need is the will. Lionel Inman Southeast Portland 5250 NE MLK (Near Killingsworth) (503) 890-1858 (503) 249-2003 FREE Public Charter School Kgutl Opportuaity for All Victory Middle School admits students o f any nice, color, nationality and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available lo students al the school Advertise wilh diversity in ^ a rtía n h ©bsertier call 5O3.2S8.OO33 or email: ads@portlandobserver.com i