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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2004)
Page A4 ^Inrtlanb (ßhsm ier OPEN HOUSE AND PIZZA July 28. 2004 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of The Portland Observer O pinion H ö T ov T er ' " fa R /\< lS T A y; ÌS V JH 6 M --- È3> lT 5 sign FRATBRNAU RESPECÏ! ANCHE H eu W er OPEN HOUSE AND PIZZA _ _ Q ~ W ? BäSfe CRUiSE MlSSiLE, ( 'TiW'sfo'crh) ^ TftWslÄTioif T ) - — 7 Y 6 :3 0 PM jg HU6S 4NE> KISSES FROM X>.C. ''feAce To Students & Parents T h u rsd a y, A u g u s t 1 2 : S0L.U>AR\TY . For New and Prospective 6th and 7th Grade (TRAHSlATlohl ! ft Reservations Requested! 503-789-9099 See a n E xcitin g N e w M id d le S chool The Presidential Snub Starting our second year this fail Our kids gained 8 months In just 4 months last spring! (C alifornia Achievement Tests Prove It!, They worked at their learning! That is why they did well! Come see the difference our 15:1 student-teacher ratio has made! Meet teachers who help kids before and after school! And meet Mr. White: Victory's New Principal and proven curriculum and behavioral specialist. Minorities, middle class ignored by Bush bv U.S. R ep . S tephanie T ubbs , D -O hio public policies that value equality, op T he C o n g ressio n al portunity and justice Black Caucus and the for all A m ericans. Democratic Members of Through this forum, the House ;md Senate we have been able to recently hosted the 2nd h av e d isc u ssio n s Annual African Ameri with leaders in the Af can Leadership Summit. rican-American com The summit is part of munity about the is an on-going effort by sues that are impor Democrats and the CBC to reaffirm tant to them including voting rights, our shared values with the African access to capital and housing, American community and continue healthcare, international relations, to build upon our longstanding and jobs and the economy. More relationship. Over 200 participants importantly, from these discussions were present, representing a vari have come suggestions and solu ety o f different professions and tions for addressing these issues backgrounds including business within the African-American com leaders, ministers, mayors, state munity. representatives, former cabinet of When President George W. Bush ficials, youth leaders and legal first came to office, he made a lot of scholars. promises. Among the most impor We are committed to promoting tant of these promises, was to work for “all” Americans. On Jan. 31, 2001, President Bush had his first meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. The president said, ‘This will be the beginning of hope fully, a lot o f meetings. I hope you come back, and I’ll certainly be in viting.’ O ver three years later, we are all still waiting on that second invitation. Unfortunately, the attention the president has given the CBC seems to directly mirror the attention he has given middle-class Americans across this nation. O ver the past three years, we have seen the Afri can A m erican com m unity and middle class America as a whole, left further and further behind by this administration. “Over9 ‘/ j million African Ameri cans are now out o f the labor force, an increase o f over half a million from ayearago. In December 2(XX), the unemployment rate for African Americans was 7.3 percent. Today, the unemployment rate for African Americans is 10.1 percent. As we mark the SO“1 Anniversary o f the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the 40"’ Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, our national policy agenda must reflect the con cerns and priorities o f all Ameri cans. That is why we, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House and Senate Democrats, are committed to keeping lines of com m unications open w ith the African American community so that we can create policies that will reflect their interests. We look for ward to continuing these efforts in the near future. Stephanie Tubbs Jones is the first African-American woman elected to the U. S. House o f Representatives from Ohio. Checks and Balances War does not trump fundamental rights bv V ic t o r y s tu d e n ts a r e B E A TIN G THE N A T IO N A L AVERAG E! T e s t s c o re s p ro ve it! VICTORY Middle School 5250 NF MLK (Near Killingsworth) (503) 890-1858 (503) 249-2003 FREE Public Charter School L q iu l Opportunity lot A ll Victory Middle School admit* student« o f any race, color, nationality and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school B ernice P owei . i . J ackson One o f the foundations o f our democracy is the system of gov ernmental checks and balances. The experiences of many o f our nation’s founders, which led them to flee to America, included kings who ruled with no questions asked and countries in which the citizens were presumed gui Ity unless proven innocent. With all o f this fresh in their minds, the writers o f the U.S. C o n stitu tio n crafted a system where the executive branch, the legislative branch and ju d icial branch balance each other. In two landmark decisions on the rights o f detai nees in the war on terrorism at the end o f this year’s court session, the U.S. Supreme Court reminded the president and the nation about the fundamental rights provided in our Constitu tion. And, it reminded us that even war does not trump these rights. “It is during our most challenging and u n c e rta in m o m e n ts th a t o u r Nation’s commitment to due pro cess is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must pre serve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad,” the Court wrote. The fact that this is by no means a liberal Supreme Court, with the majority o f the justices having been appointed by Republican presi dents and with a number of conser vative opinions already delivered, made its findings on these twocascs even more powerful. After all. it was this same court which selected the president in the contested 2000 presidential election. In one of the two cases, a U.S. citizen, Yaser Esam Hamdi, was captured in Afghanistan and des ignated an “enemy combatant.” His father petitioned the government, citing the most basic of American legal rights - a citizen’s right to know what he is accused o f and to receive a fair trail. An almost unani mous Supreme Court agreed and said, “a state o f war is not a blank check for the president and that the o f the detainees at Guantanamo tion that “the defining characteris Bay, where hundreds o f them have tic o f American constitutional gov never had a trial or hearing. The ernm ent is its constant tension Court ruled that they, too, have the betw een security and lib erty .” Moreover, the justices reminded right to access federal courts. O ne organization that argued the president that he is “co m this almost from day one is the mander-in-chief o f the military, not Center for Constitutional Rights in of the country,” referring to a prior New York City. CCR is a scrappy Supreme Court ruling during the non-profit organization which is presidency o f Harry S. Truman, dedicated to preserving the consti w hen the court overturned the tutional rights of Americans. Dur president’s seizure o f the Ameri ing the civil rights movement, CCR can steel industry during the Ko was very much a part o f the legal rean War. The New York Times columnist front which challenged the nation’s Paul Krugman wrote recently that Attorney General John Ashcroft is the worst Attorney General in our nation’s history, citing numerous reasons, including his many restric tions ofcivil liberties after the 9/11 attacks. Clearly the U.S. Supreme C o u rt ag re e s th a t the ad m in istratio n 's pendulum has swung too far and that the balance courts to protect the civil rights of has been lost. African Americans. It has often The decisions o f the Supreme taken on unpopular cases during Court have not always been just its lifetime and Ron Daniels, the (their Plessy v. Ferguson decision CCR president, said in a recent in established “separate but equal” terview that they had received doz segregation laws in 1898) but they ens o f death threats and threaten have always had great impact on ing calls after they began to chal life in our nation. This C ourt’s de lenge the adm inistration's position cision reminds us once again o f the on civil liberties. But C C R 's whole importance o f the role o f the Su purpose o f being has been to press preme Court and should give every the U.S. to live up to its Constitu American a reason to vote this fall. tional mandate and its leadership in Bernice Powell Jackson is the forging human rights legislation for executive minister for justice and the nation and the world. witness ministries for the United Justice Souter reminded the na Church o f Christ. The administration's pendulum has swung too far and the balance has been lost. detainees must be able tochallenge their detention before a judge or neutral decision maker. Justice O ’ Connor wrote, “History and com mon sense teach us that an un checked system of detention car ries the potential to become a means for oppression and abuse of oth ers.” She added that given the fact that the administration has said its war on terrorism might stretch over generations, the "indefinite deten tion could last for the rest of his life.” The second case was brought before the court on behalf o f some I