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OPEN HOUSE
AND PIZZA
July 28. 2004
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views of The Portland Observer
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KISSES
FROM X>.C.
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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