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‘City of Roses’
Established in 1970
Volume XXXIV • Number 46
Committed to Cultural Diversity
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • November 24. 2004
..-.Weekin
TheReview
Clinton Library
Includes Scandals
Erika E. and her
daughter Jenna,
13, work on their
relationship after
many missteps
while living at
Shepherd 's Door,
a Portland Rescue
Mission facility for
homeless women
and children.
Bill Clinton’s presidential library
covers W hitewater and Monica
Lewinsky in a single display that
portrays the White House scan
dals as a “fight forpow er” and an
exercise in the “politics of perse
cution.”
GOPto Repeal Food Labeling
Telling consumers where their
meat, fruit and vegetables came
from seemed such a good idea to
U.S. ranchers and farmers in com
petition with imports that C on
gress two years ago ordered the
food industry to do it. But
meatpackers and food proces
sors fought the law from the
start, and newly em boldened
Republicans now plan to repeal
it before Thanksgiving.
PHOTOSBY
M ichael R i bens ' iein /
T he P orti a n d
O bserver
Dan Rather to Step Down
Homeless for the Holidays
Dan Rather said he wi 11 step down
from CBS with his last broadcast
as anchor on March 9, the 24th
anniversary o f when he assumed
the p o s itio n fro m W a lte r |
Cronkite.
Causes varied
as homeless
themselves
Phil Knight Resigns
by J aymee R. C u n
T he P ortland O bserver
O regon’s Phil Knight stepped
down as president and chief ex
ecutive o f Nike Inc., the athletic
shoe and clothing com pany he
co-founded and built into one of
the w orld’s best-known brands,
The 66-year-old will remain chair
man o f the com pany’s board of
directors. William D. Perez, head
of S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., mak
ers o f G lade air fresheners and
Drano drain cleaner, will suc
ceed Knight as president.
U
Politically Incorrect Web
Q uestions which may be too]
politically incorrect to be uttered
out loud, have found a place
am id the ano n y m ity o f the I
Internet at w w w .yfom m .com .
The National Forum on People’s |
D ifferences says the site can
help bridge the gaps that divide
people by race, religion and back-1
ground.
Health Care and Civil Rights j
Those rallying to keep open the
doors o f a hospital trauma unit
serving a poor, violence-plagued
neighborhood o f Los Angeles
have hit upon a more potent |
nder bridges and secluded over
passes, the elaborate and sometimes
orderly camps set up by the hom e
less can seen by anyone peering closely.
They are outdoor "apartm ents,” some or
ganized with a sleeping area, a couch for
com pany and makeshift kitchen supplies.
Approximately 3,000 homeless people live
in Portland. They are scattered among those
of us with jobs, heat and a roof to come home
to. Many more are roughly two paychecks
away from living in cars, perhaps wearing out
a welcome after couch-surfing from family
member to family member, friend to friend.
The homeless scene has changed in Port wage that didn’t keep up with the cost of
land and nationally, largely because o f a shift living, and skyrocketing rents.”
in wealth that widened a gap between the rich
A study by Crossroads, a com munity
and poor, according experts in the homeless organizing project o f Sisters o f the Road, is
care field.
being conducted to identify and implement
“In 1972,2,000people, mosdy men, lived in long-terms solutions to problems faced by
the Old Tow n/Chinatow n neighborhood.
the homeless.
They were veterans, elderly pensioners, and
Based on 6(X) interviews with formerly or
itinerant or casual laborers, among others,”
currently homeless people, the data pieced
said Orion Gray, development director for together a picture o f who is on the street.
Sisters o f the Road Café, which serves the
Data gathered in April in Portland re
homeless in a work-for-food arrangement.
vealed that women make up 27.1 percent of
“In the 1980s, skid row com munities in Port the homeless, men com pose the majority at
land and across the country saw thousands 69.3 percent and 3.6 percent are transgender.
o f men, women and chi Idren flood into them,
African Americans make up 10.1 percent
partly the result o f Reganomics, a minimum
of the homeless, Caucasians are the majority
argument than mere dollars and
cents. They are using race. Op- i
HODe
ponents o f county plans to cut
services at the troubled Martin
Luther King Jr./Drew Medical |
Center have invoked the lan
guage o f the civil rights m ove
ment.
H
AIKICA
is Vital
AHIS
RJSPIINSE
P‘ T i l ,i i i i j - \ |i i ! ,n > > i4 » T ( itv \ - - i h iittio n
by J aymee R. C u n
T he P ortland O bserver
c
o
<u ©
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©
World AIDS Day is a time forremembrance
o f those lost to the infectious disease. For
others, the W ednesday, Dec. I observance is
a time to recommit to the cause o f wiping
AIDS off the planet.
It s a chance to do that not ju st in one
town or one city or one state or one country
but it s a time to do that as a global com m u
nity, said Thomas Bruner, executive direc
tor of Cascade AIDS Project.
World AIDS
Day is call
to action
The devastation from AIDS both locally
and in Africa is the focus o f several Portland
events.
A “Hope is Vital” benefit On World AIDS
Day will support grassroots AIDS efforts in
Mutare. Zimbabwe, Portland’s sister city.
Performances by internationally known
perform er Maya Soleil and Portland favorite
MarchFourth, along with an art action will
make for a memorable event beginning at
continued
yf
on page B3
The homeless wait
for a hot meal
outside o f Union
Gospel Mission in
Portland's Old
Town district.
at 64.4 percent and Latinos reportedly make
lack o f social awareness, crim inal records,
up 2.8 percent. Biracial or other races ac lack o f low cost housing, general and struc
count for 18.7 percent o f the homeless and
tural unemployment, physical disability, and
1 percent are Asian American or Pacific mental health issues.
Islander.
Chronic hom elessness, categorized by
But statistics don’t begin to address the many years on the street, heavy drug or
root causes that account for so many sleep alcohol addiction and a dual diagnosis o f
ing in doorways, rural Portland outskirts,
mental illness, is often viewed as less sym pa
shelters and public parks.
thetic than a the situation o f a homeless
Crossroads’ preliminary research iden woman whose family was shaken by dom es
tified nine strongly reoccurring themes on tic violence, landing her and her children in a
the causes o f homelessness, according to shelter. But every case com poses the spec
Gray, who was formerly a community orga trum o f junkies and mothers, recovering alco
nizer and interviewer for the Crossroads holics and religious folks, the mentally ill and
research project. Those causes are: trauma,
continued y f on page A6
disintegration o f family, substance abuse,
Epidemic Grows More Diverse
aymef R.
. R. C C utí
un
B B y y J J aymee
T he P ortland O bserver
Since AIDS surfaced and was identi
fied, its dem ographics have grown and
changed.
Worldwide, 38 million people are esti
mated to be living with HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, with 65 percent o f the world’s
cases in sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately
15 million children have been orphaned
because of AIDS and an estimated 2.5 mil
lion children are HIV-positive.
In the United States, AIDS is the lead
ing killer of African Americans between
the ages of 25 and 44 and 50 percent o f new
HIV infections in the U.S. occur in African
Americans. A frican-A m erican w omen
com prise 72 percent o f new HIV cases
among all women, nationally.
Through 2002, 5,357 cases o f AIDS
have been diagnosed in Oregon, with
2,997 deaths to AIDS in the state.
O f those served at C ascade AID S
Project, the largest volume provider o f
HIV and AIDS services in Oregon, 40
percent arc heterosexual, 28 percent are
nennlp
o í o m f color,
in r i s 15
msmont
«. 4
people
percent arc women and
percent are youth.
“The disease has gotten much more di
verse,” Bruner said. “If you have looked at
dem ographics o f people served by Cascade
AIDS Project 15 years ago, none o f them
would have been youth. Virtually none of
them would have been women. M aybe a
handful, literally, would have been hetero
sexual and a handfu I wou Id have been people
o f color.”
To Bruner, there’s a message in the numbers.
“W hat w e’ve been saying for decades
has been true all along: H IV /A ID S is
everybody’s issue. Denial is a very strong
human defense mechanism and it takes a
long tim e for people to wake up and realize
that th at’s true,” said Bruner.
W hile he says that the world has more
people living with AIDS and HIV than ever,
that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
People are living longer with AIDS than
ever before and that explains the increase in
numbers. According to Bruner, AIDS may
continued
yf
on page BJ