50(f
M a rtin L uther King Jr.
2 0 0 5 Special E d itio n
‘City of Roses'
www.portlandobserver.com
Established In 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXV, Number 2
Wednesday' • lanuary 12. 2005
N eo-N azis are N o-S h ow s
Bush Fills Homeland Post
President Bush chose federal
appeals court ju d g e M ichael
C herto ff to be his new H om e­
land Security chief, turning to
a form er federal p rosecutor
w ho helped craft the early war
on terror strategy.
Tsunami Donations
Overwhelm
From antibiotics to clothes to
cash - lots of it - U.S.-based relief
groups report an overwhelming
response from donors moved by
the devastation of the Indian
Ocean tsunami, with more than
$200 million raised as o f Tues­
day.
Deadly Mudslides
in California
Rain lashed down on California
again Tuesday, hampering ef­
forts to find survivors buried by
a mudslide in a coastal com m u­
nity and prompting hundreds to
flee a mountain town below a
rain-swollen reservoir. Storms
bringing snow to the north and
astonishing am ounts of rain to
the south were blamed for the
deaths o f at least 19 people.
Abu Ghraib Abuser on Trial
A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib
said Army.Spc. Charles Graner
Jr. was the Baghdad prison’s
primary torturer who laughed
while physically abusing him and
threatened to kill him more than
once. Amin al-Sheikh, testifying
via videotaped deposition, said
Graner made him eat pork and
drink alcohol, in violation o f his
Muslim faith, and that he heard
through his cell while Graner
forced a prisoner to eat from a
toilet.
City rallies
against local
hate group
by N eil H eii . pern
T he P ortland O bserver
Not a single skinhead show ed up S at­
urday for a scheduled leafleting o f so u th ­
w est P ortland’s G abriel Park.
W hen w ord spread o f the T ualatin
V alley S kin s’ planned event, 250 people
opposed to the neo-N azi racists, headed
for the park for an anti-hate rally w hile
another 500 show ed up for a unity rally in
the nearby M ultnom ah C enter.
“D iversity is great!" people shouted in
the park. O thers held signs reading “Nazi
scum go hom e,” and “No N azis in G abriel
Park, EVER!"
“ I w ant to show w hat th e y ’re doing is
w rong,” said W ilson H igh School student
A nandi Hall, a native o f India.
“W hite suprem acy is alive and we still
need to fight,” said Soni L loyd, an A fri­
can-A m erican 1993 graduate o f W ilson
High School.
Local N A A CP first vice president Helen
Sherm an said, “ I d o n ’t get protection from
the police. W hy should the N azis?”
At the M u ltn o m ah C e n te r, R iv k a
G evurtz, a m em ber o f Shir T ikvah Jew ish
congregation, heard new s o f the skinheads
photo by N eil H eilpern /T he P ortland O bserver
no-show and said, “T h a t’s w hat happens W ils o n High School Student Anandi Hall, a native o f India, joins other in a rally against hate at Gabriel Park in southwest
w hen you shine light in a dark place. The
Portland.
critters slink aw ay.”
are treated with w orth and d ig n ity .” He
Rabbi Aryeh H irshfield, o f Jew ish R e­ when we recognize that we are a com m u­ H ouse, called the d a y ’s “ resp o n se to
called
for people to “com m unicate com -
people
w
ith
p
reju
d
ices”
a
part
o
f
“a
nity
in
diversity,
will
we
bring
forth
the
newal congregation P ’nai O r (Faces o f
struggle o f enorm ous im portance . . . to
Light), said hate is encouraged "w hen we m essage we think we are here to bring.”
continued
on page A5
ensure that all o f ourcom m unity m em bers
T ed C o o n fie ld , o f N e ig h b o rh o o d
think our path is the better path. Only
Martin Luther King and Gay Rights
Iraqis May Not be
Safe to Vote
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said
that some areas of Iraq will prob­
ably be too unsafe to take part in
the Jan. 30 elections, his first
public acknowledgm ent that the
government would not be able to
exert control in key areas con­
trolled by insurgents. Allawi
promised, however, to increase
the size o f the army in the face of
a bloody insurgency, whose lat­
est victims included 13 Iraqis
killed by two bombings.
Conscientious
Objector Jailed
A soldier who re-enlisted with
the Marines after becoming a
S ev en th -D ay A d v en tist has
been jailed for refusing to pick up
a gun. Cpl. Joel D. Klimkewicz,
24, o f Birch Run, Mich., was sen­
tenced last month in a court-
martial to seven months in Camp
L ejeune'sbrig.
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Jessica DuBois (from left), Rebekah Kassell and Alisa Simmons o f Basic Rights Oregon strategize about the future o f gay
rights in the state.
Modern struggle cites leader ’s ideals
by J aymef .R .
C uti
T he P ortland O bserver
Many gay rights leaders who took a
pounding both nationally and locally in the
2(X)4 election, are Finding com fort in the
words of Martin Luther King Jr.
Although the visionary civil rights leader
did not publicly cham pion homosexual
causes, he described a climate where equal­
ity was extended to all.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere," said King in his “Letters from
a Birmingham Jail on April 16,1963.
“If I apply that, it’s real easy,” said
Kathleen Saadat, a longtime human and civil
rights leader in Portland who is an African-
American lesbian.
She and other gay rights activists speak
of equality women, immigrants, racial minori­
ties, the poor, the homeless and virtually
every other marginalized group as allies in
the fight to gain fair treatment.
“W e need to stand by them in their
struggles. They have a clear understanding
that all of us are hurt if one of us is denied our
rights,” said Roey Thorpe, executive direc­
tor o f Basic Rights Oregon.
“I grew up seeing the truth o f Martin
Luther King’sw ords everywhere. I fall back
on his words not only as a way to give
meaning totheG L B T lgay. lesbian, bisexual,
transgender) civil rights movement but also
on my place in it,” said Thorpe. "I’m aware
that the gay rights movement has not ad­
dressed racial and economic injustice as
much as we should."
In Oregon, same-sex couples lost the right
to marry when Measure 36, the same sex
marriage ban passed in the November gen­
eral election. That, among issues of racial
inequality, is in the forefront of the local,
modem civil rights movement.
While King organized protest inarches to
end racial discrimination, the oppression
towards gays was ignored in the public light.
In recent years, however. King’s widow,
Coretta Scott King, spoke out in support of
marriage equality.
“In my view, Constitutional amendments
should not be used to restrict or deny free­
doms, but to protect and expand freedom.
I
Gay and lesbian people have families and
their families should have legal protection. A
constitutional amendment banning same-
sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and
it would do nothing at all to protect tradi­
tional marriages." she said last March
In 1996. Coretta Scott King said her hus­
band would have been a champion o f gay
rights if he were alive.
Despite the invisibility of gays rights
during the ci vil rights era. King’s close advi­
sor, Bayard Rustin, was openly gay. Rustin
is best known as the driving force behind the
historic March on W ashington of 1963.
Despite criticism from black ministers urging
King todistanee him self politically and per­
sonally from Rustin, King remained aligned
with him and even w orked to get Rustin hired
as the coordinator and publicist of the South-
continned
on page AHI
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