A Children’s Bill of Rights
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years
of
•^community service
See M etro section, inside
¡Lite
‘City of Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Established In 1970
Wednesday • lune I, 2005
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXV. Number 22
Rose Festival
Weekin
TheReview
Ready to Blast Off
‘DeepThroat’ Admits Identity
The W ashing­
ton Post said
Tuesday that a
former FBI offi­
cial, W. Mark
Felt, was the
c o n f id e n tia l
source known
as
“ D eep W . Mark Felt
T h ro a t” w ho
provided the newspaper infor­
m ation that led to President
Nixon’s impeachment investiga­
tion and eventual resignation. Felt,
the second-in-command at the
FBI in the early 1970s, confided
he w as P o st re p o rte r Bob
W o o d w a rd ’s so u rce on the
W atergate scandal. See story on
page A2.
Jam-packed
calendar of fun set
Portland’s Rose Festival blasts off on a
two-week crescendo this week with Thurs­
day night’s opening o f the downtown
Waterfront Village, the Q ueen's Corona­
tion and Saturday’s Starlight Parade.
Thejam packed calendar of fun will draws
thousands o f people to dozens of events
which will also include the Grand Floral Pa­
rade on Saturday, June 11, Rose Cup Races
at Portland International Raceway, June 10-
12 and the Festival of Bands on Friday, June
10at7:30p.m .atPG E Park.
The Pepsi Waterfront Village puts added
emphasis on families this year. Rose Festival
officials said there will be new strolling min-
continued
on page A 6
Bush Shrugs Off Setbacks
President Bush, faced with a
string ofsetbacks on Capitol Hill,
shrugged off questions about his
political clout and promisedTues-
day to keep pushing the Repub­
lican-led Congress for a Social
Security overhaul. Bush said his
policies in Iraq, Iran and North
Korea were working. He de­
nounced as “absurd” a report by
Amnesty International that com­
pared the U.S. treatment of terror­
ism suspects at Guantanamo Bay
to a Soviet-era gulag.
Female Smokers Wooed
Tobacco companies did elabo­
rate research on women to figure
out how to hook them on smok­
ing - even toying with the idea of
cho co late-flav o red cigarettes
that would curb appetite, accord­
ing to a new analysis. Research­
ers at H arvard U n iv e rsity ’s
School of Public Health said they
examined more than 7 million
documents - some dating back to
1969. others as recent as 2000.
Oil Tycoon Gets to 9 Years
One year and three days after it
began, the biggest trial in post-
Soviet Russia ended Tuesday
with a nine-year sentence for
fa lle n
ty c o o n
M ik h ail
Khodorkovsky, whose oil empire
was broken up after he became a
political challenge to President
Vladimir Putin. The 41-year-old
Khodorkovsky vowed to clear
his name of the charges, which
included tax evasion and fraud.
Live Aid Plans New Shows
Twenty years after the Live Aid
concerts, musical superstars are
joining in a five-city spectacular
to push a political solution for
African poverty. Musicians in­
c lu d in g
M ad o n n a,
Paul
McCartney, U2, Bon Jovi, Brian
Wilson, Crosby Stills & Nash,
Coldplay, Sting, Stevie Wonder
and Jay-Z will grace stages in
London, Philadelphia, Berlin,
Paris and Rome.
c
o
an
u
o -r
o ©
O k- □ Û-
£ > o
’2 « 5 g I
□ 5
— 5
PHOTOS BY VERN UEYTAKE
barge on the Willamette River is the starting point for a spectacular Rose
Festival fireworks show. This year's flurry o f color and sound will explode to life
4
Friday starting at about 9:45 p.m.
The downtown Waterfront Village is one o f the main attractions during Portland’s
Rose Festival. The carnival opens Thursday with a new emphasis on family fun.
New this year, strolling minstrels and activities for children in every corner o f Tom
McCall Waterfront Park.
Down and Out
...or Not
Coming home after panhandling
by N icole H ooper
T he P ortland O bserver
It’s hard to imagine being some­
thing you’ re not even if it’s for only
two hours, but I tried.
While walking in the streets of
downtown Portland it’s very com­
mon to be approached by a pan­
handler. Daily, people make it their
job to ask strangers for “spare
change.”
Recently, after the morning rush
hour, I went to Pioneer Square to
see how profitable panhandling
could be. Asking for money may
pay great dividends for some and
perhaps that is why some home­
less people have made it their job.
But in my experiment, I found
the money was negligible. It was
nothing close to a minimum wage.
Personally, I believe that asking
strangers for money is inappropri­
ate. It's likely the person being
asked gets up every morning and
goes to work. They have bills and
sometimes children to feed. So why
would a stranger care to just give
out their money? The term spare
change is an oxymoron.
For two hours, I asked potential
givers for spare change. Some
didn’t acknowledge my presence.
Others were nice to enough to say
things like “Sorry, 1 don't have
any."
Overall, I found people sympa­
thetic towards the down-and-out
but skeptical. I'm sure they ques­
tion who actually needs money
and who is just making a career out
o f begging.
It was very common for people
who encountered me on the side­
walk as they headed toward their
destination, to avoid me altogether
on their way back. One man, de­
clined helping me financially, but
was nice enough to talk with me.
Mostly, I felt invisible. When
someone speaks to you, it is con­
sidered rude not to respond. But
when asking for money, passersby
act like you’re non-existent.
I may not have been dressed for
the part. T hat’s what one man told
me when I confessed to my experi­
ment.
“1 just thought you were waiting
for the bus,” said Todd Kelly. “Y ou
look too nice to be a panhandler. '
That morning, I did take a shower.
Panhandlers
must have a heart
o f steel, the
constant rejection
o f being told no
or just treated
less than human
is devastating.
but I didn't comb my hair or put on
deodorant. I put on clothes that
didn't match, including my ripped
Ralph Lauren sweater. I also drew a
fake bruise on my face.
Somehow. I believed my intense
photo BY M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
discomfort would be enough to
Portland Observer reporter Nicole Hooper goes on a panhandling experiment downtown. “I felt invisible,
convey my destitution.
I know how I became a panhan­ she said, describing the rejection and lack o f acknowledgement she received from passersby.
dler. But I wonder how others, like
know how it feclstobeg for money.
the homeless, get that way. Does my short experience, 1 was re ­ 27 cents.
1 feel fortunate my experience
The
total
came
to
less
than
50
theirentire family die? Disown them? jected 108 times. One man gave
was
an experiment. On this day, 1
cents
an
hour;
hardly
enough
to
me 7 0 cents, which 1 counted and
Or do they run away?
had
the
comfort of knowing that I
make
panhandling
a
career.
Panhandlers must have a heart g a v e b a c k . A n o th e r p e rs o n
had
a
place
to sleep at night and
Unless
you
are
in
dire
straits,
o f steel, the constant rejection of stopped and opened his w allet
that
I
was
going
to see my family
have
no
financial
resources,
family
being told no or ju st treated less looking for change, w hich is c o n ­
when
1
came
home.
or
friends,
you're
likely
never
to
than human is devastating. In sidered risky, a no go. He gave me
»