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Page A4
lanuary 24, 2007
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
O pinion
Workers
Sharing
effective. The com panies they work
for have benefited tremendously. The
labor force h a sn 't been so lucky.
Though corporate CEOs are stuffing
Opportunity
should extend past
the boardroom
by
global outsourcing. Already, the y .S . m ulti-m illion d o llar bonus for "a jo b
has lost thousands o f custom er ser­ w ell done." If a com pany d o e sn ’t
vice, data entry and engineering jobs turn a profit, a C EO sh o u ld n ’t profit,
to larger and cheaper labor markets in either.
Am erica prides itself on being the
India. Econom ists say accounting and
other “white-collar” jobs are soon to land o f opportunity. That opportunity
should extend past the boardroom s
follow.
To protect its workforce, corporate and executive offices and reach into
A m erica must ensure w orker's sala­ the factories, the cubicles and the
ries grow at rates that keep pace with w arehouses.
We often look to the government,
the cost o f living. Corporations must
and
rightly so, to address the needs of
also re-invest in em ployer-sponsored
benefits - such as healthcare and the A m erican w orkforce. But our
pensions. It is these types o f incen­ nation’s corporations have a part to
tives that keep em ployees motivated play as well. Ifth isco u n try is to fulfill
Last year, executive salaries grew 25 and loyal and over the long term, her promise, the businesses that feed
our economy must share their wealth
percent. According to the Economic strengthen the company.
L arge co rp o ratio n s m ust also set its labor force.
Policy Institute, the average A m eri­
Judge Greg M athis is national
can CEO earns more in a half day of re a listic , p erfo rm an c e b ased pay
work than a m inim um wage worker m odels for their c h ie f execu tiv es. It vice president o f Rainbow PUSH
is u n acceptable for a com pany to lay and a national board member o f the
will take home all year.
To add insult to injury, many work­ o ff thousands o f w orkers and then Southern Christian Leadership Con­
ers have to deal with the reality of turn around and pay an ex ecu tiv e a feren ce.
While simultaneously denying their
laborers a salary increase and needed
benefits, corporate CEO s see no harm
i n boosting thei r personal bottom I ines.
I To protect its workforce,
J udge G reg M athis
American corporations have
grown their profits at im pres­
sive rates. Am erican workers
should have som ething to cel­
ebrate, right? Wrong. At a time
when most of this country’s
workers are struggling to make basic
ends meet, wondering how they’ll
m anage to save enough tor a com fort­
able retirem ent, many o f the country's
leading corporations are implementing
cost-saving measures that only serve
to make the rich filthy rich. It’s time
for that to change.
For nearly 10 years, American work­
ers have become more efficient and
corporate America must
ensure worker’s salaries
grow at rates that keep pace
with the cost o f living.
a
their w al­
le ts w ith
larger than life bonuses - one head of
a large global investment banking firm
is eligible for an $87 million bonus this
year - w orker's salaries have failed to
keep pace with inflation, healthcare
benefits have been reduced and cor­
porate-sponsored pension plans have
been reduced or terminated altogether.
Engage Generation Next
to the
Insanity and Bush
W ebster’s dictionary gives the definition o f insanity as doing
the same thing over again expecting different results. During the
president’s long anticipated speech it struck me that I was
hearing him saying the same thing expecting a different result.
Is this president insane?
Well he may not be but his strategy in Iraq certainly is. We
know that Bush doesn’t make foreign policy on his own. He has
his advisors. W ho are these people? “Tricky" Dick Cheney,
Condoleezza Rice, and I em phasize the “C on" and formerly
Donald Rumsfield. Rumsfield, need I say more. A sad group to
say the least. Sadistic, opportunistic and incompetent are these
so-called advisors.
W ho is to blam e for this failure that is Iraq? Sure the president
and his advisors must be accountable. But what about the
C ongress which voted to give him the authority and abandoned
its C onstitutional obligation to oversee an out-of-control adm in­
istration?
The majority o f blame must be put upon the American people.
W here have we gone? Are we now im potent? What happened
to the Am ericans o f yesteryear? Have they all died along with
Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and the other great
justice seekers o f the 60s? If such leaders were here today they
would be astounded by the passive electorate that has become
the Am erican people.
If only 17 percent o f the population has confidence in B ush's
new old strategy then shouldn't the other 83 percent be marching
on W ashington dem anding the resignation o f this Adm inistra­
tion? Must the world im plode before we act? What are we
waiting for?
Silence has become betrayal. Inaction has become unpatri­
otic. The countries o f the world now look at us with disdain.
A m erica used to be a nation envied by the rest o f the world. Now
we are despised by them. Even our allies shutter at this new
Am erica.
It's time that we awaken and take action. It’s time for George
W. Bush to know that we are America. This is not a theocracy
or dictatorship. We must act now before it is too late.
Andre Randall
Portland
Civil Rights Movement must
evolve to keep its power
M arc H. M orial
In light of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s birth­
day celebration, USA
Today recently asked me
about the future of the
civil rights movement. I
told the paper the role of
the N ational U rban
League and other civil rights
groups was evolving to cater to
the younger generation, which
possesses no m em ories o f a
struggle born well before they
were.
Today’s youth are looking for
something different than their
parents and grandparents. This
is evident in the giving patterns of
young minorities, who are more
likely to believe that the key to
greater equality is greater access
to financial power than political
power.
Instead of fighting for basic
rights guaranteed to Americans,
we are now fighting for our eco­
nomic future. There is no doubt
that African Am ericans have
made great progress in surmount­
ing past challenges and thriving
in the 21st century: Our quality
of life has improved as has our
future.
In the State of Black America
2(M)6, the National Urban League
found the overall status of blacks
to be at 73 percent of whites. In
terms of health, education and
social justice, blacks
were from 74 to 78
percent of whites and
even surpassed whites
in civic engagement.
H ow ever, eco n o m i­
cally, they lagged sub­
stantially behind at just
56 percent.
by
home ownership among blacks
hit an all-time high of nearly 50
percent.
For the African American com-
m unity to achieve econom ic
equality with whites and be com­
petitive in the global marketplace,
it is not enough just to own prop­
erty - though it’s a very good
start. We must also be able to
maintain and secure that owner­
ship for generations to come.
And it .is not enough for our
children to just graduate high
Now, the civil right struggle
is more a fight o f not only
being able to afford lunch but
being able to purchase the
lunch counter.
As I said in my keynote ad­
dress at our annual conference
last July, the idea of expanding
the American dream and table to
everyone is still relevant now as
it was in the 1960s. The fight to
sit at the lunch counter was an
important one. But what's the
use of winning the right to eat at
the lunch counter if you cannot
afford the meal? Now, the civil
right struggle is more a fight of
not only being able to afford
lunch but being able to purchase
the lunch counter.
There was a time when Afri­
can Americans were denied the
right to own property. In 2(X)4,
NEW S E A SO N S
M A
Go- Green!
S A T U R D A Y & S U N D A Y 1 1A M - 5 P M
N e e d a n o t h e r r e a s o n to e a t m o r e g r e e n s ? T h e s e
v ib r a n t v e g e ta b le s
pack
a
p o w e r fu l,
n u tr itio n a l
p u n c h in c lu d in g v ita m in - A , b e ta c a r o te n e , c a lc iu m ,
m a g n e s iu m , iro n , fo lic a c id a n d c h lo r o p h y ll. G r e e n s
a re a ls o a g r e a t s o u r c e o f fib e r a n d a re fu ll o f p la n t
c o m p o u n d s th a t o ffe r a v a rie ty o f h e a lth b e n e fits .
R e m e m b e r , th e g r e e n s w ith th e d a r k e s t, m o s t v iv id
h u e s t e n d to c o n t a in th e h ig h e s t le v e ls o f n u tr ie n ts .
the South even back in the 1960s.
The inner-city ghettos in north­
ern cities emerged out of poor
economic conditions - not nec­
essarily out of political circum­
stance.
Dr. King realized that economic
as well as political empowerment
would put the African American
community on the track to full
equality and prosperity. He fore­
saw a "host of positive psycho­
logical effects" that would result
from widespread economic secu­
rity among blacks.”
At a National Urban League
forum in Harlem last June dis­
cussing the impact of the "n-
word," one panelist said part of
the reason why the younger gen­
eration invokes the word more
freely than their elders is that
they are not as aware of the racial
epithet’s history. They don't feel
the pain of the word because
their elders would rather repress
bitter memories of the past than
relive them. But that's the last
thing we should do in our efforts
to move forward to be stronger
and better than ever.
When our youth is unaware of
what came before, we are under­
mining their ability to build upon
the m ovem ent's progress and
create a brighter future for future
g en e ratio n s. W ithout those
memories, we have no context in
which to put our aspirations.
While the movement has taken
on a new form and will serve
new constituents as the United
States evolves demographically,
we must not forget the reason
why we embraced this struggle
in the first place.
We must concede that the
challenges now faced by the black
community are somewhat dif­
ferent from the 1960s. Our youth
have our legacy in their hands.
We can either engage them and
emerge stronger or ignore them
and relinquish our power.
school. To obtain the jobs of the
future, they will need to go to
college at the very least to ac­
quire the skills of the future and
gain the financial freedom we
desire for them.
In 1967, at the 11th Conven­
tion of the Southern Christian
LeadershipConference, Dr. Mar­
tin Luther King Jr. pondered the
question, "Where do we go from
here?"
He also realized that the move­
ment he helped create was an
evolving entity. To grow and
flourish, it couldn't just concen­
trate on securing basic liberties
for minorities. It had to expand
into something bigger - not only
for the sake of the future genera­
tions but for the legacy of those
who gave their lives to the cause.
Dr. King realized that to keep
the movement alive he needed to
began to expand its scope to
issues standing in the way of
greater equality such as poverty
and the Vietnam War.
Mare H. Morial is president
After all, it wasn't just about
and
chief executive officer o f the
guaranteeing basic inalienable
National
Urban League.
rights to African Americans in
a:in
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