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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2012)
I 'ri'f jjortlattb Observer__________________ March 21.2012 Page 8 O pinion Spend a Morning with a City Worker We need these vital services and the jobs by J erry J ohnson As a sew er utility w orker with the C ity o f P o rtlan d ’s m aintenance b u reau for 22 years, I w ake at the crack o f daw n to start my day. B ecause I'm dealing w ith the pain o f a spinal cord injury from a traum atic fall in July 2 0 1 1 ,1 need extra time to shower, stretch, and loosen up for the day ahead. A s I grab my keys to head out the door, 1 say goodbye to my w ife Angel, and hug my children Yazm en and J ’lynn tight, w ishing them a good day at school. In the c ar I notice that because o f the n ig h t’s heavy rain all the street drains are clogged. But as I head up the street, m y eyes locate our city vactor truck (a m assive sew er cleaning system on w heels) and I w ave to the crew s City of Portland sewer maintenance worker Jerry “J J ” Johnson uses a bullhorn at a rally to spread the world about the impact of city budget cuts on the community. heading tow ard the clogged drains. I’m sure they w ere called in before shift to handle the flooding catch b asin s. As I turn onto W illam ette B oule vard, I notice a tw o m an paving crew pouring hot asphalt m ix in several o f the holes I hit last night on the w ay hom e. T his crew is responding to a call, helping drivers avoid accidents before the m orning rush hour. A s I approach N orth V ancouver A venue, heading north tow ard the m aintenance bureau, 1 w atch b eau tiful autum n leaves fall to the ground w ith the rain. T h en I see the convoy o f flashing lights and heavy m a chinery sw eeping and collecting slippery leaves that w ere causing problem s for the bicyclists and p e d estrian s. As I pull into w ork, I w atch our traffic electrical crew hanging teth ers for signals that w ere dam ag ed in a car accident in the early m orning hours. This morning I am filled with pride as I see the w orkers o f the C ity o f P ortland doing th eir best to m ain tain the infrastructure o f the city. W e get up in the early m orning to respond to em erg en cy calls no m at ter w here o r w hy. I really appreciate o ur dedication to m aintaining the livability and quality o f life in the C ity o f Portland. From street c lea n ing, to paving and traffic signals, the em ployees o f the C ity o f R oses respond, repair, and m aintain the infrastructure that keeps the city m oving. U nfortunately, the w ork w e do is th reaten ed . C ity C ouncil is planning to cut o u r budget and lay o ff m any o f the w orkers w ho m aintain the streets and parks o f Portland. But we w ill not stand by and let C ity H all throw in the tow el on o ur services. W e are on your side, fighting to protect P o rtlan d ’s future. B ecause o f m y injury, I am d eal ing w ith serious pain and m obility issues, but I refuse to give up on m yself, ju s t as I refuse to give up on Portland. As a h u sb an d and fath er I have to fight for a full recovery, and I have to fight for m y jo b and the services m y co w o rk ers provide to the c o m m unity. P lease jo in m e. Join m y c o w orkers. W e are your neighbors. Let C ity C ouncil know w e need so lutions, not cuts. Jerry “JJ" Johnson o f Portland is a member o f Laborers ’ Local483. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time Especially if they want to be fooled by L ee A . D aniels £ N a tu r a lly , th e lio n ’s share o f com - < ■ j m en tary ab o u t the Republican primaries la st w e e k h as fo- —OS l E I cused on divining the m eaning o f R ick S an to ru m ’s unexpected defeat o f both N ewt Gingrich and M itt R om ney in A labam a and M ississippi. But I’ve been struck by the one response o f likely R epublican v o t ers in the tw o states to one question on the Public Policy Polling survey that w as released the day before the vote. T he response underscored the w isdom o f an observation that, as a child, I heard my m other say from tim e to tim e. Y ou can fool som e o f the people all o f the tim e, she w ould quietly exclaim . In tim e I cam e to realize there w as an unspoken co d a to this observation: especially if they w ant to be fooled. In that regard, B arack O b a m a ’s presidency continues to re-affirm w h a t’s been proven to m e m any tim es in the past: M om w as a w ise wom an. S o , fo r all th o se A m e ric a n s w h o ’ve show n these past four years their hunger to be fooled all the tim e, I w ant you to look at the acco m p a nying photo (right). T his photo proves that B arack O bam a, ourcurrent C hief Executive, an d his im m e d ia te p re d e ce sso r, G eorge W . B ush, have been allies in a decades-old conspiracy to ... I know you can fill in the rest, because y o u ’re the kind o f people w ho can believe - o r disbelieve - an y th in g . T he latest confirm ation that hard core O bam a-haters w ill disbelieve any facts that cast him as a norm al A m erican and believe any claim , no m atter how preposterous, that casts him as “ u n -A m erican ” is right there in Q uestion 22, respectively, o f the sep arately -co n d u cted public policy surveys. It asks: “ D o you think B arack O b am a is a C hristian, o r a M uslim , o r are you not sure?” T he results: nearly h a lf o f the states’ R epublican voters, 45 p er cent in A labam a, 52 percent in M is sissippi, say they believe B arack O bam a is a M uslim . It gets w orse. O f the rem aining G O P voters, only 14 percent o f A la bam a R epublicans and 12 percent o f M ississip p i R ep u b lican s b eliev e O b am a is, as he has said repeatedly he is, a C hristian. In A labam a 41 percent o f R epublicans say they d o n ’t know w hat O b a m a ’s religion is; in M ississippi, it’s 36 percent. Perhaps one sh o u ld n ’t be su r prised. A fter all, as a group, A la bam a and M ississippi w hite voters are am ong the m ost conservative in the country. In both states, nearly h a lf o f those answ ering the polling su rv ey d e sc rib e d th e m selv e s as “ very” conservative, and another q uarter to a third said they w ere “ som ew hat” conservative. B oth states w ere the m ost racist o f the O ld C o n fed eracy during the Jim C row era and the m ost resistant to the C ivil R ights M ovem ent o f the 1950s and 1960s. In 2008 voting to ta ls s h o w e d th a t less than 15 percent o f w hite voters in e i th e r state cast th eir ballots fo r O bam a. N o n e th e le s s , o n one level, it is asto n ishing that, after all the vetting o f candidate O b a m a ’s background during the tw o -y ear long m arathon to the N o v em b er 2008 e lec tion, and all the fu r th er discussion o f his b a c k g r o u n d s in c e , i » » » » » » • » som e sm all but significant n um ber o f w hites eith er insists that O bam a is a M uslim , or declares they “ d o n ’t kn o w ” if he is o r not. Both o f these groups o f voters are grasping at straw s. O r, rather, figm ents: the figm ents o f a racist im agination. B elieving that B arack O bam a is a M uslim , o r “not k n o w in g ” w hether h e ’s a C h ristian are acts o f extrem e self-deception, o f not w anting to know the truth. I t’s the m odern-day eq uivalent o f the segregationist cry o f the Jim C row era that black s who p ushed for civil rights w ere “co m m u n ists” th em selv es o r dupes o f w hite com m unists. As that tw isted reasoning had it, th eir N egroes ju st w o u ld n ’t th in k o f u p settin g the peaceful relations that ex isted b e tw een southern blacks and w hites by d em anding racial equality. T hat had to be the w ork o f outside ag ita tors. T hus, one w itn essed the ab su r dity o f segregationists, w ho w ere fo rever declaring w hite S o u th ern ers the “m ost patriotic” o f all A m eri cans, labeling the great m ovem ent to expand d em ocracy fo r all a co m m unist plot. In o th e r w o rd s, b iz a rre c o n spiracy theories and im plicit o r ex plicit assertions that black A m eri cans a re n ’t really A m erican citizens are an old tradition in A m erican life. N ow , as before, som e w hites are trying to h o ld on to th eir racist p re cepts b y im agining blacks as th e y ’d like them to be. T h at these w hites in A lab am a and M ississippi, and else w here, w ould, I ’m sure, vigorously claim their feelings are sincere in no w ay u n d erm in es the reality that th e y ’re absurd. T hen, o f course, there are the c y n ic a l O b a m a -h a te rs, the ones w h o ’ve tried one ploy after another to appeal to the w orst instincts o f w hite co nservative voters. The latest new taw dry conspiracy theory co m es from the m edia fac tory o f d eceit once ruled by the no w -d ead A ndrew B reitbart. B re itb a rt's su cc e sso r recen tly ch arg ed that the late D errick B ell, one o f the m ost d iscerning analysts o f post-W orld W ar T w o A m erica, w as a racist, and that O b am a is, too. T he evidence: Bell w as a professor at H arvard Law School w hile O bam a w as a student there, and O bam a praised B ell and briefly hugged him w hile introducing him at a student ra lly s u p p o rtin g B e ll’s p ro te s t against the absence o f black w om en faculty m em bers at the law school. T hat p rofoundly absurdist claim w as quickly seconded by that m as te r o f logical thinking and speech, Sarah Palin, w ho ad d ed that “W hat O b am a seem s to w ant to do is go back before [the Civil W ar] w hen w e w ere in d ifferen t classes based on incom e, b ased on co lo r o f skin.” In short, Palin declared that the nation ’ s first black President o f m ixed continued on page 18
