M arch 6, 2013
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No Immunity to Gun Violence Threat
Acting together to stop the plague
by
M arian W right
E delman
L ast w eek m arked one
y e a r sin c e 1 7 -y e a r-o ld
Trayvon M artin was killed
by a gun wielded by self-
a p p o in te d n e ig h b o rh o o d
w atchm an George Z im m erm an
after he saw T rayvon w alking
hom e from a 7-Eleven with a bag
o f Skittles and bottle o f A rizona
iced tea.
B lack children, youths, and
fam ilies know first-hand that the
killing o f black children by gun
violence is not new but a relent­
lessly unreported and under-re­
ported plague that has been dis­
proportionately snuffing out black
child lives for a very long time.
Fifteen percent o f children and
teens are black but 45 percent o f
all children and youths killed by
guns in 2010 were black. Black
m ales 15 to 19 years old were 28
times more likely than white males
the sam e age to be
killed in a gun hom i­
cide.
S h o rtly
a fte r
P r e s id e n t
K ennedy’s assassi­
nation, Dr. M artin
Luther King Jr. wrote that it was
time for our nation to do some
so u l-search in g , and w hile the
question “W ho killed President
K ennedy?” was im portant, an­
sw ering the question “W hat killed
President K ennedy?” was even
m ore critical.
Dr. King believed the answ er
was that “our late President was
assassinated by a m orally inclem ­
ent clim ate.”
“It is a clim ate filled with heavy
torrents o f false accusation, jo s ­
tling winds o f hatred, and raging
storm s o f violence,” King said.
“It is a clim ate where m en cannot
disagree w ithout being disagree­
able, and where they express dis­
sent through violence and m ur­
der. It is the same clim ate that
m urdered M edgar Evers in M is­
sissippi and six innocent Negro
children in Birmingham, Alabama.”
Dr. King further noted that the
undercurrents o f hatred and vio­
lence that m ade up this m orally
inclem ent clim ate were fueled by
our cultural em brace o f guns.
“By our readiness to allow arms
to be purchased at will and fired at
whim, by allowing our m ovie and
television screens to teach our
children that the hero is one who
m asters the art o f shooting and
the technique o f killing, by allow ­
ing all these developm ents, we
have created an atm osphere in
which violence and hatred have
becom e popular pastim es,” he
said.
T he sam e w inds o f hatred,
storms o f violence, and easy ac­
cess to and glorification o f guns
that Dr. King believed killed Presi­
dent Kennedy would soon also
kill Dr. King.
Fifty years after Dr. King de­
scribed our m orally inclem ent cli­
m ate, the outw ard signs o f racial
intolerance and hatred have un­
doubtedly dim inished but there
are still far too m any rem inders o f
the dangers lurking everywhere
th at d e v a sta te us all — lik e
T ray v o n ’s senseless death for
walking hom e while black.
B etw een 1963, w hen P re si­
dent John F. K ennedy w as a s­
sa ssin a te d , and 2 0 1 0 , n e arly
6 0 ,0 0 0 b lack ch ild ren and teens
w ere k illed by guns, o v er 1,200
ev ery y ear fo r 48 years. T h is is
17 tim es the nu m b er o f rep o rted
ly n ch in g s o f b lack A m ericans
o f all ages since 1882 b u t we
have not had an eq u iv alen t black
com m unity anti-lynching m ove­
m ent to save o u r ch ild ren from
gun violence.
W hile there are troubling un­
dertones o f racial suspicion and
fear in Trayvon M artin’s killing
which m ust be addressed as ju s ­
tice is sought, the fact is that m ost
black young people m urdered by
guns are killed by black shooters
— ju st as m ost white children and
teens m urdered by guns are killed
by white shooters.
Sadly the tragedies o f Tucson,
Aurora, N ew tow n and elsew here
m ade clear that none o f us are
safe anyw here or im m une to the
pervasive threat o f gun violence.
W e are all in the same boat and
m ust act to g eth er to stop the
plague o f violence. G un safety
laws that only apply in one city or
state can ’t fully stop our national
epidem ic o f gun proliferation and
violence any better than we can
stop a flu epidem ic by vaccinat­
ing one family.
W e m ust struggle together to
stop gun violence and to change
the m orally inclem ent clim ate that
Dr. King warned about if we are
going to protect all o f our nation’s
children everywhere.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president o f the Children's De­
fense Fund.
Defending Oregon’s Working Families
Preserving the
credit workers
have earned
C huck S heketoff
They've earned it.
W o rk in g f a m ilie s
with low incom es have
earned the Earned In­
com e Tax Credit, and
the Oregon Legislature should act
quickly to m ake sure they keep it.
M any O regonians toil in jobs
that pay too little, so they struggle
to m ake ends meet.
T hat's not right. O regonians
believe that fam ilies who work
and play by the rules should be
able to provide for their children
and get out o f poverty. That's
why the Oregon Earned Incom e
Tax C redit exists.
The O regon Earned Incom e
Tax Credit com plem ents the fed­
eral Earned Incom e Tax Credit.
The federal credit is the single
m ost effective anti-poverty pro­
gram for working fam ilies with
children. In 2010, the federal
Earned Incom e Tax C redit lifted
about 6.3 m illion people across
the country out o f poverty, in­
cluding about 3.3 m illion chil­
by
dren.
The Oregon credit works with
the federal credit to open the door
to econom ic opportunity for fam i­
lies who w ork and have
m odest incom es.
W ho are these fam i­
lies? Picture a fam ily o f a
returning veteran, a single
m o th er su p p o rtin g tw o
children or tw o young par­
ents w orking part-tim e
while they go to college. The
fam ilies helped by the Oregon
Earned Incom e Tax Credit are as
varied as our com m unities.
In all, the Oregon credit helps
about a quarter-m illion working
fam ilies — about one out o f every
seven fam ilies in the state - m ake
ends meet.
Oregon's Earned Incom e Tax
Credit is currently scheduled to
expire at the end o f 2013. If
law m akers do not renew it, those
quarter-million low-income work­
ing fam ilies will have less net
income. A tw o-parent fam ily of
four earning poverty wages, for
exam ple, w ould see its net in­
com e fall by about $300 due to
the additional taxes.
M any o f O regon's w orking
fam ilies saw their wages or hours
cut back or lost a wage earner
during the recession. M any are by corporate and wealthy inter­ that can m ake a large difference
still struggling. To ensure that ests, will vie for funding. The in the lives o f working families.
working fam ilies who've earned longer the Legislature waits to These fam ilies have earned the
the Earned Incom e Tax Credit renew and strengthen the credit, credit through work. Lawm akers
receive it, law m akers should, at a the greater the risk that working should renew and strengthen the
m inim um , extend the expiration families will come up short and credit now, not later.
date o f the current credit.
lose out on what they've earned.
Chuck Sheketoff is executive
But lawmakers should go be­
The Oregon Earned Incom e director o f the Oregon Center fo r
yond just renewing the Earned In­ Tax credit is a small investm ent Public
come Tax Credit; they should heed
Gov. Kitzhaber's call to increase it.
The governor's proposed modest
Established 1970
increase would enhance the ability
USPS 959-680 ________________________________
o f Oregon's Earned Income Tax
4 7 4 7 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211
Credit to reduce poverty for work­
P ublisher : Mark Washington
ing families and their children. Over
E d ito r : M ich a el L eighton
700,000 Oregonians would imme­
diately benefit from more net in­
E xecutive D irector : Rakeem Washington
come from the work their families
C reative D irector : P aul N e u fe ld t
do.
O ffice M anacer /C lassifieds : Lucinda Baldwin
L aw m akers can and should
make renewal and im provem ent a
A ssistant P ubusher : Leonard Latin
priority and move swiftly to pro­
S taff W rtter /P hotographer : Cari Hachmann
tect the working fam ilies who
rely on the credit. There's w ide­
P ostmaster : Send address changes to Portland Observer,
spread support for renewing and
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strengthening the credit, and no
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