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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2011)
local news Jobs continued from page 1 has protested unfair hiring policies in public ects in Oregon have a dismal record for diversity in hiring and contracting. As pre- projects. Under the agreement, minority contrac- viously reported in The Skanner News, for Oregon Department of tors would not have to join the union or pay example, union dues – a long-term stumbling block. Transportation awarded just three contracts It also would create targets for minority par- to African American firms over a seven- ticipation and monetary sanctions when tar- year period from 2000-2007. So far, the Columbia Crossing project has done no bet- gets are not met. ter – with just 1 percent of “Our intention, contracts awarded to our hope is to get Black-owned businesses, a lot of different so far. government enti- “African American con- ties to use this tractors face barriers gain- document,” ing access to government Tweedie says. contracts because of racial ‘We have to pro- --Doug Tweedie bias, as documented in the vide continuity Oregon Regional of opportunity. It Consortium Disparity doesn’t do any- Study, conducted on body any good, whether part of the workforce, or a minori- behalf of 10 government agencies during ty contractor, to get one job. They need con- the mid-1990s,” concludes Karen Gibson, a tinued opportunities to grow and progress in professor in Portland State University’s Toulan School of Urban Studies and the industry.” Living-wage jobs are exactly what Planning. “And the effect trickles down; African Americans, Latinos and Native African American contractors are more Americans in the Portland-metro region likely to hire workers of color, so a barrier need. Struggling with unemployment rates to the contractor has a broad impact.” Barriers also have prevented young peo- 37 percent higher than Whites, according to Portland State University’s recent ple of color from entering the industry. Communities of Color report, the poorest Unions were slow to welcome Blacks into Portlanders have been hardest hit with skilled trades, either as apprentices or as contractors. One AFL- CIO affiliate had a unemployment rates of above 30 percent. Yet historically, African Americans, in stated whites-only policy until 1964. Jobs particular, have been locked out of con- and contracts went to a predominantly white struction opportunities. Public works proj- circle of insiders. ‘We have to provide continuity of opportunity’ Maurice Rahming (right) and kenny Owens Tweedie said the Carpenters and Engineers are now committed to diversify- ing their ranks and making sure everyone has an equal opportunity to enter the con- struction trades. Simply because it’s the right thing to do, he says. “It’s very important to the Carpenters to grow the diversity of our contractor base and the diversity of our membership. “This is something we should have done a long time ago. There certainly are a lot of people of color out there who are very capa- ble of doing well in our industry if they understand the opportunities out there and have a fair shot at getting into it.” The agreement sets ambitious targets for apprenticeship programs: All contracts over See DivErSiTY on page 9 Violence continued from page 1 whether violent rhetoric fueled the carnage — or it was just the work of one mentally ill person. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, now in custody killing six people including a child and a federal judge – and gravely wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords – is not cooperating with Pima County officials, who say he has yet to talk about the attack. While numerous interviews with Loughner’s former classmates at Pima Community College draw a picture of a severely unbalanced young man, powerful conservative media figures including Sarah Palin have been accused of inciting violence with website postings and heated language. Palin, during the midterm elections, post- ed a graphic on her Facebook page depict- ing a map of the United States with 20 gun sight-shaped images over states where Democratic incumbents who voted for the Health Care Reform Act were “targeted” for defeat by conservative voters. The image listed the 20 candidates below it, including Giffords. “We’ll aim for these races and many oth- ers,” Palin wrote on the page. “This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington. Please go to sarahpac.com and join me in the fight.” The online activist network CREDO on Sunday started circulating an online petition directed at Palin, calling for her to “Renounce Violent Political Rhetoric.” “But only Sarah Palin put 20 Democratic members of Congress in her crosshairs, and only Sarah Palin bragged that 18 are now gone, leaving Rep. Giffords and Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia,” the activists wrote. Giffords herself, in a television news interview last March, directly criticized Palin’s “crosshairs” poster on MSNBC dur- ing an interview about her Congressional offices being vandalized. “We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the thing is that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district, and when people do that, they’ve got to realize there are conse- quences to that action,” Giffords said. White aryan resistance The court case against the Metzgers hinged on a witness who approached The Anti-Defamation League with direct evidence linking the Metzgers to the skinheads who killed Seraw, an Ethiopian immi- grant and student who attended Portland State University. That witness, Dave Mazella, had been a “recruiter” for WAR who had traveled between Metzger’s home in Northern California and personally met with the East Side White Pride members later con- victed of killing Seraw: Kenneth M. Mieske, Kyle H. Brewster, and Steven R. Strasser. SPLC Attorney Morris Dees used the doc- trine of “vicarious liability” to argue the Doctor murders The 1980s and 90s in Portland saw many incidents of violence linked to the anti- choice movement, including a local clinic bombing and an attempted assassination by a Portland woman who traveled to Kansas in 1993 and succeeded in shooting Dr. George Tiller – but failing to kill him. Tiller was serving as an usher during serv- ices at his church when he was killed by avowed anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder ices. Arson fires were set repeatedly. At the same time, a local group linked to Operation Rescue, called Advocates for Life Ministries, staged weekly clinic block- ades, physically preventing women from entering birth control facilities, at times leading to physical confrontations and tus- sles in doorways and on sidewalks. Lawyers for Planned Parenthood called as witnesses four doctors who testified they feared for their lives after appearing on the “Nuremberg Files” list: Dr. Warren Hern of Boulder, Colo.; Dr. Robert Crist of Kansas City, Mo.; Dr. Elizabeth Newhall of Portland; and Dr. James Newhall of Portland. Defendants included a core group of Portland res- idents as well as others convicted of bombings around the country, including Maryland resi- dent Michael Bray, author of a book arguing for the murder of abortion providers to save the lives of unborn children, called, “A Time to Kill.” The Nuremberg Files court case took years to resolve, with verdicts flip-flopping repeatedly on the issue of whether the “wanted” posters were protected speech or not. Ultimately the defendants were found guilty of making “illegal threats” against the doctors and care providers. Ina separate case, Advocates for Life Ministries member and Portland homemak- er Shelly Shannon went on to be convicted of dozens of clinic bombings and other attacks, as well as the shooting of Tiller. She was given 31 years and is slated for release in 2018, The Oregonian reported. When Tiller was assassinated a year and a half ago, The Oregonian quoted Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry as calling Tiller a “murderer,” and denying that his group had any responsibility for the killing. “Horrifically, he reaped what he sowed,” Terry said. Ultimately the defendants were found guilty of making ‘illegal threats’ against the doctors in May, 2009. The “Nuremberg Files” case was based on a Federal law against inciting violence against or threatening abortion doctors, as well as racketeering laws designed to pros- ecute organized crime. Oregonline.com’s detailed archive of the Oregonian’s cov- erage of the trial boasts a time- line, lists of the “players” in the case, and many editorials and articles dating from that time. Oregon voters legalized abor- tion in 1969, but rebuffed initia- tives to curtail the procedure in 1978, 1986, and 1990. In 1993, on the other hand, after years of increasing- ly violent anti-abortion protests at clinics across the state, the state legislature declared it a felony to “interfere with a med- ical facility.” Starting in 1984, and through 1990, fire- bombs were mailed to several abortion clin- ics as well as the Bour’s Center, a men’s health clinic that provides sterilization serv- Attorney Morris Dees used the doctrine of ‘vicarious liability’ to argue the Metzgers were responsible for acts committed by their followers Metzgers were responsible for acts commit- ted by their followers. The jury found for Seraw’s family, awarding them a record-set- ting $12.5 million judgment that forced Metzger out of his home. In 1991 he was back in hot water for copyright infringement for selling a line of Nazi-themed Bart Simpson t-shirts. january 12, 2011 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3
