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