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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2012)
Opinion The Skanner News Endorsements “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., O ver the past few weeks we have had excellent interactions with our readers over the May 15 primary elections. We solicited your questions for the candidates on Facebook – and received some of the best feed- back ever, which we incorporated into our cov- erage. We also fielded calls from around the city from voters who directly expressed their opinions about the candidates of their choice – and we enjoyed hearing their views. This election season is rolling out at a time when our local communities are facing an eco- nomic and social catastrophe. In Portland, two of the most celebrated schools are back on the chopping block; public transit has been trimmed so severely that whole sections of the city worry they are being cut off from the downtown core; home foreclosures are swamp- ing the housing system and driving skyward even the cost of rentals. Our youth of color and our elders seem to be in the path of this deadly tornado as service programs of all kinds are set to be decimated by budgets currently under consideration at every arm of local government. Meanwhile, unemployment is dragging down our commu- nity like a cement weight on a swimmer. We ask ourselves: What kind of political leadership will lead us out of this mess? Is it fair to criticize the incumbents who failed to do what even the most powerful fig- ures in the nation can’t fix — the economy? And all the backbiting, negative campaigning and misinformation has kept us shaking our heads at times. One thing is clear: Whoever is elected to office had better be ready to stop attacking their colleagues and start engaging in the real issues. For this crop of endorsements, we at The Skan- ner News put a premium on individuals who know how their prospective elected offices work, because our region doesn’t have time for learning curves right now. We also looked for people who value public input, collaboration M ULTNOMAH C OUNTY C OMMISSION D ISTRICT 1 4 D EBORAH K AFOURY M ULTNOMAH C OUNTY C OMMISSION D ISTRICT 3 Candidates C ITY OF P ORTLAND MAYOR 4 C HARLIE H ALES M ETRO C OUNCILOR D ISTRICT 5 4 S AM C HASE M ETRO C OUNCILOR D ISTRICT 6 4 B OB S TACY 4 J UDY S HIPRACK C ITY OF P ORTLAND C OMMISSIONER P OSITION 1 4 A MANDA F RITZ C ITY OF P ORTLAND C OMMISSIONER P OSITON 4 4 S TEVE N OVICK and grassroots community. And here’s a heads-up for the candidates themselves: You’d better be up to the challenge and ready to get things done. In the races for Multnomah County Commis- sion, we endorse incumbents Deborah Kafoury for District 1 and Judy Shiprack for District 3. In the City of Portland races we endorse Charlie Hales for mayor and Amanda Fritz for City Commissioner Position 1. We are endorsing Steve Novick for Portland City Commissioner Position 4, because he is politi- cally sophisticated, smart and has a long track record of fearlessly confronting large institu- tions in the public interest – however we don’t see him as a consensus builder, and that is a concern. For Metro Councilors, we endorse Bob Stacy for District 6, and Sam Chase for District 5. Chase is not an incumbent, but his political ties to the Oregon Opportunity Network, the Clackamas Community Land Trust and cur- rently the Coalition of Community Health Clinics puts his knowledge base squarely on some of the crisis hotspots right now. This was a tough decision because we like Helen Ying’s focus, stamina and positive attitude; hopefully Ying will run for office again and we will have a chance to possibly give her our endorsement in the future. We also endorse Measure 26-125, funding for our local library system. If passed the levy will simply continue the previous levy, at .89 cents per $1,000 assessed home value. Ballot Measure R Y ES ON M ULTNOMAH C OUNTY #26-125 L IBRARY L EVY 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Finding Morality in Budget Documents T his week the nation funds our priorities as we pay our annual tax bill. “Our budget is a moral document and it is either going to reflect the best of who we are or the worst.” This was so elo- quently stated by the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners. Tax expendi- tures thus speak to who we are as a people. They define the sacri- fices and choices we are willing to make as we look to the future for our nation and citizens young and old alike. Each expenditure is by necessity a critical affirmation of meeting the nation’s needs. With a continued waning econo- my, each dollar becomes even more significant. So many issues remain under funded or non-fund- ed and therefore the decisions we make are even more critical. From education, healthcare, infrastruc- ture to environmental stewardship we are forced to choose and prior- itize our needs. Yet there remains a gorilla in the room that not only threatens our very survival, it steals from the lifeblood of every community in our nation, depriv- ing them of precious resources and taking a toll in opportunity costs – the critical programs left wanting when funding is not available. I am speaking of the massive dollars spent on behalf of nuclear weapons programs. Once again this number will exceed $54 bil- lion for the current fiscal year according to Stephen Schwartz, author of the Atomic Audit. The weapons that these expendi- tures support threaten our very Page 4 The Portland Skanner April 18, 2012 P EACE AND S ECURITY Robert Dodge existence every moment of every day. Every citizen and every com- munity feels the burden of these costs. From our nation’s poorest community—Buffalo County, South Dakota with its 1912 resi- dents, 49.3 percent who live in poverty spending $138,172 of its limited dollars—to Los Angeles County spending over $1.7 billion, the costs are great and morally reprehensible. Public education is but one example of lost opportunity. On a daily basis school districts across scientists, teachers, professionals and leaders. I ask, is this our pri- ority? What is the ripple effect of such short-sightedness? We all will suffer the consequences. This does not have to be the case. When will we speak up? We have an opportunity and responsibility to realize the possibilities before us. We now have bipartisan elder statesmen who are working to globally eliminate all nuclear weapons stockpiles. We even have U.S. Air Force researchers and RAND corporation nuclear plan- ners who suggest the U.S. could address its stated military con- cerns with roughly 300 nuclear weapons. Current global stock- So many issues remain under funded or non-funded and therefore the decisions we make are even more critical the land deal with ever shrinking resources. As a Californian I am terribly concerned for our state’s public financed education. Cali- fornia ranks 48 in the nation in per pupil spending. As an American, I know the cuts in public education across the land will have an ever- lasting effect on the future of our nation and the world. Is this really what we want? Today’s children are tomorrow’s piles contain 19,500 weapons with over 94 percent in the U.S. and Russian arsenals. Nuclear weapons programs are not an enti- tlement program. They have out- lived their Cold War purpose and it is now time to work to reduce and ultimately eliminate these dangerous weapons and wasteful expenditures. The choice is ours. National and international surveys have con- firmed that a majority of U.S. and global citizens want to see nuclear weapons eliminated. Their contin- ued existence encourages further spread of nuclear materials and weapons. Now is the time to rede- fine our priorities. We the people have an opportu- nity and responsibility to make a difference. It is time for all of us to raise our collective voice and demand that the nuclear madness stop. We can no longer gamble on our future relying on luck to pro- tect us from accidental or inten- tional nuclear strike. Nor can we afford to waste precious resources on any program that does not add value to our future let alone that which threatens our very exis- tence. Every elected official needs to be questioned what they are doing specifically to work toward a nuclear free world. You can con- tact your congressional represen- tative or senator by going to www.contactingthecongress.org. Let your voice be heard. For when the people lead, the leaders will follow. Robert Dodge, M.D. is a board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles (www.psrla.org) where he is a Peace and Security Ambassador. He is also a board member of Beyond War (www.beyondwar.org) where he coordinates their Nuclear Weapons Abolition Team. He is co-chairman of Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions (www.c-p- r.net).
