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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 2015)
HONORING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Strike continued from page 10 with housing, public assis- tance, education and training, and economic sta- bility and mobility compound their predica- ment. In the case of public hous- ing, for example, federal guidelines bar people with certain convictions and criminal activity – mostly drug-related, but also vio- lent and sexual offenses – from receiving assistance. However, local agencies manage federal housing programs and have authori- ty to create their own guidelines. In many areas, agencies go beyond the fed- eral guidelines to evict or deny housing to entire fami- lies if any one member has an encounter with the crimi- nal justice system, regardless of whether they were ever convicted. Similar restrictions exist on receiving food assis- tance, federal grants, and need-based aid for college. There’s also the significant challenge of debt incurred from moving through the criminal justice system. “Examples include vari- ous types of ‘user fees’ that get tacked onto a convic- tion, public defender fees for defendants who exercise their right to counsel, and ‘pay-to-stay’ fees to offset the costs of incarceration, among many, many others. Total criminal justice debts can rise into the hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars,” the report reads. The report makes several recommendations to both public and private sectors ing upon a year being employed in his field. At night he goes to school to earn an HVAC certification, which will be his third pro- fessional license. In the future, he hopes to start his own company to give peo- There’s also the significant challenge of debt incurred from moving through the criminal justice system on improving outcomes for Americans with criminal records. Most recommenda- tions center on new or updated legislation in employment, background check regulations, public assistance, criminal justice debts including child sup- port, educational aid, and more. Currently, Lewis is com- ple second chances. “You have to give people something to do, something they can be proud of,” says the father of two. “You serve your time, and then it’s like double jeopardy because every time you apply for a job it comes up. It’s one strike and you’re out. Even in baseball there’s three strikes.” Two Men continued from page 2 like me – for guapos used to working the instructive and destructive intersections of our city’s several vigorous ethnic streams with our robust mainstream – late night Timothy Lake is as near as we may ever come to immediacy with our Cre- ator. To the unspeakable grandness of our universe. Toughness and tenderness all at once And that’s when it hap- pened. That’s when Dr. King and President Johnson came back to me. A couple of minutes earli- er, I had wrestled my heavy peepers away from that great mystery above us. We had just settled our tired bones into our shared Northface bag, when those two big men crackled to life, right there on the furry black backsides of my eye- lids. I saw Dr. King’s polished black eyes; I saw President Johnson’s determined brows; both of them in a monochrome matching Timothy Lake’s nightscape. Had they appeared like that on my iPad, had this been a FaceTime call, I would’ve snapped a still shot. I would’ve sent it and them lickity-split to Ore- gonLive.com. Historians characteriza- tions of President Johnson’s Machiavellian modus operendi nothwithstanding, there’s unmistakable ten- derness in the lines across the President’s forehead, lines marking his and Dr. King’s historic meeting of minds. It’s a moment that hardly ever happens. Not in the individuated and accel- erated West, where tough guys like LBJ rule. Not in the more commu- nal cultures of all those Page 20 The Portland and Seattle Skanner January 14, 2015 developing nations con- stantly sending their most ambitious families packing here; nacent nations where we follow tender guys like Our Lady Aung San Suu Kyi and Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness Dalai Lama. Mainstream commenta- tors aside, we know that the responsibility of making common meaning between both kinds of men – one trading in political punch, the other committed to cir- culating spiritual capital – falls among us New Ameri- can dreamers. It will also have to be the work of our women, coming into their political and moral authori- ty, to blend better these two distinct streams of leader- ship. To lead better, by better articulating both. President Johnson’s 1960s Great Society initia- tives were and remain, a great national agenda. Dis- appointment with his and the Reverend Dr. King’s common cause is mostly on account of our misunder- standing two kinds of giants. Like we mistake fir for pine. Like we mistake planets for stars. Ancient evergreen enforce humbled silence. Old school congressmen trade horses. Spinning plan- ets pull us to rocketing expensive science way out there; blinking stars pull ambitious sailors across dark seas toward American ideals. Each kind of leadership, every kind of heavenly body, is essential to good society. American success depends on us understand- ing and weaving daily, both Reverend King’s eyes and LBJ’s brows.
