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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 10, 2015)
Opinion Charity No Substitute for Justice “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ernie F oster Founder/Publisher B oBBie D ore F oster Executive Editor J erry F oster Advertising Manager C hristen M C C urDy News Editor P atriCia i rvin Graphic Designer a rashi y oung D onovan M. s Mith Reporters M oniCa J. F oster Seattle Office Coordinator J ulie K eeFe s usan F rieD Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 I n his speech the night before his murder Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. repeated the Bibli- cal parable of the Good Samari- tan who stopped and helped the desperate traveler who had been beaten, robbed, and left half dead as he journeyed along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. The Good Samaritan is tradition- ally considered a model of char- ity for his willingness to treat a stranger as a neighbor and friend. Dr. King agreed that we are all called to follow his example and serve those around us who need help. But he reminded us that true compassion—true justice—re- quires also attacking the forces that leave others in need in the first place. Many of the cracks in America’s edifice Dr. King identified over a half century ago are deeper today. CEO compensation and corporate greed and welfare have skyrock- eted to morally obscene levels while middle class and minimum wage workers and people seek- ing work have been left behind. In 2012-2013, 4.9 million Amer- ican households, including 1.3 million with children, had no cash income, relying only on the Sup- plemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) to stave off the wolves of hun- ger—a program Republican ma- jorities in both houses of Congress seek to shred while increasing government welfare to the wealth- iest individuals and corporations. Countless Black, Latino, and Na- tive American youths see no hope for the future because there are no jobs for them and our schools are not preparing the majority of them for the jobs of the future. Government safety net programs Marian Wright Edelman Children’s Defense Fund have lifted many millions but not all children out of poverty. Invest- ments in nine federal programs that help make work pay, increase employment, and meet children’s basic needs could lift 60 percent of our 14.7 million poor children out of poverty now; instead these on Poverty attempted to address some of the inequalities in the United States that needed redress- ing and restructuring. But Richard Nixon sent a very different mes- sage as he accepted the Repub- lican presidential nomination in August 1968 already criticizing President Johnson’s new anti-pov- erty efforts. When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, he gave a sim- ilar message about letting people take care of themselves—all the more charged because he chose to deliver it at an appearance at the Neshoba County Fair in Phil- adelphia, Mississippi, the coun- We must reject proposals that treat our children so unfairly while others lavish tens of billions on the powerful and rich programs are under systematic attack today and we must reject proposals that treat our children so unfairly while others lavish tens of billions on the powerful and rich. With true structural change there would be far less need for charity; without it the very best charitable efforts will never be enough. How many private foundations could make up for the denial of Medicaid or for the looming cuts in food stamps and other safety net programs? Yet like so many other proph- ets Dr. King’s voice was often at odds with leaders or conveniently left unheard by citizens in his own land. During Dr. King’s lifetime, Pres- ident Lyndon Johnson’s great War ty where three young civil rights workers–James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwer- ner–were murdered in June 1964. Reagan said as governor of Cali- fornia he had learned many people were poor because the govern- ment “bureaucracy” there to help them “has them so economically trapped that there is no way they can get away.” His first budget as president sought to eradicate vir- tually the entire federal safety net and replace it with block grants and billions of budget cuts. The same familiar accusations and policies are back from some leaders today who believe govern- ment’s safety net is responsible for putting poor people in a “poverty trap,” and they will only be able to escape it if we shred the safety net to pieces. Can the most dedicated volun- teer at a children’s hospital give every child in her community access to preventive health care if Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are re- structured or slashed deeply as some are proposing? Should we be satisfied because we helped a single wounded trav- eler if we didn’t do anything else about the rest who travel the road to Jericho at risk of attack or unjust stop-and-frisk and police brutality tactics and law enforcement poli- cies that too often take rather than protect Black lives? What is so scary today is that so many young children and men of color have to combat daily violence in their own neighborhoods and from law enforcement officials enjoined to protect them. I believe we are facing another inflection point in our nation and I hope and pray we will hear and heed and move towards and not away from becoming a more just nation. Will we just let everybody worry about themselves—and rely on needed acts of charity—to get by? Or, will we reform the deep unjust structural inequalities and injustices at America’s core that favor the powerful. Marian Wright Edelman is pres- ident of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Be- hind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and success- ful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and com- munities. For more information go to www.childrensdefense.org E-mail: info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association 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 unsolicit- ed. © 2015 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE- SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To view The Skanner website on your mobile device, scan this QR code • Local news • Opinions • Jobs, Bids • Sports • Entertainment • Music reviews • Bulletin board • RSS feeds Playing in Parks with Clean Air This Summer P hysical activity can produce long-term health benefits and prevent chronic diseas- es, the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. It also, relieves stress, counters obe- sity, and increases your longevity. Most of us need to exercise more. Maintaining a physical activity routine of 30 minutes daily of ex- ercise for adults, and 60 minutes daily for children can result in better physical and mental health. You may want to check out Port- land Parks & Recreation for all the different recreational activities they offer. Also, congratulations to Port- land Parks & Recreation for now becoming a smoke-free environ- ment throughout the entire park system. The smoke-free policy takes ef- fect July 1. This new policy aligns with Portland Parks & Recre- ation’s focus on “Healthy Parks, Healthy Portland.” This smoke- free policy designates all park areas and events held at the parks to be free of smoke and tobacco in any form including products such as cigarettes, cigarillos, ci- gars, clove cigarette, e-cigarettes, nicotine vaporizers, nicotine liq- uids, hookahs, pipes, chew, snuff, Page 2 June 10, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Midge Purcell Urban League of Portland smokeless tobacco, kreteks and marijuana. African-Americans have partic- ularly high rates of smoking-relat- ed chronic disease. The Centers for Disease Control natural areas from the potential risk of fires and environmental harm caused by littering of ciga- rette butts and/ other tobacco-re- lated waste. This policy also sup- ports individuals who are trying to quit smoking or tobacco use or have already quit. The policy reduces children and youth exposure to smoking and to- bacco use, which not only protects their health, but also helps dis- courage them from starting a habit that is difficult to quit. The leading cause of preventable death in Ore- gon is still tobacco-related diseas- es which costs Multnomah County This smoke-free policy designates all park areas and events held at the parks to be free of smoke and tobacco in any form and Prevention (CDC) warns the dangers of the use of e-cigarettes as studies have found carcinogens and toxins in e-cigarettes. Creating healthy and safe en- vironments protects Portland residents and visitors, especially children, and protects parks and 223.5 million dollars each year in medical care, and 195.7 million dollars in lost productivity. Multnomah County recently awarded a grant, Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) to increase the number of African American/Blacks with access to tobacco/nicotine-free en- vironments, among other things. One of three methods is to in- crease the number of outdoor settings implementing new or expanded tobacco and/or nico- tine-free policies. REACH is a three year grant issued by the CDC to create policy, systems, and en- vironmental changes affecting the health of the county’s African American/Black community in particular through both nutrition and tobacco policies to change the environment. These policies span the life- course and reach infants, youth, pregnant women, adults, and el- ders. As Portland Parks Commission- er Amanda Fritz stated, “expand- ing Portland Parks & Recreation existing tobacco-free policy across the entire system sends a consist message. It helps create a healthy and safe environment within all of Portland Parks & Recreation-- es- pecially the children and youth.” Portland Parks & Recreation of- fers a variety of fun activities, listed on their website (check out summer free for all events) and includes amenities such as public transportation through Trimet, re- strooms, signs, and parking.
