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.
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property of The Skanner. We are
not re spon sible for lost or damaged
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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.