Oregon Advance Times_1968-03-21

I The Oregon Advance(flMES Publishing Company, Inc., non-profit corporation, Publisher Chairman of the Board • • • • •••••••••••••••••.•••••.•.••• Rozell Gilmore Vice-Chairman • • • • • • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Hazel G. Hays Secretary •••••••••.•••••••••••.•••••••••.•. : ••.••• Amelia Stiggers Treasurer • • • • •••••••••••••••••••.•••••••••..•.•••• Samuel Johnson Editor • • • • •••••••.•••••.•••••••••.•.•••••••.••••..• Dan Hayes Advertising Manager •••••••.• ..•••••.•.•••••.•.•.•.••• George Christian Office Co-ordinator ••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••.•••••• Averill Geus Offices at 714-1/2 N. E. Alberta, Portland. Phone •••••.•.••.••. 288-6409 Mailing Address ••••••••••.••• Post Office Box 11274, Portland, Oregon 97211 Subscriptions: By mail, $4.50 per year in advance. By carrier, 40¢ per month (voluntary) STATEMENT The Oregon Advance/TIMES goes to press weekly to serve residents of the North-North– east Central area of Portland with news about the life of our community; information on the opportunities before us; discussion of the social and political issues that confront us. The Oregon Advance/TIMES gives to our community a newspaper which factually reports the news of our area and aggressively seeks the full rights of our citizens. It will pro– vide a forum for community expression and help people become more conscious of their obligations to themselves and their community. In all this, the truth, as we see it, will be consistently presented. Page 2 Vol. 1, No. 8 March 21, 1968 You Have lo Tty One of the things needed in the Albina community is a little more desire backed with willing– ness to act. It's the sort of thing known in the hill country talk of some years ago as ' 'gumption.' ' What brings this up? Well, 35 Negroes showed interest in getting special help in taking the Civil Service examination to qualify as Portland firemen. They applied for the help and attended one or more of the classes. How many showed up to take the examination? Only five. There were 402 who weren't black. Some may have had good rea– sons for not showing up. But it looks like a lot more gump– tion is needed in our community if we are going to be able to say that the black man is get– ting the share of jobs he ought to get. ARighi All Should Have An Albina district mother has gone to court to try to force the Portland schools to give written notice and a chance for a hearing before expelling a stu– dent. It seems strange that it should be necessary to ask for this. Has the Portland School Board and its administrators never heard of the U .s. Constitution and its several guarantees of the rights of the people? Has it not heard that a person is in– nocent until proven guilty? That an accused person has the right to be confronted by his accuser? It's true that school attendance was not the thing the Con– stitution was talking about, but the principle is there and any– one really interested in justice would follow it in all things, whether forced to do so or not. The Rea1on Behind /I How many people driving cars today are aware of the heavy responsibility that rests upon the control of their vehicles? At every crossing, there lurks a tragedy just waiting to happen. A little child chasing a dog, a careless pedestrian looking another way, the inevitable reckless driver in a hurry to go nowhere, ignoring a stop sign and last and most tragic, the youngster riding his bike, are all waiting to happen. There is so much you can do to stop them. First, drive carefully and obey traffic signs. Drive for yourself and for the other fellow too. You need but see one time, the broken body of the grown-up or a little toddler that has stepped in front of a fast moving car to impress this on your mind. Or picture the boy or girl lying in the street along side the wreckage of their bike, maybe never to walk or laugh and play again, struck down before they had a chance to live. Maybe they were in the wrong but who hasn't been at some time or other? It will be no salve to your consci– ence when you realize a little defensive driving could have prevented it from happening. This is the age of high pow– ered autos with speed to burn. Let's just take care where we burn that speed. Let's go out on the freeways to burn rub– ber and not up and down heavily populated streets. Remember that old couple, the toddler and the kids on bicycles have a fu– ture. Don't deny it of them. Drug Panel Eyes Use of Narcotics A panel discussion on "Drugs, Effects and the Law'' wlll be presented this evening, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria at Jefferson High School. The discussion is sponsored by the Jefferson High School. The discussion is sponsored by the Jefferson High School Parent Teachers Association. The panel will consist of Dr. Samuel Irvin, Dr. Roy Moss, Harold Hart, deputy district attorney; and Vincent Masat of Juvenile Court. Don Barrett will be the moderator. The use of drugs is no longer a rarity. Adults and children both are invited to this discussion to be better informed of the effects of drugs and the Jaws which ;.!overn the use of drug:s. Mrs. Dennis Kearney is the PTA president. She urges parents to learn the facts about dru~s now. Refresh– ments will follow the pro– gram. The Albina community does not have a single voice. Each person has ideas that are his own and many groups speak only for their members. This newspaper In its editorials says what its editorial board believes. But it is only one of the voices of Albina. You, too, have a voice. And you can speak out by writing letters to the editor. Our pages are small and our space is limited. So please speak about things here, at home. If we do not have room for all letters, those that are about national and international affairs will have to be set aside in favor of letters that talk about the special problems and hopes of people here at home. And keep them short. If they run over 250 words, we probably will have to shorten them. NEGROES TRUE INTEREST interpretation seems just as To the Editor: valid. We must ask ourselves I heard many cries of dis- "What is there about streets appointment when a Negro was today that is different from not appointed director of the the streets of previous Model Cities program. It years?" For an answer, walk seems that many people felt into any downtown street after that a Negro should have been office hours or into the street appointed to a job that paid, of almost any residential com– to some, what appeared to be munity at almost any time - a large salary. We wanted What do we notice is in on the big money. How- peculiar? There are no ever, to me, this is not im- people. Oh, there are cars portant. I am troubled by with people speeding along, what the future holds for the but there is practically no– Negro in the building that will body out on his own two feet. take place in the area in the It is not fear of crime that future. deters them: -they have lost It appears that there will be the street habit. a building program within the When Americans move to– Model City area. This will day, they move by car. The involve millions of dollars. streets have become places Yet I fear that there will be inhabited almost entirely by only a few opportunities for automobiles. It can probably Negro craftsmen to find em- be proven statistically that ployment in the building pro- the people who most fear gram. Fortune Magazine's crime in the streets are the January issue points out, on people who practically never page 170, that union practices set foot in them. are under attack by the NAACP At this point we can choose and the Justice Department for two possible theories - one not employing Negroes in the would be that public fear of building trades. There is a crime in the streets is nothing "refusal of all but a few of more than man's natural fear the 18 building trades unions of the unknown: the other is to open their ranks to qual- that, since so few of us use ified Negroes; most of the the streets any longer, we are highly paid construction jobs simply and actually trying to are held by whites." divert the law's attention from Now is the time to change what goes on in the places this in Portland. This is we do use. where the real money is and After all, it is comfortable where our true interest is to demanding incessant police be found. vigilance of places you never L. O. Stone, Vicar use - demanding a federal St. Philip's crackdown on crime in the Episcopal Church home or crime in the office 120N. E. Knott St. is something else. lt might be good having a cop there CRIME IN THE STREETS when the burglars come, but To the Editor: most of the time we would At a time when Americans seem to agree upon so few issues, it is odd that there should be such unity of loath– ing for ••crime in the streets.'' Every politician in the land is aware of it. It is a rare day when five or six of these fellows - accompanied by disk jockeys, editorial writ– ers, police captains, and the kind of people who telephone radio stations, are not joined in a chorale lamenting crime in the streets. Now, crime in the streets is unquestionably a bad thing, but so is crime in the houses, crime in the stores, crime in service stations, and crime in any of the multitude of other places where crime occurs regularly. No one can fault the propo– sition that all decent people should be against crime. The question is why is it only crime in the streets that produces this thundering public response? One would expect that emotionally the prospect of being robbed in his own home would enrage the average citizen even more than the likelihood of being beaten and robbed in the streets, yet the words that make the blood leap are not "crime in the home," but "crime in the streets.'' Bayard Rustin and other reputable thinkers contend that the explanation is racial: that public passion for sup– pressing crime in the streets does not represent repu~nance for crime so much as re– pugnance for black demon– strations and the black crim– inal's refusal to confine his operations to black slums. Another entirely different prefer to have him otherwise engaged. Stamping out crime in those mysterious streets, for example. Gertrude Crowe 4074 N. E. 7th DUIT OF ALL To the Editor: I returned Sunday from the Democratic primary plat– form convention in Eugene, a convention held every two years to draft proposals to benefit people of Oregon. This year's convention was no different than its predeces– sors. Some excellent plat– forms were adopted. A strong Vietnam and for– ei!ffi affairs platform that was neither a victory for the doves or a defeat for the hawks was adopted. With few varia– tions, it called for an honor– able settlement of the war in Vietnam and withdrawal of troops at the end of hostil– ities. There were also strong platforms on taxation, labor, education and civil rights adopted. A new platform was ori)rinated this year on con– sumer affairs. I had the privilege to serve on the Committee. Many safeguards were adopted to protect the consumer and buyer. You may say, what is the good of all these platforms if they do not become effective? I was asked why I was not on the Civil Rights Committee this year. I re– plied, "We have a very good platform now . one that includes Negro history in textbooks, a proposal Iworked on for four years before it was adopted on the state plank and I figured that until we get a majority in the Hous~ to pass this and other legis– lation, I should work on an– other issue that ties in with civil rights." Now, here is where you, the reader, come in. If you want things done, you must help. You can do this by registering to vote for the party of your choice. April 27 is the deadline. Do not forget. If you fail to register and vote, you have no right to complain. Voting is your civic obligation and duty. Emile Summers 627N. E. Sumner ACCEPTANCE. BY ALL To the Editor: I have had the opportunity to read and enjoy the Feb. 8, 1968 edition of The Oregon Advance Times and both my husband and myself feel that it is well worth subscribing to. However, in several items, I noted a very heavy overtone of animosity towards whites and especially those whites that want to mix in the black society. I can understand why the black people feel the way they do and I am glad that the movement for the advance– ment of black people is in full swing and pray that it continues until the phrase "equal opportunity" is no longer a headline but a fact taken for granted by all. Please, in your fight for equal opportunity and reco!,':– nition as a group to be re– spected and admired as you should be and deserve to be, don't put my people in the same place you are working so hard to get out of. What do I mean by my people? We seem to be the "Out Crowd," of both the white and black societies. I am white and I am proud of it and I want to stay that way. My husband is black (not tan) and I am also proud of him and 1 don't want him to be white or act white or try to look white either. He is a wonderful father to my three children from a former marriage; they are white and they love him and let him know it. Also, we have two children and are expecting another. We are stared at like we are some sort of side show by most whites, and the blacks act as if 1 would have to be a prostitute to be with a black man. So you see, the problem of equality is not just a ques– tion of white acceptance of black. It includes acceptance of both black and white of black and white families who are also struggling to be rec– ognized in the community as upstanding people who also deserve to be treated like members of the society and not outcasts. Sincerely, Mrs. Tom B. Gunnels 1846 S. E. 47th Portland MODEL CITIES To the Editor: Whenever something new comes up there are usually misunderstandings and criti– cisms. This is natural. Some unjustified criticisms have prompted me to write this article. Since there are so many aspects of the Model Cities program. I have singled out the most pressing one and the (Continued on Page 10) j