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News
Briefs: Racial Equity | Night
Creatures | Corvallis Says No | Corrections/Clarifications
News:
Sounds of Solace -- A personal essay from the ferry docks.
Happening
People: Hollis Shostrom
Racial
Equity
In a majority-white state like Oregon, does race affect
who goes to prison? Who stays in prison? Who the system helps or targets?
Nationally known scholar and defense attorney Charles J. Ogletree,
Jr. will visit Eugene and Portland from Oct. 21 to Nov. 3 to talk about those questions
and explore the theme of "Race, Class, and the Criminal Justice System."
Ogletree, the 2001-02 occupant of the Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics at the
UO School of Law, will participate in several law classes and public events.
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Charles J. Ogletree,
Jr.
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Ogletree is a well-known African American defense lawyer and a professor
at Harvard Law School. He served as counsel for Anita Hill during the Senate confirmation
hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He continues to represent high-profile
clients such as Hill and the Rev. Al Sharpton, an African American leader arrested
for protesting military bombing in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Along with attorney Johnnie Cochran, Ogletree is a leading advocate
in the movement to gain reparations for slavery.
During his visit to Oregon, Ogletree will participate in several
free public events:
-- Oct. 23, 7-9 pm, forum on the reparations movement with law
professors Ibrahim Gassama and Robin Morris Collin, UO law school at 1550 Agate St.
-- Oct. 26, 9:30 am-5 pm, conference on efforts to improve racial
equity in criminal justice in Portland and Seattle, at Portland State University.
-- Nov. 1, 7-9:30 pm, roundtable discussion about racism in law
enforcement and corrections in Lane County, in the Churchill High School Auditorium
at West 18th and Bailey Hill in Eugene.
The events are sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and
Politics, an independent center housed at the UO School of Law. "We are thrilled
to host someone of Professor Ogletree's caliber in our examination of race and justice
in American," says Morse Center Director Margaret Hallock.
Ogletree's writings appear in many legal and popular publications,
and he's a frequent guest on national television programs. A highly sought-after
moderator of forums on controversial topics, he hosted a 10-part PBS series on "Ethics
in America."
Ogletree was in the news recently, during the UN conference on
racism, as an advocate seeking reparations for African Americans descended from slaves.
Information about upcoming Morse Chair events and programs is available
at www.morsechair.uoregon.edu
Night
Creatures
Nearby Nature is once again offering Eugene area families
an alternative celebration of the changing seasons Saturday evening, Oct. 27, at
Alton Baker Park. It's not Halloween 4 no dripping blood or fantasy monsters. It's
even candy-free.
The fifth annual Haunted Hike begins earlier this year at 5:30
pm and runs through 9 pm and is intended for kids age 4 through elementary school.
Reservations are required and the educational fund-raising event is expected to sell
out 300 tickets. Cost is $5 per person, free for Nearby Nature members.
Slant
--Did you pick up some irritation in Congressman DeFazio's
comments when he was asked in recent interviews about Bill Bradbury's candidacy for
the U.S. Senate? What was that all about? Was Pete planning to run unopposed in the
Democratic primary? Did he have some other candidate in mind? Does he think Gordon
Smith will be vulnerable in Nov. 2002 and the Democrat will win, possibly nailing
down that Senate seat for a long time? Did all his reasons for staying in the House
disappear on Sept. 11? Take your choice. Maybe our favorite congressman was just
tired from yet another flight from D.C.
--Paranoia surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks and anthrax infections are leading to
more restrictions on the media. Censorship, self-imposed and otherwise, has been
around since messengers were killed for bringing bad news. Many folks in government
hate the watchdog role played by media and appear to be using the new "war"
to clamp down on basic freedoms of the press. Some restrictions are understandable,
but the leaders of 21 national and regional journalism associations this week came
out in protest of what they see as excessive and seemingly arbitrary censorship.
News helicopters have been grounded, a Portland reporter was denied access to a Center
for Disease Control researcher, federal agencies are not returning phone calls, government
databases and web sites are being shut down. Terrorists don't need to scan our newspapers
to know where we are vulnerable.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes compiled
by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com |
Hiking boots, warm clothes and flashlights are recommended, plus raingear
if it's a stormy night.
Carved pumpkins will light the way on paths that lead to different
nocturnal creatures portrayed by volunteers in costume. Each creature will give an
interactive, educational talk about themselves and their habits. The guided tours
start every 10 minutes in groups of 15 to 20 people.
The park shelter will have locally made healthy snacks, seasonal
nature stories and creepy crafts. Louise Shimmel from the Cascade Raptor Center will
bring an owl, and other volunteers plan to bring various living creatures of the
night so kids can get a closer look.
Nearby Nature started the program five years ago, with instant
success. The first night, hordes of families with flashlights came streaming across
the wide park lawn, and the group realized they'd found a great idea. Program Director
Beth Stein says the group is "amazed by how people like it." She says the
event has become a major fund-raiser for the non-profit group.
Family membership for Nearby Nature is $25 a year. For more information
or to register, call 687-9699. --MT
Corvallis
Says No
The Corvallis City Council by a six to three vote adopted
a resolution this week opposing "fast-track," or "trade promotion
authority," legislation. Fast track delegates a portion of congressional powers
on trade agreements to the president.
Members speaking in favor of the resolution spoke of how trade
agreements, such as the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), contain provisions
encroaching on local government's authority. They expressed their concern that similar
agreements in the future may have negative local impacts.
Opponents argued that fast-track was a federal matter, thus out
of their domain.
"I think passage of the resolution is a clear sign to Oregon's
Congressional delegation that there is growing grassroots opposition to Fast Track
legislation," says Ryan Hunter of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the
Environment. "The times when Congress could vote on trade related legislation
with little real political consequences are over."
For more information on the action, contact Robert Gourley, Corvallis
Action on Globalization (541) 758-5864 or gourleyr@peak.org
Corrections/Clarifications
An outdated e-mail address for Councilor Bonny Bettman
was listed in the new Annual Manual published last week. The correct address
is Bonny.S.Bettman@ci.eugene.or.us
Back to Top
Sounds
of Solace
A personal essay from
the ferry docks.
By Aurore
Maren
NEW YORK CITY -- I am slow at strapping my orange life vest
to the outrigger of my turquoise and white rowing shell.
For the past week I have awakened before dawn and driven the 15
minutes to the passenger ferry dock to board the first passage to Pier 11 at Wall
Street, then up the East River to the 34th street dock. My weekdays have been spent
as a social worker accompanying the courageous souls who returned to work in and
around what has come to be called Ground Zero.
Today, Sunday, Sept. 23, I am taking a solitary journey across
some different waters. Normally I row in the early morning or just before dusk when
the golden light falls flat across the Navesink estuary where white egrets settle
into the maples, oaks and tall reeds lining the shore. Today, my shell and I cut
into this body of water where the Atlantic's waters of the New York Harbor meet the
fresh waters of a once famous oyster bed, watershed of this New Jersey community.
My arms weaken with anxiety as I press the oars into the oarlocks.
The normal movement of this 24 ft. long, 15 in. wide rowing shell frightens me. I
close my eyes a moment and recall my first view of the fire in the Twin Towers.
It is Tuesday the llth of Sept. 2001, sometime after 9 am. I have
just walked on the beach at Sea Bright, dipping my hand into the still warm waves
of the Atlantic. Two days ago I returned here from a 7,565-mile drive across the
vast expanse of America from Rumson, N.J., where I now live, to Eugene, where I was
born, and back again. Owl, my Australian shepherd, accompanied me.
This journey was a time of study and exploration of what qualities
create sustainable communities. I returned here to the Eastern Seaboard to practice
in my own life what I had come to understand about community and to expand and develop
these qualities in both of my professions: a landscape architect and clinical social
worker.
I stomp the sand off my shoes in the parking lot of the Sea Bright
beach and get in the car. I drive over a bridge where on clear days like this the
glistening rosy-metallic image of the New York City skyline dances above New York
harbor's wide stretch of gray-blue water. I turn my eyes toward New York and in that
moment decide that later I will drive through the Lincoln Tunnel, begin circulating
my resume, and meet with colleagues at 3:30 pm.
A sharp twist in my heart arrests my breath as I see a heavy funnel
of smoke, like a tornado, pouring out one of the Twin Towers. I turn on NPR, "It
appears that a plane has hit one of the Twin Towers ... it may be a small private
plane." I drive off the bridge and take the first u-turn, my legs are cold.
Words from the radio, so clear then, escape me now, "a second plane has hit,
another plane may be enroute to the White House ... the Pentagon, it appears, has
had an explosion."
I am on the bridge again. I see only masses of smoke enveloping
the silver heights of the towers; my heart is pounding. I tighten my grip on the
steering wheel and drive toward my chiropractic appointment where I had planned to
have some of the knots released after thousands of miles of driving. The shaken announcer's
voice fades and drops, the line breaks off. NPR is no longer coming through. I drive
in silence. My back is adjusted to the tremoring mechanical voice of a local radio
announcer, "the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have been attacked."
Where I sit now, in my rowing shell, only 8 inches above the water
line, I feel more vulnerable than ever. I wish I had one of those rods people attach
to their bicycles with orange flags. Today I would attach the American flag.
How odd is the inspiration the American flag has given me this
week. It reminds me of waiting in the lunch line at Edison Elementary School in Eugene
when the shaken voice of our principal announced over the loud speaker, "President
Kennedy has been shot".
We were led back to our classroom by a teacher who was crying.
A prayer followed and we stood with our small hands over our hearts facing the flag.
I have never forgotten that exact moment. I wonder now what children's memories of
Sept. 11 will hold. What will they have understood from their parents?
Timeless, and yet in time, as T.S. Eliot writes, these weeks have
passed. I have heard much, said some, and mostly attempted to listen. I have been
told my presence on the ferry headed to Wall Street helps. On Sept. 11, its passengers
and crew were halted in New York harbor in front of the World Trade Center. I came
to understand and almost relive their horrific memories of that day. That became
the context of my work on the ferry.
Tuesday, Sept. 25. A thick fog hangs over the holly trees in my
garden as I step out into the sill dark morning to walk Owl. Grief runs deep here
in this shore community, one parish lost 30 members, another 16. People speak of
going to three, four, seven wakes and rites of passage in one week. A weekend of
funerals, all so incomprehensible, that it becomes strangely manageable -- in this
moment at least. Some 300 or more persons "missing" -- the word itself,
misses. We are crippled and we know it.
It's Tuesday the 28th, and, between crossings on the ferry, I had
to take myself away from the place and face of grief. In this hour, I am sitting
in the Medieval Sculpture Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art waiting for a concert
to begin. "Sounds of Solace, Music for Reflection, Inspiration and Hope."
They have chosen Schubert's String Quintet in C Major, D. 956.
To my right is a 15th century sculpture of St. Augustine, "The
Confessions." What, I wonder, could one possibly confess now that would relieve
the agony of this time? I sit here and recall my morning, or perhaps I should say
"mourning" rounds. I think of the many responses I've heard to the image
of New York's plundered skyline. The quintet is exquisite. Although I had come here
to take myself away from the place and face of grief, I could not do so. Comfort
came through the companionship the music gave to my own grief, companionship that
comes through the process of listening.
Today is Monday, Oct. 8. The New York Times headlines this
morning read, "U.S. and Britain Strike Afghanistan, aiming at bases and terrorist
camps. Bush warns 'Taliban will pay a price.'" Perhaps others spent the day
before knowing that at some time these words would present themselves with staggering
consequences.
I spent much of the afternoon staring at a single log flaming in
my fireplace. A chill was in the air. My imagination took me to Afghanistan where
human beings whom I don't know gather in their community, alone, all shrouded in
fear.
I remembered a question put to me by a worldly gentleman on my
first day going into Ground Zero. "What is hate?" He spoke softly with
tears glistening in his eyes. I could not answer him then, nor could I now, for I
do not believe that it is by answering this question that his solace or mine will
come. It may be that our only solace now is in the listening, truly listening. It
is a most difficult task.
Aurore Maren, named at birth Deirdre Leland Moursund, was born
in Eugene and graduated from SEHS in 1975. She currently lives in New Jersey and
has worked at the New York Psychiatric Institute, New York Hospital and as a school
social worker specializing in cognitive and behavioral problems resulting from trauma
and neglect. She may be reached at a.maren@ATT.net This essay was written
exclusively for EW.
Back to Top
 Hollis
Shostrom
Born with cerebral palsy, Hollis Shostrom has faced obstacles
every day of his 24 years. Because of limited muscle coordination, he requires assistance
for such ordinary activities as eating meals. "I've had almost 50 caretakers,"
he reports. Bolstered by supportive parents and his own determination, Shostrom attended
mainstream classrooms from preschool through high school in Ashland -- "I love
Ashland -- everyone knows me there" -- and later commuted to Grants Pass for
college classes. He's now a Eugenean and lives with a co-ed group of UO students
in the Janet Smith Co-op. Shostrom is blessed with a mechanical bent and has added
numerous modifications to his motorized wheelchair, including a heavy-duty trailer
hitch and a computer connection that lets him use its joystick as a mouse. "I've
been building things all my life," he notes. Shostrom's long-term goal is to
establish a non-profit residential, training, and manufacturing facility to employ
alter-abled people in construction of custom wheelchairs and other high-tech mobility
equipment. Check out his proposal online at www.perpetualco-op.com
-- Paul Neevel
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