Over the last four years, for the time-span of the Iraq-war debacle, I’ve appointed myself an unofficial documentarian of local anti-war/pro-peace efforts (in both Eugene and Portland). As I’ve attended several marches and demonstrations during this time (naturally, because I’m personally aligned with their purposes and goals), I’ve always carried my camera. I’ve taken literally hundreds of pictures of such activities here in Oregon.
A couple of days ago, I was contacted by YES! Magazine asking if I would share some of my shots on their new flickr site devoted to anti-war/pro-peace photos. Their flickr effort is just getting underway, so, as I write this today, there’s not much there yet …but, it may be that you’d like to drop by the site and peruse the contributions every so often. Take a look and bookmark it. It’s at http://www.flickr.com/groups/yesmagazine-peace/.
These are the words of a University of Oregon (UO) student I spoke to earlier this week as I walked among the 112,000 white flags and 3,000 red flags conscientiously and strategically placed to cover much of the main portion of the UO campus. Each of the white flags represent 6 Iraqi soldiers and civilians who have died since the U.S. involvement began four years ago, and each of the red flags represent one fallen American soldier.
The display lasts only this one week. I urge you to see it in person, before Sunday, if at all possible.
Here’s how the Daily Emerald reported the story on Monday. And here’s an online slideshow, from the Emerald, if you’re interested in some of their photos.
Here’s a shot taken at Mt. Tabor Park in Portland early last March…just as there was the hint of spring.
Ah, spring: it’s all we (or at least I) have to look forward to right now, as the winter solstice, tomorrow, brings us to the new, bleak, all-too-long, dark season. It’s wet, dreary, and bone-chilling cold here in Roseburg today as I write this. Winter is only just arriving, and here I am dreaming of the time of renewal that begins three months from now!
As I contemplate living, alone, through the rest of the holiday season here in southern Cascasdia, I’m thinking of the City of Roses…the place I endured a love/hate relationship with the last two years. Here are a few memories I have of that place:
We’re just two days shy of the third anniversary of Governor Kulongoski’s announcement (on November 13, 2003) that he was asking for the resignations of several members of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education (OSBHE). Also part of his action was to express a desire that former Governor Neil Goldschmidt be appointed to the OSBHE and installed as its president.
That Fall day in 2003 was one that not only changed the lives of the Board members involved, but mine as well; as a staff person in the Oregon University System Chancellor’s Office, the OSBHE was my direct employer. On that fateful Thursday, I was attending the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education in Portland, and I heard the news, first, as a “rumor.” Somebody mentioned to me that the Governor had “fired the Board of Higher Ed,” which, of course, was unbelievable; no chief executive in our state had ever done such a thing since the department of higher education had been established in the late 1920s. I knew all of the Board members quite well, and there had been absolutely no behavior on their part that could, or should, have led to such a wholesale action by the Governor. The Board members were, all, dedicated public servants, doing the best job they could for higher education in the State.
However, as the course of the day wore on, the information became increasingly more clear. I went to my room in the Hilton late that afternoon, watched the early edition of the evening news on KGW, and discovered the rumor was actually fact. There were a couple of main topics with my dinner companions that night: speculation about what this action would mean for Oregon higher education, and a rather wild story about a recent internet dating experience of mine. We entertained ourselves quite well over that meal, as I recall, with lively conversation on both topics.
Of course, the next few months brought about many changes for the higher education landscape here. New Board members were appointed, and the Governor got his wish by having Goldschmidt elected as the president. However, the Portland media broke the story, a mere few weeks later, that the former Governor had had a sexual relationship with a 14-year old girl during the time he had been mayor of Portland years ago. Amid huge headlines, he resigned in disgrace and Kulongoski himself assumed the role of Board president for a couple of months. The Oregon University System Chancellor resigned, after less than two years on the job, upon assessing the political environment and reading the handwriting on the wall regarding his future. The Board, at the direction of the Governor, started a process (billed as a study to examine the “structure and function” of the Chancellor’s Office) which ultimately resulted in the elimination of the Office of Academic Affairs (and the jobs of the Vice Chancellor and several staff, including me).
My life has really not been the same since that day in November 2003. I was thrown completely off-balance and have been struggling to regain it ever since. I have gone on countless interview trips, and had two “interim” positions at Oregon community colleges, of course, but have had neither predictability nor stability in my life. As the current calendar year begins to fade away, the new job search season begins again for me. I hope to secure a permanent position in higher education (somewhere!) by next June 30.
It’s been an incredibly intense week. The highlight of the last few days, of course, was the election. And, ohmygod, can you believe how well it all turned out!?!? Nationally, the Ds captured the House and Senate, and here in Oregon they did the same. Now, if this all leads to the direction and degree of change we’ve demanded, then the last few weeks and months of those awful, awful ads may have been worth it.
Additionally, Ballot Measures 41 and 48 were both soundly defeated here in Oregon. This is a very good thing. Perhaps I’ll be able to stay employed until the end of my contract (next June) after all!
And then, on an even more-personal election-day level ... I believe the results might have been a tad better. As you recall, I declared my candidacy for state representative and then immediately voted for myself. Three others also voted for me (that I know of). I had sincere hopes that this was going to turn into an eventual groundswell of support and that I’d be swept into office on the coattails of the D’s success, handily defeating the R incumbent. Sadly, that’s not the way it turned out. While there were 391 write-in votes in opposition to Representative Morgan, that still only accounted for 2.41% of the total. I guess you’d call that a landslide.
