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18 Wednesday, January 12, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon VIGIL: Activist group urges citizens to get involved Continued from page 1 and celebration and shared resolve.= She spent part of her childhood in Tanzania, when the brutal military dictator Idi Amin was president of neigh- boring Uganda. <He was a horrific indi- vidual who was out to exter- minate his own people,= McLeod-Skinner said. Some of her classmates were Ugandan refugees. <I recall one of my class- mates telling me she had been in her kitchen with her father, and they heard pounding on the door, the screaming of her mother and her sisters, who she never saw again. Her father just grabbed her and ran out the back of the house. The rest of the family was killed,= said McLeod-Skinner. <Those stories were chilling to me. I could never imagine some- thing like that happening in my own country.= As an adult, she worked for a humanitarian organiza- tion managing school and hospital repairs in Bosnia, later in Kosovo. <I saw firsthand the destruction, the damage, the fresh graves that were all around,= she said of the war- torn area. McLeod-Skinner described a local family inviting her and her col- league into their home, to share <coffee and apples, the only food they had, but they insisted we have some.= The family members told stories and her colleague translated. <Then suddenly it got very quiet. I knew there was something very powerful and very emotional. He couldn9t even speak at first,= said McLeod-Skinner. Eventually her colleague explained that the family had come back from identifying one of their sons in a mass grave that day. <That is not an extreme story,= said McLeod-Skinner. <It starts like January 6. That9s how it starts. <Things go south when that kind of terror takes over a country,= she said. <Horrific things happen. I9ve seen it with my own eyes. And so it was chilling to me that I was seeing it again, right here in our own country.= A Central Oregon resident, McLeod-Skinner is running for state representative of the new Congressional District 5, the recently redrawn district that includes Sisters. Fighting to protect democ- racy, she said, <really comes down to a tremendous sense of resolve... Sometimes it9s with our fists, sometimes it9s with our hearts.= Chaffin and other Indivisible Sisters speak- ers encouraged listeners to get involved and take action. Speakers were clearly alarmed by the possibility of a takeover of the United States government by anti- democracy, pro-authoritarian forces. <Even though things look very dismal and dire,= Chaffin said, <we have built a network....This is why we can9t give up hope. We are so much stronger now than five years ago.= In a quieter portion of the proceedings, gather- ers lit candles and observed a moment of silence <in remembrance of those defenders of democracy who lost their lives as result of the insurrection,= including U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Officer Brian D. Sicknick. Sicknick was assaulted by rioters with chemical agents; afterward, he collapsed and died of stroke. District of Columbia Chief Medical Examiner Francisco J. Diaz later found that Sicknick died of <natural causes= but stated, <all that transpired played a role in his condition.= Three officers from Wa s h i n g t o n , D . C . 9s Metropolitan Police Department and one from USCP committed suicide in the days and months after their service at the Capitol on January 6. Their deaths were marked at the vigil, along with the approxi- mately 150 officers who were injured. Chaffin encouraged peo- ple to call their legislators to ask for support on four bills that organizers believe would help stanch democ- racy9s wounds: the Freedom to Vote Act, Protecting Our Democracy Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and <the D.C. statehood bill, finally giving the citi- zens of our nation9s capital the right to vote.= Other hopeful acts were also recommended, such as writing postcards encourag- ing other citizens to vote. Chaffin assured the audi- ence that postcards would be provided. Some participants appeared buoyed by the vig- il9s focus on action. Wrote Andy Zimmerman in the Zoom chat, <Thank you so very much for this session on this significant day. I am incredibly happy to find all of you people. Let9s be involved. Our country needs us.= At the virtual gathering9s end, participants cheered, <Democracy now!= and gave a thumbs-up. Indivisible Sisters is online at indivisiblesisters. org. 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