Independent misses on bid for guv
By KEVIN HARDEN
Of the Emerald
It was discouraging, but after nearly 12 hours of
waiting, Independent challenger for governor Qif Everett
couldn’t get the 1,000 signatures necessary to put his
name on the November ballot.
Everett, 58, a political maverick who championed an
ill-fated attempt to repeal Oregon’s land use laws two
years ago, tried once again to enter the political arena as
the independent candidate in this year’s gubernatorial
election. His attempt fell far short of its goal with jnly
about 500 signatures on the nominating petitions.
At a nominating convention Sunday afternoon,
Everett and his supporters failed to gather the needed
signatures to put his name on the general election ballot
Nov. 7.
“I’m quite discouraged,” Everett said after the con
vention. “I’ve been encouraged to try again, but I’ll have to
think about it for a while.”
Another nominating convention could be held later in
Portland that, Everett said, would definitely put his name
on the ballot. That convention has tentatively been
scheduled for sometime in July.
No newcomer to the state political scene, Everett
fought land use laws with a petition and 400,000 votes in
the 1976 general election. Since then Everett has been
living on his 40-acre farm outside Dexter and waiting for
the 1978 gubernatorial race.
Why would a consulting geologist want to be governor?
Because, Everett says, the people of Oregon have lead
ers who seem to be stuck in neutral when it comes to
leadership.
While conservative republican Atiyeh purports a
middle-of-the-road stance, Everett says that isn’t enough.
A “balanced" leader is not what the state needs.
Photo by Bab Murphy
It could have been better, that’s the way Clif Everett,
Independent challenger for governor, described the ill
fated attempt to put his name on the November general
election ballot. A nominating convention Sunday after
noon failed to get the 1, OOO signatures needed to put him
in the gubernatorial race.
"I think if people looked at Atiyeh’s voting record they
would see that he has consistently voted in the middle,”
Everett says. “He votes whatever’s popular. I think he
even boasts of being balanced. But that’s not what we
need. We need someone who is willing to lead.
“That’s the problem we have now — we’re stuck with
habitual incumbents.”
Of the nearly 2.5 million people in Oregon, Everett says
almost anyone of them would make a better choice for
governor than Straub or Atiyeh. It’s for those people that
Everett is running, he says.
As part of his campaign, Everett has published a
16-page booklet that outlines his platform and intentions if
elected.
“Justifiably we can blame our problems on our elected
and appointed representatives,” the booklet says. “How
ever, this would be a cop-out; the fault is really ours. We
have been too busy and too lazy to perform our duty which
is to watch and correct those who are supposed to speak
for us.”
Called “We Can Have Good Government,” the booklet
outlines seven issues that Everett has taken a stand on
for the campaign. From field burning to water exportation,
Everett points out that only by returning to the state con
stitution will Oregonians be able to have a good govern
ment.
"Sprayed on grass fields, highly toxic chemicals go up
in the smoke," Everett says about field burning in the
Willamette Valley. “Also, carbon particles in the smoke
absorb thetoxic pulp mill gases; in combination, they may
harm our health. We need to be told the truth.”
On environmental issues, Everett says that ecology
and economics are nearly the same thing. ‘Insignificant
problems like backyard burning are exaggerated; big pol
luters get permits. The causes and effects of all pollution
should be publicized,” he says.
Coordinator says support needed
‘Homemakers are pros’
By MARY FORAN
Of the Emerald
“Aging hits everybody," Laurie
Shields, national coordinator for
the National Alliance for Dis
placed Homemakers, told a group
of thirty women at an afternoon
workshop during last weekend’s
Oregon Women’s Conference at
Lewis and Clark College in Port
land.
She wrinkled her gentle face
even more with a mischievous
smile. “We have to make people
understand that being older is
being better.”
For Laurie Shields, a self
described “late-blooming
feminist” at 58, age discrimination
is of primary concern. Coupled
with sexism, Shields says that
ageism effectively shuts out the
middle-aged woman who has
worked 20 to 30 years in the
home, and who then tries to find
employment outside it.
Without the advantage of youth
in our youth-oriented society, and
with no record of paid employ
ment, the middle-aged woman is
one of the “most invisible of all
discouraged workers," Shields
says.
“It is an ugly wasting of human
resources,” she adds, referring to
what she calls the victimization of
older women and men by Social
Security red tape, poor health
care, and the “unreasonable dis
crimination” of employers in their
age-conscious hiring practices.
Shields sees Oregon women as
“doers and carers by reputation.”
In reference to the recent passage
of Proposition 13 in her home
state she remarked, “We have a
lot of faults in California ... there’s
the San Andreas fault and now
there's the Jarvis-Gann fault.”
Oregon women
are "doers and
carers by repu
tation,” Shields
says.
The Displaced Homemaker pro
gram will continue under private
, she says, but many ser
vices to minorities and the elderly
will have to be discontinued due to
lack of funding.
Age stereotypes and jokes
about little old ladies in tennis
shoes, which Shields wears to
show the world that not all of them
are “flakey,” must be eliminated
along with ads for Geritol and
wrinkle removers, which she de
scribes as her “merit badges” for
a lifetime of service.
Homemaking should be raised
to a professional status Shields
said, adding that the gross na
tional product and unemployment
statistics will remain false as long
as a woman’s child-bearing years
and role as homemaker “count as
zero’ in the national economy.
Shields feels that support is
needed for women who have cho
sen not to go back to college after
their children are grown, and
wants “training programs to give
women the re-entry skills they
need.”
“We’ve never faced the fact that
we glorify the role of wife and
mother, but when those days are
over her life is pretty tragic,” said
State Rep. Nancie Fadeley,
D-Eugene, who sponsored recent
legislation on behalf of the Dis
placed Homemaker.
Fadely attributes her legislative
success on the issue to Laurie
Shields’ “untiring campaign" for
the working rights of the displaced
homemaker.
“Once they recognize the prob
lems of the displaced
homemaker, and that she can be
helped, they want to,” Fadeley
said of the Oregon Legislature.
“That’s what Laurie Shields has
done for us.”
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