j u s t o u t ▼ m a rc h 1, 1 0 0 6 ▼ 5 T H E V IE W F R O M H E R E 7 JteJtotte/uf, * 9 l hot A Sound fyinan cial Sfacdecgf,. To heal and m ove on Why leave your financial future to chance when you can trust the solid experience of Floreid Walker? As a Waddell & Reed account represen­ tative, she can help analyze your financial resources, needs and goals. Then, with objectives firmly understood, plan and implement a person­ al program designed specifically for you. The first one-hour consultation is free, so instead of picking more lottery numbers, pickup the phone and dial Floreid Walker's number. A Southern Oregon activist reflects on what his community has learned from tragedy ▼ by Adrian Murillo It is a fearful thing to face rejection, but it is more frightening to be an empty, dishonest person, always relying on the approval o f others for one’s own sense o f self. If we ’re lucky we will come to know the Gifts we ’ve been given and we ’ll learn to play the music o f honesty that is in our hearts. —Michelle Abdill away from the suggestion that this is a hate crime. Our community will embrace a wide range of responses to these simple facts, from denial to paranoia. At times like these we need to remind ourselves of our strengths and virtues. We must reaffirm our connections, our shared visions, and our networks of mutual support. One of our strengths is that we understand the struggle between love and To love someone is to always show them new anger. From childhood we are taunted and abused, ways to grow. poisoned with guilt and shame for being different, —Roxanne Ellis even before we ourselves can comprehend the meaning of our difference and the hostility it in­ ur community has suffered a serious spires. The threat of violence is often used to keep blow with the murders of our beloved us repressed. And yet the vast majority of us tri­ umph over fear, anger and violence with love and friends and cherished activists dignity. Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill. Our community has been buffeted Many of us have been dealing with death and and tested, and the fabric, though tom, has loss held. on an ongoing basis for years now. We stand in We face an uncertain future, expecting justice, solidarity with the suffering of others. For every gay knowing the only thing we can be sure of is our or lesbian voice we lose to violence, AIDS, the commitment to honoring their memory. The chal­ crimes of hate, or the self-destructive nature of lenge is to heal and move on with our lives, while internalized homophobia, another will surface to .-Jfc never forgetting the shared reality of this moment. The grief, anger and love. For this is why we do what we do when we speak out, Il >> *1?} educate and organize. The days of grief struc­ m ms ture our community-building as much as cel­ ebrations, festivals, conferences and cam­ paigns. Such days birth and confirm our val­ T#-* ues. «a We also know we are one of many com­ munities beset by violence, and we recommit \Tf»tl„ K VS 0 ourselves to the ideas and values that connect us as Americans and lead to healing: democ­ oint racy and freedom, equality and justice. tlUCIMt, ..W - ; The way to move through grief is to live 497 1 -