BJWHloiit
Your fresh flower professionals
JACKSON’S FLOWERS
3804 N. E. Sandy Blvd. Portland, OR 97232
(503) 282-0657 • 1 (800) 303-0657
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Where Good Friends
Go To Meet
Since 1939
Daily Breakfast & Lunch Specials
Full Service Cocktail Lounge
Great Home Cooked Foods
and Generous Cocktails
at Working Class Prices
Open Every Day
at 7am
Unde» New
Ownership
& Management
• •//•
In Multnomah Village Coclctails
7819 SW Capitol Hwy
(503) 246-9097
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G raimd
R e -O pemwc
(There was a flood, so we have been closed for two months.)
lunch, helping with registration, inviting test tak
ing, calling homes, leaving cards in mailboxes
and socializing as much as possible. They were/are
To the E ditor :
ell, I must say I pondered back and forth
nearly omnipresent in our kids’ lives; the actual
as to whether it was worth the effort to
recruitment was/is just the end result of that
respond to such misguided and ridiculous banter
insidious grooming process.
from Paul Gregory about my Rose Festival com
There is no God-given right for the military,
mentary [“Every Rose Has Its Thom,” June 15].
despite having limitless resources, to “buddy up”
What amuses me most is that in his first year
to children from grade school on just because
he stayed throughout the event but never once
there is federal money in schools. Should Head
approached me and asked whether I knew any
Start be forced to allow in recruiters?
of the folks I was commentating about. Instead,
No student interested in the military has dif
he made assumptions.
ficulty finding recruiters’ offices. Our greed- and
By the way, your accusations about comments
death-driven culture is suffused with military
I supposedly made about larger folks is complete
propaganda from early childhood on.
ly wrong. You must not have taken a good look
I’m unimpressed by the argument that poor
at me, because I am not a skinny queen!
students and students of color might not have
Paul obviously doesn’t realize most of the
other options. They do. To the extent that they
drag queens in Portland, just like me, are the
do not or think they do not, shame on us: par
same ones who are out in the public doing most
ents, citizens and public schools.
of the work no one else seems to want to do.
Derry Jackson said at the May 21 Portland
Stonewall for me and them is more than just a
Public Schools board meeting that, although he
fairy tale but something all of us within the trans
reluctantly supported the “clarification” com
community—and the entire queer community,
promise (with which I disagree but applaud the
for that matter—continue to live daily.
board for reaching), it meant that needed oppor
I am truly sorry you could not find some joy
tunities still would not reach some students. But
in any of the experience with the Rose Festival
those heterosexual students of whom he spoke
party this year with the rest of us who obviously
still can go to the nearest recruiter if they think
had a good time. I believe it is an awesome
it is their best post-high school opportunity.
opportunity for all of the titleholders in our
He never mentioned students who cannot
community to receive the visibility and recogni
access that so-called opportunity—i.e., the ones
tion they deserve. It is also an opportunity for all
who are gay and lesbian, including African
of us to continue to show the straight communi
Americans. When will those professing such con
ty, who are so dismissive to throw us under the
cern around this issue for those who are U.S.
rug, that we are an equal partner in what is sup
minorities by skin color gain insight and show
pose to be a community parade.
brother/sisterhood with those who are minorities
I will not be going anywhere, and I intend to
by another fact of their birth, their sexual orien
continue to commentate and be there until our
tation? African Americans have the most horri
community has an opportunity to proudly take
ble history of U.S. oppression, but that’s no justi
its place within the Rose Festival Grand Floral
fication for not standing in solidarity whenever
Parade and all community events, receiving
another group is being oppressed and when some
equal treatment. It has taken me more than 10
of their own ethnicity are being doubly oppressed.
years to get recognized for speaking, and I gladly
Thanks, Marc Abrams and all board mem
will take 10 more to ensure we have our rightful
bers supporting the recruitment ban who were
place within our Portland parade.
trying to keep a portion of the limits set to mili
They allow us to build their floats and make
tary presence. Unfortunately, your “clarification”
their costumes, but they don’t actively bring us
strengthened the ability to groom youth for
to the participating table in what should be an
unquestioned acceptance of service in an unjust,
ill-used military. But you recognized six years ago
inclusive citywide celebration. I will continue to
support the Rose Festival Association, believing
and now that ignorance breeds hate, that hate
you go a lot further making friends.
breeds violence and that every time we stand up
I could use your help in the future and would
for one target of hate we inch humanity forward
suggest a different approach with some of us who
into finding alternatives to community and insti
are doing more than our fair share of communi
tutional violence on small and grand scales.
ty work. Funny how some are so quick to be crit
ical about the smallest of things but often are
C laudia K ing
not the ones to pitch in a dollar, help with our
Portland
fond-raisers and organize these events.
Paul, maybe you should have dinner with me
and try to get to know me. You might find we
actually could be friends or, worse yet, have
something in common!
To the E ditor :
read Marty Davis’ commentary in the June 1
issue and am compelled to respond (“Lord,
M isha R ockafeller
Portland
Help Me Be the Person My Dog Thinks I Am”).
First, 1 must state that your remarks about Peanut
were not only very funny but were so descriptive
that every reader truly will know her well. My con
gratulations on your loving relationship.
To the E ditor :
11 7 hen the United States decided, in my son’s
Second, your right to reject our advertising is
V V 19th year, to pulverize Iraq, 1 made a protest
certainly yours, and I respect your decision as
sign stating, “1’11 die before my son is sacrificed to
being completely yours to make.
the U.S. War Machine!" 1 joined Northwest Mili
I do have an invitation for you—come visit
tary and Draft Counseling, which was among those
us. Look behind the scenes and make your own
principally involved in getting recruiters out of determination about greyhound welfare here at
schools for anti-military reasons and because that
Multnomah Greyhound Park. There is no “Fast
institution discriminates against nonheterosexuals.
Track to Death,” as Stanley Jones-Umberger
Then and now, grade schoolers receive mili
wrote [“Lose Track,” June 1).
tary grooming with trips to the air base and sol
Greyhounds are tracked from conception
through adoption. They are well-housed, well-
dier presence on their playground; middle school
fed, well-treated physically and emotionally, and
ers had camouflage book jackets with soldiers
placed into loving homes when their racing
aiming tank weapons (later used to bury alive
Iraq’s forced conscripts) and exhorting kids to be
and/or breeding careers are over.
Those involved in racing are loving individ-
all they can be; and high schools had recruiters at
Don’t be si FRl a drag
W
Barking up
the wrong tree
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Give peace a chance
Don't Be a Drip —
and Clean Up with Our
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1015 SW Washington
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