Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1995)
NEWSXOPINION The Clackamas Print Page 3 Wednesday, March 8,1995 CCC studentTerry Demezas FRO receives name V Donors receive thanks at dedication to lead cultural exchange by Tina Guinn Editor-in-Chief by Anjanette Booth News Editor “To promote international awareness, understanding, and friendship,” this is the main ob jective of the Rural Mexico Cul tural Exchange Program. Terry Demezas, acting president of the program, and his 16-year-old daughter, Myriam, co-coordinator of this year’s trip and Grant High School student, will be leading the cultural exchange to Teocelo, Veracruz, in July. Teocelo is a small rural town in the subtropical region of Veracruz, about 40 miles from the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The movie “Romancing the Stone” was filmed in this area. Demezas will be taking 10 to 13 Oregonians on a one- month family stay and commu nity service program to Teocelo from July 20 to Aug. 21. Exchange students are en couraged to contribute to the community of Teocelo with whatever knowledge or skills they may have. Past commu nity services have included cleaning up and planting flow ers in the church yards, print ing street signs, working in the local health clinic and running a children’s summer school pro gram offering courses in En glish, arts and crafts, music and dance. Participants and their Mexican host families can also participate in a variety of special activities. Visits can be taken to the state capitol of Jalpa, to the port city of Veracruz, to the neigh boring rural towns, to ancient In dian pyramid ruins and histori cal sites and museums. Oregonians may also enjoy participating in evening fiestas and dances, an overnight back packing trip to ah isolated moun tain village, hiking, swimming, playing basketball, soccer and volleyball with local men’s and women’s teams, and taking Span ish lessons. Demezas is still looking for Oregonians that are interested in participating in this cultural ex change. He is looking for partici pants that aren’t just looking for a vacation, but are interested in looking at another culture from the inside. “We are looking for people who have a sincere desire to ex perience traditional Mexican cul ture or life, and would be sensi tive and appreciate cultural dif ferences,” Demezas said. The total cost of the one month trip, $1,200 per person, in cludes trip coordination and lead ers and all round-trip transporta tion and travel expenses from Portland to Teocelo. The money is also used to buy material for classes and for a night spent in Mexico City. If there is money left over, it will be used to help buy four to six tickets for citizens of Teocelo to come to Oregon in 1996. The cultural exchange pro gram was started almost 15 years ago through SETEJ, the Mexican Educational and Tour ist Service for Students and Youth. Since the program be gan, many goals have been reached, and friendships and marriages have been made. In 1987, Demezas and his wife Vicky, whom he met in 1985 in Teocelo, lead a group of eight people aging 23 to 65 years old, to Teocelo. While there, the group lead a summer school project teaching English to a group of 67 kids aging from four to 18 years old. A generous donation was also made by the group toward the “Teocelo Ambulance Fund,” which ended up helping Teocelo finally purchase their own am bulance. In 1992, the summer school exchange program almost tripled in enrollment with 185 kids. Rod Cooper, an Orego nian, also donated 40 boxes of medical supplies and equipment to the town. Cooper returned in the winter to open a free medical clinic, “Lazos Pro Salud,” and to donate another 150 boxes of medical supplies. If you are interested in get ting involved in the Rural Mexico Cultural Exchange Program,can contact Terry Demezas at (503) 249-8243. After a rigorous fund-raising campaign, the Family Resource Center has finally been paid for, and the donors have been hon ored. Last Thursday, at a dedica tion reception held in the Gregory Forum, College President John Keyser began the ceremony, say ing, “This is a great day for ev eryone in the room who were in a partnership for this program. “It is the culmination of the past few years of tough, reward ing fund-raising to finish payment on the Elizabeth McClung Brod Family Resource Center.” He went on to thank every one who contributed and espe cially the college board members who “are responsible for taking this risk. “We hit a very large and am bitious target,” Keyser said. Elizabeth McClung Brod, after whom the Family Resource Center was named, worked to ad vance opportunities for women in the work force from the 1930’s until her death in 1989. McClung Brod made a name for herself in the industrial field during a time that was predomi nately male. Since 1992, the staff of the Family Resource Center, which houses Life and Career Options Program, Young Parent Opportu nity Program and the Camp Fire Child Care Center, has been working to help disadvantaged families break out of cycles of dependency while developing and maintaining needed skills to be come self-sufficient community members. Camp Fire Child Care Cen ter Director Judy Kling was pleased that the fund-raising cam paign had concluded. “It’s exciting to me to have been here for the conception [of ' the idea for the Family Resource Center] to the opening [of the building] and now to be here for the dedication and the project be ing completed. “The fact that we’re able to have a partnership with the col lege is a unique and exciting con cept. It’s neat that Camp Fire and CCC can work together and make this happen for the benefit of the whole community,” Kling said. Rene Rathburn, assistant dean/extended learning services, was also excited to see the project finished. “It is very exciting to have the culmination of all the hard work that’s gone into the donation drive. “The part.that especially makes my heart feel good is to see the people being served through the program,” Rathburn said. Approximately 500 people, donated money to the fund-raiser to make the dream of a Family Re source Center a reality. All of the donations were appreciated. And several donations made were $5,000 or greater. To honor those who donated amounts in that category, rooms inside the Elizabeth McClung Brod Family Resource Center were dedicated in their names. If You’re A Punk, I’m A Rocker v'Unstereotyping Society By Daniel Rogers and Wilson Hur Contributing Writers What is life but to live and die? Is it to be rich and material istic? Is happiness found there? I had a friend named Jacob whose outlook on life was so different, it intrigued me to write this paper. His image was: “I’m a rebel punker and I do what I want. Don’t mess with me, or I’ll fu— you up!” Not only were his atti tude and brain cells formed this way, but he definitely lived it, breathed it and walked it. Jacob was an old school punk rocker. I don’t really know that much about old school punk, but in my own words, I would de scribe them as a “liberated breed from society.” Just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge punk rockers by the way they are. Fur thermore, who in society are we tojudge? Should we judge the head hunters in Indonesia who live opposed to society’s standards, which are created by society? Does life advocate their cultural heritage, which seems weird and out of place to the norm? Should we judge people based on color, you doing?” he would say in a background, family, religion and loud, shrill voice. It was totally financial status? obnoxious. One of society’s downfalls is We would usually go hang that it seems to degrade people, out in one of the many places in stereotypically. Jacob was an easy Seattle. Or, we would visit differ target. ent friends in the shelter. I was First of all, there was Jacob’s under rage, so I could rarely get overall appearance. He usually into bars with Jacob, where he wore a run-down, stained T-shirt went so regularly. So, often, he’d with an old punk rock band logo buy us a six-pack and we’d hang on the front. out and drink our lives away. He usually had a dirty pair of Sometimes he would get work jeans on. His only pair of plastered until 2 a.m. and have to shoes were a pair of steel-toed be at work at 6 a.m. work boots, drenched in mud. One thing about Jacob was if And of course, he had a tom-up you were real with him, and black leather jacket with a “Mis showed no fronts, he would be fits” patch on back. straight up with you. If you were He stood about five foot five a poser, a faker or snobby, he and weighed 130 pounds. Various would tell you how it is. No mat tatoos covered his defined chest ter who you were, if you screwed and arms. His dirty blond hair -«with him intentionally, he would hung down to his mouth, hints of kick your ass. He even did this old purple dye thinning out. He with his close friends on occasion. was proud and unashamed of who I believe Jacob is the person he was. he is because he has been in a Jacob worked construction. normal society, whatever that is. After a hard, ten-hour day, he He has lived it, hated it and would come home and plop down screwed it. on the couch. He would still be in He grew up in a small ‘hick’ his work clothes, which were also town in Arizona. He automati his regular clothes. cally did not conform to their “Hey, Wilson dude, what are society’s system of life. In trying to cope, he turned to drugs and rebelliousness at a young age. After running away a bunch of times and being in many other bad delinquent scenes, he was finally admitted to an asylum. His parents thought he was crazy. He’s been in a series of fos ter homes. He has been homeless on three different occasions or more. He’s lost his best friend to a Christmas Eve suicide, and been disowned by his parents, whom he hasn’t seen in years. Finally, he’s become molded into the per son we now know him as. Jacob has now overcome his addiction to drugs and has settled into his construction job. He’s managed to live to be 23 years old, and is making a decent living. He still has no desire for ma terial possessions, established goals nor the way of life society has to offer. He enjoys living day by day, moment to moment. That is all he knows: just to live liber ated from the mold of this society as most of us know it. Sure, he doesn’t have many goals in life, but maybe life isn’t really about goals and money the way a lot of people think. Just because his outlook on life is dif ferent, does it matter? Perhaps life isn’t about living to get some where, because once you get there, where are you? To this day, a lot of people just don’t understand different people of different backgrounds. They may automatically stereo type people by the way they ap pear to be. But underneath that outer shell, Jacob is a human be ing just like you, me or anybody. No matter if it’s a bum, a punker, an African or a school teacher, you’re still human, no matter what. . What I have shared on paper is really vague. It goes far beyond any words or ink could ever dis play. You see, Jacob was a mean, hard-core punker, and even vio lent at times, but I knew him on the inside. I hung out with him and learned that once I got to know him on the inside, he was real and genuine. It just goes to show appear ance isn’t everything, so it seems unfair to judge a person when you can’t know their heart. I think we should learn to accept people the way they are, because once you get to know them, they may not be all that they seem.
