Street Roots • May 27-June 2, 2016
Page 13
Commentary
Roy Pascoe: “If I wasn’t fighting for my life, I’d be fighting for the river”
BY ERIN GOODLING
Roy: We lived on the river for quite a
while. It had its many challenges: the river
goes up and down with the weather. We had
oy Pascoe was born on July 31,1962,
the rain to battle with, the snow; the police,
and grew up mainly in Bremerton,
the parks; our stuff being stolen. And then
Wash. He fished, swam, sailed, and
we
found out a year or so ago that the river
worked on the docks in Puget Sound. He
is
completely
contaminated. There’s a lot of
also worked in food service on naval ships
pesticides, lead, mercury. I’ve fished out of
and ssubmarines. In 1995, he moved to the
these rivers, I’ve eaten out of these rivers. I
St. Johns neighborhood, in Portland. Over
just recently beat cancer; I don’t know that
the years, Roy worked various jobs along
it (getting cancer) wasn’t because of t h a t ...
the Columbia and Willamette Rivers,
There
are a lot of cancer-causing agents that
including his favorite job: operating a forklift
are in these rivers. Once we found out that
at Georgia Pacific, just north of downtown.
the river was contaminated, we found it
In 2010, he got laid off. When he could no
more complicated. We had to move further
longer afford his rent, he moved outside,
away. And it made it harder because I knew
down near the Hawthorne Bridge.
I couldn’t fish and we couldn’t really eat out
In 2014, Roy moved to Right 2 Dream
Too. A few weeks later, he learned about the of the river.
What I’d like to see is for eventually the
Portland Harbor Community Coalition
river
to get cleaned up. And for people who,
(PHCC) at a Right 2 Survive (R2S) meeting.
in the past and in the present (polluted the
Roy was a committed member of R2S and
PHCC until he passed away on May 15, after river), to be held responsible for the
contaminants. There are many companies,
a year and a half-long fight with cancer. Roy
manufacturers and corporations that I still
is survived by his partner, Loretta Pascoe;
don’t think are doing their part. (We need to
his mother; and many beloved friends and
hold them responsible) so that one day we’ll
relatives.
have a clean, safe place to call home along
Roy spoke at length about his life and
the Willamette River.
activism in a film that PHCC produced in
Excerpt from an interview with Roy, July 2,
spring 2015, as well as in an interview with
2015:
me, a fellow PHCC member, in summer
Roy: Talking to other people, listening,
2015. Excerpts from both are below.
going to the events has made a big
Excerpt from “A People’s View of the
difference in being able to learn and
Portland Harbor” (www.ourfutureriver.org):
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITER
R
P H O T O CO U R TES Y OF ERIN G O O D IN G
By spring 2016, Roy’s illness forced him. to
slow down. A month before he passed away,
Roy said, “I f I wasn’t fighting for my life, I ’d
be fighting for the river. ”
understand just what the cleanup is about
and who is involved. That surprised me how
many different organizations are involved.
We are all working together for the same
thing. It reminded me a lot of home. I know
just how polluted it is back in the Puget
Sound area. We used to do fishing, boating,
swimming - everything everybody does
right here. ...
[I was] homeless [after getting laid off],
and I am [now] part of Right to Survive and
Right 2 Dream Too. I lived out on the
streets. There have been times in my life
when people helped me, and I’m just giving
back what I used to get. So many people
that live along the river, they need help also.
A lot of those people don’t even know what
they are living in. There is just not enough
communication and openness to educate
everybody about what is going on. I’ve gone
down to the river with other PHCC and R2S
members to actually talk to people, do
interviews with them, hand out pamphlets
and stuff to help them understand the
dangers of the river, the fish and the banks
they are living on.
People are living in contaminated soil,
[and there’s] contamination in the fish they
are eating. I’ve been up and down the river
for miles. I know there are people living on
boats, living in houses, everything they grow
- it soaks up the river, children play there.
Not only are houseless people (impacted),
there’s also housed people. There are
people that swim, there are people of all
different cultures that fish that don’t know
what they are eating. I like helping people.
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