Street roots., November 25, 2016, Page 7, Image 7

Street Roots • Nov. 25-Dec. 1, 2016
News
ELECTION, from page 5
ROBERTS, fro m page 5
J.Z.: How do we do that? How are we going to keep the next
generation of young women engaged in politics and running
for office?
that, you may be alive, but you’re not
living.
B.R.: I think women like myself, who have worked to
help other women run before, who have worked with the
Women’s Resource Center at Portland State (University) to
train women, to teach women, to get young women to
think of themselves a$ serving and being elected - we have
to continue th a t We have to step forward and continue to
be the mentors and be the role models. If I just threw up
my hands and said this is so awful I can’t contend with i t
then that wouldn’t be very useful. But if I say to those
young women, we’ve lost before, we can come back. This is
a huge loss for women in this country and for women’s
history, hut this is not the ultimate loss, so our job is to
make sure we can move forward to the nest opportunity
and we’ll be ready, Änd I think young people are ready for
th a t We’ve got to engage them. We’ve got to give them
places they can make a difference, where they 0311
contribute, where they can spend their time and passion
and energy, and I think We can do th a t
J.Z.: Awe? the environment among Ote voters is probably
180 degrees from even when you were running far office as
secretary of state. That today a woman, like the governor did
in this election, could receive support that is so overwhelming.
B.R.: Kate Brown and Ellen Rosenblum won by oyer 50
percent in races where one of them had five opponents. To
get even 50 percent in a race with five or six candidates is
very difficult to do. You have to be really accepted by the
electorate, and obviously those two were.
We’ve seen a woman win another seat on the Portland .
City Council.
The Multnomah County Commission has five women on
i t We’ve had that before, but it s been a long time. And
three of those women — the majority - are women .of color.
That’s never happened before-I think we in Oregon have a
lot to feel very good about.
The people stepped up for election financing reform in
Portland, for funding housing for low-income and homeless
people, for funding programs for the veterans of this area.
So I think we can feel pretty good about Oregon voters
right now.
I think it just means you have to work harder and step
up, and not give in and not give up.
J.Z. Given the changes in politics fo r women, do you ever
wish you were governor today? Do you think the times would
be easier?
B.R.: I look back when I took the governorship in 1991;
Measure 5 had just passed, which from that day forward
really underfunded schools. It was just devastating
statewide. And the spotted owl crisis was going on, which
was a massive economic and social change in Oregon and
particularly in the rural areas, it was very, very
devastating. So it was a really tough time to serve. But I
never regretted being there in the tough times. Somebody
had to do it, and I wasn’t afraid of the tough stuff, and Kate
Brown is the same kind of governor. She will step forward
and she will do what needs to be done. I’m feeling very
confident
J.Z.: What does it mean to you to have this kind of
celebration for your 80th birthday?
B.R.: At 80, I’m looking at a different time in my life in a
lot of ways, and I wanted to do a benefit for something that
I really care about something that I thought was socially
important and culturally important, and is something I
really believe in. And Compassion and Choices, the Death
with Dignity law, filled that completely. So it was an ideal
match for me to say at 80 years old, this is something 1
really care about End of life is not too for away when you
get to 80, and you start thinking about it in different ways.
But it wasn’t a negative approach to this, it was just how
much I love the work the organization does and how
critical I think it is for our state and for our nation.
B.C.L.: It’s not like control for
control’s sake. I think some people,
when they talk about this, they think
they’re control freaks. These people
are not control freaks. They’re
planners. They’re careful people who
have looked adversity in the face
many times in their lives, and they’re
looking at this adversity in the face,
and they do not want to be in a state
they consider unbearable to them,
unbearable to their family, and so
they’re planning ahead.
A third of these people who have
this insurance policy, if you will -
their parachute, their safety blanket,
or whatever - they don’t use it. It’s
“I want this if I need it, if I’m stuck
in a place worse than death.”
J.Z.: It seems it would be considered
a brave choice, but I also wonder if I
could make that choice myself. I think
many people are still afraid of it, in
some way.
B.R.: Nobody is absolutely certain,
and that’s the reason a number of
people get the prescription - they’ve
gone through all the hoops, if you
will. The prescription is in their
hom e, and th e y can choose to u se it
or not to use it, and a number of
p eople don’t u se it. I t’s th ere, so if
they can’t bear either the pain or the
disability or what’s happening to
them as a human being, or when
they’re ready to go, the medicine is
there and they can take that
prescription. It is a choice for the
patient right to the very end, and I
think that’s the thing that’s most
amazing. In our lifetime, seldom do
we get a final choice like that, and
this is the place we get it in Oregon,
and in Colorado now.
J.Z.: It’s a question you’ve been
asked many times, I suppose, but you
would consider this option yourself
should the time arise?
B.R.: Absolutely. I have been
around. I had a nephew who died
four or five years ago of ALS, Lou
Gehrig’s Disease, one of the most
debilitating, painful things to watch.
If I knew that was my disease, I
wouldn’t even hesitate about taking
the prescription. It is brave, but it’s
also practical. We like to maintain
some control over our life. I watched
my nephew die; I watched my
husband die; I watched my mother
die. I have a lot of desire not to
watch that in myself. Nobody knows
till they’re there and they’re making
that choice, but I wouldn’t hesitate
myself.
J.Z.: How did Brittany Maynard,
contribute to this discussion around
Death with Dignity? (Maynard, who
suffered from terminal brain cancer,
was an advocate for death-with-dignity
policies in California. She ended her
Page 7
P H O T O B Y O W E N C A R E Y , C O U R T E S Y OF
C O M P A S S IO N A N D C H O IC E S
Barbara Roberts, left and Barbara
Coombs Lee.
own life in Oregon in 2014 at age 29.)
B.R.: That m s the brave woman.
She is and was remarkable. As young
as she was, to enter the end of her
life with the kind of bravery she did,
the openness and the commitment
she had about how she used the
time she had left and how she exited
when that time was over. I have just
never witnessed anything quite like
her. Her husband and her mother
have been magnificent. I don’t think
there’s any question in California
that had it not been for her and her
husband that I doubt it would have
passed in California.
B.C.L.: She definitely was the
catalyst in th e C alifornia cam paign,
and she’ll be a catalyst in all our
future campaigns. We ran three ads
in Colorado; the first one featured
her. She orients people in a way that
people relate to her. She’s so
charismatic.
J.Z.: What you’re describing sounds
to me how you’ve written about
Barbara Roberts. Barbara Coombs
Lee, I ’d like to get your thoughts on
having a politician of a governor’s
caliber spearheading the effort.
B.C.L.: Just any politician
wouldn’t do, but Barbara Roberts is
a very special political personality.
It’s because she leads with her heart
and she’s honest about what’s in her
heart that makes her so incredibly
compelling, so incredibly
heartwarming and persuasive about
the things she believes in, and this is
one of the things she believes in:
having lived through it with Frank
and how that could have been
different And she also has a position
of authority, that this is responsible
public policy.
J.Z.:
wrote that end-of-life care
has become kinder, and it’s not just
because people are talking about it.
B.R.: People talking about it did
make it kinder. Now we have hospice
in every county in the state. We have
many more physicians who are
recommending hospice to families
and patients much earlier instead of
waiting until it’s a week before their
death and it’s a little late. So we
have a much different medical
community. The medical community
that’s being trained in Oregon is
getting end-of-life medical care
understanding in a way that they
were not trained in before. To face
up that death is end of life; it is not
failure. I think our medical schools in
Oregon are doing a better job of
preparing our physicians. I think the
work that hospice has done with
Compassion and Choices, and the
Death with Dignity law, the working
relationships, that has made a huge
difference. The state stepping
forward and examining how pain
control is being used, or underused
in some cases, that made death
kinder for many people in our state.
So the state has really examined end
of life through the lens of a much
more open culture than we had
every experienced before, so I don’t
have much question about how
different it is, how much better it is,
how many more options there are for
people, and I think those are the
things that we hope for at the end of
our own lives and for those we love.
Many people have stepped forward
and made legal papers for what they
want with end-of-life care. They have
medical powers of attorney. It’s all of
those things available in Oregon.
Many states don’t have those
options.
J.Z.: So with the victory in
Colorado, where do we go from here?
B.C.L.: The next state will be New
Jersey. A bill is working its way
through the New Jersey Legislature.
We expect there to be progress next
year in Massachusetts, Maryland,
Minnesota, New York - there will
probably be bills introduced in about
half the states, but we expect there
to be significant progress in about
seven.
You expect that a bill is not going
to pass on the first time, so now we
have a number of states that are
lining up with a second introduction.
It takes a few years for people to get
comfortable and to get educated
about it. It’s a complicated issue.
J.Z.: Does the grief ever get too close
to you? You are around people who are
grieving often - on a productive level -
but some days there must be a wave of
emotion that hits you.
B.R.: When I do book readings
from this book (“Death Without
Denial, Grief Without Apology”), and
I read chapters about Frank’s
moment of death, and I read about
going through the hospice process,
and I tell people it’s OK to weep -
it’s OK to cry - I do it, and I’m the
author! Yeah, it gets close; it gets
very close sometimes. I get to
choose what to read, and there may
be a day when I’m doing a reading
that night, and I think I cannot read
that hospice piece tonight. And I
don’t do i t It’s OK to be emotional.
Joanne Zuhl is the managing editor
of Street Roots. She can be reached at
joanne@streetroots. org