Street Roots • October 6-12, 2017
Page 3
O p in io n
We must march on in solidarity with one another
he times are changing. They always
have been. Given the current
circumstances politically, it feels like
we’re being bombarded in almost every
direction. We are.
Waking up every morning to a news cycle
that delivers more and more desperate and
devastating news, sometimes it feels like our
world is spinning out of control.
We know our world is fragile.
We know our country
«
is divided.
I 1 1 s Ä g: a 1 fe E
«w
We know that our
D B S 1C
community in Portland
is increasingly made up
B y Israel Bayer
of the haves and have
nots.
We know that many
of the issues Street
Roots and our readers care about —
immigration, housing, climate change and race
— are being tested at both a policy level and on
our streets. They always have been.
A vendor reminded me of this on the day
after the November election. He said, “Israel,
don’t be so blue. I can tell you one thing, like it
or not, I was homeless before Donald Trump
was president and unless we find some
housing, I most likely will be homeless after
Donald Trump is president.”
His message to me was essentially that we
are all walking on the long road, a road that’s
been traveled before. We must march on. We
must hold the line for social justice.
It’s hard to imagine that given the hate and
bigotry and policy decisions coming out of
Washington D .C . how that could be possible.
The reality is that every single day, Street
Roots vendors remain steadfast in helping
deliver a message of hope in the larger
community. It’s one smart silver lining on the
edge of a raging storm.
It’s not enough. We must march on. We
must hold the line for social justice.
We must continue to shelter our immigrant
friends to the best of our abilities and support
coalitions working to curb deportations. We
T
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach h im a t
israel@streetroots. org
or follow him on
Tw itter @israelbayer.
must support the A CLU in continuing to fight
the good fight in the halls of justice. We must
continue to speak out, rise up and expose
individuals and organizations that carry the
banner of hate.
We must continue to work toward policies
locally and nationally that will curb climate
change. We must continue to stand up for
people experiencing poverty and
homelessness. We must work to the best of
our ability to set ourselves up for a time when
we aren’t playing defense and have the chance
to take the offense in maintaining and creating
a better world.
We must march on. We must hold the line
for social justice.
It won’t be easy, but for anyone that’s poor
or a person of color, it’s never been easy or
just. There has never been a time when life
has been equitable. There has never been a
time when housing or worker’s rights or the
gay and lesbian community ever had anything
handed to them. Poor and common folk have
never had anything handed to them.
We must march on. We must hold the line
for social justice.
The reality is that people have lived and
died for the rights that we have today, and
there are people living and dying to defend the
rights that are being stripped away from us
today.
In the coming months, it’s going to get
harder before we even have a chance to make
it better. There is no single strategy that will
win the day. We must stand in solidarity with
one another. We must stop tearing each other
down when the enemy of hate wants to see us
crumble. We must not let the noise of the
world drown out the good. We must not work
to support one group of people, but work to
support all people to have an opportunity for
better days.
No matter how hard those winds blow, my
friends, we must march on. We must hold the
line for social justice. Yesterday, today and
tomorrow. We must march on. We must hold
the line.
Executive Director Israel Bayer
Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl
Vendor Assistant Scott Jackson
Reporters Emily Green, Sarah Hansell,
Leonora Ko, Emilly Prado Jared Paben,
Amanda Waldroupe, Stephen Quirke,
Helen Hill
Photographers Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown
Canvasser Desmond Hardison
Board of Directors
Chairman Brad Taylor
Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford
Treasurer Heather Stadick
Secretary Dan Jones
Directors Rich Rodgers, Michael Anderson,
Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Nels Johnson and
Alison Hallett
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjali Rathore,
Zoe Klingmann, Dan Jones, Dennis Hogan, Monica
McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas
Buell Jr., Jeanie Lunsford, Jason Cohen, Doug
Spangle, Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Diana
Richardson, Paul and Madeline Gefroh, Mary Anne
Joyce, Del Shawn Davidson, Gillian Floren, Mark
OlDani, Bianca Butler, Alex Cherin, Jenny Farres, Evan
Firsick, Camber Hansen-Karr, Miranda Woods, Henry
Brannan, Megan Smith, Luke Scheuermann, Annie
Aube, Helen Hill, Mark Brown, Lily Krai, Mary
Emerson, Adam Bruns, Brooke Anderson and Megan
Pickerel-Winer. If you're interested in volunteering
with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer
application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can
call for more information at 503-228-5657.