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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2018)
Street Roots • Feb. 23-March 1,2018 Finding our moral power here is a woman in Old Town who Labor Committee awarded Street Roots the stores her mound of suitcases under 2018 Lucinda Tate Award “for faithful a tarp and stays near it, almost as reporting on moral issues affecting the though she were sitting in a room and the people of Portland.” A labor organizer and a walls themselves fell away. On warmer days, community activist, Lucinda Tate was a she paints bright remarkable Portlander committed to equity pages in her and justice, and we are very proud to be notebook - bold honored by an award in her name. The 1 » E l » 1 1 1W w U S« Ä W S O strokes of blues and journalists at Street Roots produce a weekly D E S K yellows and reds. newspaper of the independence, integrity When it snowed and and courage under the leadership of By Kaia Sand she needed Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl, who has sent protection from the at least 700 editions to the printer over the cold in a shelter, she past 15 years. could not leave her The Lucinda Tate Award - and the possessions. Moving them was not easy, but coalition of faith and labor leaders that she was finally helped by a kind taxi driver awarded it - makes me appreciate the who lamented Portland’s expensive housing Portland faith communities that wrap and talked about how we need to help each around Street Roots’ vendors. Right now we other, all while she loaded suitcases and have vendors at First Congregational United bundles into the trunk. Church of Christ Portland, Others wandered around First Unitarian Portland, Old Town on those wintery Grace Memorial Episcopal, days - thick snowflakes Having a vendor Rose City Park Presbyterian, landing on duffel bags and Saint David of Wales at such a backpacks, while they bided community creates Episcopal, Westminster time for severe weather Presbyterian, Portland shelters to open later in the a regular Mennonite, Waverly Heights evening. A sound of winter opportunity for United Church of Christ, weather in Old Town is the people to buy Bridgeport United Church of sound of roller suitcases Street Roots, but it Christ, First Congregational dragging over ice ruts. Many Hillsboro, Multnomah Friends also means that people have to work all day to T K a ia Sa n d is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots. org. Follow her on Twitter @ m kaiasand s e c u r e th e ir s le e p fo r th e Page 3 O p in io n m e a n in g fu l Q u a k e r C o m m u n ity , C h r i s t Church Portland and First night, and if a person hangs relationships Church. onto more than a suitcase of develop, and that Christian Having a vendor at such a possessions in this world, vendors are folded community creates a regular mobility to get into a shelter is into a supportive opportunity for people to buy that much harder. community. Street Roots, but it also Everything about being poor means that meaningful makes it harder; problems relationships develop, and compound upon problems. A that vendors are folded into a Street Roots vendor recently supportive community. began to talk to me about his If you are part of a faith health struggles, only to talk community that might want to build such a about fearing eviction, only to talk about relationship, please reach out to our Vendor weighing one bill against another, only to Program Director, Cole Merkel, at cole@ talk about how that stress makes him streetroots.org. sicker. People all over our city are ensnared in a Organizers nationally - and locally - are tangle of stress over housing insecurity, taking up this idea of moral power by isolated by numerous barriers and the reigniting a Poor People’s Campaign, which exhaustion of trying to overcome them. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked Street Roots is about connection, about on during the last months of his life. This striving to be stronger through our support movement shines light on the systemic of each other, about fending off that racism entwined with economic oppression, isolation. declaring that “people should not live in or This is why I am inspired by the theme die from poverty in the richest nation ever that Portland Jobs with Justice promoted for to exist. Blaming the poor and claiming that its Faith Labor Justice breakfast at St. the United States does not have an Andrew’s Church last week: moral power. abundance of resources to overcome It’s an idea that I’ll be mulling over for poverty are false narratives used to some time, but one that seems perpetuate economic exploitation, exclusion extraordinarily important when we think and deep inequality.” I look forward to the about homelessness and poverty. direction the revived Poor People’s How do we overturn a sentiment that Campaign takes. money gives us worth? Most people know After all, we cannot give up until we find intuitively that this is wrong, but it is the collective moral power to demand that undeniable that this logic runs through poor people are at the center - and not the society in terms of the opportunities one margins - of our conversations, our policies does or does not have. For the poorest and our sense of who we are as a people, life’s edges are brutal. community. The Portland Jobs with Justice Faith Write in tn our pages, Ike to get involved as a 503-228-5657; joanne@streetroots.org. H submis * if available Street Reets 2Ï1 NW Davis S t Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 www.news.streetroots.org Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. S a t and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. interested in advertising in Street Roots? Email Staff E xecu tive D ir e c to r Kaia Sand E x ecu tive E d ito r Joanne Zuhl joanne@streetroots.org Vendor P ro g ra m D ire c to r Cole Merkel cole@streetroots.org Development Director And r& w Hogan andrew@streetroots.org S e n io r S t a f f R e p o r te r Em ily Green O p e ra tio n s D ir e c to r Sarah Beecroft P ro g ra m A s s is ta n t Caelin M iItko , Jesuit V o lu n te e r V e n d o r A s s is ta n t Scott Jackson, Alex Gillow-Wiles D e velo p m e n t A s s is ta n t Rosemary Wilson E d ito ria l P ro d u c e r Monica Kwasnik R e p o rte rs Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Emilly Prado, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe, Thacher Schmid, DeVon Pouncey, Helen Hili P h o to g ra p h e rs Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown, Celeste Noche C a n v a s s e r Desmond Hardison Board of Directors C h a irm a n Brad Taylor V ic e -C h a irm a n Rachel Langford T re a s u re r Heather Stadick S e c re ta ry Dan Jones D ire c to rs Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Nels Johnson and Alison Hallett Volunteers Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjali Rathore, Dennis Hogan, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas Buell Jr., Jason Cohen, Doug Spangle, Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Diana Richardson, Paul and Madeline Gefroh, Mary Anne Joyce, Brooke Anderson, Gillian Floren, Mark Oldani, Bianca Butler, Camber Hansen- Karr, Miranda Woods, Henry Brannan, Helen Hill, Mary Emerson, Brooke Anderson, Kathleen McFall, Robb Hengerer, Maile Yeats-Rowe, Erin Parsons, Faye Powell, Jon Raymond 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
