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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2018)
Street Roots • June 29-July 5, 2018 Page 3 O p in io n These times call for acts of courage and national origin. In the rearview mirror, t’s not a time to be complacent. The horrifying sequence of actions from the even Chief Justice John Roberts wrote of the Trump administration has lurched open wrong-headedness of the Korematsu decision, collective awareness of the mistreatment of writing that “the forcible relocation of U.S. countless people trying to cross the U.S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and border. explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively It was only three weeks ago when Oregon unlawful and outside the scope of presidential Sen. Jeff Merkley focused the glare of social authority.” media on the cruel immigration policies But it is audacious to take a stand against a targeting people who are escaping poverty and decades-old decision while refusing to act violence that in no small part results from against a bigotry-laden travel ban now. ______________ U.S. aggression in the For those of us in Portland, the case of first place. Central Minoru Yasui in particular shines a light on America has certainly local resistance with national implications. DIRECTOR'S suffered under U.S.- Hood River-raised, University of Oregon Law ö J o ä ä backed dictatorships and School-educated, and the first Japanese- U.S.-trained human American member of the Oregon State Bar, By Kaia Sand rights abusers. Minoru Yasui set up his law office in the Locally, protestors Foster Hotel on the very block that Street mobilized on June 17, Roots now operates. shutting And it was from the historic down the Immigration and Foster Hotel - now Musolf Manor, Customs Enforcement office on low-income apartments run by Portland’s South Waterfront by Innovative Housing - that Yasui building a barricaded It is audacious walked out into the evening on encampment, OccupylCE, that March 28, 1942: an act of civil to take a stand inspired more actions around disobedience against government against a the nation. curfew laws targeting people of decades-old As of press time, riot-gear Japanese ancestry. decision while clad Department of Homeland He walked south through Old Security officers were moving in refusing to act Town - then known as Japantown - to disperse the camp. Several against a to a police station on Southwest Oak people were arrested. Street and Third Avenue, insisting bigotry-laden But for more than a week, travel ban now. th at the police officers arrest him. this camp bustled like a little He was determ ined th at his civil town, tents lining either side of disobedience challenge the racist railroad tracks in a valley laws. His journey was a long one. He formed by the ICE detention suffered incarceration and then, as center to the west and multiple his court case went forward, solitary businesses to the east. There was a medical confinement. He took his case to the Supreme tent, a mental health tent, a child care tent, a Court - and lost. quiet tent, a supply tent, and a kitchen where Eventually, President Obama awarded people dished up dollops of homemade Minoru Yasui the Presidential Medal of guacamole. Protestors held general Freedom and two years ago, the Oregon state assemblies and vigils and work groups, legislature designated March 28 Minoru Yasui posting signs throughout the camp to guide day. people on how to live respectfully among each But 76 years ago, Minoru Yasui was other. courageous, denounced and alone, challenging And then on Monday, June 25, the assault the racist laws of the federal government. on people attempting to enter the United We need hundreds and hundreds of acts of States continued when the Supreme Court courage right now. Let your voices be heard - upheld Trump’s executive travel ban, with the all of you who have put your bodies on the line majority of justices disregarding Trump’s to challenge brutal immigration policies, clearly expressed goal of targeting people who including people who are homeless, already are Muslim. vulnerable to police actions, who camped at The children of three people who Occupy ICE in solidarity with brothers and challenged the World War II persecution of sisters seeking asylum in this country. Japanese Americans filed an amicus brief to Let your voices be heard alongside the remind the courts that by “refusing to ACLU attorneys who are fighting to get scrutinize the government’s claim that its representation to asylum seekers detained at abhorrent treatment of Japanese Americans Sheridan Federal Prison. was justified by military necessity, the Court Let your voices be heard, all of you enabled the government to cover its racially organizing year after year when cameras are discriminatory policies in the cloak of national not trained on your work. Let us see you and security.” learn from you. In the cases of their fathers - Hirabayashi, Let each effort toward justice reverberates Yasui, and Korematsu - the Supreme Court far and wide. The time has come for all of us upheld a presidential executive order that to step out into that night and make a stand! discriminated against people based on race I K aia Sand is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots. org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand Exec that ailsubmissiohs include ■ s name and contact information, set Roots W Davis St. nd, OR 97209 28-5657 >03-227-3117 3treetroots.org -.news.streetroots.org : 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7:30 p.m. Sat. and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. ¡rtising Interested in advertising in Street Roots? Email Andrew Hogan at andrew@streetroots.org Staff E xecutive E x ecu tive E d ito r Joanne Zuhl V e n d o r P ro g ra m D ir e c to r Cole Merkel cole@streetroots.org Developm ent D ire c to r A n d re w H ogan an drew @ stree troo ts.o rg S e n io r S t a f f R e p o r te r Emily Green O perations D ire cto r Sarah Beecroft P ro g ra m A s s is ta n t Caelin M iltko, Jesuit Volunteer 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 Wilsor 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, Ellena Rosenthal, Amanda Waldroupe, Thacher Schmid, DeVon Pouncey, Helen Hill » ra p h e rs Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown, C a n v a s s e r Desmond Hardison Board of Directors C h a ir Rachel Langford V ic e -C h a ir Dan Jones T r e a s u re r Heather Stadick S e c re ta ry Alison Hallett D ire c to rs Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Nels Johnson Volunteers 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, Danny Moran 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.
