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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2007)
• What to say about the debacle around the celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday? On the one hand, same-sex marriages are indeed a civil rights issue, and the invited speaker, the Rev. Walter Fauntroy, pursues active discrimination against gays and lesbians of all ethnicities when he joins his voice to the anti-same-sex marriage Alliance for Marriage group. We wonder what Fauntroy says about Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader, gay man and close associate of King’s who helped bring the principles of Gandhian nonvio- lence to King’s attention. But just as importantly, African-American voices have nowhere near the media attention or participation in the structures of power in Eugene that white lesbian and gay activists do. The first vote of the city’s Human Rights Commission, taken without discussion with the committee that invited Fauntroy (or, apparently, anyone who identifies as African American), showed a bizarre and troubling lack of attention to input from members of the black community. We’re glad that committee chair Carmen Urbina revisited the issue with far more attention to race relations. But the entire discussion is painful, which doesn’t make it less necessary. Race, class, gender, sexuality, his- torical oppression and the active attempts of Karl Rove and his gang to divide (and conquer) civil rights leaders — those are large issues, ones which we should all work on understanding. Working to end all oppression: Now that’s a goal we can support. But we’ll admit that we don’t know everything about these issues, and we’d truly like to hear from a variety of community voices. In the meantime, on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we’ll listen to Fauntroy but remember the contributions of LGBT people of color like Rustin, Pat Parker, Langston Hughes, Audre Lorde and James Baldwin. • Kitty Piercy’s State of the City address last week was a very upbeat affair, and we give it an A for thoroughness (Kitty covered a broad range of issues), an A for entertainment (those city staffers can really sing) and maybe a C for can- dor (we’re nowhere close to being the greenest city in America). Good people, good speeches, good food, good way to start the year. • Suggestions for a nickname for the new courthouse have petered out. We’ve pondered all the imaginative names and while some of them are clever as hell (see this column last week and 12/21), most would not likely stick and become commonly used. Our favorite name, “Starship Hogan,” has sticky qualities, and in fact is already being used by some attorneys and courthouse staffers. Thanks to Ralph Wombat for bringing it to our attention, and thanks to all who submit- ted the great names that kept us giggling over the holidays. • It makes sense that artists can catch the essence of a moment in history bet- ter than the rest of us. Lawson Fusao Inada did that Monday in Salem at the inauguration of Oregon’s 36th governor, Theodore R. Kulongoski. Inada is Oregon’s poet laureate, a resident of Medford and a professor at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Here’s what he wrote for the splendid event (especially splendid for the Democrats!). He called it “An Oregon Chorus”: Hope, as we all know, Is at home in our hearts. We were born with hope, And it was nurtured in us, Lawson Fusao Inada Opportunity, as we all know, Must present itself to us. Opportunity can offer A chance for advancement. Today, our hope is evident. Today, opportunity beckons. Let us proceed as partners For the betterment of Oregon. • Everybody who cares about what’s going on in Iraq needs to speak up now as Bush prepares to escalate our military commitment and spend billions more on a long-shot gamble. Get on the record with your representatives in Congress. Hold their feet to the fire. Write a letter, send an email, make a call. Clearly state your objections. The Democrats now “in control” of Congress are still vulnerable to allowing the inertia of this idiotic campaign to plow through countless more Iraqi and American lives. Only a massive public outcry will assure a quick with- drawal from Iraq. And don’t let mainstream media fool you with the use of the word “surge.” It’s an outrageous escalation. • We heard from a credible source that the VA in Roseburg has been talking to PeaceHealth about buying one or more of its older buildings at the Sacred Heart campus on Hilyard. Turns out it was just a rumor, according to Brian Terrett at PeaceHealth. “We don’t have an agreement with the VA, and actually they haven’t talked to us about space at Hilyard,” he says. “At this point almost all of the space at Hilyard is already spoken for, so it would be hard for us to accommodate the VA if they wanted to be at Hilyard.” SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com 8 JANUARY 11, 2007 news consciences’ about racial discrimination and poverty in the United States and human rights abuses in South Africa,” reads a statement from Betty Snowden, one of the event’s organ- izers. Fauntroy was King’s personal envoy to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and also chaired the board of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change. Today he is presi- dent of the National Black Leadership Roundtable, co-chair of the Sudan Campaign, and head of the Millennium Villages Project, a U.S.-based private sector effort to eliminate extreme poverty in Africa by 2025. But Fauntroy became controversial in re- cent years when he signed on for a leading role in support of a constitutional amendment to Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed ban gay marriage. The Alliance For Marriage as a holiday in Lane County Monday, Jan. 15, (AFM) included Fauntroy’s name and his link and the event this year has taken on political and to King on all its press releases in support of social baggage due to the choice of the keynote the constitutional amendment and amend- speaker for the county’s celebration. ments to state constitutions in Oregon and 10 Human rights activist Walter E. Fauntroy, other states. Some gay rights activists pastor of the New Bethel Baptist church in accused Fauntroy of using King’s Washington, D.C., will address the legacy to shield those support- theme “The Dream: How Far ing discrimination against Have We Come?” But the gays from charges of bigotry. preacher’s political activism The anti-gay initiatives in against gay marriage led some swing states served to help local gay rights activists to re-elect Bush and other call for a cancellation of Republicans in 2004, politi- Fauntroy’s appearance. cal pundits said. The issue came before the Fauntroy will speak at the Eugene Human Rights celebration which begins at 6 Commission in December, which pm Monday, Jan. 15 in the Morse led to a vote to not support Fauntroy’s appearance. The com- Walter E. Fauntroy Events Center at Northwest Christian College, at the corner of mission reversed itself Jan. 4 after 11th and Alder. hearing from black community leaders sup- The UO is co-sponsoring the Fauntroy talk porting Fauntroy’s long history of fighting for along with campus events continuing all racial equality. The commission did go on month. A unity celebration and candlelight record expressing concern about the speaker’s vigil are planned from 6 to 8 pm Tuesday, Jan. stand on gay rights. 16 at Gerlinger Hall. Councilor Bonny Bettman called for the A documentary film about Hurricane City Council to cancel the city’s financial sup- Katrina will be shown from 6 to 8 pm port and sponsorship of the Fauntroy speech, Thursday, Jan. 18 at the Walnut Room, Erb which she said contradicts the city’s anti-dis- Memorial Union, followed by a discussion. crimination code, but her Jan. 8 motion died A free public talk by Angela Y. Davis, co- for lack of a second. founder of the National Alliance Against Fauntroy was a personal friend of King’s Racism and Political Oppression, will be from and served 10 congressional terms represent- 1 to 3 pm Saturday, Jan. 20, Room 150, ing Washington, D.C. He has “devoted his life Columbia Hall. Davis will speak on “Radical to applying the principles of nonviolent civil Frameworks for Social Justice.” disobedience to ‘raise consciousness and prick briefs DISPUTES MARK MLK HOLIDAY
