Eugene weekly., December 20, 2012, Page 6, Image 6

NEWS
SLEEPS GROUP CRITICAL
OF COUNTY ACTIONS
HAPPENING PEOPLE
BY PAUL NEEVEL
Sometimes a camping ban is more than a camping ban,
according to Eugene homeless rights activists with Safe Le-
gally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep (SLEEPS).
Eugene’s municipal code prohibits the use of sleeping
bags, bedding, tents, stoves and fi res on public property, and
SLEEPS says such prohibitions put a barrier between the
homeless and staying alive.
SLEEPS has been calling attention to the plight of the
homeless by camping in public places such as the Wayne
Morse Free Speech Plaza and Eugene City Hall. Campers
were evicted from both places. This is a similar experience to
that of many homeless people, SLEEPS representatives say.
Controversy increased when Lane County Administrator
Liane Richardson called for “disinfection” of the Free Speech
Plaza after the protest there. The plaza was ordered closed
Dec. 11 by Richardson. SLEEPS activists returned to defy
the barrier erected around the Free Speech Plaza after their
fi rst protest, and one protester, Alley Valkyrie, was arrested.
Eugene SLEEPS is asking people to write letters in re-
sponse to statements from Richardson that indicate her belief
that the homeless protesters created a need for the plaza to
be “disinfected.” In a recent press release, SLEEPS wrote:
“Ms. Richardson grossly misled the public with her untrue
allegations that SLEEPS campers had destroyed the lobby
desk and bathrooms so that she could justify shutting down
the plaza to protests.”
SLEEPS is asking that Richardson apologize and have the
Free Speech Plaza reopened, and says “Ms. Richardson has
stooped to a new low in perpetuating stereotypes and hate
mongering toward the unhoused.” The group says Richard-
son’s allegations, including that people “pooped in the plant-
ers” are “ridiculous and insulting and have been contradicted
by county employees and SLEEPS’ date- and time-stamped
photos.”
They called her comments “a phobic response to those
who are unhoused.”
Richardson made the statement about feces in planters to
a gathering of protesters and news media on Dec. 13. The
R-G reported, “The plaza’s surface did not appear to have
been fouled or littered during the demonstration earlier this
week.”
The plaza is a frequent site of protests, drum circles and
other public gatherings.
The county says it does not yet know how much Rich-
ardson’s requested clean-up will cost taxpayers, and neither
Richardson nor the county spokesperson commented on the
request for an apology, citing potential litigation.
Activist Valkyrie was arrested at the Free Speech Plaza
during the second protest there, and she’s been “trespassed”
from the plaza and the county building. Valkyrie told EW,
“Our position is that free speech doesn’t have a curfew.” She
says, “The only thing more ironic than being arrested for ex-
ercising free speech in the Free Speech Plaza is being banned
from exercising free speech there.”
Michael Carrigan, a community organizer with the Com-
munity Alliance of Lane County (CALC), says that closing
Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza seriously undermines the
free speech rights of Lane County residents. “In all my years
as a CALC activist, I do not recall that Free Speech Plaza was
ever closed to the public,” he says. “If Senator Morse was still
alive I believe he would have crossed the barricades into the
plaza with us [Dec. 13] as we defi ed the county’s closure. If
the closure remains in effect, I’ll join additional protests, and
this time I’ll risk arrest by refusing to leave when asked by
the authorities.”
SLEEPS is accepting donations in cash and seek-
ing the items listed at eugenesleeps.org/donate/
— Camilla Mortensen and Shannon Finnell
MELISSA STOCK
The daughter of a film and video editor, Melissa Stock grew up in Orange County, Calif. “I was the ‘La Mirada Matador,’” says
Stock, drum major for her school’s marching band, but also an accomplished musician. “I played percussion with several
symphonies and sang with the Pacific Chorale.” She spent five years at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for a bachelor’s
degree in music in classical piano, then returned and became a music director at the Crystal Cathedral, home of the Hour of
Power TV ministry. She met Eugene graphic artist and singer Matthew Stock when he came to perform. Two years later, in
2003, they were married, she moved to Eugene, and was hired to teach at Northwest Christian University. That fall, she and
the NCU Concert Choir held the first Candlelight Carols concert for an audience of 50 in the school chapel. Since 2005, when
she founded the NCU Community Choir, Candlelight Carols has grown. “This year we had 4,500 in attendance for three free
concerts at the Willamette Christian Center,” she notes. For the past two summers, Melissa and Matthew Stock have traveled
to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to work at a nonprofit training center for girls rescued from sex trafficking. In February of 2013,
they will move to Cambodia for two years to manage a second training center in Siem Reap. Follow their adventure at
stockreplugged.org
DEFAZIO: ‘CONSIDER’ ACTION
ON MASS SHOOTINGS
Congressman Peter DeFazio, whose own hometown of
Springfi eld made national headlines in 1998 with the deadly
Thurston High School shootings, says this week that Con-
gress “will need to address a number of critical issues next
year and this [mass shootings] should be a top priority.”
DeFazio says he agrees with President Obama and
“many of my colleagues who have said we must have a dia-
logue about how to best address and prevent future acts of
violence.” He adds, “I am encouraged that Senate Majority
Leader Reid and Senator Leahy promised to begin hearings
to move towards such an approach in the next Congress and
I would encourage leadership on the House side to do the
same.”
He says congress should look at reinstatement of the
“so-called assault weapons ban,” which expired in 2003; the
reinstatement of a Clinton-era safe cities program, which
helped partner local law enforcement with state, federal and
other agencies to “comprehensively address the root causes
of gun violence”; addressing “violence in the media, inad-
equate mental health services, stronger community partner-
ships to help identify individuals at risk of violence and get
them assistance before they act, and better restrictions to
prevent prohibited persons from getting access to fi rearms.”
“I believe that the next Congress should promptly con-
sider these ideas and any other that could effectively pre-
vent future tragedies like this,” he says, “Last week’s violent
rampage at Sandy Hook was an incomprehensible and dev-
astating act.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley’s offi ce did not respond by press time
to a request for comment. — Ted Taylor
SUPREME COURT + GAY
MARRIAGE = LOVE?
When the Supreme Court announced Dec. 7 that it would
hear challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8 in the spring, gay
rights advocates across the country rejoiced. Savage Love
columnist Dan Savage, who just got married in Washington,
would probably enjoy seeing his Oregon friends get wed
as well. But rulings favorable to marriage equality won’t
immediately affect Oregonians; a 2006 amendment to Or-
egon’s Constitution defi nes marriage as between one man
and one woman.
Sasha Buchert of Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) says that
Oregonians will have to pass a ballot measure changing
the language in Oregon’s Constitution to achieve marriage
equality. “Both issues — even in the best case scenario for
striking the Defense of Marriage Act completely and rul-
ing Proposition 8 unconstitutional — would be an amazing
event for our country and another step forward in getting the
freedom to marry for all gay and lesbian committed cou-
ples across the country, but it wouldn’t affect Oregonians
directly because we don’t have the option of going through
the Legislature to remove the constitutional amendment in
Oregon,” he says.
A ballot measure might be in the cards for 2014, but Bu-
chert says that BRO hasn’t decided if that’s the most respon-
sible decision yet. “It’s a very expensive process to run a
ballot measure campaign,” he says, “and we need to make
sure that we have the grassroots support and support period
in Oregon to move forward with this.”
Buchert says that Oregon has faced more anti-LGBT
equality ballot measures than any other state in the U.S.,
but even without a 2014 ballot measure for measure equal-
ity, things are looking up for lesbian and gay people in the
Beaver State. “We’ve gone from those bad old days in the
’80s to running proactive campaigns to win domestic part-
nerships and to win nondiscrimination protections and safe
schools protections against bullying,” he says.
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December 20, 2012 • eugeneweekly.com