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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2017)
BY CORINNE BOYER • Calico Resources USA Corp. is considering construction of a gold mine in Malheur County, and an upcoming meeting in Bend is an opportunity to voice your concerns. The meeting is on Wednesday, June 14, from 2 to 4 pm at the Department of Environmental Quality, 475 NE Bellevue Drive, Suite 110, Bend. Written comments will be accepted until 5 pm on July 3, and may be submitted by email to Calico.File@oregon.gov (please note “Grassy Mtn Comments” in subject line) or by mail to DOGAMI, Attn: Grassy Mtn Comments, 229 Broadalbin Street SW, Albany, OR 97321. See EW’s 2011 story, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” goo.gl/9pXUDE. • The third annual Gun Violence Awareness Day is Friday, June 2, the birthday of Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teenager who was killed by gunfire days after performing at President Obama’s second inauguration. Moms Demand Action, along with over 200 other organizations nationwide, is using Hadiya’s birthday as a day to raise awareness about gun violence. Wear orange clothing — the color hunters wear to not be shot by other hunters. In Eugene, the downtown LED lights will turn orange the night of June 2, and 1-3 pm June 3 there will be a family friendly Gun Violence Awareness Fair in the First United Methodist Church parking lot in downtown Eugene. • Bite of Burrito Brigade is 5:30 to 9 pm Friday, June, 2 and benefits the grassroots organization that serves nutritious vegan meals to Eugene’s hungry. The event is at Off the Waffle, 840 Willamette Street downtown. For $5, guests can taste Burrito Brigade’s “signature delicious vegan burritos, which will also be available as a bowl (gluten free).” The event coincides with Eugene’s First Friday Art Walk and includes beer or wine for purchase, live music by Chico Schwall, a silent auction, raffle and T-shirt sales. The organization says it has served more than 80,000 meals to date. Find a list of regularly needed produce and supplies at burrito- brigade.org. Financial donations may be made via Paypal using burritosundays@ gmail.com, or checks may be sent to Burrito Brigade at 2040 Dewey Street, Eugene, OR 97402-1261. Produce or supply donations may be left on the front porch of 2040 Dewey Street. Burrito Brigade is a 501 c3 nonprofit. • Join Indivisible Eugene and community allies to stand up for truth, accountability and transparency in American politics at a short rally and March for Truth 1 to 3 pm Saturday, June 3, starting at the U.S. Courthouse at 405 Eighth Avenue. More than 125 cities across the country will be marching; come enjoy the debut of the 350 Eugene Street Medics Collective. • A Eugene/Springfield Legislative Town Hall begins at 10 am Saturday June 3 at the University of Oregon’s McKenzie Hall Room 240A. Come get a legislative update from area representatives. 8 June 1, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com ‘I’M AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE? OKAY, PROVE IT’ John Hockenberry, who started at KLCC, discusses his journalism career PHOTO CREDIT: PRX I n 2012, journalist John Hockenberry took the TED stage and talked about living life with intent. In his talk, “We Are All Designers,” he recalled his favorite design moment: While he was covering the collapse of Zaire, amid the failure of the banks, looting and bullets flying overhead, someone began shouting at Hockenberry. It was another man in a wheelchair, and he wanted to compare his wheels to Hockenberry’s. Years later, Hockenberry installed flashy caster wheels to the front of his wheelchair, which he has used since a car accident when he was 19, and said he wished he could have shown them to the man in Zaire. While he was a music major at the University of Oregon, he called KLCC to complain about the public radio station’s pro- gramming. Hockenberry tells Eugene Weekly that he didn’t intend on becoming a journalist, but KLCC invited him to become a news volunteer after receiving his critique. “So I was just interested enough in trying something new,” Hockenberry says. “Eugene was this place to try something new.” His KLCC volunteer gig landed him a job at NPR in Washing- ton. Since then he has reported as a foreign correspondent from Zaire, Jerusalem, Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey and Jordan and has worked for ABC and NBC. For the past eight years he has hosted the Takeaway, a daily news show broadcast from WNYC in New York. Hockenberry was this year’s inaugural speaker at Lane Community College’s Presidential Lecture Series. Eugene Weekly: I read that you first called KLCC to complain about a story, and I was wondering what story did you call and complain about? John Hockenberry: It’s a famous old story. I didn’t call in to complain about a particular story, I just complained that they were using too many repeats from the morning network shows and putting them on their local special. And I was at home practic- ing the piano because I was a music student at the UO, and I was just in a nasty kind of mood. I just picked up the phone and I said, “Why don’t you rename your Blue Plate Special noon show NPR Playback, how would that be? Because maybe that’s more cor- rect?” And I was prepared for any answer other than the one Don Hein, who was the news director back then, said. “Well, we’re a public station and we like to have everyone’s input, so why don’t you come down and be a part of the creation of the news. We’d love to have you come down and we’ll listen to your ideas.” I mean this is like something out of some weird Bible story. I mean, it didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t say anything, so I just said, maybe I will. And then I did. And I went there and I loved it. I knew a lot about history. I knew a lot about science. My curiosity really drove my interest in news, and I was good with audio equip- ment because of my music background. I kicked around as a volunteer for a while, and then Mount St. Helens erupted and all of a sudden the station was in the middle of this big story. In that first year it was still erupting and they needed people to do the little eruptions, and I did the little eruption stories. Gradually, I did bigger stories about the region and I remember I did the first story for NPR on Amazon. Amazon.com launched itself, and it got a center column piece in the Wall Street Journal, and I remember thinking that’s amazing — that’s going to be a big deal. From that time, KLCC has been the birthplace of trying things that are a little scary. So before you volunteered, it wasn’t your plan to become a journalist, it just happened? No, I was studying French Baroque harpsichord with a teacher I loved at the University of Oregon. I loved the harpsichord. We
