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