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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, JuNE 17, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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Publisher
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GUEST COLUMN
A scarlet red recipe for change
ed velvet beet cake, hibiscus
lemonade, strawberry corn-
bread cobbler. Each of these
Juneteenth delights showcases an aus-
picious vibrancy symbolic of our
nation’s history.
Juneteenth is a festival day
unfamiliar to many white Ameri-
cans, and one deserving of pensive
commemoration.
Also referred to as
Jubilee Day, Juneteenth
has been a holiday cel-
ebrated by many Black
Americans on June 19
to commemorate the
emancipation of all
JEN
enslaved people in the
MUNSON
United States. The holi-
day was first celebrated
in Texas, where on that date in 1865,
after the Civil War ended, slaves were
declared free.
It may be easy to fall out of touch
with the fact that although most
of us celebrate July 4 as our Inde-
pendence Day, many Black people
remained enslaved long after 1776.
It wasn’t until 90 years later, when
the Emancipation Proclamation was
signed in January of 1863, that slav-
ery was ended by law. Importantly, it
took another two years for that law
to be communicated with purpose-
ful enforcement to Confederate slave
owners further south.
There are numerous ways to pay
homage to this remarkable event in
American history. My own ritual
induction has seen a series of fits and
starts. After all, like most white folks,
I’m no expert here and my learning is
never complete. But once I was able to
set aside my white fragility goggles, I
got down to brass tacks.
Following extensive historical
research, including a number of ear-
nest focus group dialogues among
obliging friends, I decided upon an
event that invokes the traditional
Texan one. It will feature a modest
gathering and a tasting of wondrous
R
David J. Phillip/AP Photo
A statue in Galveston, Texas, depicts a man holding the state law that made Juneteenth
a state holiday.
red fare! We shall dazzle our loved
ones with a flight of my wife’s home-
made summer berry wines — crimson,
coral and all ruddy shades between.
We will muddle our way through a
reading of the Emancipation Procla-
mation, as tradition dictates. With cha-
grin, we will lament Astoria’s rather
memorable tango with the Ku Klux
Klan in the 1920s and reflect on how
it must have felt for townspeople to
see the cross burning on Coxcomb
Hill one chilling night. And, finally,
we will marinate over what a histori-
cal “civil rights walking tour” of Asto-
ria might look like in anticipation of
Juneteenths to come.
But all of these intellectual rumina-
tions must be paired with a purpose-
ful offering too — one of action, one
of service.
In honor of Juneteenth, I donate my
time to an agency that shares my val-
ues. United Way of Clatsop County is
my chosen beneficiary — it’s where I
concentrate my local attention to help
understand and correct inequities that
lead to racial injustice, oppression and
violence against people of color in my
community.
Locally, nationally and world-
wide, United Ways are taking steps
to forge more equitable communities.
We affirm that power lies within indi-
viduals. Individuals must act in order
for structures to change, and once the
structures change, culture may begin
to recognize every human for exactly
that: their humanity.
Wondering how to learn more about
Juneteenth? Democracy advocacy
group NextGen America has an excel-
lent short video, “History of June-
teenth,” available free online that can
start you on your journey and bring
modern relevance to your engagement
with equity. Another brief video, Vox’s
“Why all Americans should celebrate
Juneteenth” is similarly edifying.
Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill into
law this month making Juneteenth a
state holiday.
This year, armed with both curios-
ity and humility, join me in founding
your own Juneteenth ritual.
For buried in these rituals, these
offerings, is a scarlet red recipe for
change.
Jen Munson is a disability rights
advocate and social worker.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Stop the stall
N
early two million Oregonians voted
for ballot Measure 107 in November
to allow campaign finance reform, but the
Oregon Legislature seems to be ignoring
that mandate from voters.
The bill by state Rep. Andrea Salinas,
House Bill 3343, addresses voters’ main
concerns by providing contribution limits,
tracking and transparency. When will there
be a work session scheduled for it? With-
out one, this bill will die.
The bill by state Rep. Dan Rayfield,
HB 2680, seems to be a bait and switch by
providing possible good ideas, but actu-
ally eliminating the very basis of campaign
finance reform: setting effective, meaning-
ful limits on contributions.
People more cynical than I might sus-
pect that legislators love their big cam-
paign contributions, and aren’t willing
to lose the financial support of their big
contributors. Perhaps they believe voters
won’t notice if they simply ignore Mea-
sure 107, and give us a weak and largely
meaningless bill.
Let’s hope our legislators don’t add to
the widespread mistrust and demeaning of
good governance by side-stepping Mea-
sure 107. This is an opportune time for
legislators to prove they listen to voters,
and want to strengthen our democracy by
passing effective campaign finance reform,
HB 3343.
Please urge state Sen. Betsy Johnson
and state Rep. Suzanne Weber to help pass
HB 3343 this session. Contact information
is at incoregon.org; legislative information
is at olis.oregonlegislature.gov
LAURIE CAPLAN
Astoria
Agent Orange in Oregon
n June 28, PBS will premiere an
important documentary film on their
Independent Lens series that all Orego-
nians should watch.
“The People vs. Agent Orange” will
both remind and outrage viewers about the
terrible impact Agent Orange made, and
continues to make, on the health of the
Vietnamese people. But the film’s focus
isn’t just on Vietnam.
Protest from the science community
asserting that the U. S. military was per-
petrating genocide finally pressured them
to stop using Agent Orange in 1971. Not
so here in Oregon, where the highly toxic
chemical was used as a defoliant in the
timber industry from 1969 to 1979 under
O
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
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letters per writer are allowed each
month. Letters written in response
the name Silvex.
The film tracks how Oregonians living
in the Coast Range were harmed by the
spraying of Silvex, and eventually banded
together to stop its use in our state. It’s a
dramatic story of lawsuits, corporate mal-
feasance, personal courage, as well as
great suffering and personal loss.
One of the main components of Agent
Orange, 2,4-D, is still being sprayed in the
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
the headline and date the letter was
published. Discourse should be civil.
Send via email to editor@dailyasto-
rian.com, online at bit.ly/astorianlet-
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in Astoria or mail to Letters to the
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97103.
forests of Oregon. The main ingredient
2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-
T), containing the highly carcinogenic
dioxin molecule, has been banned.
But dioxin is slow to break down. That
raises the question of whether any precau-
tions were taken to protect workers in the
likely event that the contaminated areas
have been reharvested.
What about dioxin being tested for in
the groundwater and streams?
ROGER DORBAND
Astoria
Amazing neighbors
want to tell about my amazing neigh-
bors, who have become such great
friends.
My husband has terminal cancer, and
has limited time. They have all rallied
around us, and are helping so much —
giving us food and baking things for us,
mowing and edging the yard, taking out
the garbage, taking us back and forth to
the hospital in Portland.
We are a close-knit bunch of seniors,
and try to help each out when needed. I
come from an area in West Linn, and never
knew my neighbors in all the years we
lived there. I feel this is the most amaz-
ing community, and I’m so thankful we
are here.
LYNNE RICHMAN
Warrenton
I