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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1998)
■ -A ' Lx ja a «3 APRIL I. 1998 Committed to cultural diversity. Volume X X V II. Number 65 (The ^ o rtla n h tiMreertier T o m u r u n i tv J^a 1 i- n ù a r (i Housing Conference Come celebrate 30 years o f Fair Hous ing at O regon’s Annual Fair Housing Conference on Monday April 27 and Tuesday April 28 at the Sheraton Port land Airport Hotel. The conference will offer an informative array o f speakers, workshops, and presentations designed to educate the public on civil rights laws in housing as well as proactive strate gies for building community. Call 412- 6000. Breast Cancer Forum Experts in medical, surgical and ra diation oncology will present the latest information in breast cancer risk, deten tion and treatment. A medical geneticist will also be available to answer ques tions. The event is a free community forum. It will be held on Thursday, April 16 from 7-9 PM. Call 215-6433. Buy A Bridal Gown The Arc o f Multnomah County is hav ing a sale o f bridal gowns and brides maid dresses. Tina and her attendants from Tony n ’ T ina's Wedding are pro moting sales with full schedule of events featuring wedding cake, drawings and a bouquet toss. The event will be held at the Value Village Store on Saturday, April 4 at 10 AM. Call 223-7279. Elders in Action There will be a public meeting to address problems of elderly mobile home owners. Pat Schwoch, a lobbyist for the Manufactured Home Owners o f Oregon, Inc. will address Elders in A ction’s Housing Task Force on the problems experienced by elderly mobile home owners on Monday, April 13, at 3 PM. The Task Force meets in the Portland Building and is open to the public. Call 823-5269. M eet The Authors Heidi Neale & Nick M anolukas, au thors o f the new adventure novel, The C om ing o f the New M illennium , will be appearing in person at Barnes & N oble Lloyd C enter in Portland, on T hursday, April 9 at 6 PM. T hey’ll be talking about their travels to G reece, which inspired the story, and showing a video o f G reek archeological sites com bined with live readings from their book. A free event. Food Drive V olunteers needed! You can help O regon Food Bank and your Letter C arrier fight hunger on May 9. Letter C arriers will collect food from resi dents; volunteers are needed to box food at local post offices, including H olladay Park, K enton, Piedm ont, Rose City Park, and St. Johns sta tions. G roups o f 6-12 people are en couraged, and families with olderchil- dren are welcom e! Or, use your large truck to help deliver the food to O r egon Food Bank! Call 282-0555 to sign up! Sport Safety Training The Red C ross will offer Sport S afety T ra in in g at A m erican Red C ross, on Sunday, April 5, from 8:30- 4:30 PM. Sport Safety Training, an eig h t-h o u r course, provides individu als with the know ledge and skills nec essary to provide a safe environm ent for athletes w hile they are participat ing in sports; and, in an em ergency, to help sustain life and m inim ize conse quences o f injury or sudden illness until m edical help arrives. Call 280- 1440. B “OWLS” see crones as people who inspire B\ N eil H eilpren he Portland Chapter of the Older Women’s League (OWL) last week took a look at Crones— mature women once regarded as ugly hags, but now seen as wise and inspiring elders. Members of the group, whose purpose is to promote social and economic equality for women age 40 and over, shared recol lections ofolder women who inspired them. One recalled a suffragette grandmother who “made it possible for me to vote.’’ Another recalled an aunt who was bold enough to tel 1 people what was on her mind. And yet another remembered Eleanor Roosevelt. Some were inspired by elders who "cre ated what they wanted,” “taught me to hold my head high,” “was stimulating and started a career,” “stoked a lot of fires to accom plish things and said I wouldn’t get any where unless 1 do so too." The group met at the Portland Senior Center on 4610 SE Belmont. “Two years ago i became a crone," said guest speaker Marlene Loisdotter, noting the theme of wise old women showed up in myths, fairy tales, poems and songs for many years. Loisdotter is a women’s studies instruc tor at Portland State University, Clark Col lege in Vancouver and Mt. Hood Commu nity College. She shared a long list of motherly names for “the great mother” spirit around the world, then contrasted the feminine and masculine images of the universe. “Space is not a virgin to be conquered, but a gran diose space pregnant with nutrinos, quarks and bits of energy every nanosecond." “Respect for crones disappeared,” said Loisdotter, “with the false notion that women feed on man’s energy.” Who can become a crone? "Anyone past Speaker Marlene Loisdotter (left) and OWL treasurer Barbara Drageaux display a menopause who wants to,” said Loisdotter, chart of "Noted Women" in history during a talk on Crones, elderly influential (Photo by Neil Heilpern) who said she celebrates the “menopausal women. T Storytelling Johnny Moses, Northwest coast sto ryteller o f the Si.si.wiss medicine tradi tion, will be in Lake Oswego on April 3rd at 7:30 PM at Unity World Healing Center. At thirteen, after chemotherapy, surgery and radiology had failed, Johnny was healed from cancer through the care and ceremonies o f his elders. Storytel I ing will be epened by Native American pow wow songs, sung by Spirit Learning Drum. Call 452-4483. SECTION Mediation Center to Get Another Year's Funding Commissioner Kafoury will ask City Council for $404,000 in next year's budget committee, develop and use perform ance m easures, seek ongoing funding from o m m is s io n e r G re tc h e n other sources, and do “com m unity o u t Kafoury will ask City C oun reach” to build support for the program . cil for $404,000 in next year's Still budget to operate the N eighborhood to be determ ined is what will happen to the program and its services M ediation Program, as a com m ittee she at the end o f next year. appointed has recom m ended. The com m ittee made no recom m en The appropriation will pay tor an dations but did suggest the city send out interim director, three full-tim e m edia a Request for Q ualifications, asking p ri tion specialists and an office m anager, vate and non-profit m ediators to sug its current staff, plus an upgrading ot gest how they would provide m ediation its com puter and phone system . It ap services on contract. proved by the rest ot City Council, it The N eighborhood M ediation Pro would be a reversal, or at least post gram helps individuals having disputes ponem ent, o f last y ea r’s decision to cut to reach w ritten, but non-binding, reso the budget to $200,000 and contract the lutions to their problem s. It is a part ot services out to private agencies. Its the c ity ’s O ffice o f N eighborhood In budget in fiscal year 1996-97 was v o lv em en t, and as such re p o rts to $336,000. Kafoury. The p ro p o sal w as the p re fe rre d Judith M owry, co-chair of the ad v i choice o f four options developed by a sory com m ittee was torn betw een sce n in e -m e m b e r a d v is o ry c o m m itte e narios B ($308,000), and C ($404,000). form ed in Decem ber. O ther options The low er-cost proposal would be called for allocating $200,000 for 2.5 “m ore in keeping with the (budget-cut- positions, $308,000 for 3.75 positions, ting) spirit of M easure 47, she says. or $474,000 for six positions. Under However, she says, the m ore expensive the last proposal, there would be a full proposal would more quickly "build ca time volunteer coordinator. pacity” in the program that it would The report said that under any sce need if it tries to operate independently nario, the center should put much more next year. “ We needed to develop some effort into training and utilizing volun razzle-dazzle, and you can t do that tor teer m ediators, m aintain an advisory B y L ee P erlman C $300,000,” she says. The committee felt that the program ’s w eakest elem ent was its lack o f volun teers, and lack o f connection to the com m unity. In other m ediation pro grams, Mowry says, volunteers perform the bulk o f the work. Kafoury was unavailable for com ment. Aide Mary C arroll says sh e w as im p re s s e d by th e co m m ittee’s work and the persuasive ness o f its argum ents. Last year Council approved $200,000 for the program and called for its ser vices to be transferred to the private sector by y ea r’s end. Late last year, after the death ot di rector Emmanuel Paris and protests by the pro g ram ’s supporters, C ouncil al located another $93,000 and extended the transition period to June. The com m ittee concluded that the transition could not occur so rapidly w ithout harm to the program or its ser vices. Form er ONI d irector Diane Linn, who conceived the transition idea, “was convinced you could get the same level o f services for $200,000 from a non profit, and convinced C ouncil to do it,” Mowry says. “They later realized it w asn’t that sim ple.” party and the bi-focal bash." Loisdotter shared parts of her mother’s diary, a collection of thoughts revealing a woman who could only identify herself in relationship to husband and children. "She didn’t make her own mark until she reached her late 50’s” said the speaker, describing the difficult time after her father’s death when her mother was considered too old for employment at age 39. “It took several years before she became a nurse’s aid and eventually a practicing nurse helping dying patients in a tuberculosis hospital." Loisdotter recalled finding the tew sur viving diary booklets from a house fire 20 years ago. “1 was thrilled and read it like a novel.” One poem, entitled “Eighty Two,” included the lines “If they call me an old lady, why do they do it? If I am an old lady I never knew it.” Loisdotter also shared tales o f her crone grandm other who took a train west in 1886, w orked as a logging camp cook and used the sam e strong, spicy language as the fellow s. "She told jo k es and played jo k es on people,” L oisdotter recalled, including the time the grandm other disguised her self as a tram p with false beard, fooling the kids into giving her a meal. “ We tried to make a lady out o f her, but she was a w onderful, strong, inde pendent, wom an who never let anyone tell her what to d o .” Loisdotter teaches m em oir w riting classes for senior wom en 62-94 who have becom e m ore outspoken. The national OWL group was founded in 1980. “ We got our chapter going early 1983,” recalled Executive D irec tor Ruth C urtie, who at 79, considers h erself “a w ise old o w l” and charter m em ber o f the national organization. For more inform ation on club activities call her at 721-0848. The Hawthorne Bridge Is Closed Dear Citizens, T he c lo s u re o f th e H a w th o rn e B ridge will be inconvenient for many o f us. T h at’s why we asked the com m u nity to co n sider options for bridge repair and chose the plan that had the most support. That plan calls for a total closure o f the bridge to allow for com pletion o f the w ork as quickly as possible. This project w ill take a year to com plete because it includes repainting the bridge, replacing the deck, w iden ing the sidew alks and replacing the drums and ropes that help lift the span. An added com plication is the need to protect the river below from the lead based paint on the bridge. This is a big job. If we all work together we can m ini mize disruption and traffic delays by choosing the best transportation a l ternatives. The rew ard for our patience and inconvenience will be ä safer bridge that will last longer and better accom m odate all users. Thanks for your cooperation, Beverly Stein Multnomah County Chair Day Light Savings Time Is Here!! ’’Spring Forward” Don’t Forget To Set Your Clocks
