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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