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Happy New Year!
Established In 1970
Volume XXX III • Number I
TlWeekin
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www-portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • lanua^r 01, 2003
There are only four kinds of people in the world - those who have been caregivers; those who currently are
C a r e ^ i v e r s : th O S e W h ° W i l i
Caregivers; and those who will need caregivers. - Roselyn Carter, wife of fonner President Jimmy C a r te r .^
Radioactive trees banned
Care
Ukrainian police seized a batch
o f radioactive Christmas trees
that businessmen were selling at
local markets for the upcoming
Orthodox festive season, media
reported. The fir trees were cut in
a forest in the neighboring
Zhitomir region contaminated by
radioactive fallout following the
1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant
disaster.
Resources
Yule Log burns up ratings
The Yule Log— a TV broadcast
o f logs burning in a fireplace at
New York’s Gracie Mansion with
Christmas carols as a soundtrack
— burned up the ratings this
year. The uninterrupted two-
hour Christmas morning broad­
cast returned to the air in 2001
after a 12-year hiatus. The show -|
ing smoked the airing o f the 1951
classic film version o f Charles
D ickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Crazy for X-mas cookies
A woman charged with a shop-
ping-mall assault in Ann Arbor,
Mich., did it all for the cookie,
police said. The unidentified
w om an allegedly attacked a |
cookie-stand clerk last week af­
ter she was told the particular |
treat she wanted was unavail­
able. She spent Thursday night
in jail, where police said there
probably wère some leftover J
Christmas cookies.
Home for the holidays
Being rem em bered on C hrist­
mas w asn ’t so great for C han- |
d lerC h arlesF ield o fS alem . He
was arrested by the sam e po­
lice officer that arrested him
four years ago for leaving din­
ner w ithout paying the bill. In
February 1998, Field allegedly
escaped through the back w in­
dow o f a patrol car and O fficer I
M ike B asket, w ho suffered
good-natured ribbing from his |
colleagues over the escape,
decided that his best shot at
nabbing the fugitive w ould be
when he was visiting his p ar­
ents for the holiday.
Corked champagne
kills cats
Wildlife campaigners say crack- I
ing open the wrong New Year I
bubbly could contribute to the [
first feline extinction since the
prehistoric Saber-tooth tiger.
Lynxes in Spain and Portugal are j
becoming critically endangered
as th e ir c o rk -fo rest h ab itat
dwindles. The London-based |
Worldwide Fund For Nature says
farmers are also felling the cork
forests to make way for more j
-
■
by W \ nde D yer
T he P ortland O bserver
M ore than a few tim es Thom as M oore,
78, has w alked into his kitchen to find the
room filled with smoke and his wife, oblivi­
ous.
O ne Sunday m orning he w oke up and
co u ld n ’t find his car keys - or his w ife - or
their car.
M oore has provided in-hom e care for
his wife Claudia, 79, since she had surgery
to rem ove a brain tum or in 1989. I t’s a jo b
that he said leaves him so brain-tired that
he som etim es ju st w ants to lay dow n and
let h im self go.
“ I think som etim es it’s harder on the
giver o f the care than the receiver,” Moore
said. “The w alls o f the house start closing
in on me and I know that old devil’s busy.”
It is especially d ifficult for M oore, a
photos BY W ynde D yer / T he P ortland O bserver
self-described outdoors man, to be co n ­
Senior companion Emma Johnson (left) of the Metropolitan Family Services' Side-by-Side program takes Claudia Moore, 79,
fined in the Irvington hom e he bought for
fora walk. Johnson provides respite care for Moore's husband, Thomas, 78, giving him a break from his responsibilities as
his
w ife and eight children in 1956.
primary caregiver.
Before 1989, he had worked two jo b s at
a tim e since he was 27. He started out in
the shipyards during the W orld W ar II;
worked for M ontgom ery Ward; was a ja n i­
by W ynde D yer
each and insulin shots for D orothy. Then
tor; and worked on assem bly lines. M oore
T he P ortland O bserver
thinks he has probably been home m ore in
they get bathed and dressed for some tim e
D enise Jam es’ days are long.
the last 13 years than the first 55 co m ­
in front o f the TV , or a w alk outside,
They start as early as 6 a.m. and last follow ed by lunch and naptim e.
bined.
w ell past midnight. If nobody com es to
“Every day it’s the same thing,” Denise
But even when he feels overw helm ed
relieve her, she may work all week without said.
by the responsibilities, M oore said he
getting home.
I f she has to take her parents shopping,
know s he is doing the right thing by keep ­
But her jo b isn ’t a jo b in the sense that the excursion to Jantzen Beach or the mall
ing C laudia at home.
she gets paid for it. D enise is the full time might take the rest o f the afternoon. Whan
He met her in 1944 w hile living in
primary caregiver o f her wheelchair bound she gets back to her p are n ts’ tw o-bed­
V anport, the town adjacent to Portland
parents, D orothy and W illie Jam es.
that was w ashed aw ay by Colum bia R iver
room apartm ent in north Portland, it’s
W illie, 80, is the survivor o f several tim e for dinner and bedtim e - if her father
floodw aters. Claudia played piano for her
debilitative strokes and D orothy, 66, is a can get to sleep.
church choir. M oore said he w as sup­
diabetic w ho lost her leg to gangrene last
posed to marry a girl from his high school
Som etim es he keeps then up all night
June. Jam es sees her w ork as both duty coughing. If he c a n ’t sleep, D enise c a n ’t
in Cairo, III., but he rem em bered his E n ­
and responsibility, although it som etim es get home.
glish teacher telling him he needed to find
w eighs on her.
someone more like his mama. W hen he met
“I ’ve got my ow n place and I ’ve gotta
“ I do this because they are my parents, get hom e,” she said. “But it’s only every
Claudia, he knew she w as the one and tw o
they raised me and now I ’m ju st giving all once in a w hile that I get to spend the night
years later they w ere m arried.
my love back,” she said. “B ut I ca n ’t in my apartm ent.”
“She w as a w onderful m other, alw ays
handle all this pressure - it’s tearing me
carin g ,” he said. “Now I do it all, the
The situation frustrates Dorothy, as well.
up.”
cooking, the cleaning, everything around
She took care o f her husband for as long as
The pressure starts each m orning when
the house.”
she could. When her leg had to be removed,
Dorothy James is diabetic and wheel­
D enise rolls out o f bed, or the couch if she she knew it was time to get help. Although chair ridden since losing her leg to
C laudia needs supervision all day long
h asn ’t been able to get hom e, to cook sh e can co o k , b a th e an d c lo th e gangrene this summer. Unable to care
to m ake sure she d o e sn 't catch the house
breakfast. After that, she administers medi­
for her husband, she gets caregiver
continued y f on p age A S
continued
on page A S
cine for her parents - m ore than 10 pills
When the pressure is too much
7
help from her daughter, Denise.
profitable crops.
Don't drink and die
A funeral home director in Myrtle
Beach, S.C., is adopting a strat­
egy to shock motorists into stay­
ing sober: free burial for anyone
who signs a pledge to drink and
drive on New Y ear's Eve. Chris
Burroughs said he got the idea
for the unusual offer from an
anti-drunken driving campaign
started four years ago. He said
anyone with a driver’s license
could sign the pledge on New
Y ear’s Eve - though no on»*
Chiles Center to Host King Event
Annual celebration
honors life and
legacy of Dr. Martin
T nther King Jr.
a o
World Arts Foundation will host the
nnual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
ation at University ofPortland’s Chiles
on Monday, Jan. 20.
ting for this program, which contin-
be recognized locally and nationally
o f the finest community-based King
ations in the country, begins at 11 a m.
rogram will begin promptly at noon
national bell ringing ceremony, color
and national anthems
ts nearly two decades o f commemorat­
ing the life and legacy o f Dr. Martin Luther people must keep their dreams alive by being
King Jr., “Keep Living the Dream" humbly ever the more vigilant and not be fooled into
attempts to give voice to the common citizen sacrificing freedom and democracy for an
and ack n o w led g e the
___________________
uncertain security,” or­
srn g g le for civil righB
ganizers said.
and human dignity.
Invited artists and
Dream ' reminds us all,
“ K eep L iv in g the
speakers include Port­
Dream" reminds us all, as as Dr. Martin Luther
land M ayor Vera Katz,
Dr. Martin Luther King
civic and religious lead­
Jr. did so eloquently and King Jr. did so
ers, educators, school
so powerfully, that “we eloquently and so
board members, gospel
are all bound together in
powerfully, that “we are choirs from across the
a single garment o f des­
Pacific Northwest, con­
tiny.”
all hound together in a cert bands, Japanese
Event organizers point single garment o f
drummers. African danc­
to the terrorist attacks o f
ers. Latin musicians, and
destiny."
Sept. 11,2001 as remind
otherchildandadultper-
ers that what affects one -------------------~~
formance groups.
affects us all; and that “freedom is never
The program opens with the historic Buf­
free.”
falo Soldiers ColorGuard.
“The indomitable spirit o f the American
Lifetime Achievement Awards will cel­
J
LM„g ,he
jk
ebrate community persons who have distin­
guished themselves and made our com m u­
nity richer and more humane through exem ­
plary service.
The entire program will be sim ulcast on
KBOO Radio (90.7 FM), Portland Public
Schools (Channel 28), and Portland Cable
Access Television (Channel 11).
Admission consists o f a voluntary $2
donation or two cans o f non-perishable food
to be given to local food banks. The A m eri­
can Red Cross will once again hold its annual
“Martin Luther King Jr. Blood and Bone
Marrow Drive”.
King celebration sponsors include Port­
land Public Schools, Oregon Education As­
sociation. Portland Association o f Teachers
Portland Parks and Recreation, S AFECOCor-
poration. Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Portland
Cable Access, KBOO Radio University o f
Portland and the World Arts Foundation, Inc
*