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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2019)
M Artin l uther K ing J r . Page 16 2019 special edition January 16, 2019 Blistering Schools Audit The Accidental Organizer C ontinueD froM p age 3 R-Salem, a longtime black lawmaker and business leader who attended Portland Public Schools in her youth, said the increase in racial discrepancies was a “a demand for change.” “I believe if we address the lack of financial transparen- cy and monitoring of school spending, we will begin to see increases in teacher retention rates and focus spending on what matters-the children’s ed- ucation,” Winters said. One day before the audit came out, Portland Public Schools officials held a press conference preemptively criti- cizing its findings, arguing the report’s analysis, which cap- tured data from the 2017-18 school year, did not reflect the progress the district has made in its systemic issues since the hiring of Superintendent Gua- dalupe Guerrero in October 2017. The district, however, agreed with the audit recommenda- tions. “We are addressing each and every concern raised in the audit,” district leaders said in a statement. Guerrero told reporters it’s important to provide extra training, support, and pay to principals and teams of strong teachers at high-needs schools so they will stick around. “This is going to take some work. But it’s work we’ve al- ready embarked on,” he said. The Albina Ministerial Alliance City-Wide Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Theme: “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?” Speaker: Chief Danielle Outlaw Portland Police Bureau Chief When: Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 4:00 P.M. Where: Maranatha Church 4222 NE 12th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97212 C ontinueD froM p age 14 years prior. MoveOn’s rapid response tool was designed to get trig- gered if certain “red lines” were crossed, which included things like Mueller being fired or his in- vestigation being fundamental- ly compromised. Pre-planned, nationwide protests were de- signed to take place within 24 hours of the “triggering” event. Emails would immediately be sent out and MoveOn subscrib- ers would be asked to join the demonstrations. That “red line” was crossed in November with the ap- pointment of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in the wake of Jeff Sessions’ res- ignation under pressure from Trump. Whitaker had been publicly critical of the Mueller investigation and refused to re- cuse himself from the probe as Sessions did. LeDoux received a text mes- sage from the national organi- zation informing him the rapid response tool was triggered and he worked to get the word out to people in the Portland area on the email list, asking them to show up to demonstrate the next day. In the months prior, he had already reached out to City Hall, including Mayor Ted Wheeler and the City Commissioners, the Portland Police Department, and several elected officials to give them a heads up about the possibility of a demonstration, LeDoux said. He set up plans with the city for protest locations, road clo- sures and other ways to min- imize any impacts on both TriMet and traffic. Thanks to that preparation, the protests went off without a hitch and nearly 1,000 people gathered at Tom McCall Water- front Park the evening of Nov. 8 calling on the Trump Admin- istration not to interfere with Mueller’s abilities to carry out his investigation. Oregon’s Democratic Sen- ators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with Rep. Earl Blumenauer and others, attend- ed, speaking to the crowd that evening, also urging support for Meuller’s independence. No one was injured and no violence occurred at the event, thanks in part to LeDoux’s in- sistence during the planning stages that protesters not violate any local ordinances. He said he wanted to make sure the protest remain abso- lutely focused on protecting American democracy and the rule of law, and not about any- one’s feelings toward local fig- ures, the police, or so on. In a Reddit post, he told supporters if the protest happens, “It will be much bigger than that.” LeDoux added that the nar- row focus was also designed to cast a wider net of potential participants, from across the po- litical spectrum. “You can be extremely con- servative and still be uncom- fortable with the idea of the jus- tice system being subverted,” he said. “Violating local ordinanc- es would have been a distrac- tion. It would have definitely generated a police response, but the local police and government weren’t the issue. All of that en- ergy needed to remain focused on the Department of Justice and the Mueller investigation.” The efforts were the latest in a long line of political activism by LeDoux, including working communications and social me- dia during the Occupy Portland demonstrations and campaign- ing for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign. In 2007, he was an activist and supporter of Libertarian Presidential Candidate Ron Paul, helping create a website that drew donations that broke a single-day internet fund-rais- ing record for the political can- didate. Conceived to coincide with the anniversary of the Bos- ton Tea Party, LeDoux said the effort would later be co-opted by establishment Republicans to form the “Tea Party” move- ment in 2009. By the time LeDoux joined the Occupy Portland move- ment, which was at the time the largest Occupy encampment on the West Coast, the experience had transformed from a centrist Libertarian to a Socialist, he said. For LeDeux, the greatest takeaway of his “accidental or- ganizing” and the other experi- ences he’s had in the battles for social justice was the realization that the actions or inactions of individuals can have a surpris- ing and rippling impact on oth- ers. “I take away the importance of showing up,” he said.
