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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2012)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM O CTOBER 31, 2012 P ORTLAND , O REGON V OLUME XXXV, N O . 4 25 CENTS Candidate and Ballot Measures Endorsements page 5 C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW Activists Defend Homes COUNT DOWN Could Portland be a sanctuary city where no homes sit empty? By Helen Silvis Of The Skanner News A group of Portland housing activists have vowed to prevent homeowners in foreclosure from being evicted. They intend to turn out in force whenever sheriffs show up to evict families from their homes. About 50 people turned out to protest, Tuesday, for example, when police turned out to evict Patricia and Darren Williams from their home at 12028 SE Pardee St. The protesters from We Are Oregon, couldn’t prevent the eviction, but they made their point. The law may not be on their side, but morality and justice is, says Ahjamu Umi, a member of Occupy Northeast’s Black Working Group, one of five organizations that have agreed to support homeowners in foreclosure. They hope to persuade officials to refuse to enforce evictions. That’s justi- fied, they say because homeowners were duped by unscrupulous lenders and have been denied legal redress. “We want Portland to be a sanctuary city, where there are no empty homes,” Umi says. Activists from The Black Working Group and We Are Oregon plan to gather in num- bers and block the evictions. Activists from Sisters of the Road, Portland Solidarity Net- work, Right to Survive and Blazing Arrow will join them in working for a community agreement to keep people in their homes. “We’ve looked at 38 different cases and in all of those cases people have been victim- ized by predatory lending practices,” Umi says. “These are folks who have qualifying credit scores and should have been offered traditional low-interest long-term loans. Instead they were steered into high-risk loan products. In our view, this was part of a scheme to lure people into these high-risk products so their homes would end up in In the final week approaching the presidential election, Superstorm Sandy threw in a wild card. Will the storm make voting more difficult for significant numbers of people? Will it affect our views of the candidates. Whatever happens, America will elect one of these men to lead us through the next four years. FindThe Skanner News’ endorsements – for president – as well as local candidates and measures – on page 5. Portland Multicultural Bridge Club The Challengers Bridge Club is part of a proud historical tradition Lisa Loving Of The Skanner News The American Bridge Associ- ation (ABA) is launching a new membership drive and they’re looking for interested card play- ers of any age. While some people might still think contract bridge is for old people, these are the important things to know: Competitive bridge is considered by many to be a sport; it’s played all over the world; and some people make a good living from it – or See SANCTUARY on page 3 INDEX News ..............2,3,9,10 Opinion ..................4,5 A & E .........................6 Books.........................7 Food..........................8 Bids/Classifieds ........11 even just a little cash on the side. In Portland, the Challengers Bridge Club – a local chapter of the American Bridge Associa- tion like those in Seattle and Tacoma – is recruiting new members to grow their commu- nity and raise the bar for local card-playing talent. Considering how many regional, national and interna- tional tournaments there are, and the knife-edged skill of some players – even James Bond played bridge — the truth is that the game is pretty excit- ing. “Bridge is a fun game but it’s also very challenging,” says club organizer Brenda Polk. “Also it affords you the opportunity to travel – I travel all over the country attending bridge tournaments and I meet people from all over the United States. “I can go to almost any big city, and go play bridge with someone that I’ve met at a bridge tournament,” Polk says. The ABA is one of the oldest bridge organizations in the country, founded in 1932 in Vir- ginia by a group of Black players who were excluded from events at the time. Today however, ABA mem- bers join and play with other bridge groups nationally and internationally. In addition to playing bridge, ABA members support commu- nity events and provide funds annually for college scholar- ships. Bridge is a partnership card See BRIDGE on page 3 Acclaimed Author Returns to SEI Mitchell S. Jackson hopes to inspire kids to write down their stories Bruce Poinsette Of The Skanner News U ntil 10 years ago, Mitchell S. Jack- son never saw writing as a viable career. Now an acclaimed author, he says the idea for his book came to him in prison. “Everybody in prison thinks they have this amazing life story,” he says. “If some- one could just write it down it would be a bestseller.” Jackson recently released his book “Over- soul,” to critical acclaim. And on Nov. 9, the Portland native will be returning home to speak to students at Self Enhancement Inc. “For them to select me to come back to speak for the kids is really important to me,” he says. “One of my missions is to encour- age kids to tell their stories.” “Oversoul” is a collection of fiction and nonfiction that tells the stories of the author and his childhood friends. Specifically, he says, 90 percent of his writing deals with his mother’s influence and her struggles with addiction. The book has garnered praise from critics for its authenticity. See JACKSON on page 33
