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Enough
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• Counseling and Offering Support for
Grieving Families
• Joining / Creating a Walking Group
“Enough is Enough” dovetails with a vari-
ety of similar efforts this summer, including
the “Silence the Violence” campaign by the
Multnomah County Health Department
Capacitation Center’s STRYVE program
‘A mother said, I don’t go out anymore, I could
be talking to the perpetrator — I don’t feel safe’
Youth Violence Prevention Office Director Antoinette Edwards
“shots fired” incidents in the metro area
over the past few years. While fatal shoot-
ings are not increasing, observers say they
will unless community members step up
and start organizing.
A telephone outreach effort funded
through the Multnomah County District
Attorney’s Office has helped organizers
draw up a to-do list, and the public is invited
to plug in and spread the message to recruit
more volunteers.
The list includes:
• Creating a Public Service Message
• Providing Voices of Impacted Families
• Annual Hope and Healing Activities –
Participating on a Planning Committee
• Enjoining in a Witness and Victim Safety
Plan Dialogue
(Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Every-
where).
That effort combines a youth employment
program with weekly support meetings for
youth. STRYVE takes a different approach
to youth violence prevention by treating it
as a public health problem rather than a
solely law-enforcement issue (see “Portland
Youth Lead Effort to Heal Community and
Build Peace,” The Skanner News, July 11).
Another program that has quickly come
together over the past few weeks is the
Community Cycling Center’s “Take Back
the Streets” campaign which was galva-
nized by community activists Jason
Washington, of Brothers Gaining Equality
Through Excellence, and DeMarcus Pre-
ston, a former gang member, who
approached the bike nonprofit for support.
PHOTO CREDIT COMMUNITY CYCLING CENTER
munity hostage,” Edwards continues. “This
is a strong village – and we’re asking the
villagers to come back and – not even
reclaiming because we are here. What do
we do to own this?”
The “Enough is Enough” effort dovetails
with an array of other projects launched this
summer in response to a steady rise in
The Community Cycling Center’s “Take Back the Streets” campaign was
galvanized by community activists Jason Washington, of Brothers Gaining
Equality Through Excellence, and DeMarcus Preston, a former gang member,
who approached the bike nonprofit for support.
The group is holding a bike ride Sunday,
Aug. 24, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. departing from
New Columbia’s Bike Repair Hub, located
on the corner of N. Trenton Street and N.
Woolsey Avenue. A film and $5 healthy bar-
becue starts at 2 p.m. at Columbia Park.
Proceeds benefit Stop the Violence Founda-
tion and P.I.L. Reunions.
Find out more about the cycling center
project on Facebook at Take Back The
Streets Bike Ride and Event.
Connect with projects of the Multnomah
County Capacitation Center’s STRYVE
program at www.multco.us/health.
For more information on the “Enough is
Enough” Campaign call Antoinette
Edwards at 503-823-3584.
In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter
created a program that gave employers who
agreed to hire people returning to the work-
force from the criminal justice system a tax
break of $100,000. About 400 people were
hired and their recidivism rate was just 7
of the corrections system.
“We are going to borrow that idea, I hope,
here in Portland. Because it’s a great idea. It
obviously works. And even if it was 17 or
27 percent recidivism it would be a signifi-
cant improvement over the status quo. But
to get recidivism down to a single digit and
to get 400 people out of the criminal justice
system and into the workforce is an amaz-
ing accomplishment.”
In New York this fall, more than 54,000
four-year-olds will attend pre-K classes.
The city has had a universal pre-k law on
the books since 1997, but it went unfunded
until Mayor de Blasio made it his priority.
Hales says he hopes Portland can emulate
de Blasio’s efforts and find a way to fund
pre-kindergarten programs for all children.
Mayors
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internet for all, and expanding early child-
hood education and pre-kindergarten
programs.
“I’m encouraged and inspired, “ Hales
said. “Because like with some other issues,
particularly climate change and transporta-
tion, the federal government has left the
building and isn’t being a leader.
“The federal government should be rais-
ing the federal minimum wage, because that
would be the best way to address this partic-
ular piece of the massive income inequality
problem we have in this country. But there
is no sign that Congress is going to have the
courage or the consensus to do that. That’s
why cities around the country are taking
action.”
Hales said both Portland and Seattle are
ahead of the curve in some ways. Seattle
took bold action by raising the minimum
wage, he noted. Portland has acted on paid
sick leave, broadband access, youth jobs
and by “banning the box” that makes it dif-
ficult for people coming out of the criminal
justice system to get work.
Ending disparities for people of color and
low-income families demand focused
action, Hales said.
‘It’s important that we learn and borrow good
ideas from each other and that we help
debunk the naysayers’
“It’s important that we learn and borrow
good ideas from each other and that we help
debunk the naysayers. Because for each of
these ideas — whether it’s paid sick leave or
ban the box, there are some who predict that
it’ll be just terrible for business. We heard
this about the sick leave ordinance for Port-
land. It didn’t turn out to be true.”
percent. Several employers even refused the
tax credit, saying they were happy with
their hires.
Hales said he hopes his fellow commis-
sioners will agree to invite employers and
others to the table to craft something similar
to help “returning citizens,” which he said is
a better way to describe people coming out
The military career of Lt. Col. Drummond
included tours of duty in Japan, Korea, Eng-
land, France, Viet Nam and Germany as
well as duty assignments in Ohio and Wash-
Wing, Air Defense Command in January
1961 as Operations and Plans Officer. He
was further assigned in 1962 as Operations
Officer to the 318th All Weather Fighter
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Tuskegee
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his family and childhood friends, he attend-
ed Salzburger Junior High in Philadelphia,
and graduated from West Philadelphia High
School in June 1944. His academic studies
at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
were interrupted by World War II and the
call to serve his country.
Lt. Col. Drummond was drafted into the
United States Army and was ultimately
accepted into the Aviation Cadet Training
Program at Tuskegee, Ala. He was a mem-
ber of the last official class of the Tuskegee
Program that trained African American
pilots for combat duty in the U. S. Army Air
Corps during World War II.
Lt. Col. Drummond served in the Military
for 25 years, and was honorably discharged
in 1970. He worked twelve years for the
State of Washington in the Social and
Health Services Department and the
Department of Licensing. He retired a sec-
ond time in 1982.
He was a member of the last official class of
the Tuskegee Program that trained African
American pilots for combat duty in the U. S.
Army Air Corps during World War II
ington State. During his career as a pilot, he
flew the B-25, P-47, F-80, F-84, F-86D, and
F-106. Lt. Col. Drummond was one of the
first two African American pilots to fly jets
into combat during the Korean War where
he completed 104 missions.
Lt. Col. Drummond was assigned to
McChord Air Force Base twice during his
career. He first joined the 325th Fighter
Squadron, 325th Fighter Wing. After serv-
ing a year in Viet Nam from June 1963 to
June 1964, he returned to McChord as a
Plans Officer in the 25th Air Division in
June 1964. His final duty station was as
Plans Officer at Headquarters United
States-European Command in Stuttgart,
Germany from 1967 to 1970.
At the time of his military retirement, Lt.
Col. Drummond had achieved Command
Pilot status with 5700 Flying Hours; and
had amassed numerous service awards
including the Distinguished Flying Cross,
the Air Medal with 8 Oak Leaf Clusters, the
Purple Heart, Air Force Commendation
Medal, Joint Services Commendation
Medal, Korean Service Medal, the United
Nations Service Medal and the Distin-
guished Service Award.
Lt. Col. Drummond was among the
Tuskegee Airmen honored with the Con-
gressional Gold Medal in Washington, D. C.
on March 29, 2007, and attended the official
ceremony in the Capitol with his wife,
Alberta. He also received an honorary doc-
torate degree from Tuskegee Institute in
Alabama.
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August 13, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3