Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2015)
www . theskanner . com J uly 8, 2015 P ortland and s eattle V olume XXXVII, n o . 40 For The Skanner website scan this QR code cents Pacific NW The Skanner News presents our new regional edition, featuring more news and local information. C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow Garden to Honor Lives 25 SUPPORT RALLY Community member grows food, flowers for healing Donovan M. Smith Of The Skanner News See GARDEN on page 3 INDEX News .............1,3,6,9-10 Opinion .......................2 Calendars ................4,5 A & E ........................7,8 Bids/Classifieds ..........11 PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED A local gardener is commemorating lives lost and cultivating healing in Portsmouth Community Garden. Galadriel Mozee is transforming her plot at the Portsmouth Community Garden in North Portland into a memorial for Black people lost to police violence, terrorism, and white supremacy after running a successful crowdfunding effort. Mozee says she set up the campaign in the days following the massacre of nine people at the historically Black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Car- olina last month. “I was feeling really overwhelmed and just saddened by all the loss of life. Espe- cially after the killings in the church, I was trying to think of a way that I could give back to my community in a way that’s meaningful for me,” she says. Shortly after Dylann Roof’s attack at the historic church more than 2,500 miles away, Mozee set up a GoFundMe account for the memorial and within 24 hours, the project had been fully funded. “I set it up and I knew that my friends would donate and then a friend texted me, ‘Have you looked at your GoFundMe?’ and I said no,” Mozee recalls. “I came back and looked and I couldn’t believe that in just a few hours it had already exceeded the goal.” The $350 that Mozee asked for will pur- chase an abundance of plants: strawberries, sunflowers, lavender, coneflower, yarrow, bleeding heart, sage, borage, motherwort, red clover, oregano and thyme -- in addition in to other native herbs and flowers. Mozee will also place rocks around the garden bed, each bearing the names of Black people whose lives have each been cut short due in systemic racist violence. Most of what Mozee is choosing for the garden, she says she chose with a mindful- ness of their healing qualities. With the money raised, Mozee says she Hundreds of people, including many members of the clergy, showed up at First AME Church in Seattle on Tuesday, July 7, to call for an end to violence and show their support for the people of Charleston, S.C. Following a short rally at the church, people marched in solidarity with the Charleston 9 to Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park. Marcelas Owens, shown here, who was 11 when he had his picture taken next to President Obama as he signed the Afford- able Care Act into law, was one of the speakers at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park. The event was organized by the Seattle King County NAACP and Washington Christian Leadership Coalition. Summerworks Program Kicks Off Program aims to address youth unemployment with paid internships By Arashi Young Of The Skanner News A bout 750 local young people will gain work experience, financial literacy and a professional net- work this year through Summer- works, a paid internships pro- gram that kicked off Monday. This workforce development initiative combats youth unem- ployment. According to Sum- merworks, there are more than 34,000 young people in the area who are not working or in school. These numbers are getting worse with time, as youth em- ployment rates have dropped from 44.4 percent to 26 percent. Summerworks estimates that only 12 percent of low-income youth and youth of color are em- ployed. According to the youth em- ployment non-profit Urban Al- liance, early work experiences mean youth are less likely to drop out, have higher grades and lead to greater lifetime earnings. These experiences can keep youth from becoming discon- nected from work and school. In contrast, disconnected youth have a harder time getting a job and are more likely to be incarcerated. A Queens College research study on at-risk youth determined that every 20-year- old that was disconnected with school and work cost the econ- omy $704,020 over his or her lifetime. The losses are from lower wages, less tax revenue and higher government spend- ing. Summerworks Director Heather Ficht says there are fewer opportunities for youth employment which makes it harder for kids to find jobs. “It’s a national crisis, the lack of youth work opportuni- ties. When was the last time a kid bagged your groceries at the grocery store?” Ficht says. “There just aren’t really kid jobs when there are 60,000 adult job seekers out there to compete with who have relevant work experience.” Summerworks pays each in- ternship minimum wage for 180 See SUMMER- WORKS on page 3 Who’s Burning Black Churches? Arsonists hit at least five Southern congregations in recent weeks By Bethania Palma Markus Special to the NNPA from The Westside Gazette t least five Black churches burned overnight recently and three fires have been attributed to arson. The June 17 shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME was perhaps the deadliest at- tack on a Black church since the 1963 church A bombing by the Klan in Birmingham, Ala. that killed four children. Since then, another specter from America’s violent racist histo- ry is again rearing its head – setting Black churches ablaze. At least three have been intentionally set on fire in recent days, according to a survey of news reports compiled by the Daily Kos. On June 22, someone set fire to College Hills Seventh Day Adventist Church in Ten- nessee, according to local WATE. The ar- sonist placed bales of hay outside the church doors and lit them ablaze, fire officials told the station. They also burned the church van. On June 23, God’s Power Church of Christ in Georgia was intentionally set on fire, authorities told ABC News. Electronics and other equipment were also stolen in the early morning fire. Authorities told report- See CHURCHES on page 3
