4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ JANUARY 14, 2017
One of our hopes as a community
newspaper, in addition to informing our
readers, is to inspire conversation about
the things that matter to us as a
community and as Americans. To this
end, we have devoted this special section
of today's edition to Martin Luther King
Jr., offering perspectives on his message
and continuing legacy. What follows are
columns from local writers, letters from
readers and an editorial recounting of a
personal experience while living in
Atlanta that is equal parts
inspiration and regret.
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
— Ned Hickson, Editor
Sharing the love of Rufus Valentine
A
s I’ve mentioned
before, I lived in the
South for 10 years,
with six of those years spent in
the suburbs of Atlanta. In the
early 1990s, I was a restaurant
chef operating in one of
Georgia’s largest shopping
malls — three stories of glass,
sale banners and merchants
spanning six football fields’
worth of mall space.
As you can imagine, I’ve
dealt with as many personali-
ties as there are seats in a 280-
capacity dining room. The fact
that Rufus Valentine dug such
a deep groove in my memory
should tell you a little some-
thing about the man’s charac-
ter.
I’d like to tell you more.
The first time I saw Rufus
Valentine was during the
Braves’ heyday in February of
1992, when all of Atlanta was
anticipating the spring — and
a run at the World Series.
Essentially, you could be com-
pletely naked; but as long as
you had a Braves cap on you
were considered properly
attired by most Atlantans.
So, when Rufus appeared in
his red tights, heart-shaped
wings and Braves cap at the
west entrance of the Lenox
Square mall, like most people,
I assumed he was there to
express his love for Atlanta’s
baseball team.
At least until I saw the bow
and arrows. But even then, I
could see that he was harm-
less. The arrows in his quiver
were tipped with foam rubber
— red, of course — and in the
shape of hearts.
Considering the date, I
made the connection and real-
ized we had a Braves-loving
Cupid on our hands.
I’d dealt with worse things.
The complaints started
soon after we opened. Since
our restaurant was situated
closest to the mall entrance,
we got the brunt of unhappy
mall dwellers.
“Hey, there’s some guy
shooting people with rubber
arrows out there,” one of them
said, brandishing the arrow in
question and rubbing his
cheek.
With security nowhere to be
found, I decided to settle the
matter myself and strode out
the door — and was immedi-
ately tagged.
“Got you! Spread the love,
brother,” Rufus said, as if he’d
tossed me a box of chocolates
instead of nailing me with a
truding from either side of the
chair back, he drew more than
a few stares.
Handing him a soda, I
noticed that his black hands
were worn and callused. His
fingernails had dried to the
point of splitting. He gave me
From the Editor’s Desk
N ED H ICKSON
rubber arrow.
“Excuse me, but you’ll have
to stop with the arrows. My
customers are complaining,” I
said.
In that same instant, he
plugged a passerby who
turned and gave me a dirty
look, spouting something
about restaurant promotions
getting out of hand.
A sudden ebb in the shop-
ping current allowed me to
grab his attention. “Hey, it’s
almost noon. How about lunch
on me?”
“What’cha got?”
“Come in and find out,” I
said, ushering him inside and
up to the counter in hopes of
containing him through the
lunch rush. Sitting there at one
of the stools, his wings pro-
an appreciative nod and
sipped, then blurted “fettucci-
ni Alfredo.”
He laid the menu down and
pointed to the item, as if I
wouldn’t know it otherwise.
“Coming right up,” I said,
and took the menu. As I turned
to ring in his order, I saw him
reach for his quiver.
“Hey,” I said, one hand on
his drawing arm. “Here’s the
deal. No matchmaking until
after lunch.”
He studied me for a
moment, then set his bow on
the counter. “I’m no match-
maker. I’m just tryin’ to spread
the love — one brother, one
sister at a time.”
“That’s a nice sentiment;
just don’t do it in here, OK?” I
said, and released his arm.
I think everyone has said
things they wish they hadn’t.
In the top 10 of my own
regrettable phrases, that one
ranks right up there. First,
because of my tactics to con-
trol him. Second, because he
called me on it.
And third, because I would-
n’t get the chance to take it
back.
With the smell of parmesan
and cream sauce in the air, this
obviously hungry man stood
from the counter, grabbed his
bow and quiver, and left the
counter.
“People need love more
than I needed fettuccini
Alfredo,” he said, and exited
the restaurant. When he kept
going, I considered myself
lucky.
He could become someone
else’s headache.
Unfortunately for Rufus
Valentine, that’s exactly what
happened.
When my shift ended, it
was near dusk. Along the side-
walks, automated lamps had
started humming to life. As I
approached the parking tower,
I noticed flashes of red and
blue spilling from the shadows
of the underground level
where I was parked.
The closer I got, the more
patrol cars I saw. At the edge
of the drive, yellow crime
scene tape had been strung.
Taking a spot among a crowd
of onlookers, I saw a white
sheet and, portruding from
beneath it, the callused hand
of Rufus Valentine.
Next to him, his wings lay
in a crumpled pile.
I later learned that Rufus
Valentine — born Rufus Jones
in 1936 — had left the mall
that day and taken his message
to the parking garage. It was
there that he encountered a
street gang and attempted to
“spread the love.”
He met the faces of preju-
dice and hatred instead.
With the approach of
Martin Luther King Day, he
always comes to mind.
And, also, no small measure
of guilt. Had I left him alone
to do his work, or brought him
lunch instead, things might
have turned out differently.
Even though he’s no longer
here to sling his arrows, I hope
we can take his message to
heart and spread the love: One
brother, one sister at a time.
Write Ned Hickson at nhickson
@thesiuslawnews.com or P.O.
Box 10, Florence, Ore. 97439.
LETTERS
W HAT WOULD
D R . K ING T WEET ?
Even as recently as the fall of 2003, we dis-
covered that a Florence public education event
concerning Martin Luther King could draw the
interest of federal authorities.
We had gathered at Old Town Coffee by the
old Port Authority offices. Inside, we had
organized guest speakers, information and a
nationally-known musician and guitarist, Dave
Lippman, with his honed political-social lyrical
bent. He had come to Florence via Greyhound,
having been blacklisted and unable to fly from
his East Coast home.
In contrast, a plain-clothed male had arrived
in a marked official vehicle, and promptly
began going car-to-car in our event parking lot,
with note pad and pen taking at license plate
numbers.
While irony played outside as our car plates
were being memorialized, we enjoyed
Lipmann’s satire inside as he, risking national
insecurity, mocked “George Shrub” going about
his business outside.
The next January, at our larger MLK event
held at the FEC, we offered better facilities and
more room — for event goers as well as more
state-inspired surveillance. The entire FEC flat-
floor was filled with exhibits or books. Local
student art concerning King or civil rights
issues dressed the walls, and poster-sized graph-
ic photos showed burning buses and Martin
Luther King Jr. being forcibly twisted over a
booking desk by two uniformed officers.
In a Jeff Sessions-style gesture of Southern
Hospitality, one poster showed a roomful of
white youths pouring milkshakes and drinks
over the heads of students sitting calmly in
protest of segregation by sitting at a lunch
counter.
Unlike our first MLK event, which only drew
one plain-closed observer, this time there was
an entire round table, toward the back, filled
with mature males calmly taking in our assort-
ed musicians, authors and speakers. I took their
pictures, engaged them, getting just enough
awkwardly polite shrugs and denials of needing
additional information to essentially confirm
what I had heard — which is that local police
had recently received special funding for vari-
ous surveillance work.
However, these quiet men, gathered around
the table, were clearly from out of town.
Later digging confirmed the existence of a
new Federally-funded police/surveillance oper-
ation based near Salem. Such state operations
received moderate national media attention.
So, Oregon got its share— and Florence’s
small, early MLK events appeared to merit their
billable attention.
Rand Dawson
Siltcoos Lake
S HARE
IN THE DREAM
Though the City of Florence has no formal
celebration planned, City offices will be closed
in observance of the celebration of Martin
Luther King Day on Monday. Everyone has a
different reason for celebrating this great indi-
vidual, all the way from a day off from work
to the realization that Dr. King was the turning
point in our history for the equality of many
groups in our society.
Martin Luther King “Had a Dream” that has
resonated through our society and is still
strong today. But is it just a dream?
In looking at the divisions in our society
both economically and socially, has that
dream, in Dr. Kings own words, turned into a
nightmare?
In an address, shortly after his “Dream”
speech, he addressed questions that could be
asked even more pointedly from today’s head-
lines. What is a living wage for workers? Is
income inequality as corrosive as racial injus-
tice? What are the challenges of preserving a
multiracial democracy?
Dr. King went on to talk about the dignity of
all work saying that “even menial workers
should make enough so they can live and edu-
cate their children and buy a home and have
the basic necessities of life.”
This is very consistent with what we are
striving for in the City of Florence as we
strive to encourage affordable housing, and
jobs that pay a wage that can allow our chil-
dren, of all backgrounds, to get an education,
buy a home and raise a family in Florene if
they so choose.
Martin Luther King Day reminds me that we
are all children of God, created equal, and I
would ask that we step back and ask ourselves
if the divisions in our society that seem to be
insurmountable could not be resolved if we
could remember the Golden Rule and share in
the Dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Joe Henry
Florence Mayor
B END
THE ARC TOWARD JUSTICE
Sadly, the homegrown Florence tradition of
honoring the life of Martin Luther King Jr. on
his birthday in January has been put on hold
for a month or two.
For 14 years, the civil rights legacy of Dr.
King has been celebrated by local residents
who shared his courageous vision of a color-
blind society. Notable speakers including pro-
fessors, activists and participants in the voting
struggles in the 60s have all shared their mem-
ories, hopes and dreams with us in the
Bromley Room in the Siuslaw Public Library,
then marched with the audience simulating the
experience of bringing brothers and sisters
together for a great cause.
People were inspired.
They showed up.
In these turbulent times we might be tempt-
ed to revisit Dr. King’s words and deeds with a
certain sadness — but I would bet he would be
waving us on helping our nation to bend the
arc of history toward justice.
Stuart Henderson
KXCR Radio
E XPANDING D R . K ING ’ S
LEGACY
The celebration (for MLK) in Florence has
broadened and is presented in February/March
to include all peoples. It was 2003 when the
first celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
was held in Florence, in January, and was fol-
lowed by annual celebrations to coincide with
Black History Month in February.
It was guided by a collaborative group com-
mitted to recalling the legacy of Dr. King and
his mentor, Mahatma Gandhi, and how they
stood on the shoulders of Frederick Douglass,
Rosa Parks and many others who gave their
lives to fight mindless discrimination and
hatred.
The scope of the annual celebration broad-
ened to parse the word “Legislation” with
exploration of the rights of children, women
and workers within the context of civil, human
and equal rights for all.
By exploring the power of language in law,
ethics, goals as a community, history and
rights of Indigenous peoples, safety and sur-
veillance, and the changes in legislation, the
goal has been to bring the past into the present
to better understand and promote the rights of
all people.
The celebrations have caused some people
to ask us “Why do any kind of celebration of
Black History and Indigenous Rights in
Oregon and in Florence?”
For that reason, we need to continue to work
for civil, human and equal rights in Florence.
Jenny Velinty
past member
Citizens Democracy Watch
• USPS# 497-660 • Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News
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