A4 • Friday, January 14, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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A ruby holds a message of hope
HELP FOR EVACUEES
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
Lutheran Community Services Northwest
has been asked to resettle an estimated
550 emergency evacuees. They launched
a $2.5 million campaign to help refu-
gees fi nd stability in the Northwest. The
number of Afghan refugees the agency is
resettling in the greater Portland area is a
moving target, Matt Misterek, communi-
cations director for Lutheran Community
Services Northwest, said. “As of the end of
the year, we’re at more than 120 through
our Portland offi ce and another 75 in Van-
couver, with more coming in the fi rst few
months of 2022.”
R.J. MARX
A
ruby is helping Angela Fairless make
sense of grief.
After two tours of military duty
and struggling with his war-related injuries, as
well as the diffi culty of reentering civilian life,
her brother, Curtis Fairless, took his own life
on Dec. 16, 2018.
Angela Fairless and Lutheran Community
Services Northwest will use proceeds from
the sale of a ruby her brother purchased at an
Afghan market to drive awareness to Afghan
refugees seeking to settle in this country.
She hopes her brother’s memory will draw
attention to the impacts of war, not only on
civilians, but on the soldiers on the battlefi eld.
“We don’t hear the cries of the children
dying of war,” she said. “Curtis was struggling
with his part in that. We see this with veter-
ans of all wars. They start to recognize that
they have more in common with the pawns on
the other side than the generals on their own
side.”
For more information on helping to reset-
tle refugees arriving in the Northwest or to
contribute to the campaign, visit https://
lcsnw.org/refugee-response/.
Curtis Fairless and Angela Fairless.
Military hero, yet struggling
Curtis Fairless was two years older and one
grade higher than his sister, a good student
and athlete who graduated before he was 18.
He went directly into the U.S. Marine Corps
after graduation from Seaside High School.
After 9/11, he served on the front lines of the
Iraq invasion as a mortarman in the infantry.
When a rocket-propelled grenade hit the
Humvee he was driving, he took shrapnel to
the head and was transported to Kuwait. Since
he was at the end of his tour, he fi nished out
his last months in California before returning
to Seaside.
“He was just trying to fi gure out what to
do, and struggling,” Fairless said. “He felt
civilian life was just not for him. He gave up
trying. He would say all the time, ‘The only
thing I know how to do is kill.’ So he ended
up going back into the military.”
He enlisted in the Oregon National Guard
and served as a sergeant with American forces
in Afghanistan.
“He was trying to reassure me that I didn’t
need to worry, that somehow occupation with
the Army National Guard is a lot safer than
invasion with the Marine Corps,” she said.
“He was telling me, ‘There’s a Starbucks and
I’m going shopping.’”
He was in Afghanistan for about a year, but
recurring injuries prevented him from joining
his platoon on their next assignment in Africa.
He returned home.
“That was a hard blow,” Fairless said. “He
was just trying to fi gure out what to do and
struggling.”
Her brother felt “weird” about his medals
— a Purple Heart, a National Defense Service
Curtis Fairless on military duty.
Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ser-
vice Ribbon, Sea Service Deployment Rib-
bon, NATO Medal and more.
“He felt like he didn’t deserve them,” she
said. “We spent most of our lives feeling so
extremely hopeless because of the economy
and our eff orts to be productive citizens. We
did not have a good start. We were intelli-
gent enough to be aware of why we strug-
gled but not seemingly, at least in his regard,
capable of overcoming it. Being aware that
you have a mental health problem, does not
fi x it.”
In December 2018 Fairless was working
at a restaurant in Astoria when she learned
her brother had killed himself at a home
owned by his aunt in Warrenton.
“He didn’t leave a note, but he did leave a
message,” she said. “And that message was
a stack of books next to his head splattered
OP-ED
with his blood. The top book is ‘On Killing:
The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill
in War and Society.’ Oh, my God.”
‘Productive processing’
When Curtis Fairless returned home from
Afghanistan, he brought rubies, jade and
other gems bought at a market where he was
stationed, intended as an investment for his
family and loved ones.
The gemstones were made into dog-tags
for family and loved ones in his memory at
the funeral. His sister kept one remaining
ruby in her possession.
She decided to tie the drawing to Veter-
ans Day in her brother’s honor because she
sees an impact not only for Afghan people,
but for America’s military veterans trying to
reenter society.
The fi nal ruby is a “productive process-
ing” of her pain and refl ects the kind of ser-
vice member her brother wanted to be, she
said.
“His memory to me is one of self-sacri-
fi ce,” she said. “He was also sending a mes-
sage that we’re doing it wrong — in regard
to mental health, houselessness, foreign
policy, literally almost everything. We’ve
been doing it wrong, and we need help.
And we are the only ones that can help our-
selves. That’s what his life said. But that’s
especially what his death said.
“We look at the American soldier, and
Marines in particular, as the strongest
human being there is,” she continued. “But
he was just a sad, broken, abused little boy
that was pimped out by our government and
then not helped enough by his community.”
Fairless, a writer, organizer and youth
advocate who ran unsuccessfully for Sea-
side mayor in 2014, lives in Rainier with
her son, Ruben Saucedo. She is back in
Portland fi nishing her bachelor’s degree
in science and social work with a minor in
confl ict resolution.
The winner of the ruby drawing held in
December was Lee James, of Coupeville,
Washington, an Army veteran himself.
“My wife and I will treasure the ruby,”
James wrote to Fairless. “Receiving it is
like a sign that ‘paying it forward’ is truly
the way. We are so blessed. The blessing
wants to grow for others.”
With her support of the Afghan refugee
eff ort, Fairless said she hopes people con-
front their internalized fear about immi-
grants — not just refugees.
“I would suggest, I would hope, that
the people of my hometown start to really
ask themselves hard questions about them-
selves,” she said. “‘Do I have any uncon-
scious biases?’ ‘Where are my blind spot
biases?’ ‘Am I unintentionally racist and
sexist and just don’t know it?’
“‘Is war a bigger problem that I should
care about?’ The answers are ‘yes.’”
NEWS NOTES
Being a
conduit for grace
POEM
LIANNE
THOMPSON
All that exists is created by our
consciousness
Expressed in words
Song and prayer and plea
Expressed in each of us
Sharing with others
An other
Sharing, giving whatever we have in
Brain
Body
Heart
Soul
Creating matter and energy with our
consciousness, shared
Shared with grace or greed or glum terror,
We always share.
We must always share, impelled
By our indivisible relationship with
Our selves
God
Each other
Our good green Earth
Let us speak joy to one another
Let us fl ower our bliss by sharing it
As a grain of a grain of grace
Be love
Be hope
Be joy
Be compassion to feel pain and failure,
The heart of sin
Which we transform
By occurring, being conscious
Of a grain of a grain
Of grace.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
‘Butterfl ies in the Garden’
from garden club
The Sou’wester Garden Club will meet
Wednesday, Jan. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon at
the Bob Chisholm Community Center, located
at 1225 Ave. A, Seaside. The subject is “But-
terfl ies in the Garden,” with Bob Pyle.
Thai Me Up fundraiser benefi ts
Sunset Pool, swimmers
On Saturday, Thai Me Up donated 100%
of their sales at both the Astoria and Sea-
side restaurant locations to the Seaside High
School swim team for the purchase of a timing
system for swim meets and new diving blocks
for the Sunset Pool.
Prediabetes program at
Columbia Memorial Hospital
Columbia Memorial Hospital’s Diabetes
Prevention Program starts Tuesday, Jan. 25,
2022, and runs weekly on Tuesday evenings
from 5 to 6 p.m. This program is CDC-recog-
nized and based on research. It is focused on
healthy eating and physical activity.
Eligible participants have been diagnosed
with prediabetes based on a blood test com-
pleted in the last year, are a woman and have
been diagnosed with gestational diabetes
during pregnancy, or have a positive screen-
ing for prediabetes based on the CDC predia-
betes screening test
This lifestyle-change program will be
off ered in-person in CMH’s Coho Room, sec-
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ond fl oor, 2021 Marine Dr., Astoria. Contact
Arna Vanebo Pyle, registered/licensed dieti-
tian, with any questions at 503-338-7592.
Information can also be found at columbiam-
emorial.org/dpp.
Budget committee members
sought for transportation district
The Sunset Empire Transportation District
Board of Commissioners is seeking volun-
teers from Clatsop County who are registered
voters and would like to serve on the Budget
Committee.
The committee is comprised of seven dis-
trict board members and seven community
members who are appointed by the Board of
Commissioners and serve a three-year term.
There are currently fi ve community member
positions open on the committee with one being
a two-year fulfi llment of a three-year term.
Generally, the Budget Committee meets
once each year in the spring, but they may
hold additional meetings if needed. It is antic-
ipated that the committee will meet virtually
via Zoom in 2022.
Those interested in serving are asked
to submit a letter of interest which can be
emailed to jeff @ridethebus.org, dropped off at
the Astoria Transit Center, 900 Marine Drive;
Seaside Transit Offi ce, 39 North Holladay; or
mailed to Sunset Empire Transportation Dis-
trict, 900 Marine Drive, Astoria, OR 97103.
Submit letters of interest by Jan. 31.
For more information, contact Jeff Hazen,
the executive director, at 503-861-5399 or by
email at jeff @ridethebus.org.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Contact local agencies for latest meeting informa-
tion and attendance guidelines.
TUESDAY, JAN. 18
Seaside Planning Commission, work session,
6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Haley Werst
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
Seaside School District, 6 p.m., https://www.
seaside.k12.or.us/
MONDAY, JAN. 24
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Put livability above profi ts
I am urging the city of Seaside to
institute a moratorium on vacation rental
dwelling permits before we lose more
neighborhoods.
I have lived at 510 13th Ave. since
1997. When I fi rst moved here my street
was a mix of fi ve or six full-time fami-
lies, vacation homes, a bread and break-
fast, and a few vacation rentals. Now
there are only two full-time residents
on the street, myself and the family run-
ning the bread and breakfast, and a cou-
ple of vacation homes — all the rest are
now VRDs. Five new homes have been
built across the street from me, three are
already being ran as VRDs, one of the
other two just sold and the owner told
me yesterday they plan on using it as a
VRD. So instead of the neighborhood
that was here when I fi rst moved to Sea-
side, I now live in a commercial vacation
zone surrounded by strangers who could
care less if they’re staying in a neigh-
borhood — they are here on vacation,
to have fun, no matter if their noise and
parking interferes with the livability of
the people who live here full time.
There is a nation wide crisis of aff ord-
able housing. VRDs help fuel the higher
cost of housing. For a local example, one
of the few long term rentals on 14th Ave-
nue is one of the applications in the rush
of VRD applications after the talk, but
no action, of a moratorium last month at
City meetings.
Municipalities all over the country are
looking at this issue. It is time for Sea-
side to take action. A moratorium would
give the city time to study the issue and
come up with a plan that puts the livabil-
ity of our neighborhoods over the prof-
its of VRDs.
Joyce Hunt
Seaside
Seaside Signal
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