Past Issues :: 2007 July 1 :: Contents
Cover Story
Write makes might
Even if you can’t understand the words, you know what the sign says. It’s the ubiquitous slab of dog-eared cardboard with a handwritten message, beckoning from a sidewalk, propped against the side of a homeless man huddled against the cold.
The image is from Oslo, Norway, but it could just as easily be a scene from Portland, London, Buenos Aires, Cape Town or Melbourne. Every one in the room at the annual conference of the International Network of Street Papers has seen a version of that image in their hometowns, across six continents, in 34 countries.
Editorial
Salem bails, time to call Washington — again
Horoscope
Astro logic
Street Poetry
Poems
Viewpoint
Christen it the U.S.S. Dignity Village 2.0
Portland Tribune's columnist Phil Stanford wants a retired aircraft carrier. How about this: the city cleans her up and then allows the poor and homeless to establish residence and build a new Portland community. I'm serious!
Columns
Director’s Desk
Street Roots welcomes two new staff members! Journalist Matthew Deschaine will cover the environment; labor; poverty; and local, county and state government. Eddie Barbosa, a former Street Roots vendor, will take the helm of the Rose City Resources and the office manager position.
Memoirs of a Vietnam Vet
Politically motivated raids hurt families, friends, community
I feel the need to give you my opinion on the "raid." By now, I’m sure you all know I’m referring to the raid at the Del Monte plant here in Portland. However, this is not the only place this is happening. In the words of Barbara Bechnel, a journalist and film producer, "a Nazi-like climate against immigrants is being created in this country."
Hungry in Portland
Greg’s story: Down and out and back again
Chicago is my first home. I’ve been there, done that, in Chicago. But this time, I was coming back to learn about the street paper, Street Wise. I met Greg Pritchard, vendor coordinator. He shared his story, and I tell it here with his permission. I hope someone will begin to understand what vendors are made of, and how and why they are who they are.
Street Culture
End of me
i was eight years old, i was alone and running and frightened of the end-of-the-block-bully. It was four o'clock and i had stayed after school and i had run with burst veins in legs popping, just to get home fast enough so that i wouldn't see him.
Forest fashion in the 21st century police state
It’s the same thing every morning. The day-glow green uniform is always posed there, scanning the scene, just as I do. Over the past weeks I’ve counted three distinct faces in the Wackenhut duds. Every day, I try to figure out what has changed.
Raymond, the gunsmith from New Sharon, Maine, Part III
I never took seriously the fear spread by newspapers about hitchhiking. It always struck me as about as intelligent as the flick “Reefer Madness.” Literally that obtuse and separate from the simple enjoyment of being on the highway with the folks, the characters, so unanticipated, so easy to get along with.
News
‘Dani Ladies’ on front line of push to sell to poor
South African Joyce Daka is on the front lines of a new project by French food group Danone to expand its reach from suburban supermarkets into poor neighborhoods. She sells small cups of vitamin-enriched yogurt door to door in Orange Farm, a sprawling township of modest houses and makeshift shacks west of Johannesburg.
Town uses ‘Mockingbird’ to learn from past
When Harper Lee wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird” she could not have known it would be hailed as a classic, much less that it would shape the way her hometown viewed its past. Lee's novel has put Monroeville, Ala., on the map and acted as a magnet for tourists. It has also stimulated debate in the town about the legacy of racial segregation.
Journalist Pilger gets reel with ‘The War on Democracy’
A fine portrait of the popular movement for democracy that’s sweeping Latin America in the wake of the 1998 election of Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, Pilger’s film looks at instances across the continent of poor people challenging the power of the ruling elite.
