Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: ‘Motivated to have a better life’
Karl Dorling has been selling Street Roots off and on for the last 20 years. He remembers many changes in the organization, but one thing has remained constant through the decades: Street Roots has always served as a sanctuary for him. “I’m grateful for Street Roots. If all else fails, I know Street Roots won’t,”…
Opinion
Recovery: Individual results may vary
I was beaten and threatened with death by my mother as a child. I’ve attempted suicide twice. One drunken night, I drove 80 mph down Interstate 84 with my eyes closed. I shot methamphetamine in my arm and almost had a stroke. I’m not sure how I survived. More than that, I’m not sure how…
SR editorial: Climate change demands collective action
The Oregon Global Warming Commission this month adopted a draft report that shows how climate change is already drastically transforming Oregon’s ecosystems and weather patterns. From ocean acidification and smoke-choked cities to drought-inundated farmlands and dwindling snowpack across the Cascade Mountains’ peaks, climate change is already costing Oregon’s industries millions of dollars, threatening wildlife species and…
Founding Fathers would fight Measure 104
"Poison.” That’s what Alexander Hamilton called requiring a supermajority to pass laws. It goes against the “fundamental principle of free government,” against the common good, James Madison concurred. The toxin that Hamilton and Madison warned about will appear on the Oregon ballot this November in the form of Measure 104. The measure would require three-fifths…
Culture
The original ‘Black Klansman’ on white supremacy, then and now
In October 1978, Detective Ron Stallworth infiltrated the Colorado Springs chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, making him the first black Klansman. At the time, the Klan’s Grand Wizard, David Duke, was attempting to rebrand the organization. Publicly, Duke said his Knights of the KKK were a non-violent group focused on white heritage. Yet behind…
News
The original ‘Black Klansman’ on white supremacy, then and now
In October 1978, Detective Ron Stallworth infiltrated the Colorado Springs chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, making him the first black Klansman. At the time, the Klan’s Grand Wizard, David Duke, was attempting to rebrand the organization. Publicly, Duke said his Knights of the KKK were a non-violent group focused on white heritage. Yet behind…
BrettKavanaugh.com keeps the conversation going in support of survivors
The past few weeks have been especially triggering for many survivors of sexual assault in the U.S. While the #MeToo movement has inspired more frank and open discussions of sexual assault and harassment, the nation also watched as now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sputtered, shouted and sassed his way through a hearing about his alleged…
Environment
SR editorial: Climate change demands collective action
The Oregon Global Warming Commission this month adopted a draft report that shows how climate change is already drastically transforming Oregon’s ecosystems and weather patterns. From ocean acidification and smoke-choked cities to drought-inundated farmlands and dwindling snowpack across the Cascade Mountains’ peaks, climate change is already costing Oregon’s industries millions of dollars, threatening wildlife species and…
Oregon climate report: ‘Our predictions are coming true’
Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions from transportation are accelerating, and so are emissions released, within the state and elsewhere, to meet Oregonians’ increasing demands for products and services. “The significance of understanding global emissions is that a ton of carbon dioxide has the same impact on Oregon’s climate and the global climate regardless of where it’s…
Housing
Ontario, Oregon: A Section 8 pit stop turned long-term stay
Ontario, Ore., was never really supposed to be home – at least not for many of the city’s recently established refugees who have settled here in increasing numbers since 2017. Most refugees say they were drawn to Malheur County temporarily, by the promise of a notably short Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waitlist, with intentions…
How a refugee in Ontario, Oregon, helps others get the aid they need
Ekram Ahmed spent many years living in fear and with a ferocious sense of self. Her parents lived in Sudan before she was born, but a military coup led by Omar al-Bashir in 1989 led to severe political unrest that intensified in 1993 when al-Bashir deemed himself the self-appointed president of Sudan. Her parents fled…
A refugee’s need for support as a child inspired his path
Abdikadir Abdi’s childhood looked strikingly different from what his own children and the Somali refugee community’s children experience in the Pacific Northwest today. Abdi was born in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, sometime around 1988 at the onset of the ongoing Somali Civil War. His family is from a tribe of farmers, coined the Somali Bantu…
