Jan. 22
David Rogers
Executive director of ACLU Oregon
The politics of fear is being used to divide our communities. We need to remind ourselves of the strengths of being a country where diverse cultures have come together. There’s no contradiction between a nation where we speak a common language and a nation where many of us remain proud of our ethnic and cultural heritage, including our native languages. There’s no contradiction between a nation with a shared culture, founded on the idea of freedom, and a nation whose culture reflects the melting pot that is America.
Feb. 26
Catherine Hardwicke
Director of “Twilight”
If you have cool images out there of multidimensional women who have interesting jobs and interesting lives, and actually have lines of dialogue with other women, you show these wonderful possibilities for people — it just gives hope. It gives kids all over the world a more realistic view, more exciting opportunities.
March 4
Zak Accuardi
Specialist in sustainable urban development and dietary impacts on climate change
Roughly 20 percent of our total greenhouse gas emissions come from either agriculture or livestock production and the changes in land use, which is often shorthand for deforestation. Twenty percent may or may not sound like a lot, but that’s more than the entirety of the transportation sector – so cars and airplanes and freight transportation and boats. That’s more than the entirety of the building sector, so all of the electricity and heating that we use in buildings, and that’s nearly as much as the entirety of the industrial sector – so everything that we make.
June 10
Bill McKibben
Founder of 350.org
On climate change:
I think a lot of us tell ourselves that it’s too big for us to affect. That’s true in a sense – which is why we build movements, to combine our power. As individuals we can’t do much; together we can.
June 17
Thuy Huyen
Ms. Oregon 2016, who grew up in an Indonesian refugee camp after her parents escaped Vietnam in 1979
We would always see parents crying all the time, and they were carrying their kids up to the hill to bury them. I have those memories in my head, and even to this day, when I look outside to the sea, or at the coast, I have tears every time because I think about my escape, and all the people that died.
July 8
DeAnna
Foster youth (The foster life: In their own words)
She’s a disaster with an innocent smile. A storm ranging in a precious mind. A brain that had limitless secrets to hide. She was everything and anything but a naive child.
July 29
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
Democrat from Oregon
The fossil fuel industry and the Koch brothers are putting hundreds of millions of dollars into the political system to essentially buy the Legislature. It stands the vision of our republic on its head. The vision of the republic is “we the republic,” in contrast to government by and for the powerful. But with Citizens United, “we the republic” becomes “we the privileged and powerful.”
July 29
John Ahni Schertow
Chief editor, Intercontinental Cry
Indigenous peoples are a political powerhouse that states and corporations can’t conquer, even at the point of a gun. … Indigenous peoples are the frontline of the environmental movement. It is imperative that we start recognizing this.
Aug. 26
Elmer Yarbrough
Portland father (Black youths take aim at Measure 11)
On Measure 11’s impact on young black men:
The fear that these young people have about Measure 11 is real, and the tears and the falling out on court floors, halfway losing their minds because someone is telling them, you’re 16 years old, but you’re going to spend 70 months in prison, you’re going to have a felony on your record, and when you get out, what options do you have?
Sept. 16
Susan Faludi
Author
Whether it’s Brexit or Make America Great Trumpism or ISIS or you name it, hatred of immigrants, there is just all this crisis around the subject of identity and how one expresses identity and whether identity can be a force for emancipation … or whether it’s oppressive and destructive.
Sept. 23
Ilyse Hogue
President of NARAL Pro-Choice America
It’s really important for people in Oregon to talk about how proud they are to come from a state that really prioritizes reproductive freedom and reproductive justice and demand that your elected representation actually challenge the anti-choice forces that they go up against every day in Congress, because when we challenge them, they lose. We don’t lose.
Sept. 23
Jarvis Kennedy
Paiute tribal councilman
It’s all about the money, once you come down to it. Because that’s what people want. Money buys whatever they want. But it’s not just an Indian thing, it’s a human race thing. We can’t drink oil. We can’t throw oil on the field and expect to grow something. You’ve got to have water.
Sept. 30
Patreese Johnson
Subject of the film “Out in the Night,” about four women sent to prison after defending themselves in an attack
I have every right to protect my body.
Oct. 7
Jessica Campbell
Rural Organizing Project
We’ve been hearing that for a very long time in rural Oregon, that while it feels like even though we might have a blue Legislature, that political leadership has pretty much abandoned rural Oregon, and as we talk with other states, they’re hearing the same thing from their constituencies as well.
Oct. 14
Ralph Nader
Political activist
There should be a binding “None of the Above” on the ballot so those 38 percent can vote “no confidence” in the whole sham, and if it wins, it requires new elections, for mayor or whatever, and new candidates, if a binding “None of the Above” wins. That has about 90 percent support when you explain it to people.
Oct. 16
Bettyjo Griffiths
Street Roots 2016 Vendor of the Year
Life today is full of happiness, and I am so grateful for everything I have. I’m only getting better every day. This whole experience has made me more appreciative, more loving, better understanding of myself and others. So I stand, wave and throw out the peace sign because I’m truly happy and want to share that feeling with others.
oembed://https%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DZpeWoyMCEuE
Nov. 4
Margaret Atwood
Author
We can’t keep doing climate-impact things that will toast our food supply – and that includes, especially, poisoning and warming up the oceans. Dead oceans equal catastrophic loss of atmospheric oxygen, and that would be the end of our story.
Nov. 11
Dean Strang
Attorney featured in “Making a Murder”
That’s where justice begins. Not in the courthouse but out on the street corner where you bought this paper. It begins in trying to make sure we are reducing the number of people who are not secure in their housing, not secure in where their food is coming from, and don’t have adequate access to mental health care provision.
Nov. 18
Murray Cox
Founder of Inside Airbnb, a watchdog organization
Landlords don’t want to rent to long-term tenants, regardless of whether that’s based on their own experience or the myth of the “awful tenant.” To have that type of sentiment is devastating for communities.
Nov. 25
Barbara Roberts
Former Oregon governor and champion of the Death with Dignity Act
It is brave, but it’s also practical. We like to maintain some control over our life. I watched my nephew die; I watched my husband die; I watched my mother die. I have a lot of desire not to watch that in myself. Nobody knows till they’re there and they’re making that choice, but I wouldn’t hesitate myself.
Dec. 2
Annette Klapstein
Valve Turner, who helped shut down five oil pipelines
There is nothing more important to me than trying to ensure there is some level of habitability on this Earth for my children, all children and all future generations. If we don’t turn it around now, there won’t be future generations. We have gone so far down the road with climate change that civilization collapse is very nearly inevitable at this point, at some point in this century, and if we keep going down this road, I think human extinction becomes more and more probable. We will no longer exist as a species, and I find that beyond horrifying.
Dec. 16
Ken McNickle
“Survivor” cast member and homeless advocate
If you can feed the belly with a sandwich and feed the soul by truly listening to someone and being present with them and making them feel as though their feelings or thoughts are validated and that they are seen as a human being, that carries with them – that sticks.
This article appears in 2016-12-30.