(Guest post by MRG board member Shizuko Hashimoto.) For the last two weeks, I have lived, breathed, and Facebooked Occupy Portland. On October 6, I left work and arrived in Chapman and Lownsdale Squares in downtown Portland. This was ground zero of the new Occupy Portland movement and I was eager to see what was […]
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I’ve been riveted by Occupy Wall Street taking over the news, and excited that it has spawned supportive local efforts across the country. There’s something wonderful when regular people – our families, co-workers, friends, neighbors – come together to organize in the moment based on shared values. I headed downtown to walk into Occupy Portland, […]
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I recently returned from Arizona: not my destination of choice, certainly not where I’d planned to spend my birthday. After all, I’d read national news reports and watched the evening news. I recalled the special reports on Arizona’s self-appointed border vigilantes, those who seek to deny human rights and dignity to those who cross the […]
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Lately, I’ve found myself thinking out loud about the lessons I learned from watching my parents, Frederick Douglas and Bobbi Lou Gary, live their lives in a time of compromised options for African-Americans in Oregon. My father held a government job so that my mother was free from work worries and could engage in making […]
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Being selected as the new executive director of MRG Foundation has really begun to sink in: it’s a humbling and exciting recognition of progressive justice in ‘the giving business.’ Over these weeks as a ‘newbie,’ I’ve seen glimpses of what is possible when change and commitment merge. Let me share a few of my observations […]
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