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OPINION
The Advocate
Editorial
Community outreach brings exposure to MHCC Considering that Mt. Hood is a “community” college, it is always good to hear about our college programs actively reaching out to the surrounding community. Take the basketball clinic that Geoff Gibor set up for students of the Phonics Phactory school in Gresham. It was held Tuesday, was free of charge and involved MHCC men’s basketball players teaching the students some basics of the game. “We just wanted to give back to the community,” said Gibor. Fifty-four schoolchildren attended the clinic and, assuming it was a positive experience for them, left an image of MHCC in their minds that they will surely remember when it comes time for them to choose an educational path after high school. Similarly, the forensics team will hold an invitational competition for local high schools today and tomorrow. Again, this is an excellent showcase of MHCC’s facilities, even if only in the capacity of what the forensics team does. The jazz band also usually hosts a similar competition each year. Cassie McVeety, the vice president of college advancement and executive director of the MHCC Foundation, sees clinics and competitions as excellent ways of reaching out to the surrounding community. McVeety sees these programs as “mutually beneficial to our students and the various communities we serve.” These programs are mutually beneficial. They bring much needed exposure to MHCC, and provide services that benefit much of the surrounding community. The people who have played an active role in making these programs come to life should be commended for the active outreach they have created.
Police are part of the problem, not the solution Brett Stanley The Advocate
It’s odd being 20 or 30 yards away from people being gunned down, and eating dinner while it happens. It’s depressing on one hand and scary on the other. My friend Jesse and I were in Wall Street Pizza in downtown Gresham, across the street from the M&M Lounge, last Friday night when the shootings took place. There are three dead; one a suicide, two murdered, and one still in critical condition. We were walking up to the back entrance of Wall Street, from the parking lot in the rear; there was a break in the music that was blaring from the M&M. Sweet Home Alabama starts playing as we walk inside. Witnesses report that’s when Jeffrey A. Grahn, an off-duty Clackamas County sherriff ’s sergeant, started shooting. We didn’t see the murders, or the suicide. We did see the aftermath. We saw countless people soft-
ly crying, with glazed over glars, or you. But I have a looks in their eyes; some in deeply ingrained fear of shock, some not. Some were men with clubs and guns talking to police, some were and the authority and lack just standing there, looking of oversight to do whatever around, looking like they they want with them. wanted something to do, or I feel pretty safe in to not be where they were at Gresham, or anywhere that moment. Some looked there are no police officers. angry, like they wanted to Despite my liberal ideals, I do something, but it was far still own guns. I don’t own too late for them to take any them because they make sort of action. me feel powerful, or that And there were the I have control over mydead; two in the alley beself or anyone else. I own hind the M&M, crumpled them because the Second like garbage waiting to be Amendment is there not picked up, with people starso we can protect ourselves ing at the bodies and quietly from each other, but from whispering to each other. the police and our own The police were out in military. force, obviously, hostile and Need is evermore pressuspicious of everyone, runent when we hire law Web photo enforcement ning up and down Main based on Street with M4 and AR-15 The outside of the M&M Lounge, where four people how aggressive and auassault rifles, police dogs were shot last Friday night thoritative they are. When sniffing and snarling at evthose same people feel the I, who have a small arsenal beerything. tween us, wondered why we nev- need to fire beanbag rounds at What a weird time it was. er take those guns with us when 12-year-old girls at MAX stops, Downtown had gone quiet as if a we leave the house. and tase the mentally ill until blanket of ash or snow was mufI have a concealed handgun they’re dead. When they shoot fling all sound for miles around. permit, for God’s sake, and never 23-year-old kids in the back. Or There were no sirens, no scream- put it to good use or any use. I when they walk into a restaurant ing, no commotion. don’t have the thing because I’m and kill two people because they Later, after we left, Jesse and afraid of my neighbor, or bur- did something they didn’t like.
Letters to the Editor MHCC environmental group seeks to clear up activity Students for Environmental Justice (SEJ) affirms the ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction. We see the right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples as fundamental. We recognize a unique, legal relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. & Canadian governments through agreements, treaties, compacts, and covenants affirming self-determination and sovereignty. Earlier this month SEJ planned to attend the Anti Olympic, Vancouver Peoples Summit & Convergence. This historical summit included presentations addressing poverty, homelessness, indigenous rights, civil rights, migrant justice, environment, labor, corporate personhood and movement building. SEJ also planned to collect information about the growing career field of Community Organizing. SEJ conferred with faculty and student groups (Chako Kum Tux-Native America club and CASS/IALs students) both of which have experienced the impact of compromised environmental policies concerning the native people around the world. Public documentation outlines all SEJ plans. According to Chako Kum Tux officers “these conferences have greatly improved community awareness on a number of environmental issues that directly affect Indigenous people.” The 2010 Olympics are occurring on illegally occupied Coast Salish peoples’ land. According to Gord Hill of the Kwakwakawak’w First Nation, 33% of the homeless in Vancouver are Native Peoples and Olympic development has increased that number. In response to rising housing prices, cuts on civil services and crimi-
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FEBRUARY 19, 2010
dvocate
Sanne Godfrey Editor-in-Chief Ron J. Rambo Jr. Executive Editor, Design Jake Fray Sports Editor Brett Stanley Photo Editor Chelsea Van Baalen A&E, Web Editor M. Michael Rose Advertising Manager Jen Ashenberner Music Editor Jordan Tichenor Opinion Editor
Mt. Hood Community College 26000 SE Stark Street Gresham, Oregon 97030 www.advocate-online.net
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nalization of the homeless the Gathering of the Indigenous called a convergence to oppose the 2010 games. SEJ meetings are open to all (Tuesdays, 12pm RM1266 / Fridays, 10am RM2755). Our next event “Knowledge Beyond Borders” (College Center , Feb. 25 @ 3PM). Is co-sponsored by SEJ, the Diversity Board and MECHA, and will include: a Panel CASS/IALS students, Guest Speaker Luis Guzman and a talk on immigrant rights in the US. Tyler Bristow President, Students for Environmental Justice
Editor’s note:
Students for Environmental Justice (SEJ) President Tyler Bristow said during a Tuesday phone call that an editorial in last week’s issue of The Advocate, entitled “Student Organization and Clubs funding choices become worrisome,” contained false claims. The editorial segment Bristow referred to is this: “The SEJ club will go to Canada, protest and come back. And with no seminars planned, no events scheduled, how are the students of MHCC better served?” Bristow said Thursday the group never intended to go to Vancouver to protest the Olympics. In a Tuesday e-mail, he wrote: “Our intent was to gain knowledge of the various social & environmental issues being presented at the Vancouver anti-Olympic Peoples Summit & the community organizing happening around them in Vancouver. We had a detailed itinerary on the various panels and workshop we would be attending during the 2 day seminar.” But a bulk e-mail sent out by SEJ on Jan. 16 said, “The schedule this far looks likes like E-mail advocatt@mhcc.edu 503-491-7250 (Main) 503-491-7413 (Office) 503-591-6064 (Fax)
Feb 10-11 Peoples Summit with work shops on Creative Tactics (puppet and banner making), knowing your rights, indigenous opposition panel, community organizing after the olympics and more. Feb 12 “Welcome” the 2010 Olympic Torch with Free Games, Free Speech, and Free Food! Beginning with a festival at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 3 pm, followed by a parade and protest to BC Place Stadium.” Bristow said Thursday that the final itinerary did not include this protest, but that the document with the final itinerary has been shredded due to confidentiality reasons. Bristow said the editorial’s inference that they were going to spend money on craft supplies is false and that the funding request was merely for gas in two vehicles and food for seven MHCC students. This was included in the funding request as well. The Advocate regrets the error. Bristow pointed to the group’s funding request as an example of the trip’s benefits to MHCC students. The request said: “Gain insights into Canada’s relationship with sovereign native nations and the conditions of occupation in North America. Learn community organizing methods and network with Indigenous, antipoverty, migrant justice, environmental justice, anti-war, labor, and anti colonial activists. Gain knowledge of global issues that often go under the radar (for example; the Tar Sands in Northern Alberta). Join in diverse demonstrations and rallies that will give inspiration for a lifetime of activism.” The Advocate regrets the confusion about the editorial, but stands by the statement that the SEJ’s trip to Vancouver, B.C., would not have been beneficial to MHCC students who were unable to make the trip. Adviser
Bob Watkins Assistant Adviser
Dan Ernst
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