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On this day, March 28, 1942, Japanese-American lawyer Minoru Yasui (1916-1986) violated a military curfew in Portland, Oregon, and demanded to be arrested after he was refused enlistment to fight for the US. He was one of the few Japanese Americans who fought laws that directly targeted Japanese Americans or Japanese immigrants following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In 2015 he was among 17 people awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom.

Also on this day March 28, 1939, the front page of the Eugene Register-Guard blared the headline: "Mighty Oregon Scramble Ohio State to Take Hoop Title of All America," right under a declaration that the Spanish War had ended, of course.




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Hood River County GOP's Second Annual Lincoln Dinner
Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Hood River County GOP's Second Annual Lincoln Dinner 5pm-9pm
Hood River, OR



Dorchester Conference 2024
Friday, April 26, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Dorchester Conference 2024 April 26th-28th
Welches, Oregon



Memorial Day
Monday, May 27, 2024 at 11:00 am
Memorial Day
A federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving.



Juneteenth
Wednesday, June 19, 2024 at 12:00 am
Juneteenth
Celebrated on the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when in the wake of the American Civil War, Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas.



Independence Day
Thursday, July 4, 2024 at 11:59 pm
Independence Day
USA



Linn Laughs LIVE with Adam Corolla
Saturday, September 7, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Linn Laughs LIVE with Adam Corolla 5pm-9pm
Albany, OR


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COVID-19 Counts Under Suspicion
Shutdown over science.

The decisions being made about schools, economic activity and the basic functioning of society need to be made based on the facts. This should be true regarding all government activity, but it especially needs to be true in the case of a medical crisis, where -- due to privacy requirements -- only the government has access to the facts. Lives are at stake as well as the fortunes and happiness of persons in society, and people need to have confidence that all their needs are being properly balanced, based on the facts available.

For example, in a Facebook post, Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg reported that the Oregon Health Authority is reporting “presumptive positives” for employees who have tested negative for the disease. These reports go into the numbers that make up case statistics and are ultimately used to issue shutdown orders or move counties between phases.

In another case, Malheur County announced its first COVID-19 death on June 6, a 70 year-old male. No details were reported by the county, except that the test results were reported postmortem. It turned out that, while he may have tested positive for the disease, his death was actually caused by falling off a ladder -- a cause that can hardly be attributed to a respiratory infection.

In the letter obtained by the Freedom Foundation, the OHA explained what they mean by a “COVID-19 death.” It is


death of a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case within 60 days of the earliest available date among exposure to a confirmed case, onset of symptoms, or date of specimen collection for the first positive test; or someone with a COVID-19-specific ICD-10 code listed as a primary or contributing cause of death on a death certificate


In still another instance of the state's inability to follow the facts, in a letter to constituents, Marion County Commissioner Colm Willis calls out the Governor and the OHA for a mistaken assessment that placed Marion County on a watch list.


You may have heard recently that the Governor added Marion County to her COVID-19 watch list. This was based on the Oregon Health Authority's conclusion that we had too many cases in Marion County that could not be traced to a source. Unfortunately, OHA came to this conclusion without all of the relevant information. After our epidemiologists finish a case investigation they upload information into a statewide database that OHA manages. However, because OHA changed its criteria without advance notice to our team, not all of the case information for Marion County was uploaded into the statewide system. Once all of our information was uploaded it turned out that Marion County did not meet the criteria to be included in the Governor's watch list. This was brought to the attention of the Governor, but she decided to keep Marion County on the watch list, "out of an abundance of caution." Frankly, this is ridiculous.


Other states have has similar missteps in reporting facts. Washington reported gun shot deaths as COVID-19 deaths. Colorado had to redefine its methodology for reporting fatalities after it was caught fudging the books.

These are not just one-off mistakes that can be explained away. These are all deliberate departures from facts for the purpose of keeping and exercising power. If there's any question about whether decisions are being made based on power and not safety, one only needs to look at the way in which the facts are being reported -- or not reported.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-20 10:41:02Last Update: 2020-08-20 12:35:59



Forest Management Changes Proposed
Removing some large fir trees can help pine trees grow larger

Over the past 25 years, Eastern Oregon's National Forests have become overstocked, fire-prone and insect infested. The lack of active forest management has hurt our economy and decreased access to public lands.

Presently, the Forest Service has decided to fix one of the greatest obstacles to forest management in Eastern Oregon by amending the Clinton-era “Wildlife Standard of the Eastside Screens,” also known as the “Eastside Screens.” The Forest Service have released their Environmental Assessment with proposed action alternatives. Public comments are due September 10.

The Eastside Screens was originally adopted as a “temporary” rule prohibiting the removal of trees larger than 21 inches in diameter on national forests east of the Cascades, including the Malheur, Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, Deschutes, Ochoco, Fremont-Winema. With little public involvement or scientific justification, this temporary rule became permanent.

In recent years, a growing body of science supports the removal of some trees greater than 21 inches in forest restoration projects. In overstocked forests, for example, removing some large fir trees can help pine trees grow larger and make them more resilient to fire.

Restoring forests with the Eastside Screens is an expensive and time-consuming process, and anti-forestry groups have exploited it to stop projects they don't like. This policy has also significantly reduced timber harvests on regional national forests, which has resulted in reduced forest infrastructure, jobs losses, reduced revenues to county governments and reduced capacity to perform needed restoration treatments.

Among the alternatives, the "Adaptive Management Alternative" is the most attractive because it:
Those who wish to comment on the process can do so at Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-19 18:11:00



Election Pledge Signed By Kate Brown
November election will happen

Governor Kate Brown today announced she is leading a coalition of the Governors of California, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Michigan in pledging to uphold the integrity of the general election and to work to ensure that voting is safe, accessible, and secure. The pledge sets forth commitments to ensure confidence in the integrity of the election, in light of unprecedented attacks on voting rights and voting access.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing the way Americans live and work," said Governor Brown. "Our nation faces an unprecedented challenge to protect the health and lives of millions. But in the face of such a fight, we cannot let our constitutional right to free and fair elections suffer.

"In order to defeat this virus, no aspect of our society will remain untouched, and that means we also need to take steps to ensure people do not have to choose between their health and safety and their right to vote."

The Governors agreed to:
--Ben Fisher

Post Date: 2020-08-19 13:05:35Last Update: 2020-08-19 13:39:24



Opinion: If You Don’t Like Rioting, You Have a Choice
Peaceful protest can only facilitate change that people actually want.

Portland Mayoral Candidate Susan Iannarone was recently interviewed on KGW’s Straight Talk: She said, “Peaceful protests, in my opinion, might not necessarily be moving the conversation forward.” She was, accidentally, 100% right.

Peaceful protest can only facilitate change that people actually want. The dilemma Antifa (and its enablers in the current Oregon power structure) face is simple: Sane people don’t want the changes Antifa demands.

The Symbionese Liberation Army and the Weather Underground ran into the same problem in their day as Antifa is now. Imposing “radical change” on American has always been hard because Americans don’t actually want radical change.

The “intelligentsia” has had to form elaborate Rube Goldberg Machines to explain America's lack of revolutionary zeal, arguing that our reluctance is a product of “false consciousness,” or maybe malignant “corporate mind control” or “racism/sexism/[fill-in-the-blank]-phobia.”

But what if the answer is as obvious as it appears? Americans don't want radical change because we believe the present system - while perhaps imperfect - is infinitely superior to the half-baked Messianic Communism of a bunch of idiots.

These scruffy, self-appointed “Vanguards of the Proletariat” seem to be incapable of understanding that our reluctance to give them absolute, unaccountable power is because of them—a bunch of ill-informed, petulant adolescents who have never achieved anything constructive in their lives and whose grievances are a product of the very surpluses the present system churns out.

The majority grasps something Antifa does not: The only people who dislike surplus are those who have always lived amidst plenty.

Antifa is misled. Our tolerance of their destructive defiance is not proof of our well-hidden desire for radical change. It is simply a product of our complacency. Tragically, Antifa is energized by our unwillingness to defend the very conditions – the Rule of Law, economic virility and opportunity, and a certain tolerance for imperfect justice – which have produced the massive plenty to which Antifa perversely takes exception...even while hypocritically gorging on it themselves.

The current Democratic power structure in Oregon never had any intention of giving Antifa any power. They just wanted to cynically use these crazy people. Heck, they might even leverage the chaos to unseat a sitting President of the United States!

But one-party government makes those in power forget the lessons of history: Like arson, deranged shock troops often end up getting out of control. And now the politicians are in a bind. There’s no one in Oregon Government to whom they can turn to re-assert order while also remaining in the good graces of the lunatic fringe.

If only they had an apolitical Oregon Attorney General who could rally our excellent law enforcers to restore law and order, someone whom Ted Wheeler and Kate Brown could denounce even while they thanked me...er...him.

Alas, all that you can do on Election Day is write in a well-qualified, apolitical name for Attorney General—to spite an Antifa which cannot solve your problems, a Democratic Party which profits from your problems, and a Republican Party whose candidate is a convicted felon.

When I ran for Oregon Attorney General in 2016, I told you that Justice in Oregon isn’t a question of Left and Right; it’s a question of right and wrong. If I hadn’t run as a Republican, they tell me I would have won.

Oregon will only return to stability and prosperity when she has an Attorney General free from the pressures of partisanship.

I am the first to admit it: For a politician, I make a great Soldier-Lawyer. And maybe that’s exactly what Oregon needs right now.

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Dan Crowe was the 2016 Republican Nominee for Oregon Attorney General.


--Dan Crowe

Post Date: 2020-08-19 08:27:58Last Update: 2020-08-17 20:25:41



OHA to Assist Communities of Color
Grants are targeted to tribes and communities of color

Although Oregon Health Authority fails to mention whether “white” people could see any support through this program, it asserts that it’s programs intention is to address a “disproportion” among “communities of color” that must be addressed through extra COVID-19 relief funds, though most Oregonians have yet to see much at all, let alone a “disproportion”.

OHA opened grant applications to not-for-profit organizations statewide, Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes and the Urban Indian Health Program. The grants come from legislatively directed $45 million in federal CARES Act coronavirus relief funds.

The grants are intended to address the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Oregon’s tribal communities and communities of color. This innovative program leverages federal funds to address social determinants of health and the systemic racism and other health and economic inequities tribal communities and communities of color experience, which have been compounded by COVID-19.

The program will provide grants to not for-profit-organizations and tribal communities. These grants can be used to help people address:
These health equity grants stem from priorities community partners identified in discussions with teams from the Office of Equity and Inclusion Division, Community Partner Outreach Program and OHA’s Tribal Affairs.

“This investment represents an extension of our commitment to eliminating health inequity, especially the disparities driven by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Patrick Allen, OHA Director. “It also reflects our commitment to get better at community engagement, to engage our partners upfront and authentically respond to their input.

“We know these efforts don’t address all the health inequities communities face and won’t fund all the need. However, at a time when COVID-19 poses an unprecedented health emergency, these grants will help people in communities across Oregon be safer and healthier.”


--Ben Fisher

Post Date: 2020-08-18 18:25:35Last Update: 2020-08-18 18:45:28



Tone Deaf: Getting Soft on Crime
This amounts to a partial rollback of measure 11, without voter approval

Editor's note: this is the fourth of a multi-part series recounting how the party in power is thwarting the will of the people. There is also a downloadable companion brochure

The Oregon Mandatory Sentences for Listed Felonies Act, also known as Measure 11, passed in 1994, set mandatory sentences for listed felonies and barred early release, leave or reduced sentences for persons over the age of 15. Oregon Democrat’s agenda is to undo the stiffer sentencing guidelines for the most serious person-crimes. After the implementation, Oregon District Attorneys Association (ODAA) attributed the legislation for the drop in crime rates 51% between 1995 and 2009.

Since then the law has been massaged. ODAA’s website lists this as facts, “Oregon has one of the lowest incarceration rates in the nation. According the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 25% of the people convicted of felonies go to prison, and that is typically for crimes such as murder, rape and robbery. Oregon’s prisons are filled with violent, repeat offenders. Non-violent, first-time (and second-time and third-time) offenders typically get probation or some other type of alternative sentence. The numbers don’t lie: According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 75% of people convicted of a felony in Oregon never go to prison. The vast majority of those in prison are there because they committed a violent offense such as murder, rape or robbery. For non-violent offenders, Oregon DAs are committed to seeking justice in ways that do not involve prison, such as diversion, drug courts, mental health courts and other alternative programs.”

The death penalty has been voted on nine times by Oregonians and always passed, but was effectively undone by the last two governors (both Democrats) who refused to carry it out. Then in 2019, the legislature passed SB 1013, which essentially bans the death penalty by reclassifying crimes making it harder to seek the death penalty by limiting the types of crimes punishable by death to terrorist acts and murders of children and police officers, among other things. Legislators were assured it was not retroactive, but when implementing didn’t support that, there were many, including ODAA, that thought the change affecting Oregon’s death penalty laws should have been referred back to the voters.

Accelerating SB 1013, Governor Brown is scheduled to release a total of 700 inmates early “to slow the spread of covid-19.” ODAA already says that 75% of people convicted of a felony in Oregon never go to prison, so she is releasing the worst of the worst. Is this correct leadership in the wake of Portland riots? Portland reports a 327% increase in arson based on June’s report compared to a year ago, a 63% increase in vandalism, and 46% increase in burglary. Drug offenses, on the other hand shows a reduction, which reflects the reforms in marijuana laws.

What is happening in Portland is taking root in other cities across the state including homes. When protesters were arrested, 59 out of 400 have had their charges dropped. Is this what stiffer sentencing guidelines look like? Is this how the state puts an end to violent riots?


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2020-08-18 12:57:24Last Update: 2020-08-08 14:51:14



Meme of the Week
The Governor is using kids as pawns




--Northwest Observer Meme Team

Post Date: 2020-08-18 10:04:22



OSHA proposes temporary rule for workplaces
The rule contains multiple provisions that would apply to all workplaces.

Oregon OSHA is proposing a temporary rule that would combat the spread of COVID-19 in all workplaces by requiring employers to implement risk-reducing measures. Those measures include social distancing, barriers, face coverings, cleanings, and information sharing.

In addition to requirements that would apply to all workplaces, the rule encompasses further requirements for certain job duties involving close-in work activities, as well as health care activities involving direct patient care.

“This rule proposal reflects the need to provide both clearer and more stable guidance in the workplace than has been possible during the height of the COVID-19 emergency,” said Michael Wood, administrator for Oregon OSHA. “We look forward to more review and feedback as we seek to further bolster on-the-job protections for workers against this disease.”

Oregon OSHA is accepting public comments on the proposal through Monday, Aug. 31. Send comments to tech.web@oregon.gov The division is scheduling virtual public forums to discuss the rule. The full text of the draft standard – as well as background documents and other up-to-date information – is now available.

The temporary rule, which could take effect no later than Monday, Sept. 14, would remain in effect for 180 days. The rule contains multiple provisions that would apply to all workplaces.

For example, employers would have to ensure six-foot distancing between all people in the workplace. That would include designing work activities and the workplace to eliminate the need for any worker to be within six feet of another person.

If such separation is not practical, the employer would have to ensure that face coverings are worn and that as much distance as practical is maintained.

The distancing requirement could be met with an impermeable barrier that creates a “droplet buffer” of at least six feet in distance as measured between the mouths of the affected people.

Another example pertains to all high-contact surfaces used by multiple employees, such as door handles and cash registers. Employers would have to ensure that such surfaces are thoroughly cleaned at the beginning of each shift.

Meanwhile, the draft rule includes additional measures for jobs requiring an employee to be within six feet of another person for 15 minutes or longer if it includes direct contact. Examples of such activities include tattooing, massage, and hair dressing.

In those situations, employers would need to conduct a COVID-19 exposure risk assessment. Such an assessment would account for a variety of risk elements, including the anticipated or actual working distance between all employees and the frequency, duration, and variety of close-in work activities.

The draft rule contains an additional requirement for employers engaged in such health care activities as direct patient care, aerosol-generating procedures, and emergency first-responder work: developing and implementing an infection control plan.

The plan would need to include such steps as outlining worker tasks requiring the use of personal protective equipment, spelling out hazard control measures, and describing face-covering requirements.

Oregon OSHA announced on June 26 that it had begun work on a draft temporary rule addressing COVID-19. The division conducted the work in consultation with the Oregon Health Authority, technical advisors, and affected stakeholders. At the same time, the division continues to pursue permanent rulemaking that would provide a structure for addressing potential future disease outbreaks.

For more information about Oregon OSHA workplace guidance and resources related to the coronavirus outbreak, visit https://osha.oregon.gov/Pages/re/covid-19.aspx


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-18 08:13:09



Are We Still Doing That Science Thing?
When people say we want to “flatten the curve,” this is the curve we are talking about

The scheduled opening date for the school year is September 8. It looks like public schools won't make it. Private schools may be able to convince the authorities to open on a one-off basis.

With the economy staggering, the state looking at a $4 billion budget deficit for the next biennium, it may be time to do some more science. As more people get the virus, more herd immunity develops and some weighing of other factors like "overwhelming hospitals" and the need to have a robust economy -- as well as a robust society in general -- needs to be done.

Not only do we need to do the science. We need to do the math. Remember, in a state with a population of 4.2 million, there have been only 23,451 cases, which is a little over 1/2 of one percent. There have been only 388 deaths. Tragic, but don't even bother to do the math.

We've been doing this for several months now -- long enough to learn from the experiences of other states and other countries, long enough to learn about therapeutics and the effectiveness of public health measures.




--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-17 20:25:41Last Update: 2020-08-17 22:13:09



Opinion: Oregon’s Ongoing Problem with Slavery
The mission remains incomplete.

I consider Craig Berkman – a former Oregon Republican Party Chair and convicted felon – a friend.

As a career military defense lawyer who got sucked into Oregon politics while serving as Oregon’s Veterans Advocate, it always puzzled me why politicians on both sides weren’t more sympathetic to people in jail, at least as a professional courtesy. I suppose Craig’s journey from politics to prison happened because he stole from someone important. One way or the other, he did his time and was paroled to Tampa.

For most of Craig’s erstwhile “friends” in Oregon, his conviction was the end of the story. But for me, it was just the beginning. By the time he was paroled, Craig had seen the inside of “American justice,” and it shocked him to his core. Like Chuck Colson before him, Craig decided to devote the rest of his life to fighting prison slavery via his Free at Last Coalition.

You see, most of us think that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution outlawed slavery. But a huge loophole remained. Slavery in America is still perfectly legal “as a punishment for crime.”

We are not talking about a court-martial sentence “to hard labor without confinement.” (Soldiers breaking rocks still get paid.) America’s multi-billion-dollar for-profit prison industry is rooted in paying prisoners nothing. It’s a racket which generates billions of dollars of profits per year for the private companies that run the businesses…and for the States that rent out their prisoners and keep the wages.

Given that Oregon incarcerates black people at drastically higher rates than whites, use of prison slave labor is more than a little bit awkward to a Ruling Party in Oregon that won’t shut up about “social justice.”

In using State power to exploit the helpless for profit, for-profit prison industries are simply using the same playbook that giant corporations like Apple and Nike do in collaboration with dictatorships like China. The only difference is that our prison slavery is happening in places like Sheridan, Oregon.

In Tom McCall’s Oregon, the Republican Party stood for moderation, consensus, and live-and-let-live. As a farm boy from Mount Angel, I grew up in that tradition and ran on it when I was the Republican nominee for Oregon Attorney General in 2016.

No one ever told me that my passionate advocacy for fundamental reform of Oregon Justice, the elimination of non-unanimous juries, the fair treatment of all Oregonians under the law, and better stewardship of our environment wasn’t “Republican enough.” To me, Justice has never been a question of Left and Right. It’s a matter of right and wrong.

And that’s how Craig and I were introduced.

The Republican Party was formed in 1854 to complete the destruction of slavery which had begun in New England before the Constitution was even ratified. (When Vermont was founded in July of 1777, slavery was banned outright.)

But the mission remains incomplete.

Craig invited me to work with him in the Free at Last Coalition, and I was proud to join. I brought to the effort the idea that justice reform and public defense are core Republican issues. We are not the Party of rampant, unregulated Capitalism-at-all-costs. Tom McCall’s Republican Party – and therefore my Republican Party – is the party of conservationism, which is rooted in the same soil as conservatism.

Oregon Republicanism must seek to conserve the best traditions of the past, while steadfastly supporting the expansion of the best of society (and government) to all Oregonians. Standing up for the least amongst us is one of those best practices. It’s what Republicanism was created for.

Section 34 of Oregon’s Bill of Rights mirrors the ‘exception clause’ of the 13th Amendment. Section 34 is the basis for legalized slavery in Oregon.

It needs to be fixed.

Oregon doesn’t have the power to singlehandedly change the U.S. Constitution. But we can change our own. Rather than incessant, hopeless recall efforts against a hapless Governor, Oregon’s Republican Party should lead the charge in ripping the last remnants of legalized slavery from Oregon’s Constitution.

Somewhere in Heaven, Abraham Lincoln and Tom McCall are nodding.

Dan Crowe is from Mount Angel. He was the Republican candidate for Oregon Attorney General in 2016. He is against slavery.


--Dan Crowe

Post Date: 2020-08-17 09:47:24Last Update: 2020-08-17 18:27:58



Feds Approve Lethal Removal of Sea Lions
It’s a measure meant to save endangered salmon

In a document released by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration entitled “Reducing Predation Impacts on At-Risk Fish by California and Steller Sea Lions In the Columbia River Basin” the federal government has authorized lethal removal of sea lions in the Columbia river by the Washington and Oregon departments of fish and wildlife, as well as several listed tribes.

The document outlines three alternatives: do nothing, Lethal and Non-Lethal Removal of Sea Lions, and Lethal and Non-Lethal Removal of Sea Lions and Modified Task Force Recommendations. They chose option three.

The document goes on to say

National Marine Fisheries Service would partially grant the eligible entities’ request, with modifications, for lethal removal authority of California Sea Lions and Stellar Sea Lions. The eligible entities’ would kill sea lions captured in a trap via lethal injection or captive bolt, and would involve the transfer of healthy sea lions to zoos or aquaria, if available. Where trapping of sea lions is not feasible due to environmental or behavioral constraints, sea lions may be darted to facilitate capture and removal. The methods and protocols for darting and removal of free-ranging sea lions shall be developed and approved by National Marine Fisheries Service and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee prior to implementation. Annually, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee shall evaluate the darting, capture, and removal of free-ranging sea lions, the methods and protocols, and determine if they need to be modified or discontinued.








--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-17 09:06:50Last Update: 2020-08-17 09:47:24



Oregon Hospital Connected to Portland Riots
OHSU President affirms support for far left extremism

Oregon Health and Sciences University, located in Portland, Oregon has came under fire for being invested in the controversial Marxist organization, ‘Black Lives Matter”. Several employees of the hospital were found to be distributing supplies to the rioters who have been plaguing Portland for nearly three months with what the main stream media has referred to as “mostly peaceful protests”.

OHSU President, Danny Jacobs has gone as far as releasing this statement which is in support of the organization BLM. He includes some “anti-racism” resources for “white people”.

“George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor...are the names of three recent victims of violence against people of color; a violence that remains rampant in our country. We have seen and listened in horror and utter disbelief at the tragic events surrounding their deaths in the media. These losses have impacted communities of color in deep and excruciatingly painful ways, as they represent so many others before them who also suffered untimely deaths from similarly tragic events. Their names will soon be replaced with others if we continue to allow systemic racism in thoughts, words and deeds to plague our nation.

“While we process the anger and despair these events have evoked among so many of us, it’s important to remember who we are as a university. Our mission is to enhance the health and well-being of Oregonians. We are a community of healers who have dedicated our lives to improving the human condition of others. This includes the physical and mental anguish people of color are suffering from as a result of bias and discrimination. These senseless attacks are antithetical to OHSU’s values and contrary to the work we do.

“This crisis demands the attention of us all—we cannot permit the loss of any more lives by sitting idly by and simply hoping for change. We must shatter the structural racism that perpetuates these cruel acts against people of color. The time to end racist-fueled discrimination and brutality is now.

“Acknowledging the fact that racism exists is the first imperative step in committing to change. Let’s educate ourselves about the historical cultural norms that are embedded into our everyday lives that contribute to bias and prejudice that leads to the injury, trauma and untimely death of Black men and women. Institutional racism is also inherent to disparities in health, education, wealth and the criminal justice system. You can act by joining conversations about race, listening to new ideas, declaring an anti-racist stance with your friends, families and coworkers, and inviting others to join you. Silence and inaction have led our society to where we are today and can no longer be tolerated going forward.

“OHSU firmly stands with the communities supporting George, Ahmaud and Breonna in calling for justice to be served and with our own members who are grieving and heartbroken. It is important to acknowledge the disproportionate psychological toll these events have on Black members of our community. If you are experiencing trauma, please practice self-care by seeking support from your friends, family and other community members, and utilizing the Employee Assistance Program, Confidential Advocacy Program and Resident and Faculty Wellness Program.

“Other emotional wellness resources are available at OHSU for employees and students to help in dealing with these tragedies, and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion is also here to support you. Thank you for your commitment to creating a safe, inclusive and equitable society for all.”

Danny Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S., OHSU President


The organization “Black Lives Matter” clearly has a radical agenda. Critics would note that the philosophies promoted by BLM -- such as the desire to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family” -- will only continue to propagate the same frustrations that have plagued these communities.


--Ben Fisher

Post Date: 2020-08-16 17:34:48Last Update: 2020-08-16 18:39:52



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