Extra! Extra!

Vendors have been working hard this summer – in the office and out on their beats – to help make Street Roots the best little paper in Portland. Get your fresh edition on Friday and don’t forget to pass along a smile! Here’s what’s coming your way tomorrow:

Scott Simon’s journey home: The host of NPR’s Weekend Edition talks with Joanne Zuhl about his family and his new book, “Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption,” a collection of essays on adoption, including a feature on Portland’s Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini.

Two worlds, one roof: The languages of Somalia and Russia fill the halls of Lincoln Woods, where refugees learn to live side by side in East Portland. Amanda Waldroupe reports on this unusual blend of community.

No country for Roma: Italy and France enact deportation policies against the Romani that echo centuries of persecution. This report gives an historical perspective on the situation and the centuries-old bigotry toward the Roma people in Europe.

The ghosts of history: Recalling the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1800s, novelist Shawna Yang Ryan sees parallels in our current immigration debate.

Street Blues: An introduction to our newest columnist, Robert Pickett with the Portland Police Bureau. Pickett is a bike officer who works on the front lines on Portland’s streets where law enforcement deal with the good, the bad and the ugly on a daily basis.

Plus, poetry and commentary from the streets, your essential horoscopes from Soup Can Sam, and a friendly vendor to hand it to you come Friday morning. Thank you, readers!

SR vendor passes, Frank Kolupka: 1927-2010

Frank Kolupka, one of Street Roots more popular vendors, passed away of natural causes on Sept 2. He was 82 years old.

“Frank always had a smile on his face, and was a wonderful ambassador for Street Roots,” says Street Roots Executive Director Israel Bayer.

Frank sold the newspaper from 2003 to 2009 at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, Alberta Food Cooperative and in downtown Portland.

“Frank will be greatly missed. He found a spot at 15th and Alberta where the people loved him,” said Art Garcia, Street Roots Vendor Coordinator, who knew Frank from before his work as a vendor.

Frank loved collecting stamps and old coins along with putting together model airplanes. He also loved watching baseball and people.

Frank worked for Air Research in California in his 20s, and for the American Junior Aircraft in Portland before taking a josb at a service station on 82nd Avenue for 25 years.

Frank is survived by his wife of 57 years, Carol Kolupka, three children, three grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

A man of action: Mic Crenshaw

By Alemayu Bemnet, Contributing Writer

Mic Crenshaw does not distinguish between his political life and artistic life. This 16 year veteran of the Portland music scene sees himself playing the role of an educator and an artist in the community. Rarely in music do these two roles converge, especially as overtly as they do in Crenshaw’s music and conversation

Crenshaw says he uses this double consciousness “as a platform to express thoughts and ideas” that he feels are not just his own, but are also “those of people with common experience.” When asked if art is a more direct platform to communicate those experiences, Crenshaw states, “I think art has a lot more flexibility than if I identified as just an educator or just as an activist.” He continues, “I think I’m able to be truer to myself (rather) than trying to live up to a system of thought.”

Crenshaw often speaks to issues of race, white supremacy, economics, anti-oppression, and consciousness in his music. He draws from his experiences as a black man in America and time spent working as a teacher and community organizer. “To me race and class were always interconnected in struggles I face in this country as a black man.”

When asked about his experiences as a black man in Portland, Crenshaw says, “there is my experience as a human being, which transcends race, but because I live in a city that is mostly white, in a country where white supremacy is still the dominant form of public discourse, I’m constantly reminded that I’m a black man.”

Life, one breath at a time

by Maggie Tarnawa

Martha Mason’s “Breath: A Lifetime in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung” is relatively short as memoirs go, but it’s not a quick read. Therein lies its strength and weakness. The author’s voice and style command praise, but the reader is ultimately left searching for something more substantial.

Mason, born in 1937 in Lattimore, North Carolina, contracted polio as an 11-year-old girl. She spent the next 61 years of her life in the 800-pound, bright yellow, steel cylinder that made it possible for her to breathe, only emerging for short intervals to be bathed and turned.

Soon after learning that she will live in an iron lung until she dies (which her doctor then said might be only a few years), Mason resolves never to be a “Barbara” (a girl in her second-grade class who needed help with everything after she broke her arm). She also credits her enormous will to live and excel to her competitive spirit and her tireless mother, Euphra Mason. She went on to graduate from high school, Gardner-Webb College and Wake Forest University, first in her class at each school. Clearly, Martha possesses no ordinary zest for life.

Aisling O’Grady: Shooting star at the Homeless World Cup in Rio

Aisling O'Grady at the Homeless World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Fiona Crawford

Danielle Batist, Contributing writer

Last week, more than 400 homeless and low-income soccer players from 55 countries came together in Brazil to compete in the Homeless World Cup. In a stadium in Rio de Janeiro, teams squared off, doing themselves and their country proud.

Portland’s own Aisling O’Grady, 21, is one of the players of the USA Women’s Team. Danielle Batist caught up with her in the middle of the action at the world famous Copacabana Beach, where Aisling was dealing with the intensity of the competition, and a bout of homesickness. O’Grady was featured in the Oregonian last week.

Danielle Batist: How do you feel being here at the Homeless World Cup in Rio?

Aisling O’Grady: “I feel pretty good. It is a lot of fun and it is great to see so many people from different countries play.”

D.B.: What did you think when you heard you were selected for the national team?

A.O.: “I was happy and surprised. I have always loved playing soccer and played from a young age. It felt like a great chance. I was excited about it.”

D.B.: Getting the chance to play for your country in a place like Brazil is one not many people will get. How do you feel about that?

A.O.: “I actually feel like I don’t deserve it. It is such a great honor and I wonder how this can happen to me. It is a dream come true.”

D.B.: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A.O.: “To be away from my family and friends. This is the first time I have been away all by myself and I really miss them. My family wish they were here to watch me play. I have been a bit homesick, but the team coaches have helped me to get through that.”

D.B.: What is it like to play in an all-girls team?

A.O.: “It is a different experience for me. Back in Portland I always play in a team with boys. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we are bonding well as a team. I am definitely enjoying it.”

D.B.: What will you do when you are back in Portland?

A.O.:“I am not sure yet. I would like to maybe study or do a course or something so I will look into that. I will definitely keep playing soccer. It helps me to focus on the positive things life.”

On the left side of God: How politics and religion mix in the world of charitable giving

By Joanne Zuhl, Staff Writer

A 4-inch-square, 96-page booklet once was considered the embodiment of social justice and empowerment of the poor, and for years, its publisher attracted financial backing from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development through the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon.

The local Catholic Campaign — a private nonprofit foundation operated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — helped launch the booklet with a $5,000 grant in 2008, making sure information on health care, shelter, employment and supportive services was in the hands of people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

That was until this spring, when a call to the office of Justice and Peace of the Archdiocese of Portland pointed out the offense on page 25. There, under the category of health care, was a listing for Planned Parenthood, which in a half-inch space included a description of the various basic services, including contraception, that the organization provides to low- or no-income customers seeking health care.

The message from CCHD managers at the Portland Archdiocese, although supportive of the booklet’s overall mission, was made clear in terms of funding: If Planned Parenthood remained in the booklet, CCHD, in keeping with Catholic teaching, could no longer fund Street Roots, the publisher of the Rose City Resource guide. Street Roots decided to keep the listing.

But what was behind the call? Why now? What changed after five years of CCHD support for Street Roots? How did a piece of information suddenly morph into a theological offense?

Starting in autumn 2009, other groups began asking the same questions. The Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco was among the first to get the call: CCHD, which was one of the founding funders for the 38-year-old Association, had to cut ties with the workers’ rights program. Also in California, the Young Workers United was told it was being cut from funding as well, as was the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, which helps homeless and disadvantaged women who have children. L.A. Community Action Network was “defunded” at its own request after CCHD tried to censor its newspaper. Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., had its grant rescinded, and Preble Resource Center, which serves homeless youths in Portland, Maine, was ordered to return to CCHD funds for its Homeless Voices for Justice program. In Oregon, Children First for Oregon, a child advocacy group for vulnerable children, was culled from the list of grantees earlier this year.

Besides CCHD’s support, and beyond the commonality of their missions, these groups share something else: They were all targeted, investigated and determined unfit by a campaign of Catholic conservative groups that, via the prolific capacity of the Internet, have formed a nationwide coalition calling for the defunding of more than 50 poverty-alleviation organizations, and a radical overhaul — and even disbandment — of CCHD.

To date, 10 U.S. bishops, an unprecedented number by Catholic news reports, have publicly suspended their annual, mandatory collection among parishioners for CCHD because of claims that CCHD funded “anti-Catholic” organizations. The allegations by the group called“Reform CCHD Now” against grantees begin as crimes against the Catholic Church for supporting abortion and gay-rights issues, and extend to direct attacks on community organizing and social empowerment. It could be dismissed as a fringe element, if not for the use of the campaign by politically vested parties to discredit, disrupt and defund the work of community organizing groups long-supported and heralded by U.S. bishops.

This year, Catholic Campaign for Human Development celebrated 40 years of funding community programs that address the root causes of homelessness and poverty. Nationwide, it has distributed more than $400 million in self-help grants to 8,000 agencies across the United States, making it the nation’s largest private funder of self-help groups for the poor.

CCHD is a rarity in the world of charitable investment in that it does not fund direct services like its faith-based counterparts, Catholic Charities or St. Vincent DePaul. Instead, CCHD’s grantees are organizations that work to foster systemic change through partnering with common-cause groups and community organizing. Because of its role in community organizing projects, the Portland Archdiocese is considered a core funder of poverty-alleviation and empowerment projects in Oregon and a voice among faith-based efforts to shape policy around social-service needs in Multnomah County.

The attacks by Reform CCHD Now and its followers are prompting a “review and renewal” process by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which prepares to meet later this month. What the bishops decide could have major consequences for the thousands of cash-strapped nonprofits that CCHD supports, and the millions of poor and disenfranchised people who rely on these programs that today serve as proxy to government initiatives.

‘Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom’

REUTERS/DARBIN ZAMMIT LUPI

In the summer of 2009, the Texas-based Bellarmine Veritas Ministry, an opaque “Catholic grass-roots organizing ministry” traceable to one man, Rob Gasper, released an investigation into CCHD grantees. This June, the Virginia-based American Life League released a report echoing Bellarmine’s conclusions: that CCHD was funding what it called “anti-Catholic organizations” based upon the grantees’ actions and the actions of their partners and affiliates. These groups called on parishioners to boycott their donations to CCHD until the bishops revise the granting oversight. The groups specifically target 50 organizations they are demanding the CCHD stops funding.

These reports surfaced during the thick of the health care reform debate, a flagship in President Obama’s agenda, which the bishops opposed over abortion issues. In fact, the reformers singled out the bill and demanded that any grantees that supported the health care reform legislation “must state clearly and publicly that they will not promote any piece of legislation which gives federal support to abortion or family planning.”

Bellarmine, American Life League and Human Life International, also based in Virginia, are the three primary organizations behind Reform CCHD Now, although Reform CCHD Now claims more than 20 organizations working on behalf of the nationwide campaign. These three groups have driven the reform movement to viral levels online with blogs and video and through the multitude of online Catholic and pro-life news services, including LifeNews.com and LifeSiteNews.com.

“We started forming the coalition when we found very anti-Catholic things being funded by Catholics,” says Stephen Phelan, communications manager with Human Life International.  “Michael Hitchborn (with American Life League) wanted to meet and they refused, and Bellarmine also tried and didn’t a get a response. So everybody went public with it.”

“Because of the Internet, we’ve been able to get the information out to much more people in a much shorter period of time,” says Michael Hitchborn, a researcher with the pro-life organization American Life League. “Which is why the CCHD is finding it much harder to hide with their tactics they’ve been using.”

Those tactics, according to Hitchborn, are to fund groups that do not conform to Catholic teaching, deny that they are “anti-Catholic” groups, and then continue funding with the complications essentially swept under the rug. Many of the organizations already defunded this past year were longtime recipients of CCHD funding, and praised for their work in building cross-community partnerships and networks to fight the causes of poverty. However, it’s those partnerships that factor into nearly all of the groups singled out by the reform movement. In fact, more than 30 groups reformers want defunded are listed because they are members of the Center for Community Change, a D.C.-based cross-community organizing movement that stopped receiving CCHD funding in 2001.

“That’s a problem because there’s no accountability,” Hitchborn says. “The groups that are receiving CCHD money are getting trained by (Center for Community Change), which means they are being trained in cross-issues advocacy. And that’s a problem. So what we called for is an immediate disassociation from (Center for Community Change) for any group receiving CCHD money.”

Hitchborn says he will continue investigating organizations to weed out the grantees and says he’s working on a new report for release soon, as the bishops conference and the annual CCHD collection approaches.

“Because of the long history of CCHD funding errant organizations, there’s no way that we could let up,” Hitchborn says. “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. And if we are going to make sure that an organization that claims to be Catholic remains Catholic, they need to adhere to Catholic teaching.”

‘We didn’t even do anything wrong’

For nearly four decades, the San Francisco-based Chinese Progressive Association organized the Chinese and Asian immigrant community, including thousands of restaurant workers who received less than minimum wage or were living in the margins. With the support of CCHD, the organization engaged workers to successfully raise San Francisco’s minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.50, and in 2006, helped lead the charge for all workers in the city to receive paid sick leave. This work, along with its housing program, youths and environmental justice work, and its workers center, was funded by CCHD for years. But by September, the local CCHD said the relationship was over. It was pulling the plug on $30,000 it had granted to the organization’s worker center.

“They called me and they said they needed to talk, says Alex T. Tom, the Chinese Progressive Association’s executive director, “that people were getting ready for the bishops meeting in the fall and they were fanning the flames and pushing CCHD to resolve the issue.”

The issue was the Association’s publication of a voter pamphlet that opposed California’s Propositions 8 and 4, which banned same-sex marriages and required parental notification for some abortions. It was an effort that had nothing to do with the CCHD’s funding, which was specifically allocated for the organization’s Worker Center.

“It was right when the economic crisis happened,” Tom says. “It was really poor form, poor taste and very bad timing when they decided to revoke the funding.”

“In general, worker centers don’t have the easiest time. Anti-poverty work is not something that is heavily supported,” Tom says. “That was why CCHD was important. It helped us build a movement. And now we have to find a consistent revenue stream that doesn’t rely on support that we used to receive from CCHD.”

Preble Street in Portland, Maine, received CCHD grants for 13 years for its work in empowering the homeless, most recently a $30,000 grant in 2009. However, it was defunded at the end of 2009 and asked to return unspent grant money to CCHD because the organization joined the campaign against a measure to overturn the state’s same-sex marriage law. For Preble Street, it was an extension of their advocacy for rights and opportunities for the homeless youths within the GBLT the organization cares for and supports. The CCHD grant, however, actually was awarded to Preble Street’s project called Homeless Voices for Justice, which works for social change on behalf of — and with the leadership of — people in poverty and homelessness. Homeless Voices did not participate in the campaign on the law. However, as Homeless Voices’ fiscal agent, Preble Street was called to return funding, and did so with a $2,400 check. In a letter to CCHD Director Ralph McCloud, Preble Street Executive Director Mark Swann defended his group’s position: “Throughout our history, when Preble Street and Homeless Voices for Justice have taken differing positions, there has never been any effort to force or stifle the opinion of the other. Indeed, regardless of Preble Street’s point of view, we have chosen to facilitate the expressions of opposing positions such as those of (Homeless Voices) by the support we offer them — embodying the principles of CCHD social justice teachings.

“Punishing Homeless Voices by demanding the return of much-needed funds because of Preble Street’s advocacy around issues of social justice is deeply troubling,” Swann wrote. “It is unfortunate that the CCHD and the local Diocese is choosing not to be part of these important efforts.”

Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., is but a shadow of its former self after CCHD rescinded a $25,000 grant at the end of 2009. Women in Transition runs skill-building programs for at-risk women and organizes on issues of affordable housing and health care. CCHD was a sponsor of the organization since 2005, until this past year when it received a letter from someone pointing out Women in Transition’s relationship with Wench Self-Care Collective, a local women’s health organization. Wench is pro-choice, and has helped escort women to and from the city’s abortion clinic, but it also focuses on women’s nutrition and education around healthy eating habits, which is where Women in Transition and Wench crossed paths. Women in Transition says it never worked with Wench on reproductive rights, just healthy eating, cooking classes and health fairs.

Women in Transition’s executive director, Khalilah Collins, says her organization had received CCHD grants for $20,000 and $25,000 each year since 2005. The 2009 fall grant for $25,000 had been approved and the check in the hands of their fiscal sponsor, Catholic Charities, but it was never delivered. Collins says she was told by Catholic Charities that unless she signed a letter saying that her organization regretted the situation and would not work with the Wench group or any other group whose mission contradicted Catholic teaching, the money was in jeopardy. It was more than a third of the organization’s budget, and money they had counted on.

“The more I thought about it, the more upset I got,” Collins says. “We didn’t even do anything wrong.”

(Collins says there were also questions about their 501(c)3 status, but that had not disrupted funding before.)

Collins didn’t write the letter. “I felt that our integrity was questioned as an organization, and all we have is our integrity and our voice, and you’re questioning that,” she says. “We can’t be a part of that.”

Collins says she never knew who wrote the letter about Wench, and that the relationship is not even traceable through Women in Transition’s website. However, by November, just before the 2009 collection for CCHD, Women in Transition and others were singled out in a press release by the American Life League and others within Reform CCHD Now for ties to Planned Parenthood, which led a workshop at an event the organization-co-sponsored with Spalding University.

“It’s not about WIT and Wenches,” Collins says. “We’ve never done any work on choice at all. We steer clear of that number one thing because we know we could lose our funding.”

But the funding is gone. “We have no money right now. None. I didn’t get paid last week, the rent hasn’t been paid, because we’re out of money,” Collins says.

Extra! Extra!

Summer is a state of mind, but Mother Nature has her head somewhere else, it seems. So this weekend, grab a cup of joe and snuggle up with the hunker-down edition of Street Roots. You won’t want to miss what’s headed your way:

On the left side of God: How politics and religion mix in the world of charitable giving: Street Roots Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl went deep into world of the right-wing conservative Catholic movement working to pull the plug on Catholic funding to social justice organizations nationwide – including Street Roots. The sad part is, it’s working. Read the press release and our editorial here.

A man of action: Local hip-hop artist, educator and activist Mic Crenshaw sits down on a rainy afternoon with Alemayu Bemnet to talk race, capitalism and the Portland music scene.

The one’s that don’t get away: Author and fisher Paul Greenberg thinks we can reverse the tide of overfishing — if we act fast.

Life, one breath at a time: A review of Martha Mason’s biography on living six decades in an iron lung.

Plus, more dubious life moments from Vendor Coordinator Art Garcia and the prison perspectives from Ruth Kovacs. So take a moment to say hello to your friendly neighborhood vendor and pick up your copy of Street Roots. Thank you!

Breaking: Catholic fund drops Street Roots over Planned Parenthood listing

Catholic fund drops Street Roots over Planned Parenthood Listing: An in-depth report looks at how politics and religion mix in the world of charitable giving

After five years of financial support through the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Street Roots was informed this spring that it would no longer be eligible for funding.

The reason given by the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon was the a single listing in Street Roots’ Rose City Resource, a pocket-sized booklet listing 300-plus resources for people experiencing homelessness and poverty. There, under the category of health care, was a listing for Planned Parenthood, which in a half-inch space included a description of the various basic services, including contraception, that the organization provides to low- or no-income customers seeking health care.

The message from CCHD managers at the Portland Archdiocese, although supportive of the booklet’s overall mission, was made clear in terms of funding: If Planned Parenthood remained in the booklet, CCHD, in keeping with Catholic teaching, could no longer fund Street Roots. Street Roots decided to keep the listing.

But what was behind the call? What changed? How did a piece of information suddenly morph into a theological offense?

That question launched a two-month investigation into how community organizing groups across the country, including the seven noted in the story, were losing funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, that nation’s largest funder of self-help, social justice groups for the poor. Behind these moves by the Church is a renewed and revitalized push by conservative organizations within the Catholic community that are using allegations of doctrinal and political offenses to defund community organizing, social justice and empowerment of the poor. More than 50 CCHD-funded organizations have been investigated and labeled “anti-Catholic” by a reform movement that has prompted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to reconsider how it funds community organizing. In the balance are thousands of cash-strapped nonprofits that CCHD supports, and the millions of poor and disenfranchised people who rely on these programs that today serve as proxy to government initiatives.

The impact of this conservative campaign, and the consequences to the organizations in their sights, are compiled in an in-depth report in the Sept. 17 edition of Street Roots, which will be available through all of our vendors on Friday. Our editorial, which follows, addresses Street Roots’ view on this disturbing trend and the consequences to all organizations working to end poverty:

What we believe in

What is made evident to Street Roots, time and again, is that many things can get in the way when you’re trying to do what’s right.

Homelessness and poverty are a national crisis, a stain on our collective will to maintain a society that believes in equality and justice.

Homelessness touches every Portlander in one way or another, and has so for decades. And in that time, the issue — and effective ways to address it and help people  — has left local communities strained, divided and dumbfounded as to the correct formula for dismantling the institution that homelessness has become.

In each issue of Street Roots, and the Rose City Resource, you will find information on a wide variety of individuals, organizations and institutions. That includes groups working in the faith-based communities, the private sector, law enforcement, hospitals, service providers, government and advocates. All of them work in one form or another to eradicate poverty, and all of its manifestations — domestic violence, human trafficking, drug addiction, unemployment, mental illness, post-traumatic disorders, economic disaster and so on.

Street Roots prides itself on not being pinned to any one ideology or agenda, and doing our best to both report and distribute information to the general public that will ultimately make a difference and create real change.

That’s why being defunded ($5-10k annually) by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) through the Portland Archdiocese for our listing of Planned Parenthood (See page 1, On the left side of God.) in the Rose City Resource is a shot to the heart, and ultimately a shot at our entire community that is working to end homelessness.

Knowing the paramount importance of health care for people in poverty, particularly for young women, we have an obligation to note the tremendous resources of Planned Parenthood, and a host of other health organizations, working with people on our streets. And we’re proud to do so. Likewise, we’re proud to provide information on the diverse organizations working to solve homelessness and poverty within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities. And we are equally proud to list and report on a host of faith-based programs, including the many services of the Catholic Church.

The point being, nothing is black or white about poverty. And blind ideology in any form has no place at the table when it comes to solving homelessness. By defunding Street Roots for listing Planned Parenthood, and other groups for similar reasons, CCHD is drawing a disturbing and potentially disruptive line in the sand. CCHD is the largest private group funding community organizing in the United States, and pulling its support is a blow to community and grassroots organizing at both the local and national level.

Street Roots is small train that carries a heavy load. The load just got a lot heavier because not only are we losing core funding, but it’s questionable as to the extent that we can work with other community groups supported by the church for fear of putting those organizations at jeopardy for the association — all because we believe that the community should have access to the resources available to them. It is this resourcefulness that empowers people to overcome obstacles, to come together around a larger cause and to improve the lives of everyone in the community. That is what we believe in.

Here are is what Street Roots Executive Director Israel Bayer had to say on the matter:

“At the end of the day, a witch hunt is a witch hunt, and that’s exactly what Street Roots and dozens of community organizations working to fight poverty in the United States are facing, a witch hunt born out of fear and intolerance. And let’s be clear, this is far from over. Every group that currently receives funds from CCHD is being asked to not take part in activities, or align themselves with the very groups it will take to dismantle poverty in this country. In our case, the very tool is the Rose City Resource guide. The guide gives people experiencing homelessness and poverty a chance to become their own advocates through education, and now it’s being used against us because we have chosen to deliver to people, without judgment, the resources that are available to them in our community.”

We know many people in the community have an interest in this story on one side or the other. We want to hear from you. Read the entire 5,000 word, in-depth investigation in Street Roots tomorrow, Sept. 17.

SR talks with Scot Thompson of the Portland Timbers

By Jules Boykoff, Contributing Writer

Scot Thompson is one of the longest standing members of the Portland Timbers in the modern era of the franchise. For years he’s been a crowd favorite on the field, but this year he has taken on a new off-the-pitch role as community ambassador. As the team transitions toward joining Major League Soccer next year, he sat down with Street Roots to talk about soccer, community service, and overcoming adversity.

Jules Boykoff: What does your role as community ambassador entail?

Scot Thompson: Basically in years past I’ve kind of been the person everyone goes to to facilitate different public appearances, different coaching clinics, but it was never really an official role. It was just something I kind of naturally did because I’ve been here probably longer than anyone else. This past year, with the title, I work a lot more with Sierra Smith who’s Director of Community Outreach, and I’m basically the spearhead when it comes to every appearance. I make sure the right players are working with the right groups. Because we have different players with different skill sets. We have guys that are much better public speakers as opposed to guys that are better hanging out with young kids or guys that can do the corporate appearances as well. That’s the main role, and then I’ve been given greater leeway to take the projects I like best and give them more face time, so I work a lot with the Children’s Book Bank — that’s one of my big ones.

J.B.: What’s that?

S.T.: Dani Swope, who I know through my coaching — I actually coach her son — she has this program that basically is a book drive organizing book deliveries for Head Start kids and kids who don’t have opportunities to have books in their homes. She has this great foundation that gets tens of hundreds of books to kids. Myself (Timbers teammates) Tony McManus, Keith Savage, George Josten, we’ve gone out a couple times now and helped them with the books, we’ve helped read at some of the schools. And that’s one of the big things that I really enjoy. I personally like to read a lot. I’m big into “Harry Potter,” and right now I have some pretty serious books I’m borrowing from [teammate] Adin Brown. But I do like to read a lot of kids books because I like being in that mindset. So, going out there and being able to read — kids really enjoy having us out there. Hearing from us that, yeah, we play soccer, but we also like to read, we like to have intellectual stuff going on besides the fun stuff of soccer.

J.B.: What’s the best part about being a professional soccer player in the United States? And what’s the worst part?

S.T.: The best part I would say is the guys that I get to hang out with on a daily basis. I have some very good friends throughout the league and in life from the group of guys I’ve played with. And I’ve been able to play with some of the top National Team players and I’ve been able to play with some guys that have only played a couple games but they’ve all really influenced me in what I’ve done. I’m not going to lie: it’s nice having some recognition. But at the same time, soccer is still a growing sport in the States and it does suck sometimes when people don’t know who you are or when you get asked a generic question like “Oh, you play for the Timbers — where do you guys play?” We’ve been working so hard to get soccer to a national level, but still many people don’t know — it’s not there yet. So, that part is kind of tough sometimes. When I went overseas for a couple trials, even as a trialist people knew was trying out with the team. You’d walk down the street and people would say, “Oh, you’re a footballer.” They’d talk to you. And here, you get recognized in pockets, but I can probably say that I’m more known in the community for my coaching than I am for playing for the Timbers. But I like that too — I really enjoy coaching kids.

J.B.: Without resorting to platitudes, what advice do you have for people who are trying to overcome adversity?

S.T.: You know, I would just say that you never know who’s watching you and you never know when you’re going to have an opportunity. So, every day should be a day when you try to put your best foot forward. There are going to be days when you don’t want to, days when it’s raining outside, you’re cold, you’re miserable, but you never know when an opportunity is going to knock. I always try to carry myself in the most professional way possible, and I’ve had a lot of opportunities come to me because I carry myself in such a way, and I don’t try to mess up. I don’t try to put myself in a bad light. And people’s reputations go beyond your initial reaction. If you have a good first impression and someone tells somebody else who tells somebody else, through word of mouth, people will hear about what you do.

J.B.: Sometimes overcoming adversity involves having people you look up to, a lot of times people in the public sphere. Who has inspired you?

S.T.: My dad was a huge, huge influence in my life. He’s a very black-and-white type of guy, and he instilled in me early on that you do your work first and then play soccer. And personally I’m a play-first-work-later kind of guy, but I do balance it out, I do actually work a lot now, but back when I younger he was always “Work first, play second. Always be on time. Always be professional. Always dress as if you’re being interviewed.” He definitely instilled my moral compass. I also had a couple youth coaches who really helped me get where I am today, who taught me — probably more so than anybody else—that you never know who’s watching. I think that’s always in the back of my head, because you never know, even when you want to do something stupid — because there are times when everybody wants to lay back — and you never know how that’s going to affect you later in life.

J.B.: Any public figures or historical figures who jump out to you as influential?

S.T.: I know it’s kind of cliché but Dr. King was always influential. To have to deal with that much adversity and still go out every day and put your best foot forward and still hold yourself to a high standard even though you have so much on your plate and so much against you. I really admire him.

J.B.: What are the “serious books” you’re reading?

S.T.: The book I’m reading right now is “A Man in Full” by Tom Wolfe, which Adin recommended to me. It’s basically high-stakes politics and all the internal espionage and everything that goes on in the city of Atlanta. It’s really interesting. I like to take people’s recommendations for books. I’m also a big science-fiction and fantasy reader. My dad got me really into Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Star Trek and all that, so I have a lot of those books at my house. And every once in a while I divert and go in a different direction.

Jules Boykoff played professional soccer for the Portland Pride, collegiately at the University of Portland, and represented the US Olympic Team in international competition. He teaches political science at Pacific University.

Living for two: Pregnancy among homeless teens is rising

By Amanda Waldroupe, Staff Writer

Sometimes, a person’s life will be forever changed because of an accident or unexpected event — for better or for worse, and regardless of whether the person welcomes their life’s new trajectory.

Last December, 19-year old Sylvia Titus was homeless and sleeping under bridges east of the Willamette River. She had been traveling the west coast for the last three years, hitch hiking or train hopping from one major city to the next, staying for only a few weeks at a time. She was planning to leave Portland again after staying for two months.

But one day, she noticed that she was late on her period, and her nipples were sensitive.

Chris Willis, her 26-year-old boyfriend of two months, told her doctors diagnosed him as sterile, and that he could not have children. Taking a pregnancy test at Outside In, a homeless agency, proved otherwise.

She was pregnant.

“I cried,” Titus says. “I was like, fuck. What are we going to do?”

To the alarm of the social services in Portland serving homeless youth, the number of homeless youth becoming pregnant is high and increasing.

Birth data from Multnomah County shows the number of first-time teen births has been steadily growing from 683 in 2004 to 736 births in 2007.

And they’re having their second child still in their teens. In 2007, one out of five teen mothers in Multnomah County had a second baby before the age of 19, most within a year of the birth of their first child.

The three primary agencies serving homeless youths — Outside In, Janus Youth, and New Avenues for Youth — had each noticed an increasingly visible population of homeless, pregnant youths.

The issue was brought to the attention of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners last fall during an annual progress report of the youth continuum (the county funds the majority of homeless youth services).

In response, the county gave $300,000 to Janus Youth, and that doubled the capacity of Janus’s transitional housing program called Insights Teen Parent Program, from 20 to 40 beds.

Dennis Morrow, Janus’ executive director, also secured a matching $300,000 grant from the Portland Children’s Levy.

It was during that application process that for the first time, the agencies looked at the number of pregnant and parenting homeless teens as a whole. “That’s when the roof blew off the issue,” says Mary Li, Multnomah County’s community services manager.

The data, when combined, showed that 42 percent of the female youth accessing services are pregnant or parenting an infant, and more than 50 percent of female youth in transitional housing are pregnant or parenting.

“That’s a huge number,” says Kathy Oliver, Outside In’s executive director. “We were pretty astounded.”

The homeless youth agencies now consider their main priority to be addressing the problem of teen pregnancy.

After Titus’ initial shock, she resolved to give birth to and raise her child, at the same time making the determination that her and Willis’ life would radically change.

“We decided to get our shit together,” she says.

Sisters launches Empowered Media Voices Project

Sisters of the Road has launched the Empowered Media Voices Project, a project working with people experiencing homelessness using media and technology.

Vendor Leo Rhodes, and Street Roots columnist Julie McCurdy both have created video projects through the program. Check out the video below about the project and visit the groups You Tube page here.

At rest in the mission

By Jay Thiemeyer, Contributing Writer

After the soul-blinding sermon, after being shepherded to the front then in line serpentine around and into another smaller room where we were instructed to get our clothes off and prepare for a shower, we stood waiting, naked and silent before each other. We showered. Then some kid with a large plastic bottle told us to stand in front of him and hold our arms straight out from our sides while he squirted us. He didn’t even tell us what it was for, enjoying thoroughly his control over us. No one even wanted to risk being told to leave the Mission for asking why we were being squirted by this boy, till I asked, “What’s this for, kid?”

He said it was for de-lousing. I think it was for his pleasure.

He squirted our chests, then our genitals, then under our arms. I said, “Kid, don’t squirt me near my face. That could mean trouble.” He looked up at me, getting my message, and was careful where he squirted. I didn’t begrudge him his pleasure. We all averted our eyes the same way, away and up. The kid was no discriminator of age. He just squirted and squirted.

East Portland’s violent little secret: A special report on the alarming rate of domestic violence in the city’s least served communities

By Anthony Schick, Contributing writer

Maria spent one week in Portland with her abuser. Her husband, who had controlled her psychologically, financially and physically for the past four years tricked her into leaving their California home together. He told her he had friends in Portland. He didn’t. He told her he wanted to leave problems behind and start a new life together. Then he struck her and their daughter within days of arriving. Then he was gone, back to California, and she didn’t follow. Maria found herself alone and abused with two children in a foreign city.

“He brought me here by deceiving me,” Maria said through a translator. She wished not to reveal her full identity for personal safety. “He had another woman in California. His ‘idea’ was for him to end the other relationship and move to Portland. But the way I understand it, he got rid of us so he could start a life with the other woman.”

Eight years later, Maria recalled that through support groups at El Programa Hispano and Human Solutions, she realized how far back the abuse went. First came the verbal abuse, usually after he drank and used drugs – crystal meth on at least one occasion. Then came the blows. Through those support groups, Maria also noticed similarities to her childhood and the real reason she wanted her abuser out of her life.

As a child, both Maria’s parents physically abused her. She was also sexually abused. She witnessed her father holding a knife over her mother  (an incident all survived thanks to her uncle’s intervention). And Maria’s father, like her husband years later, withheld money from his family to fund an alcohol addiction and an extramarital affair.

“I didn’t want my children to have the life I had,” she said.

So Maria began a new life in Northeast Portland with her two children, where they shared a house with another family, and the three slept in the corner of a living room. Welfare helped them scrape by until she found a job that allowed them to find a new, safer home.

Maria accessed permanent shelter and services soon after leaving her abuser; many don’t. Despite a declining number in Portland’s reported domestic violence incidents in the past three years, shelters are becoming more crowded. Access to shelter and other resources remains most difficult in East Portland, which is at once the location of 40 percent of all domestic violence incidents, the city’s most populous precinct and the Police Bureau’s family services division.

Power comes from within, but a splash of color never hurt

By Heather Lyons
Contributing Columnist

A couple of weeks ago, I visited a project on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Downtown Women’s Center is a Day Center and residence with 47 units of permanent supportive housing. They will be opening 71 new units in a few months.

Typically, I don’t like to write about specific programs or organizations. One, I’m a policy and systems person, and at some of my lowest points I’ve been a data person. Two, there are so many groups out there that do good work that it isn’t fair to highlight just one. But this is different. This site visit hit very close to home, and it gave me hope.

There were two of us on the visit. We walked in the unlocked front door and were immediately welcomed by a woman behind the kitchen counter who offered bottled water and a huge smile. Many women had just finished a meal and were sitting around talking and laughing in the dining area.  Other women were camped in front of the TV, and still more women were reading in the back garden oasis. There was a tremendous diversity of women; young women, older women, all races, straight, gay, skinny, not so skinny.

I noticed that a few of the women wore lipstick. Not just any lipstick, but deep reds and bright oranges. Bold lipstick.  Lipstick that says, “I will not cringe; I don’t care what you’ve done to me, life.”

Believer’s brew

Author Adam Elenbaas drank a psychedelic herbal mixture called ayahuasca and gained a new vision on life

by Rosette Royale
Street News Service

Sometimes, you come across a word or a phrase and you think, Well, what does that mean? Here’s one, glimpsed in a book publicist’s email, that piqued my curiosity recently: “psychedelic memoir.” Did it mean that licking a page would cause you to start hallucinating? I couldn’t figure it out. But after reading “Fishers of Men: The Gospel of an Ayuhuasca Vision Quest” (Tarcher/Penguin, $24.95) by Adam Elenbaas, now I know. It’s a memoir that, in its recollections of the author’s plant-induced visionary states, explores how his psyche, his sense of self, became reordered, transformed.

For Elenbaas, this reorganization came as the result of drinking a plant brew called ayahuasca. Used by some native tribes in the Amazon jungle during spiritual ceremonies, the plant opens a doorway to the consciousness, leading to visions of … Well, having never done it, I can’t say. But Elenbaas, who, at the book’s writing, had taken it some 35 times, saw serpents and hornets and vast rivers. But perhaps more importantly, he saw his past, one that had been imbued with liberal Christian teachings, passed along by his parents, a Baptist minister and his wife, as well as the fundamentalist parishioners he encountered in his late teens and 20s. And in these visits to what had gone by, he garnered the tools to prepare for how he could recast his life, move it from one based on addiction to one based on expanding his consciousness. In “Fishers of Men,” this quest for opening his mind and heart gains balance through scenes that artfully dramatize the inner conflict caused by his Christian upbringing and the intensity of ayahuasca ceremonies.

All of which provided a great bedrock upon which to base a conversation. So, with me unable to make his recent reading at East West Bookshop, Elenbaas, a cofounder of the website realitysandwich.com, chatted with me over the phone. In those 40 minutes, we talked of visions, of rebellion, of consumerism and of seeing Jesus.

Rosette Royale: I know this is the kind of question that can’t be answered easily, but what prompted you to take ayahuasca the first time?

Adam Elenbaas: Obviously it’s hard to capture the story quickly because it’s the story of a vision quest, a coming-of-age story. So it’s the culmination of growing up in the sort of Christian fundamentalist, evangelical environment. I think my coming-of-age story is atypical in that it involved a rebellion that was, at first, religious in nature, and from there it nosedived (into) the typical themes: the sex, the drugs, the rock-and-roll, the overindulgence, the hedonism, the substance abuse.

So then, I had a chance encounter with psychedelics. And I didn’t know really what psychedelics were. I sort of had this incredibly — I don’t know — catalyzing, life-changing, intensely introspective evening on mushrooms. I had locked myself into my bedroom, realizing that I had serious drug problems and didn’t like my dad and didn’t like the church and I was confused. I was presented with this paradox: How did this simple plant/drug — which I’m hesitant to call these things now — get me to see so many things that I’ve been repressing? And that question led me, believe it or not, into an exploration of my own spirituality.

So, that quest led me to drink ayahuasca.