CHEERS! We’ve given her heck in the past, but dear ole Abby got it right this time. Someone writing in saying their small town is awash with COVID and yet her sister-in-law insists on an in-person funeral for her departed husband got the correct answer in our books. The Abster told the woman to mention to the pastor that maybe close quarters isn’t really appropriate at the moment, then agreed that the writer should watch the event from a screen safely protected in her own home. We get it. A death in the family is never easy. But we all need to remember that over 713,000 people have died so far, and more are dying every day. [BTW in case we haven’t mentioned it before, go get vaccinated.]
A ROUND OF APPLAUSE for Corvallis Mayor Biff Traber sitting down with our illustrious publisher to talk about the upcoming election. There aren’t a lot of big, heavy, overwhelmingly difficult to understand items on the ballot this time around, but every vote still matters. So keep an eye out for your ballot in the mail. Then listen in on the conversation here. [Copy editor here: I’m thinking our publisher may be more grouchy than illustrious – like, you’ve met him, right?]
A ROUNDER ROUND OF APPLAUSE for The Arts Center and their latest exhibit which features nature and its ability to [hopefully] recover from us messing things up. The exhibit called “What Will Nature Do?” is inspired by local ecological badass Dominique Bachelet and looks for all of us [okay, mostly those of us in the media, we can take the criticism on this one] to stop being all doom-and-gloom-and-we’re-all-dying about the condition of the environment. So before it closes on Nov. 13, put on your happier [masked] faces to check out some amazing art with a positive environmental spin. [There’s even a reception happening today!]
HEAD SCRATCHES over yet another candidate for Governor of Oregon. Senator Betsy Johnson has thrown her hat into the ring, choosing to file without a party affiliation. Meaning she will be leaving the Democratic Party and her senate seat in order to be considered. Johnson has been a Dem for quite some time, so stepping away from a major party will be tricky, and likely expensive as she won’t get Dem money if she leaves the party.
ALSO RUNNING for the position of Governor of our sweet ‘lil ole state are Democrats Wilson Bright, Peter Hall, Tina Kotek, Casey Kulla, David Lavinsky, Keisha Merchant, Tobias Read, Patrick Starnes, and Michael Trimble. Then there are the Republicans Bridget Barton, Angelique Bouvier, Mark Duncan, John L. Fosdick III, Jessica Gomez, Nick Hess, Jim Huggins, Kerry McQuisten, Brandon Merritt, Bud Pierce, Stan Pulliam, Amber Richardson, Paul Romero, and Marc Thielman. And if you’re exhausted reading all of those names, then we’ll add Tim Harrold who is unaffiliated. Let’s just say that 2022 is gonna get interesting.
JEERS to hate crimes in general and to Oregon’s number of hate crimes going up by 60% last year. The Federal Bureau of Investigation releases a Uniform Crime Report each year, breaking down the numbers and types of crimes by city. The “winner” this year was Eugene with 24.3 hate crimes per 100,000 residents. Portland – the city everyone expects will be the worst – came in ninth with 23.8 hate crimes per 100,000 people. The not-so-great news behind these numbers is that hate crimes are severely under-reported. Our advice? Go out there, don’t hate, don’t crime, just be nice. Sure, it’ll make the news less interesting, but then we could report on things like the latest books we like and scholastic awards going to local kids.
LOUD RAUCOUS CHEERS for GAPS School Board member Michael Thomson for standing up and walking out. It seems the foster care liaison for Albany public schools thought comparing students being forced to wear masks in a pandemic with Jewish people being forced to wear the Star of David in Nazi Germany was in some weird way appropriate and meaningful. Thomson decided that that was the line over which he was unwilling to cross – you know, seeing as how masks are meant to save lives and the Star of David patches were meant to end them. You can participate in more of this fun conversation by going to one of the upcoming GAPS Listening Sessions.
EXTRA LOUD WET JEERS to the Bend and La Pine residents who are apparently harassing their very own school board. Three members of the board are POC, and they’ve been taking it in the chops over the socials of late. The issues for the protesters are all about mask mandates and vaccines, with a sprinkle of what they believe is Critical Race Theory being taught in their schools. The issues for the elected board members is that they don’t want to deal with this kind of s*** for a volunteer position that involves helping children. It’s probably not making any of us feel better to know that this kind of conflict has been going on nationally. [Evolve faster, people, or you might just get left behind]
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