Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye

With the upcoming basketball season close at hand, the city of Portland is getting ready to sound off, RIP CITY! Like many Oregonians, I am a Portland Trail Blazer fan. The Blazer franchise has been completely rebuilt over the past two seasons, and with every great team, there is a rival. While the Blazers have been rebuilding, the Supersonics have been collapsing. Throughout the past year I have been asked that as a Portland fan I must stand behind I-5 brother, the Seattle Supersonics, to prevent their relocation to Oklahoma City. However I as a Trail Blazer fan could not do this, and now the Seattle Supersonics are the Oklahoma City Thunder. I chose not for fight for the Sonics not because I hate the Supersonics or the city of Seattle. This fact is quite the opposite, I love Seattle, and it is an amazing city. I chose not to fight against the Sonics relocation because the Blazers as a team will gain far more.

Every football season the Seattle Seahawks are force fed to the City of Portland through the local media. This of course is because Portland is lacking a professional football team and Seattle is our closest fix. Hopefully with the relocation of the Sonics, the Blazers will become Seattle’s basketball fix. Yes, I know the die hard Sonics fans will never cheer for the Blazers no matter what the geographic location of the team (much like myself with the Seahawks). However those who need the fix will find themselves with a quick 3 hour drive down I-5 to a wonderful city, an amazing state of the art arena, and an exciting young championship bound team.

So for those willing to accept Portland as ‘their’ team, Portlanders will accept you with open arms, much like you have done with us for so many years. Seattle will lose a team and gain another. The city of Portland will gain a major fan base that will bring further support for Oden, Roy, Aldridge, Rudy and the rest. The local media will no longer be split between which team to focus on, the Blazers or the Sonics, now the choice is obvious, the only northwest basketball team will get the media attention and the airtime. So despite the Blazers losing the team that has been are heated rivals for decades, we will gain so much more. So long Supersonics, hello Seattle fan base, welcome to RIP City.

Change...About Damn Time!!!

Barack Obama stands for change; however the transformation he stands for is not change from the recent faults in the White House, or the decline of the American Economy, instead wants to change over 200 years of patriarchal rule. Since the founding of America this country has been run by the white males, and 8 years into the 21st century, we may get that change, I as a white male am saying it is about time! The opportunity for Barack Obama to duel with the past 200 years of a biased standstill excites students of history, students of equality, students of hope, students who will see with their own eyes a new America. John F. Kennedy said, “the New Frontier is here whether we seek it or not.” It may have taken a vast amount of infighting but today is the day that Kennedy spoke of, today the New Frontier is finally upon us, and I say it is not an option to “seek it or not” we must seek change, we must seek a change in the “tradition” of America, we must seek a new leader who will guide America into a healthier, less discriminating nation.

September 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed into order the Emancipation Proclamation, essentially freeing the slaves of this country. Slavery was officially declared against the law in all American states in 1865. However these acts did not end the suffering of African Americans, racial discrimination continued. Almost 100 years later following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Robert Kennedy pushed the Civil Rights Bill upon the new President Lyndon Johnson, arguing it would be considered John’s greatest contribution to society. In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Bill. However this bill did not end racial discrimination in American society. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy both major architects in the ‘64 bill, were slain in 1968. The repercussions of these killings were felt in America for decades. Though white and black seemed to have blended, over time; events like the Rodney King beating and the obvious color lines in the OJ Simpson trial have shown us an extremely divided America.

Indeed we have made giant leaps and bounds towards more equality in the past 40 years since the assassination of King and Robert Kennedy. America today is extremely diverse. Despite the fact that we in America are told about this great melting pot, about this place where people can come and have the chance at greatness, with equal opportunity. The examples that prove this statement as false is overwhelming. Great change has not been seen in society, and even less change has been seen in American politics. Barack Obama pleads to Americans not to look at this election as a black issue versus a white issue; but rather that this is an issue of change. This election is far beyond black and white, it is about America giving an equal chance to all who pursue it. It is about America practicing what they preach.

There will be people will fight Obama becoming our next president until the end. When all the votes are tallied you will see the showing for people who are too afraid of this change. Rallies and groups will stand against what they will call a Black America. In the end those same students of change, hope and equality, as well as every America citizen should hope that the principals and ideals that founded this nation that will prevail. It will be democratic process that will prevail. It is our voice, our vote, our chance to create a new path, and to join the rest of the world in the 21st century. America is for the people and by the people; and the people are ready for change.

Police Distrust

A communication professor asks his class, “Has the nightly news caused so much fear in your mind that when you walk past a group of teenagers, with their hands in their pockets, at night, in downtown Portland, you immediately think the worst will happen?” For me this is not the case, I do not fear for my safety when I walk by a “gang” of kids. However, when I glance into my rear view mirror and see a cop a couple of cars back, my heart starts to race. Why is it that I fear more about what could happen when the people who are meant to protect and serve are around, rather then feel safe? Granted police officers do protect, because without them we would probably have mass chaos and destruction. The “figure” of the law does prevent that. However, sometimes I wonder if the police truly do serve the public?

My skepticism may stem from the fact that I have had my share of clashes with the police. Perhaps it was the drug bust that took place at my house with no sufficient evidence and only an anonymous tip (by the way nothing was found, surprise, surprise). Or perhaps being pulled over for following the pace of traffic and NOT speeding (the sign I was pulled over in front of verified I was traveling the correct speed) or in that same area someone was pulled over for going the speed limit in the left lane which the cop said was too slow for that lane. The question then becomes how fast are we to go? It seems as though if we go too fast we get a ticket and if we go too slow we still get a ticket. Or the more obvious example would be watching cops turn on their lights to run a red light and then immediately turn them back off. Perhaps it is these things that have tainted my trust in the idea that they are here to protect us.

Most people I’ve talked to have stories about a time in which a police officer abused their power and authority to unlawfully harass them either with threats or tickets. Further examples would be the time someone got pulled over, read their rights and placed in handcuffs while being verbally harassed in efforts to gain a confession about his car being stolen based solely on its make and model. Is it just me or does everyone feel this hostility and fear of unfair accusations and repercussions from police interaction?

When did it become police priority to fill a quota rather than make the world safer? When did building a case by finding credible evidence get put on the back burner behind simply making a bust, which in the end never sticks because they did not build the evidence? By blocking out the good things that cops do (saving a old lady from a robber) we focus on the bad things (3 cops shooting a man for pulling out his wallet, slowly).

The problem could be due to a number of things such as personal experience, stories from acquaintances or the media influences in response to their pressures to create hard hitting news stories. But regardless of what is to blame, something has caused our distrust. Now more than ever it has truly come to the point in our society where we would rather fend for ourselves, than turn to the police for help. How can we as a society truly be safe, if we can not trust the people trained to keep us safe?

My first offical article...Censorship in History

Censorship covers all forms of life including speech, writing, and art. However what happens when censorship hits history and the memory of events? If a country forgets what happened in its history, are the doomed to repeat it? Its been 44 years since John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Time passes and society changes yet people still question if Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone (or at all.) No matter what the true answer is, everyone has a funny feeling that the story the government has fed us is false.

Over two-thirds of Americans do not believe what the government has told us about the assassination. However the time is coming when the people that were alive during the Kennedy years will pass on and the youth of America will be forced to continue the investigation of that moment in time. However most children do not learn of this event until they study it on their own.

The slaying of our president has been censored from educational history. American Wars, Civil Rights, Watergate, all of these things are studied in high school and college history classes, and all of them deserved to be studied. However the JFK assassination is not. Yes, most students know that Kennedy was shot by Oswald and then subsequently Oswald was shot by Ruby, the history books cover this point. And yes, most people have heard of some sort of conspiracy the government might be apart of. However most students are shocked to hear how deep that Conspiracy may be. The former Vice President Lyndon Johnson, the CIA, the FBI, the Mafia and the Military Industrial Complex may all be involved.

This moment in history deserves to be studied! Though the JFK conspiracy theories will never be recognized as fact, many people feel that the story the government claims as truth is far from it. Is the government trying to push this conspiracy out of the minds of our youth? Do they assume if we do not know about it, we will stop looking for the truth? In my lifetime I would like to see one of two things, either the government releases the truth about the JFK assassination (which will never happen) or educational institutions recognize not only the event but the conspiracy deserves to be studied. STOP THE CENCORSHIP AND LET HISTORY BE TOLD!