Category: Authors

Unleaded (For The Moderates)

by Son of Suburbia Mud tufts on the overpass tinge black, Not withstanding the oily rainbowed shine of progress. “Crank the A.C., the heater, the noise.” (terminate engine droning boring exhaust) We’ve got plenty miles left and We don’t yet know where. That mechanical lull of windshield wipers for a roadtrippin rainstorm. It’s too calm…

Postal Union Representatives Team up with Occupy

By Howard Peter Former and current Portland-area postal workers turned out for a rally at Pioneer Square this past Sunday, January 8, to get the message out that there are some bad changes are coming to America in the form of House Res. 2309 & Senate Bill 1789. Jamie Partridge, a retired postal worker at…

Poems by David S. Pointer

by David S. Pointer Basic Peace Plan Burst top banking erupts not as an idle volcano, but as an active friend oozing collegiality into woozy lands brimmed by poverty coughing the dusty past days of decaying centuries frail with invaders, investors, and others waving a vast welcome under the cool crush of the ongoing smile…

Occupy’s Valley Forge Winter – Part 2

by Arlo Stone Part Two of a two-part series. Click here to read Part One. ….As a front line Occupier in one of the aforementioned large scale and suddenly camp-less metro occupations, I too am licking my wounds at the onset of Occupy’s “Valley Forge Winter” with my brethren. We are cold, scattered, fragmented, un-unified,…

Save our Postal Service!

by Adam Rothstein, with additional reporting by Portland Occupier correspondents Postal Service employees, union members, citizens, and Occupiers gathered today to rally against US Legislation that would radically downsize the Postal Service, cutting service to millions of customers. There was a rally at Pioneer Square beginning at 2pm, and then a march that went down…

Occupy’s Valley Forge Winter – Part 1

by Arlo Stone Occupy Wall Street began September 17th. Popular? Within a month, over 1,500 cities or towns nationwide had an Occupy movement. Occupy Poughkeepsie for chrissakes. Within 2 months it was pandemic. DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Salt Lake, Chicago, New Orleans, Dallas, Oakland, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Oakland, LA, every large metro had an…

The Changing Face of Homelessness

by Lana Buchanan It used to be that the homeless were the drunks and drug addicts that lived under the local bridge and people largely ignored them. In today’s world the faces of the homeless have changed, and it’s becoming increasingly hard to ignore. There are still many who choose to live on the streets,…

Occupy Portland Ramps up Legislative Initiatives

by Alex Pio Over the past few months several of Occupy Portland’s committees have been busy working on legislative items to enact far-reaching social and political changes. These groups are now emerging from the background in the New Year with a number of events and initiatives to advocate large-scale change for the 99%. Back in…

Letter from Erin Madden

On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to spend unregulated and undisclosed sums of money on elections. The Citizens United decision has led to unprecedented campaign spending by corporations, drowning out the voices of We…

Political Science 101 For Those Confused By The Occupy Movement

by Gina Ronning The Occupy movement has been a catalyst for much needed national discourse on the issues of corporate greed and political corruption. More importantly, this discourse is coming from those most affected by the actions of self-driven profiteering businesses, which have long sought to silence this discourse. However, unsustainable practices will inevitably fall…