A “Rogue” Responds

Thanks for the award [Rogue of the Week, Jan. 30, 2008]! Guess you’re still miffed I persuaded US Bank and other corporations seven years ago to cancel their ads in your paper to protest the sexist, racist and homophobic hate-mongering you were publishing under the guise of “humor.”

But like I told your reporter:

• I appreciate Calvary Christian Church providing shelter to the homeless (and it’s done so for a number of years now with no complaints from me till recent events);

• I’m horrified the number of beds were reduced, and it wasn’t at my request—I’m comfortable with more than they had, even;

• I was taking the initiative to request the Neighborhood Mediation Center step in to help reach some solutions.

It isn’t NIMBY-ism to object to shelter “guests” day-camping without the landowner’s permission—and less than 10 feet from the sidewalk that neighborhood kids use on their way to and from King Elementary School. Multimillion-dollar entities like American Red Cross and the City of Portland can afford to pick up after their inconsiderate or dysfunctional “guests” who treat our neighborhood like a trash can.

Not to seem unappreciative, but if “Rogue of the Week” comes with a statue I’ll forward its pieces to the Portland bureaucrats and politicians who allocate $40,000 for emergency warming centers while spending tens of millions of dollars on floating sidewalks and trams.

And if I pick up any more litter, I’ll be sure to bring it to WW so you don’t have to strain yourselves producing your own garbage.

Margaret O’Hartigan
Northeast Garfield Avenue

Learn My Lesson

I am writing regarding the Jan. 16 article “Fix It Yourself,” in which I am the borrower with the subprime loan. Missing from Mr. Jaquiss’ article is the fact that my broker misled me about the terms of the transaction. I took pains to be careful and consult someone I thought was a lending expert so I would get the loan terms I wanted. She steered me wrong. If I erred, as Mr. Jaquiss says, it was in trusting someone I had every right to trust.

In addition, it is interesting that a class action lawsuit has been filed in California against my lender, primarily for writing purposefully deceptive loans. There are an estimated 10,000 claimants in this suit. If Oregon had stronger laws, which would make it clear that lenders and brokers are both responsible for fraud, maybe other borrowers could avoid getting into the predicament that I now find myself in.

Heather Brown
Southwest Portland

Almost Fame-ish

Responses on i]wweek.com[/i] to the Portlanders related to celebs (“Lifestyles of the Rich and Fame-ish,” Jan. 30):

How ’bout Sue Gallo, heiress to the Gallo wine empire, and Cathy Kohner, the real Gidget? Her dad, Fred, wrote the Gidget books about her So. Cal. surfing lifestyle. That was awhile back—maybe they’re not in town anymore.

Mike Quigley

How about me and my siblings? Our paternal grandfather was cousin to the late Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White, the only SCJ who also played in the NFL.

C White

Hey, my great uncle was Lawrence Welk.

Isn’t that wunnerful?

Jon Renner

I personally think we should crucify anyone who even says the word “celebrity.” We could start with all the near burn-out whiny indie rock babies we have spawned or nurtured in our fetid, wretched womb. Then we could run around after Danny Glover like a Benny Hill episode. What happened to the Portland that wielded pitchforks in the general direction of anyone with a symmetrical face? Or even an unscarred asymmetrical face? Let us unite with the power of Grayskull and drive these semi-famous heathens back to Wowifornia. Anybody?

Craig C Nelson

Don’T dance on the grave

It is with some surprise that I recently learned that John Hummel has left his position as executive director of Basic Rights Oregon [Queer Window, Dec. 26]. It is with considerably more surprise, however, that I observe the gratuitous ad hominem attacks on John contained in staff reporter Byron Beck’s “editorial.”

Why John’s departure from BRO after only seven months should be a “Christmas present” to Mr. Beck seems unclear at best, particularly so given Mr. Beck’s observation that BRO thereafter selected its third executive director in less than a year and a half. Moreover, the characterization of John as a “loser,” thereafter disparaging what little John could accomplish in only seven months on the job, seems pretty nasty, as do the balance of Mr. Beck’s “pronouncements” on John’s short tenure at BRO. Perhaps Mr. Beck wants more “flame” than can be found in BRO board member Laura Dellinger’s view that both John and the board agreed that “it wasn’t working for either of us.”

Having known John for well over 20 years, since we were classmates together at Lewis&Clark Law School, I can personally observe not only that he is one of the brightest people and “quickest studies” I have ever known, but a sincere and committed individual working for human rights for all people. John’s “record”—from his early work in his hometown of Boise, Idaho, organizing Boise’s first gay pride parade and its first public pride celebration— to his more recent work as legal director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual&Transgender Community Center of Colorado’s Legal Initiatives Project speaks for itself.

While I’m sorry that the position didn’t work out for John, who has returned to Denver, my sense is that little is served by Mr. Beck’s “dancing on the grave” of the former BRO executive director.

Geoffrey M. Kronick
Southwest Portland