Front Street Weekly; 828; The End of an Era

[Beeping] [Music playing] From the Oregon Network. [Music playing] Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. This is the Oregon Public Broadcasting news magazine Front Street Weekly with Gwyneth Gamble and Ben Padro. Good evening, welcome to this final edition of Front Street Weekly. I'm Jim Swenson. And I'm Gwyneth Gamble Booth. [Booth]: That last clip with Ben Padro and me was from the first Front Street Weekly program back in October of 1981. From the beginning of our 8 years on Oregon Public Broadcasting 1 of our goals has been to provide you with access to segments of our community most of us would otherwise never

see. [Swenson]: The purpose was to gain a better understanding of our complex society and that would not have been possible if it weren't for the people who courageously opened their hearts and homes to our cameras. Well tonight, as we fade to black for the last time, we want to publicly acknowledge those people. They're not the folks out there making headlines, their contributions are of a much more personal nature. They are your neighbors, a friend of a friend, or the tough looking kids that live on the streets. [Male voice]: Everybody gets high, dude. [Michael Jackson's "Bad" playing] [Female voice]: A lot of what you see in these kids is a front. Sure they'll appear tough, you know, look tough. And part of that is protection and part of that is also 'cause inside they are scared to death. [Swenson[: At first glance these kids can be seen as juvenile delinquents that have run away from home, voluntarily choosing the street life.

But when we had an opportunity to talk to the kids we found that is not the case, that for most of them the danger of life on the road is still better than the home life thousands run away from every year. [Female voice]: My brother shot me. [Male voice]: Why? [Female voice]: Well see, he raped me when I was a kid, and, and it started when I was so young that I, I was probably 14, mm- maybe it was last year that I just, that I finally realized that that wasn't right. And I turned him in to the police and he got real upset about it and he shot me. [Swenson]: Michelle was thrown out of the house when she was 9. By then she had been sexually and psychologically abused. [Female voice]: Most of the kids on the street, ?inaudible? about 85 percent of them, come from very dysfunctional homes. They've been sexually abused, physically abused, they're children of alcoholics or other kinds of substance abuse in the home. We're not all drug addicts and runaways and

juvenile delinquents. Some of us, just, are victims of our own parent's shortcomings. [Swenson]: There are agencies available to help the street kids but most of them are being hit with budget cuts at a time when the number of homeless children needing help is growing. After this report aired on Front Street Weekly our viewers answered the call for help by donating food, clothing, and money. One Portland woman sent a check for $100 to the Burnside Projects and added this note, "I've seen the kids at Pioneer Courthouse Square. My reaction has always been one of indignation. Why don't they clean up, straighten out, get a job? After seeing the show, I'm sorry for my hasty conclusion that these kids are willing misfits. And I'm sorry for our civilization. It's bad enough that parents or families abuse their children. Can't our rich and powerful country find enough resources to help its most valuable own?" [Booth]: Not everyone agrees that those kids are victims of their environment, but the experts do

say that the vast majority of the street kids were abused. And their stories do raise the question, "How can we stop the cycle of abuse before it's too late?" In just one year in Oregon alone there were almost 1200 cases of child abuse. No one can condone this form of brutality, but we can gain insight into why it happens through the eyes of people who have seen it all. People like Tammy Sampson. She was physically abused as a child and eventually ended up running away from home when she was 14. [Sampson]: My life was destroyed. 'Cause I didn't know how to love people, I didn't know how to care for people. [Booth]: When she was 21 she gave birth to a baby boy. [Male voice]: What kind of thoughts were going through your mind then? [Sampson]: Sheer terror. [Booth]: Her greatest fear was that she would end up doing to her child what had been done to her. [Sampson]: I was smacking him in the head a lot. I was afraid that I was going to take these little smacks and literally make them hard ones, um, 'cause I know it's in me. [Female voice]: The difficulty becomes, "How can we expect a parent to teach their child what they've never learned?

And what does normal mean if your normal childhood, which is the only one you've ever experienced, is abusive?" That's how a parent behaves toward a child in your frame of reference. So unless there's an intervention with somebody providing an alternative interpretation to parenting, it's only natural to assume that you will pass on what you have learned. [Booth]: Tammy eventually got professional help, enabling her to break the cycle of abuse. And because of her courage in going public with her story, other men and women in her position have seen that there is help out there. That they are not alone. [Sampson]:Now I know how to love. I care about people. I'm not full of hate. [Booth]: People like Tammy make it possible for us to see the personal side of the headlines that scream out at us from the newspapers and television reports. [Swenson]:And another social issue that's making the headlines is AIDS. On the surface, it's easy to label the victims as simply homosexuals or

junkies. But once those labels have been torn away, what we find are fellow human beings fighting a devastating disease. [Wayne]: The way I feel about it is that it's affecting my muscles, and the muscle tone, but it hasn't stopped me breathing yet. [Swenson]: In a Front Street Weekly special entitled Juniper House, we met Wayne a former businessman and minister. When we taped the report it was no longer important how Wayne came down with the disease, all that really mattered was the courage he showed as he faced certain death. [Wayne]: When you're done you're done, that's it. [Swenson]: Wayne drew much of his strength from the Bible. Are you in peace? [Wayne]: Yes, yes I am. Like I say, no matter what happens, if I gasp my last breath at 1 o'clock today, uh, I'll feel as though I've done what I'm supposed to.

And that's it, no more. And so you must have somebody else to replace me. Whatever. You know? So no, I, I feel, I feel happy because then I'll find out what's on the other side. [chuckles] [Swenson]: Wayne did accomplish one last goal - being reunited with his family. For years his sister wouldn't talk to him. But the disease changed all that. As Wayne faced the inevitability of his death, his concerns were never about his condition but about his family. [Wayne]: I know my mom and my dad and my sister and I know my brothers, my 3 brothers, they, they care. And it's just the grief that they'll be going through, you know, after I'm gone.

[Swenson]: Wayne died on April 26, 1988, the same night we shared his story with you. [Booth]: Wayne exemplified man's courage in facing obstacles many of us would feel are insurmountable. And to the severely handicapped that struggle can be a daily occurrence. But thanks to programs like Shared Outdoor Adventure Recreation, better known as SOAR, their disabilities are just that - obstacles to be overcome. [Male voice]: Each person is really challenged to go as far as they can with any particular skill and I think that that's really what, what SOAR does for people, is it brings them into a structured, safe situation, uh, and yet doesn't coddle them. It forces them to uh, meet themselves and to challenge themselves and to go as far as they can go. [Different male voice]: You got a lot of confidence here, huh? [Female voice]: Yeah, I feel real good.

People seem to really think it was sort of rather neat. You know, wow, you're going skiing. It's a addition to my life, just as it would be an addition to an able body's life experience. It's something real exciting, something new in our lives and I think it's a real asset, you know, that, that there is a project like SOAR. [Male voice]: What's neat about SOAR is they won't hold you back, you know? They'll let you do as much as you can and prove to them that you can do it safely. And, and you'll just continue like that. [Music playing] [Female voice]: What SOAR means to me is that it gives me an extension of my own life and it allows me to experience some new things that I never really thought I could experience. It really enhances my life, I think.

[Different female voice]: Everybody likes a good challenge and this is definitely it. [Booth]: And there are those people who feel that their physical disabilities aren't the only challenges to be faced head on. John Callahan has been a quadriplegic since he was 21. [Callahan]: To me, um, since I have the disability of being paralyzed and um, I see physical dis- disability impairment as a humorous thing in a lot of ways. When one grows past the uh, morbid stage of being unaccepting of it and traumatized by it then you get into an acceptance stage and you can actually make light of it and be healthy about it. [Booth]: And he does. His cartoons are outrageous, jarring, and very, very popular. [Callahan]: Sorry, Sam. You can't hold your liquor. Don't worry, he won't get far on foot.

Sometimes it's fun for me to, to draw a cartoon of, say, a taboo subject. It's a very-- a subject that, that, that's very delicate and yet I make a very funny cartoon out of it. The person will-- often people say, well I laugh-- I, I find myself laughing at the cartoon but feeling guilty for laughing. And to me there's something special about attention like that yo-, you, a person can create. [Booth]: John loves to attack sacred cows with his drawings, rattling the reader's sensibilities, forcing them to view things in a slightly different manner, always reminding us that you don't need a perfectly healthy body to have a healthy outlook on life. And what can be healthier than a person who takes a look around, sees a world in need of help, and unselfishly answers the call. [Swenson]: And throughout the 8 years of Front Street Weekly we've had the good fortune to meet hundreds of people who have done just that. It would be impossible to acknowledge them all, but we can offer a few examples.

Reverend Gary Vonn and family sit down for a typical Friday night dinner. But tonight is different. Once the dinner is over and the dishes cleared away, Reverend Vonn will say goodbye to his family and head out into the night. [Vonn]: There's never been a time in which I have really been excited to leave my home and get out on the street. Although, I would also have to add, that there's never been a time in which after going out, going out that I didn't feel really good about going out and feel very strongly that that's where I needed to be. [Kids]: Bye, dad. Love you. [Vonn]: See you in the morning. [Kids]: See you tomorrow. [Swenson]: His destination is Portland's inner city and the taverns of Skid Row. He will eventually be joined by Larry Relard, the rector of St. Stephens Episcopal church. They, along with 8 other ministers and 5 laypeople, were part of Operation Night Watch, a unique ministry that sought to meet the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of Portland's night community every Friday and Saturday night from 10:00 till 2:00 in the morning.

[Female voice]: I almost got killed a couple of times. What did the cops say? Nothing. [Swenson]: Much of their time is spent just listening, offering a sympathetic ear to anyone in need. It was Mother Teresa who said that loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted are the most terrible poverty. [Female voice]: They need somebody. They all need somebody. All of us need somebody [Male voice]: And that is what we are about. We are about, in our lives, to make not only the lives of others fulfilled or a sense of completeness, but also to find that in that very reaching out in caring that we too become more whole human beings. [Swenson]: That sentiment was reflected by a small group of Silverton, Oregon residents who took it upon themselves to lend a helping hand to the influx of migrant workers in their community. Most of the migrants have gone to Silverton for the harvest, but it was a month late and that left them without money or adequate housing. And that's when folks like Justine decided it was

time to help out. [Justine]: I got involved with the lives of people who work here that I always was aware that they were here, but I really didn't give too much thought about them and about the problems that they might have. [Speaking in Spanish] Yeah, they're going to stay with you. They want to know if they can stay. [Swenson]: Justine, like others in town, offered some of the migrant shelter in her home. That resulted in her own family's change of heart toward these unfortunate strangers. [Kate]: At first I said no. I say no way. [laughter] Then I got to meet them more down at the school. [Other female voice]: Were you surprised that they were so nice? [Kate]: Yeah. [Other female voice]: Why, did you think that they wouldn't be nice? [Kate]: Well, when- what you hear stuff before is the Mexicans are mean and they, you know, they rape people and all that and that's what I thought, you know, 'cause just from

what I heard, but then she started taking-- giving classes down there and I found out that they were really nice, some of them. [Swenson]: Kate clearly shows us what an impact an experience like that can make in a person's life. And another one of our most important considerations, here at Front Street, has always been to look for important and controversial issues that will make a difference in people's lives. [Booth]: Many of those reports looked at key social trends during the past eight years. Oregon has gone through a lot of changes in this decade and many of those changes have brought us new insights about how we feel towards our neighbors and our values as a community. In 1985 we broadcast a report on the new poor. It was an up close look at how the slump in the lumber and fishing industries was causing major problems in towns and cities around the state. Thousands of people in Oregon found themselves out of work for the first time in their lives, and suddenly the good life in the Northwest

turned sour. [Male voice]:If you can't find work in this state what you do is you beg, you borrow or you steal. [Other male voice]: We have here, and we have had for a long time and very few people have talked about, the real opportunity to be the next Appalachia. Appalachia, if you'll recall, has a there's a lot of scenic beauty, and a lot of hardworking folks, and a lot of one industry towns, and it has the poorest health, poorest education, the shortest life span of any area in the country. Uh, We have that potential here. [Booth]: Conditions have improved in many of our communities in recent years. But 1 key danger of an economic slump is the emotional turmoil it creates. And there are people who wait for just the right moment to turn those emotions into hatred and bigotry. [Male voice]: They see that they're being ripped off of their homes, they're ripped off of their families, ripped off of their jobs. They have no place to go. Then they say,

"Hey, this is getting pretty violent. They threw me out of my home violently. They threw me out of my job violently. Now I'm going to get violent." This is what I foresee. I foresee this. [Other male voice]: More guns, more shootings? [Previous male voice]: Oh, there will be more of everything, you bet. [Booth]: Richard Butler has come to symbolize one of the most disturbing trends of the past few years - the rise of neo-Nazi groups that preach racial intolerance. Front Street Weekly spoke with Butler twice, first in 1985, and then again in 1987, when he allowed our crew to make a rare visit to his compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Since then, Butler's efforts to recruit new followers have not been very successful. But racial bigotry has taken on a dangerous new form in many cities, including Portland. [Butler]: If I'm going to give my tax to someone I want the white working man that just got laid off. I want to give-- I don't like paying my taxes to lazy niggers and spics. [Booth]: Skinheads are being blamed for a number of racial attacks in Oregon and at least one death.

This surge of race hatred among young people is causing big worries for the police because it's just part of a growing problem on our city streets. Youth gangs are staking out new territory every day, and Front Street began reporting on the situation last year. In addition to the skinheads, black gangs like the Bloods and the Crips have been moving into the city, and police are also seeing more crime committed by Southeast Asian gang members. [Male voice]: I take guns off the kids out here. And, and, and people say, "Well, ther- these are just kids," and I say, "But when they have a gun in their hand, you know, they're not a kid anymore, they're, they're someone who's-- has a, an instrument of death who's making a decision to use it." [Booth]: The guns and the gangs have combined with deadly results. Police are worried about more scenes like this. A funeral for a 19 year old shooting victim. One person who's trying to turn the situation around is Macio Pettus, head of the Youth Gang

Project in Northeast Portland. His group is working to warn parents and kids about the dangers of gang membership and to build community awareness. But Macio Pettus, and others like him, are worried that the gangs may be too strong already, and they wonder what will happen next. [Pettus]: Business is business, and then a lot of that stuff overflows. You, you start out with a connection about the money and the drugs. And then maybe they get to thinking, yeah I like this idea of being a Crip and identifying with it. So it's som- it's some crazy stuff out here. [Other male voice]: The city government better be careful, man, because these kids like take Portland. [Booth]: And, as we first reported, the gang problem caught a lot of people by surprise. Through the years Front Street has worked hard to stay ahead of these important issues. Jim? [Swenson]: And 2 other examples of this effort involve health related concerns. 3 years ago we aired a report on a dangerous new twist involving drug abuse. [Baby crying] The story, called The Tiniest Junkies, explained how a new generation of

babies is being born addicted to drugs because their mothers are using heroin, cocaine, and other narcotics during pregnancy. Many of the babies have serious health problems that require expensive treatment. And there are also serious questions about how to prevent the problem from getting worse. [Female voice]: Are we going to arrest mothers who smoke, are we going to arrest mothers who drink, are we going to arrest mothers who use drugs? Or are we going to treat them all as mentally incompetent because they are making bad choices for their children? According to recent figures there were about 200 babies born addicted to drugs in Portland last year. And, since this story was first broadcast, the problem of drug addicted babies has become a national issue. It was also back in 1986 that Front Street began to focus on another issue with national impact - the crisis of AIDS. The disease came to Oregon later than other states, and when it arrived it brought along fear and misunderstanding. [Male voice]:I could lose my housing right now, for being on this show, if I did it without

some form of protection. Um, and I have no legal recourse to protect myself from that. [Female voice]:What makes you think you could lose your house because of being on a show like this? [Male voice]: Because of my diagnosis. [Swenson]: Many people who spoke with us in those first reports kept their faces hidden, fearing harassment or discrimination. But in all of our stories we emphasized that AIDS is a threat to everyone, not just the gay community. 1 by 1 community organizations showed they weren't afraid to talk about AIDS and schools began to include AIDS awareness in classroom discussions. Then, in 1987, came word that Father Peter Davis, a Catholic priest in Portland, was dying of AIDS. His congregation responded with an outpouring of sympathy and compassion. [Male voice]: I think the church is always taught that God is compassionate and forgiving and that there is nothing that God chooses not to forgive or will not forgive.

[Female voice]: He violated the church's teachings on homosexuality. [Interviewer]: Does that bother you? [Male voice]: Yes it does, yes. But I think I also have to stand back and remember that he's a human. And on that basis, as a fellow human being, I can't judge him. I don't condone it, obviously. But I can't be judgmental on it either. I can comfort him. [Swenson]: AIDS, like the gang problem, is a story that is far from over. But many of our reports did have definite endings, and sometimes our coverage had an impact on those endings. [Booth]: In each case, important changes were made after our reports were broadcast. For example, several years ago we focused on a controversial plan in Washougal, Washington. At that time Union Carbide wanted to build a factory on this 12 acre site. A factory to make

arsine and phosphine gas. Those chemicals are deadly, and local residents feared the possibility of a disaster like the one in Bhopal, India where 2000 people died in a gas leak back in 1984. Our story focused on the efforts of local citizens to stop the plan. Later, Union Carbide changed its mind, and decided not to locate the gas plant in Washougal after all. There were no protesters around when we did a story from southern Oregon earlier this season. It was about an abandoned uranium mine outside Lake View in the Fremont National Forest. Although the area is accessible to the public, only 1 small warning sign was posted. What the sign didn't say, is that water at the site is contaminated with arsenic from the mines, and waste from the mines is radioactive. [Geiger counter noises] Since this report aired, we have learned that more signs will be posted this summer, and a fence will be constructed. A study is also underway to find out what it will take to clean up the

contamination. And earlier this season we also looked at a serious contamination problem in Portland, in a special report called Cleaning House: Oregon's Meth Lab Crisis. Every year dozens of houses in the city are used as illegal meth labs. Toxic waste crews are very careful to protect themselves when they go in to collect the leftover chemicals. But in researching this story, we learned that there was no official policy for posting warning signs so that other people would know about the possible health risks inside those homes. [Female voice]: I think it seems clear to those of us who've been working real closely with the issue, that it seems to be a building issue. [Male voice]: I can go out and declare a building dangerous by listing certain things that are listed in the code. There's, there's 17 different points, but chemical contamination is not one of them. [Different male voice]: [Clears throat] It really doesn't affect environmental quality, it potentially affects public health of people entering the home.

[Booth]: Nobody, it seemed, wanted to take responsibility for posting signs at the houses to warn people about the possible danger of these meth labs. Since our story was broadcast some changes have taken place. Under a new Portland city ordinance, police can now seal off these houses and the owners must do a cleanup based on guidelines from the state DEQ. [Swenson]: Earlier in this program we mentioned that this is the last Front Street Weekly, but that doesn't mean that Oregon Public Broadcasting is stepping back from its commitment to report on the people, issues, and events that impact us all. [Booth]: There are a number of major projects in the works that will actually expand on that commitment. Projects such as a weekly, hour long studio program, on the major issues of the day, a documentary unit that will deal in-depth on serious topics facing us all, and an outdoor program highlighting all that our great state has to offer. [Swenson]:And there will also be a number of other public affairs and cultural special

projects throughout the coming year. With your help the future will be just as productive as the past. So, as we say goodbye, for the last time, we once again want to thank all of you who've helped to make Front Street so successful. And as we wrap up this program we also want to acknowledge the folks on our end who have contributed to Front Street Weekly over the years.