LBCC Celebrates Juneteenth!

June 4th marks LBCC's first Juneteenth celebration. This national celebration, usually observed June 19th, is coming to the campus earlier to accommodate the term schedule.

Jeanette Emerson is hosting the event, which is taking place in and being sponsored by the Diversity Achievement Center. The event will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and feature speakers, traditional food, and a raffle. There will be educational and historical displays throughout the center.

Now observed nationwide, Juneteenth started in Galveston, Texas. Juneteenth.com gives some background on the celebration: "...The Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free." That was June 19, 1865. Two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

The reason for the delay is disputed. According Juneteenth.com:

     "Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All or none of them could be true. For whatever the reason, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory."

Whatever the reason for the delay, the reason for the celebration is clear: freedom.

The Texas State Library online archives describes the first celebrations of this holiday as similar to the Fourth of July, in meaning and in content: "In the early days, the celebration included a prayer service, speakers with inspirational messages, reading of the emancipation proclamation, stories from former slaves, food, red soda water, games, rodeos and dances."

The celebration spread throughout the United States as slaves migrated from the South. The Texas archives say that "Interest and participation fell away during the late 1950's and 1960's as attention focused on expansion of freedom for African-Americans." In 1980, Juneteenth was declared a state holiday, "Emancipation Day in Texas."

In President Obama's Statement on the occasion of Juneteenth, he said, "June 19, or Juneteenth, is now observed in 31 states. Nearly a century and a half later, the descendants of slaves and slave owners can commemorate the day together and celebrate the rights and freedoms we all share in this great nation that we all love."

At a Glance:

What: Juneteenth Celebration
Where: Diversity Achievement Center (F-220)
When: June 4, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

More Information
Juneteenth.com

President Obama's Statement on Juneteenth

GOP statement on Juneteenth

Democrat Herald Field Trip

Just a week or so after my son's scout troop got a tour of the Democrat Herald, my class got to go too!

Our tour was a little different, we didn't get to play with the magic board and our tour guide didn't take our picture and write a funny story about us. But it was still fun.

Steve Lundeberg, the DH's Associate Editor, showed us around the news room. We saw the writers and editors striving to meet the "never later than noon" deadline. We saw the presses run that day's edition. And we learned some of the inner workings of our local newspaper.

Gathered in the conference room, with one wall fully mounted with previous editions and their sales statistics, we discussed the history and future of the paper.

What we learned:


1. Kids and horses up the sales. Statistics show that sales are higher when animals or children are on the front page.

I forgot that a newspaper is a business. I always assumed that the biggest story would make the front page. But how is the biggest story identified? The DH keeps statistics on their best selling recent newspapers on display with statistics. According to Steve, the best sellers tend to have horses and children on the front.


2. Small towns like the printed page. Even though the DH is online and its writers have blogs, the news will continue to be printed on paper. It offers a sense of community that is sometimes lost in the papers of larger cities. Steve said that part of the appeal of a small town paper is that "people in towns this size are always going to want to be able to read the actual paper." Chances are high that someone a reader knows will be in print.

3. The DH is stacked to the rafters. There are giant heavy dusty books in a mezzanine at the DH that hold volumes of the newspaper dating back to the 1900's! Sometimes research necessitates reporters and editors to bring these to the main level. Such a cumbersome task, that the bound volumes are not returned until a stack has accumulated. This is a piece of history that would be fun to look into, in spite of Steve's warnings of "black lung." Because this is such small town, I wonder how many of last names in a paper from 1910 would be the same as those in today's paper.

Changing Course

Lori Ware worked steadily for the last 18 years. At the same job. Last year she decided she needed a change.

She knew that she wanted to work in the medical field, but also knew that the time she would spend on her education would mean time taken away from her family.

The Medical Office Specialist program at LBCC offers a one-year certificate that according to its web site, "prepar(es) people for entry-level positions as records clerks, ward clerks, receptionists and/or medical coders in medical offices or hospitals."

One-year is a relatively short amount of time to obtain an entirely new career, and for this working mother and wife, it required some major adjustments. Ware has continues to work in the apparel department at Fred Meyers - the job she continues while taking 18 credits a term. She went from working 25 hours a week, at the start of the program, to 12 hours a week.

"That's why I picked a one year program," Ware says.

"Her return to school was something we always knew she wanted to do, but  if you know Lori you know it would only be at a time when  the biggest burden would be hers and the chance of success would be great," Ware's parents say.

True to her nature, Ware made a practical choice given that the US Department of Labor predicts health care and social sciences are the highest areas of job growth through 2018.

Ware's goal is "to gain employment at an entry level position with preferably a larger office/corporation, so that I may advance into possibly a medical coding position." She says she is focusing her search on "receptionist positions and accounts clerk positions. I may apply at dentist offices, but we will see how things go the next month."

The demands of school and work have shifted some household priorities - "the house doesn't have to be perfect," and there is less time for socializing with friends and family, Ware says.

It is different than being 19 and single and going to school. Ware's friend and classmate Jennifer Hughes agrees: "It is a huge sacrifice for us to be here. Not only the financial sacrifice, but also the sacrifice of spending less time with our kids."

To accommodate Ware's school schedule, her daughter Aaliyah attends the CAPS program before and after school two days a week; Aaliyah loves the extra play time with friends. And this term, Ware is taking two courses online which adds some flexibility to her schedule.

Ware's husband Andre says he "knew she was an organized person but I think she took it to a whole new level with the school, life, and work thing."

An essential strategy Ware implements is making priority lists. She says this allows her to plan her work time and down time more wisely: "Part of being organized is knowing when you can afford to go to bed at nine o'clock." That is good advice for students of any age.


Program Information
What: The Medical Office Specialist program
Adviser:  Sally Stouder 
Contact Information: (541) 917-4289, stoudes@linnbenton.edu

Kay Ryan

At 9:30 all the seats in the LBCC Library Reading Room were filled, except the one at the front facing the crowd. Kay Ryan walked at the edge of the room to reach her seat and seeing people standing at the periphery, invited them to come sit on the floor closer to her. A few students scurried up the edges and sat cross-legged like grade-schoolers.

Clearly the most intelligent and insightful person in the room had us all feeling comfy. This was a Q&A session and Ryan was good-natured and patient. Even when students tried to sneak multiple questions into their allotted one. She responded to one such student, "Gee, that's alot of questions. I'm going to have to divide them up."

The students asked a great variety of questions concerning her inspiration ("amusement"), favorite new poet (Atsuro Riley), and first poem (After Zeno).

Several of Ryan's answers and comments will stay with me and effect the way I think about words and writing. But what actually brought tears to my eyes was when she talked about the first real poem she'd ever written, After Zeno. She wrote it for her father after he died suddenly. The combination of intellectual and emotional components work beautifully together.

“After Zeno”
(For my father)


When he was
I was
But I still am
and he is still.



Where is is
when is is was?
I have an is
but where is his?
Now here–
no where:
such a little
fatal pause.


There’s no sense
in past tense.

As she read it, she stopped to explain the significance of the spacing and placement of "Now here; No where." Just brilliant.

On a lighter note, when one student asked what instruments she uses when she writes, Ryan answered that she uses a yellow writing tablet and a pen. Then quickly expressed a desire to have an endorsement contract with a company that sells fine writing instruments - "for the swag."

After the session, as she was going out the door, I was able to ramble something to her about what a great a honor it was to have her come to our school and I was so excited to hear her read her poetry in person..."andthankyouagain." She gave me the promotional "Dish Network" ball point pen she was holding and said, "Here's a souvenir."

Lessons from Edna

I thought it was just dry required reading assigned for a class. It wasn't.

In her book, "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face," Edna Buchanan offers a glimpse into her life as a crime reporter. She details several of the thousands of homicides she covered. She gives the reader a backstage pass to the crime scenes. In these 275 pages, Edna gives a taste of the writing that won her a following, and a Pulitzer.

Though I hope to NEVER write about a murder, or even see a dead body, there are a few things I will keep with me from this book.

Hooks and Zingers - Edna perfected that sentence structure reminiscent of black & white detective movies. In "The Corpse," after telling of the harrowing escape of an abused wife in fear for her life, Edna writes: "It was almost a happy ending. If only it had been the end."

Personal tolerance - In writing about good guys and bad guys, Edna emphasizes that neither trait is exclusive of the other. About cops, she says "The truth is, the good cop and the bad cop are often the same cop, at different moments, on different days, with different people." Edna gives consideration to criminals as well,  cautioning that "writers have to work at not glamorizing" them. A notable example of this is Edna's entry of Murph the Surf. According to her account, he and his gang were "treated more like local heroes come home than newly released ex-convicts." 

No time for personal time - Being a crime reporter is difficult and consuming work. Edna had two failed marriages. And, she says, "the daily whirlwind of news leaves little time for anything, much less the nurturing of new friends." Her only consistent companions are her pets and her fictional characters.

Reading Edna taught me how powerful sentence structure and length can be. And that it is ok to start a sentence with And. It is important to be fair to all parties involved in a story. I hope that someday I will be paid to write or edit. But I will never have what it takes be a crime reporter.