joe bell (1946-2013) & jadin bell (1998-2013)
the course of events surrounding the bell family in the past year is absolutely incomprehensible.
in april, joe bell set off on a walk from la grande thru the
southeast and north to new york, a walk he hoped wouldn’t take more than about
two years. his mission was to spread the word of his son jadin bell, who committed
suicide after being bullied. on KEOL’s
grande review show all summer, we featured the progress of joe bell and some of
the deeply inspiring stories he was sharing in what could otherwise be seen as
a somewhat slow summer.
meeting joe bell
during the pancake feed fundraiser for his "walk for change" gave the impression of
exactly the man to be spreading the gospel. joe was calm and unassuming. he
listened no matter how important the topic and made others feel comfortable,
respected and understood.
kid yoshida feels particularly guilty for doing such stupid
things with more fortunate outomes. certainly, for all the causes to support,
there can be no underestimating the point of what joe bell was trying to do in
a generation where gay rights are the watershed movement. to be willing to do
such a thing, and to pull it off, shows a dedication that can’t be tarnished.
joe made triumph in overcoming lots of hurdles on the road, with his artificial knees and perpetual blisters, having to adjust physically to the task and the elements, surviving theft and
misunderstanding by others. but he also
inspired a lot of people. he featured some interesting and frustrating
accounts of the ordeal in this salon article ("they ripped him apart") that is required reading. few things are more important than this article
published last september.
here are some other links....
joe on opb’s think out loud
malala yousafzai (1997-present)
nominated for, though not awarded, the nobel peace prize, which was given to the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons october 11. however, malala has recently won numerous other awards like the sakarov prize, the RAW in war anna politkovskaya award, and the gomes humanitarian award. the sixteen-year-old pakastan girl was shot in the head by the taliban for promoting girls' access to education. still, she refuses to give up, saying "they can kill me, but it doesn't mean they can kill causes." malala vows to press on in the face of persistent threats, seeking to become the doctor of the whole country and prime minister of pakistan.
annette buchanan conard (1945-2013)
in 1966, buchanan assumed the role of editor of the oregon daily emerald and shortly thereafter wrote an article called “students condone marijuana use.” annette was then subpoenaed and asked to reveal her sources. she refused to provide names to police and, in fact, mocked the need for a subpoena, saying, “i don’t know if you should need a grand jury to find out about drug use on campus.” buchanan was charged with contempt of court, but was supported by journalists nationwide, and by president johnson, pushing free press and shield laws to protect sources. what’s a person to do, be ostracized from their profession or follow court orders? annette did what she thought was the responsible decision, not necessarily the popular or safest decision. she was ordered to pay $300. before paying, she appealed to the oregon supreme court, who upheld the verdict. the u.s. supreme court passed on the case in 1968. sometimes justice is hard to find, sometimes credibility is not respected. the “girl editor” who just wanted to write about kids using drugs ended up dropping out of school and dropped back from the press firing lines, taking a job as copy editor at the oregonian. support for her cause continued and by 1973 governor mccall, a former journalist himself, signed a shield law into place forbidding authorities from asking oregon media representatives to share sources.
buchanan never revealed anything, staying out of the
media. frontal lobe damage from a few
different head injuries left buchanan unable to talk, walk, dress, or eat by
2006. she passed away in february 2013
without ever discussing the case or, more importantly, telling anyone who her
sources were. not that the police
probably didn’t find out anyway. they
just didn’t find out through any complicity of buchanan.
herman wallace (1942-2013)
one of the angola three, who spent 40 years in
solitary confinement for the supposed killing of a prison guard.
wallace had previously been an poet, “lover
of literature,” and activist seeking to improve prison conditions on
segregation, rape and violence, through hunger strikes, petitions, etc. he had
been purportedly held in the hole because of his “black pantherism” by a warden
seeking a christian way of reform. wallace was finally released on october 1
due to advanced liver disease and died on october 4 at the age of 71 years old. three congressmen; cedric richmond,
john conyers and bobby scott referred to wallace as “the muhammed ali of justice” and entered
a tribute to him in the congressional record.
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