Neighbors and Legacies
Messiah Lutheran steps in to help the homeless
It’s hard to write about happy endings in the world of homeless services because homelessness, for most people, is a transitory situation. They had lives … Continue reading
Guy Maynard
Author: Guy Maynard
Nuclear Issues in the Time of Trump
Joseph Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, speaks via Skype on campus
In the flurry of disturbing and provocative executive orders coming out of the new presidential administration, it is understandable that some of us may have … Continue reading
The Toll of Teeth
Don’t label those without access to dentistry
What do you think when you see someone with bad teeth — big gaps or the disturbing discoloration of decay or the sunken-jaw look of too many missing teeth — someone who covers his or her mouth when talking, someone who seems afraid to smile? Dangerous? Criminal? Drug addict? Well, in some cases that might be true, but in most cases it’s not. And the judgments that you and I — often unwittingly — make about people with visibly bad teeth can be a barrier to those people overcoming difficulties in their lives. Continue reading
Will We Ever Learn?
We still suffer from past wars as we charge ahead
Memorial Day has its roots in the aftermath of the Civil War when Americans searched for a way to honor and remember the three-quarters of a million people who died in that horrific conflict. The original declaration in 1868 called for “strewing of flowers or otherwise decorating the graves” of the war dead, hence its original name, Decoration Day. Continue reading
A structured tent camp helps vets cope, move ahead
It’s 9 am on a Wednesday in November; a dozen people gather under an awning around a fire in a metal drum with a Union Pacific locomotive rumbling loudly in the background. They shuffle around to form something close to a circle to talk about how it’s going at the Eugene Safe Spot for veterans. This tent community, focused on helping homeless veterans get into housing, is nestled into a low-lying pie-slice of land just west of Chambers Street between the Northwest Expressway and the train tracks. Continue reading