My husband and I joined and supported ROP "on the ground" in Burns when
they first started. We lost track of the organization after a while. One
of the small good things to come out of the craziness in Harney County is
that we will now reconnect with ROP, as well as High Country News, another
old friend, temporarily forgotten.
Thanks, Margaret.
Pam and Mark Keller
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 8:49 AM, Margaret Stephens <mlstep@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Consider supporting and becoming involved in the Rural Organizing Project
. http://www.rop.org/
This statement helps explain what they aim to do. Part of it is to help
address the economic struggles of folks in rural areas, which often drives
people to sympathize with groups like Bundy's.
“Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
December 2015
Dear Friends of the Rural Organizing Project,
Dr. King’s quote points to the dilemma and the key question that ROP and
our members keep asking each other and our neighbors. The temperature is
rising in rural communities in Oregon, and it’s not just from climate
change. As rural families struggle more than ever to keep their heads above
water, deep chasms between neighbors are emerging, dividing, and isolating
communities.
Instead of respectful disagreement and dialogue among neighbors, we see
increasing polarization, tension, and backlash in rural Oregon. Good people
are buying into xenophobic and racist explanations for the pain and
frustration they are facing in their daily lives. *Militia and “patriot”
groups are successfully recruiting members, training leaders, winning
elections, and shaping how local government works in towns and counties
across Oregon. *Threats and intimidation are being used to silence
opposition. Rural activists in our network are receiving death threats
simply for writing letters to the editor.
ROP members are finding ways to respond that bring people back together in
the face of such polarization – to ensure that we move toward community and
not toward chaos. We know this division is emerging in part because rural
communities have been de-funded, destabilized, and seemingly forgotten.
Imagine raising a family in a place where you call 911 and only an
answering machine picks up or where it takes hours for a sheriff’s deputy
to show up in an emergency. Rural people are making the decision to leave
for cities, or taking on second and third low-wage jobs. Given these
circumstances, it’s no shock that far right groups are successfully
recruiting in these communities, offering paramilitary training, and
suggesting that a neighborhood militia would do better than the government.
As rural and small town progressives, our work is cut out for us. As rural
Oregonians, we know that we need to tell a different story or the militant
right will continue to dominate the conversation. Based in our core values
of human dignity, democracy for all, and the importance of just and
welcoming communities, we offer a different understanding of rural Oregon.
An understanding that points to systemic injustice, capitalism, and
corporate dominance as the root causes for the difficulties so many rural
folks have in accessing basic necessities like shelter, food, and health
care. We believe in building community first and foremost, and using our
shared connection to create channels for dialogue between neighbors. Groups
like Feed the ‘Burg are responding to hunger and homelessness not by
pushing neighbors away, but by serving free community meals for low-income
and unhoused folks in Roseburg every Saturday. Human dignity groups all
over the state have joined the call for a $15 minimum wage, an end to
racial profiling, and access and opportunity for immigrants.
ROP and human dignity groups are building collective security through
grassroots people power. People in small towns and rural communities are
challenging racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, and transphobic narratives
and building community around the values we share as rural Oregonians. Mass
mobilizations have brought attention to police brutality and exposed the
depths of structural racial injustice not only in places like Ferguson, but
in Oregon towns like Bend where hundreds of people mobilized in solidarity
with the call of Black Lives Matter.
The Rural Organizing Project has a unique and important role, working with
small town human dignity leaders across the state, and building a broad
values-based movement for justice and dignity in rural Oregon.
Our agenda for 2016 is already packed:
We will be working directly with communities on the frontlines of the
growing militia movement, creating and offering organizing tools, and
strategizing with local organizers around the deeper systemic problems that
create fertile ground for militia recruitment.
We will stand together to promote living wages and to ensure all wages
worked for are received, and look for common ground as we grapple with
low-wage economies that no longer provide for our families.
We will work to defeat anti-immigrant ballot measures, digging into
difficult conversations to unpack the rhetoric that scapegoats immigrants
for our struggling economies.
ROP is tiny but mighty, reaching the far corners of the state with a
bare-bones crew of organizers and a lean budget. We need your support to
continue and strengthen the work we do to help build stronger progressive
rural communities. We are the progressive voice speaking out and addressing
the challenges facing rural Oregonians, ensuring that the militant right
does not recruit in our communities unchallenged.
This need for a progressive voice for rural Oregon continues, just as it
did when Marcy Westerling and rural leaders formed ROP 23 years ago. Your
generosity and investment in our movement will make it possible to carry
this legacy forward.
Please make a donation today or, better still, make a pledge of $10, $25,
or $50 a month. Monthly pledges give us the promise of a steady, reliable
income, which ensures our work is sustainable. Your support keeps ROP
strong and, in these divisive times, this is more important than ever.
Ultimately, it is up to all of us together to answer Dr. King’s question
of where we go from here. We know you’ll stand with us to continue to unite
our communities and protect them from chaos.
Warmly,
Jessica Campbell Cara Shufelt
On Behalf of the ROP Staff and Board of Directors
