Hope, awareness, and action.
Those are the concepts to take forward, speakers said Monday at the Martin Luther King Day events at Riverside Community Church.
The afternoon workshops on immigration, raising racially-conscious children, the climate crisis and other topics, followed by a potluck and gathering with music and words by and about MLK, in the church sanctuary, attended by 200 or so people. A rotating crew of Spanish-speaking translators accompanied the speakers.
“It’s not just another holiday. It’s a part of the foundation of this country,” said Hood River’s Arturo Leyva, who performed original songs along with Monica Romero. “We have to be aware,” Leyva said. It’s a tough time. We can’t be in denial. We have racist people in our community. We have to talk to them.”
Mayor Paul Blackburn helped welcome the assemblage, announcing to long applause the decision last week by City Council to adopt a resolution declaring Hood River an inclusive city in support of the policies of sanctuary.
“We are a community that builds bridges, not walls,” Blackburn said, a reference to President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the Mexico-U.S. border.
Speakers from the Hispanic and Native American communities pleaded for an understanding of current challenges and past injustices, and Dell Charity of Hood River, an African-American who has lived in Hood River since 1986, spoke of the “journey of struggles” in his life, and the occasional discrimination and frequent acceptance he and his wife, Evelyn, have seen in Hood River. (Evelyn sang during the celebration in a small community choir organized by musicians Tim Mayer and Paul Thompson.)
“Another experience I want to share with you, my struggles, to reflect on my life about the troubles I have had in my life, I have always thought of myself as a trailblazer. In 1969 I grew up in Connecticut, we know 1969.
“This black man is proud to be here tonight to celebrate Martin Luther King’s legacy. I look out at all the love and support we will give each other,” Charity said. “That’s what makes Hood River a great place to be.”
Warm Springs tribal council member Carina Miller spoke about the American government’s history of genocide, treaty violations and persecution against indigenous people, but said society today enjoys “an opportunity for all of us to step back and be honest how we as a nation got here, to take responsibility for our own ignorance and make a change we all have the power to make: internal change – cambio internal.”
Patty Orozco, 17, also addressed the service, telling the story of her family’s move from Mexico when she was five, and her aspirations “to live the American dream,” via the lessons of hard work taught by her parents. “My father is 65 and you know what he still does? He picks pears and cherries. I am so proud of him,” Orozco said.
Yet Orozco she said her family feels are jeopardized by the intended policies of Trump administration.
“I want to make everyone here feel safe – that we are all one. Somos uno,” she said. She quoted MLK who said, “we have before us a glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.” In Aspen, Colo., then Hood River, Dell and Evelyn found acceptance.
“Take a moment to walk in my shoes,” said Dell Charity of Hood River, an African-American who will turn 70 this year.
Charity recounted his personal struggles through childhood in Connecticut, in 1969 marrying a white woman he later divorced “not for lack of love” but because of her family’s shunning.
“It was a very difficult time,” he said. “I told her father the night we decided to marry. On talking to him he kicked her out. She had nowhere to go and we had already talked about our plans. A month later we were married. During that time I was raised, of Jackie Robinson, and I saw the struggles he was going through as a black man and the doors he was knocking down. From that point on it was so difficult for my family and her family. We had two kids. Then we got divorced. Not because of lack of love. Her dad made it that tough. Her father never got to meet his grandkids. His loss I guess.”
“After that I moved to Aspen Colo., got married again, married my Evelyn. Moving there I was the only black man in town. But I had the best fun and met some of the greatest people while I was there. It was one of the places with the struggles I had gone through where I felt free and relaxed and my color did not matter. So again I call myself a trailblazer because of all the times I made a difference in their life and they in mine.
“We moved to Hood River 26 years ago. became an Elk, and being an Elk I became an officer and being an officer allowed me to ravel to eastern Oregon, southern Oregon and Washington. So, do I have to say any more about the doors I knocked down?
“I have been in places when I walk in and it would be like somebody’s teeth fell out of their mouth. I did have problems with Elks members in my own club but I learned and grew from that to be able to stand here today. The thing that made me proudest were my friends who were true friends who see me as I am, without any judgment. I am also hopeful for our country. For my grandkids, and I am really honored because I have three sons and all three of my sons are in inter-racial marriages. So by this I hope my kids and grandkids will spread diversity to the world and the human race.”
Charity was pictured in the Hood River News last spring for his one-man protest at Second and Oak, which he said drew extensive honks, waves, and even an offer of dinner.
“I saw how many unarmed black men were being shot. Up to that point I felt powerless,” Charity said. “My rant fell on my wife’s ears. Because I live in a town where there are not many black men it filled my anger, my frustration and my pain. At that moment I felt I had to do something. I was so angry about what was going on.”
“The thing that made me proudest were my friends who were true friends who see me as I am, without any judgment,” Charity said. “I am also hopeful for our country. For my grandkids, and I am really honored because I have three sons and all three of my sons are in inter-racial marriages. So by this I hope my kids and grandkids will spread diversity to the world and the human race. I am very proud of the part I have played to help live out the dream of Martin Luther King in this celebration today.”
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