In this day and age in America, I seem to be asking myself that question a lot. It appears our individual rights are slowly being taken away under the guise of terrorism or fear. The other night, I experienced an incident that has me asking that question yet again.

We were at Kelly’s Olympian enjoying some live music. Between sets, I stepped outside for some cleaner air (Kelly’s is a smoking joint) and realized there were police outside the entrance to Greek Cuisine. I wasn’t surprised as that place is a hotbed for activity. I crossed the street to get a better view and saw they had a young man on the ground handcuffed. There were 5 officers and the incident was essentially over. They crossed the street to put the individual in the car and I saw he was bleeding from the forehead. Another person on the street politely asked the officers what happened and they responded with a sharp, “That is none of your business!” The guy followed up with a question about how the young man was injured and suddenly the officer reeled around, got in the guys face and pointed down the sidewalk stating rather aggressively, “walk.. walk away now!” I was maybe 5 feet from this, shocked at what was going on. I don’t know of the pedestrian was involved or not, he seemed like just some guy asking questions. Yet the way the officer addressed him scared the shit out of me. I had had a couple of beers, so I walked away, thinking I could be the next “victim.”

In today’s America, are we no longer allowed to question police? If that individual had been wearing a KATU or KGW parka, would the officer have treated it differently? What if I produced credentials, would I have gotten the story? It reinforces that feeling that every time I see police, it is because something is wrong, not because they are there to protect or be a part of the community. It makes me a little sad.

Well I did nail KGW for it, so now I get to slap TheO around a little too. (I’d also like to mention that while the updated story from the previous post did in fact get changed, the original story did not.)

Here’s the headine: Woman cyclist injured in run-in with MAX train in Gresham

SO?????????

Does it matter that she’s female because she got her long girly hair caught in the tracks and that’s why the train hit her? Does it matter because she stopped on the tracks to apply girly pink lip gloss and got hit? Does it matter because only her high girly voice screaming was what got the driver to stop?

According to the story it was none of those things:

Two cyclists rode north on Northwest Eastman Parkway, around the gates blocking the street, and the woman was struck by a westbound train just before 6:30 p.m., said Peggy LaPoint, a TriMet spokewoman.

Add that to the witness who said she was wearing headphones and I feel I have to ask: why isn’t the headline “Dumdum cyclist injured in run-in with MAX train in Gresham”? Or “Gate Ignoring cyclist injured in run-in with MAX train in Gresham”? Or “LUCKY cyclist ONLY injured in run-in with MAX train in Gresham”?

Seriously, it doesn’t matter whether she was male or female, she was a person in a person vs. train incident. This time the train didn’t win. THAT is the part that is news, MAX incident. It does not matter if the train hit “her” or the train hit “him”.

And since it is a website it is easy to update. Again, unless there’s been an editorial decree to label everyone “male cyclist” and “female cyclist” or something, here’s TheO’s chance to show they read us too and fix this poorly written headline.

Last night, Vicki Phillips presided over her last meeting as Superindendent of Portland Public Schools. As many readers know, she is now headed to Seattle, and a position as head of education giving for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She’ll oversee a $2.3 billion budget.

I do know that Vicki Phillips leaves here with her share of admirers, detractors and those who feel her three-year tenure here was too brief to impose final judgement.

I do not have a child in the Portland Public Schools, so my view of Vicki Philips admittedly cannot be informed by those experiences.

I will say, though, that I’ve always seen something in her eyes, her gait, her manner.

As one who has been around educators, done a bit of educating myself but most importantly as someone who has been interpreting the mannerisms of females ever since childhood with two sisters, I can tell how much Vicki cared about the schoolchildren under her watch.
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For much of this past spring, I could not step outside my condo without being tangibly threatened by a neighbor’s pit bull.

During one harrowing three-day period, the damn pitbuill walked up to me in threatening, growling stance- i.e. “don’t walk any further or I will bite.”

I’m well-versed in the advantages of dog-as-protector but these incidents were a bit beyond that.

In these cases the dog-walker- young female perhaps late 20s or early 30s- was a couple hundred feet away. And to make matters worse, dog was *unleashed.*

Apparently, due to the distances involved, this animal seems to believe its territory is pretty much the whole complex. I expressed my belief that this dog exhibited the temperament to hurt another resident, and quite possibly another dog as well.
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Tanya Andersen, a disabled single mother in Beaverton, was fighting copyright infringement actions filed against her by the Recording Institute Association of America for almost two years.

They finally dropped charges, but now comes word that Tanya’s only begun to fight.

She’s filed a lawsuit for malicious prosecution, Andersen v. Atlantic. Included as defendants, in addition to several record companies, are the RIAA itself, Safenet (which owns MediaSentry, developer of software to detect infringment), and Settlement Support Center LLC.

Link to the text of the complaint is here.

Go get ‘em, Tanya.

Do you want to join me and a few of the other Metroblogging authors for a blog night at the Portland Center For The Performing Arts? We’ll be gathering there Thursday night as guests of the Platform International Animation Festival.

We’ll be there with animator from around the world to talk about blogging, online video, podcasting and all the different ways people may use the web now for publishing their work.

Please let us know if you’d be interested in attending. You may rsvp at Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/211869/?ps=5

I’m in my last week here at Metblogs, due to some personal stuff, but it’s a great last week to be here, given the upcoming Blazer Draft on Thursday.

In the past week, both Greg Oden and Kevin Durant have come to town for their workouts, and as such a couple of us Metrobloggers have made our cases for each. I think we should pick Greg Oden. Alex thinks we should take Kevin Durant.
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This weekend kicked off haunter sesson where I attended a corpse-making workshop and also went over to Glowing Greens and helped paint sets with day-glo paint. If someone had walked into the garage where the skeletons were hanging they might have freaked out a little. We covered them in saran wrap and latex paint trying to come up with the most disgusting effects possible. Mine looks just like chupacabra Nicole Ritchie. I’m thinking of making a fetus skeleton holding a glass of Red Bull and Vodka to go with it.

Anyway, Glowing Greens is a new 18 hole indoor blacklight putt putt course that’s opening in a couple of weeks. The crew that put on the 13th Door Haunted House is opening this awesome new minature golf course downtown on 4th and Taylor. The theme is a combination of pirates, undersea creatures, mummies, a graveyard, etc. There will be animatronic figures, 3D props, and blacklight effects all over the place.

They are desperately trying to get everything finished on time, and are looking for volunteers to come help paint and build sets. If you have any experience with set building, airbrushing, or painting they could really use your help. Raymond the guy in charge is really cool, and they paid us in Voodoo Doughnuts for our work. If you’re interested you can contact Tom Johnson at Fright FX 503-473-3528 or info@frightfx to get the details. It’s right off of the Max station so you don’t have to deal with parking or driving through the mess they refer to as the Bus Mall. If you aren’t artistically inclinded just wait until next month and go check out the course. They will have pizza and beverages but no booze. It’s also going to be available for groups to rent out for parties.

Their website is http://www.glowinggreens.com/ if you want to see more photos and get more information. Come play with us, it’s fun!

We love you, you know that right? It’s special, this thing we have. We come here day after day and put up our knowledge, wisdom, news, rants, raves… lots of snark too. But we’re here for you day in and day out bringing you the blog action.

Right?

So I guess the question really is, who loves us? Stop asking what your Portland Metrobloggers can do for you, think about what you can do for your Portland Metrobloggers.

All we want is just a little bit of attention. Not that bad attention like when you act up in class and you have to write lines on the chalk board. No, we want a little pat on the head. A little “job well done”.

How can you help?

I am so glad you asked. You can pop on over to Willamette Week and vote.

Vote? For what?

For us. We’re one of the options for best local blog on their yearly Best of Portland Readers Poll.

So come on, give us some sugar…

(just a little warning, they make you work for it, we’re near the end… but you should fill in your other faves too so what the heck)

Ever been to an OMSI Science Pub talk? It is free and always covers interesting topics. It is held the last Monday of each month at the Bridgeport Brewing Company in the Pearl District. Start time is 7pm. While I have yet to get to one, I’ve always heard it is fun and informative as you drink a microbrew while learning about science. This month’s discussion focuses on “current research on E. coli O157 disease spread by fresh produce, why these outbreaks occur, and how our own personal food handling and purchasing habits can help minimize contact with infectious agents.” Will make you definitely examine that fresh salad you are eating at the brewery as you listen to the talk I’m sure.