FIRST EPISODE: THE PEOPLE SPEAK

MUSIC:  guitar

 It was a nearly perfect early summer afternoon when most of Portland was starting out on a three-day holiday weekend….One of those hot, dry days that makes your eyeballs sweat ….The end of a long winter, the beginning a summer that’s here at last …for Muslims, it was the eve of Ramadan….

 Music: a few bars…

 Yet suddenly, at ------ that Friday afternoon, when the news started to come down…it was as if the whole world stopped in its orbit and the planet quit turning on its axis and the news began to make an indelible imprint…

 (Train sounds…police car sirens…ambulance sounds…)

 

According to the police report…

 On Friday, the eve of Ramadan, two men were murdered and another severely injured following an altercation with a white supremacist in Portland, Oregon. North Portland resident Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, allegedly screamed Islamophobic and racist slurs at two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab, while riding a commuter train. When Taliesin Namkai-Meche, 23, Ricky John Best, 53, and Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, intervened, Christian attacked them with a knife — killing Best and Namkai-Meche in the process.

 

 

Music: a few more bars, continuing from above…

 

It’s August now, just three months after the event, and KBOO news is back at the Hollywood Station. The story of what happened and howit happened are still unfolding and we’re trying to see how that day will fit in the history of Portland.

 In this and the next four episodes of this brief serial report, we’ll try to put the events of May 26 into a context. What do those events mean and what significance do they have for our city?

 As we were interviewing and writing this story, the national media spotlight focused on a confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which a white racist allegedly plowed into a group of demonstrators and killed one person…

 Music: a few more bars, continuing from above…

 First we’re reporting from the scene… what’s there now…what are the thoughts of station users as they pass through the station today…Let’s hear the ”Voice of the People.”

 I’m at the station now, 3:30 PM, August 8.  Here are some voices from Hollywood station users, some of them people who passed through this station on May 26 and most of the days since. 

 Hi, I’m from KBOO, 90.7 FM, and we’re following up with a series on the hate crime murders that took place here on May 26:

• Did you use this station on May 26, the day of the murders?
• What was your reaction to what happened that day?
• How have you processed the emotions you’ve felt since then?
• How do we put this behind us?

 NaME EACH PERSON, 

In our second episode, tomorrow, we’ll talk to community leaders about how the event fits into the City’s history and what it means in terms of race relations.  how do City leaders see the long-term impact…how about religious leaders and the Muslim community?  And what about our safety?...how can we protect ourselves on the metro and in other public places…? And, how did the suspected murderer survive his arrest?

 

Our third episode is about the victims and their families:  what is and will be the impact of these murders on the lives of people directly involved in the event…. What were the results of the fund-raising efforts that followed the incident?  How about the children of the victims? And will there be justice in the courts, and how satisfactory can it be? 

 

In our fourth episode we’ll try to find the national perspective… why has Congress failed to recognize this event?  What’s been the effect of this event on the national image of Portland ----Boston became “Boston Strong,” but what has Portland become?  Is white racism somehow winning in a conflict with democratic pluralism?  Is racism becoming… respectable, main-stream?

 

And finally we ask the question: how do we leave this?  How do we write the history of what happened that day?  Will May 26 be seen as a turning point in the history of this city, or will it be just another mile marker on a long trail that begins with the systematic mistreatment of native people and a misguided constitution and leads to a seemingly endless series of hateful racial encounters? What permanent results if any, should we expect?  Were the victims heroes?  Will there be a permanent memorial? What, if anything, have we learned from what happened on May 26, 2017?

  MUSIC:  a little more somber, … fading under the closing text… 

You’ve just heard the first in a five part series; Listen in tomorrow for the second episode:  “The Holllywood Murders:  A Time for Leadership.”