We heard from many former students how their local schools were not meeting their needs and how the OSB met their needs and was essential in the development of their orientation and transportation skills.
The land for the OSB was gifted to the public and many have worked over the 136 years of the school to develop the campus and the educational programs. "No more tin cup" was a rallying cry and a strong message to demand for quality public education for blind students and indeed for all.
Organizers urged us to contact our State legislators to tell them to oppose HB 2113 and 2834. Oregon House Representative Brian Clem spoke to the crowd to express his strong support for the schools, and mentioned that in addition to opposingHB 2113 and 2834, we should support HB 2114 which "appropriates moneys from General Fund to Department of Education for purpose of paying for construction and repairs at Oregon School for the Deaf and Oregon School for the Blind". It was mentioned by someone that a few years ago, OSB was allocated a large sum of money to repair roofing at the facility, but the money was spent instead on a study regarding the feasibility to close the school.
To learn more, interested persons can phone the National Federation of the Blind of Oregon at 503-585-4318.
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One of the interesting tensions of the rally was the announcement that the reactionary Kevin Mannix does not support the merger while liberal Sara Gelser does. Many in the crowd gave Mannix applause and booed Gelser repeatedly.
It's hard to imagine that Mannix, who barely supports public services of almost any kind, is sincere. His party's latest line seems to be splitting one group of public workers from others, playing people off against one another and funding some choice public services at the expense of others when it serves to embarrass or straitjacket liberals. Gelser, on the other hand, does not have the vision or militance needed to lead a fightback. Reactionaries like Mannix probably sense the fear among too-timid Democrats and push and prod where they can. Eventually, they think, they'll find the right hot-button issue, get an undeserved reputation for being open-minded and win some ground in the next election. The schools are really side issues for them, I expect.
I noticed that many people attending the rally had liberal or progressive bumperstickers on their car, which makes applause for Mannix more troubling. You can read that as people being single-issue, Republicans making inroads or a divided community trying to organize itself.
The other troubling issue I noted during the rally was the absence of unions. Two unions--SEIU 503 and OEA--represent workers at the schools. Rank and file union members turned out along with a few union staff, but a push by the unions to support the rally could have easily doubled the numbers.
They haven't thought through the differences in these 2 disabilities. You can't just lump folks together for the sake of saving a few bucks.
Gelser is a strange bird. I worked with her on abuse and neglect issues last spring and summer. After all the input she received from community members, the best she could do was to come up with a registry of abusers.
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