Me, Marcy, Suzanne Pharr, Deb Ross When I was just 26 years old and barely qualified, I was hired as executive director of Oregon's statewide coalition of battered women's shelters and rape hotlines. Three of the women I met through that work remain my closest friends. Some were mentors from the founders' era, good enough to help me learn what I didn't know I needed to learn. Some were comrades, doing the work with me, side-by-side.
Comrade-in-chief was Marcy Westerling. Director of the women's resource center in a struggling rural county northwest of Portland, she stepped forward to chair the state coalition board during the key years of my five-year tenure. My apartment became her pied-à-terre in town; her houseboat was my country escape. We protested in the nation's capitol together. We strategized any number of internal and external political dilemmas. We became family. And when she was ready to leave Columbia County Women's Resource Center to found the Rural Organizing Project, my office served as fiscal sponsor.
Comrade-in-chief was Marcy Westerling. Director of the women's resource center in a struggling rural county northwest of Portland, she stepped forward to chair the state coalition board during the key years of my five-year tenure. My apartment became her pied-à-terre in town; her houseboat was my country escape. We protested in the nation's capitol together. We strategized any number of internal and external political dilemmas. We became family. And when she was ready to leave Columbia County Women's Resource Center to found the Rural Organizing Project, my office served as fiscal sponsor.
As readers of my earlier posts about Marcy know, she's been living with Stage IV ovarian cancer for nearly five years now. While it sidelined her from her daily work in small-town communities, it hasn't kept her from forging new roles as a leader. Her blog, Livingly Dying, has built a large, devoted audience around the world with her truths from the frontlines of medical science.
And she's been diligently documenting her life's legacy, alongside the stories of dozens of other everyday activists, in a new project called Rural Oregon Voices. Last Sunday a large crowd abandoned the early spring sunshine to gather at the Peace House for a preview of this extraordinary project, shepherded by former ROP organizer Sarah Loose.
I defy anyone to listen to the 7 minute teaser of the oral history clip featured below without wanting to hear more. The verdict in the room was unanimous - people doubled and tripled what they'd planned to give in support of the project (and the Marcy Westerling Collection on Rural Organizing being established at the University of Oregon). In a world steeped in cynicism and despair, where communication is now meted out in screen shots and sound bites, we need these stories.
Please join me in making a donation to this important project, to make these stories available to the people whose lives they will change.
And she's been diligently documenting her life's legacy, alongside the stories of dozens of other everyday activists, in a new project called Rural Oregon Voices. Last Sunday a large crowd abandoned the early spring sunshine to gather at the Peace House for a preview of this extraordinary project, shepherded by former ROP organizer Sarah Loose.
I defy anyone to listen to the 7 minute teaser of the oral history clip featured below without wanting to hear more. The verdict in the room was unanimous - people doubled and tripled what they'd planned to give in support of the project (and the Marcy Westerling Collection on Rural Organizing being established at the University of Oregon). In a world steeped in cynicism and despair, where communication is now meted out in screen shots and sound bites, we need these stories.
Please join me in making a donation to this important project, to make these stories available to the people whose lives they will change.
click the image to go to the preview site & then please join me in making a donation to this important project
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