Dog racing comes to an end in Oregon
Magna Entertainment, which ran greyhound racing at Multnomah Greyhound Park, blames gambling competitors
Friday, December 24, 2004
ERIC MORTENSON
The operator of Multnomah Greyhound Park in Wood Village announced Thursday it will not renew its lease, likely ending 70 years of dog racing in Oregon.
The news from Magna Entertainment Corp. was welcomed by an animal protection group but brought protests and regrets from racing backers and fans. The East Multnomah County park was the last dog racing venue on the West Coast.
Magna, which has held operating rights at the track since 2001, said fierce competition from Native American casinos, the Oregon Lottery and off-track gambling over the Internet were responsible for the decision.
The company will continue to operate horse racing at Portland Meadows, said Scott Daruty, chief U.S. counsel for the corporation, based in suburban Toronto.
"We recently came to the conclusion that, given the competitive environment up there, there's not a long-term future for greyhound racing," he said from California. "Ultimately we don't believe the industry up there can support both greyhound racing and horse racing."
Magna is committed to caring for the 46 dogs now in its nationally recognized greyhound adoption program at Multnomah Greyhound Park, said Patti Lehnert, animal welfare coordinator at the facility. The program places retired racers with families.
"It's business as usual for the adoption kennel," Lehnert said. "We will find homes; we will place them."
Magna's decision appears to have been based solely on economics, said Jodi Hanson, director of the Oregon Racing Commission, which oversees dog and horse racing.
"It's unfortunate, really, because greyhound racing has a long and very storied history in Oregon since 1933," Hanson said. "They made a business decision that they can't run both tracks. We don't control those business decisions."
Hanson said Oregon has been a leader in regulating dog racing and in assuring the welfare of racers. "It's unfortunate for the industry," she said.
However, the president of Grey2k USA, a Massachusetts-based group opposed to greyhound racing, applauded the decision.
"We see this as a tremendous victory," said Carey Theil. "This closes a sad chapter in Oregon's history. The end of this cruel industry is a victory for everyone who cares about animals."
The organization will ask the 2005 Oregon Legislature to ban greyhound racing, as Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Pennsylvania have done in recent years, Theil said.
"There is a trend across the country to prohibit this sport, and we hope the Legislature will follow suit," he said.
The end of racing in Wood Village is a jolt to a dozen farms, most in Clackamas County, that breed greyhounds. Although dogs are routinely shipped to other tracks -- Theil estimated 400 to 500 Oregon dogs are racing out of state -- having a local facility was handy for breeders.
The closure may result in legal wrangling between Magna and the Oregon Greyhound Association, which handles and distributes purses at the track.
Paul Romain, the association's attorney, said the group anticipated there would be racing in the 2005 season, which runs from May to October. The association will determine if there is a way to compel Magna to hold races next year, or if damages are involved, he said.
Multnomah Greyhound Park was Magna's only dog racing operation. The company owns or operates 14 horse racing tracks, including the famed Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., and Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Pimlico annually hosts the Preakness Stakes, part of horse racing's Triple Crown.
Multnomah Greyhound Park was the last dog track on the West Coast, a remnant of an industry that once attracted crowds of as many as 30,000 at what is now PGE Park. Magna estimated opening day attendance on May 1, 2004, at 7,000. Dog racing has declined nationwide and has been under attack from groups that believe dogs are mistreated. Some racers are routinely destroyed when their careers end.
The track, at Northeast 223rd Avenue and Glisan Street, has been operating in Wood Village since 1957. Multnomah Greyhound Park reported on-site revenue of $11 million in 2003; the opening-day gambling "handle" in 2004 was $160,000, according to a news release from the park.
What will happen with the greyhound park property is unclear. Owner Art McFadden has been unavailable to comment on his plans. The 31-acre property occupies a key corner of Wood Village's burgeoning town center and is assessed for tax purposes at $5.7 million, according to county records. It is zoned for a mix of commercial and residential use.
what does it mean to respect authority?
I have forever had a problem with the general assumption that somebody, some individual, is more important than me. In terms of "importance," I mean the idea that someone's will should be obeyed and unquestioned, because of their authority. I believe that all life should be given the same general chance as anyone one else. I believe we should do away with the system of capital, wealth, ownership, and oppression that characterizes human life on this planet. We have reached a point in our social evolution in which very few human beings have authority and unchallenged dominance over: the life of the planet, other human beings, and all life living on it. This is not the end, nor is it "the way it has always been." Changing these conditions is possible and absolutely necessary to resemble life, both physically and spiritually.
People used to tell me I had a "bad attitude," and I will agree that frustration combined with a sense that all of our social values are based on the authority of great spiritual falseness and absolute greed makes me angry and frustrated. My participation in this culture, has found me expressing myself in a less than positive manner from time to time. Luckily for me, and those close to me, i am able to learn and adapt. Social evolution takes place in the inherited social values, which are then varied upon to create new results. what this means to me is that we can't turn the world upside down all at once, but we can take a good look, then plan and realize our goals one by one. There is no time to just go with the flow, and think other people will take care of things. You are the "other" people!
We can be in control of our own lives, we just have to respect ourselves enough to seize control back from where ever we sold it. People have been in cocoons waiting for the prefect time to reinvent themselves. We will get along collectively, and build our lives towards a meaningful culture and a peaceful world. We will trust and respect each other as we do ourselves. The paymasters have tried to keep us fearful and divided from one another. This is obvious mind control, and it is based upon their own greatest fear. It is the power of the people working together on all life, that keeps the oppressors glorifying mayhem and projecting a distorted vision of reality.
When I was young I didn't have the knowledge to channel these frustrations. I always had the feeling something was wrong with the canons of american society: "God is a christian," and "finical success is the ultimate goal" of american culture. As I learned, I took the energy generated by those ideas and turned them into new creations. This allows me to understand and process those ideas, then free them. Whether it is writing journals, letters, music, or just acting freely with other people in the moment, those can be creative and positive outputs for processing information.
It is liberating to admit how ridiculous we have let things get, and question why we have not taken care of the problems completely. We observe movements from the past such as women's suffrage, labor rights, and the great civil rights movements, and we become assured that social evolution is both beautiful and possible. We are dreaming and acting in new ways because we are evolving, we are restless for revolutions. We a spiritually starving for an open society based upon equality respect for all life. This is how we want life to be, to let human life live up to it's potential. Those who have giving up on their inner voices, their sense of compassion, have decided to compete in the game capital economics. But they will only find a life of exploitation, injustice, waste, shame, fear, prostitution, and empty rewards. They know that the way we live is harmful, unnecessary, and in need of change now.
What is your idea of respecting authority?
mission statement from the IWW webite
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.
We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.
These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.
Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."
It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.
check out the IWW website here
Protesters to turn their backs on Bush
Associated Press | December 15 2004
WASHINGTON - No buttons, signs or unusual dress will distinguish the protesters from
the thousands who will line the inaugural parade route next month, but at a set
time, they say they will demonstrate against President Bush - by turning their backs on the chief executive.
Coupled with the widely expected pomp and pageantry of a presidential inauguration are demonstrations by protesters angered by Bush's policies, in particular the war in Iraq.
Getting ready for Jan. 20, 2005, various groups are using Web sites, e-mails, fliers and word of mouth to urge thousands of demonstrators to gather in the nation's capital.
Among planned events are an anti-war rally and three-mile march to the White House, a massive bike ride similar to those that disrupted traffic in New York City before the Republican National Convention, and a "die-in" to remind the nation of more than 1,200 U.S. dead in Iraq.
Through the Web site www.turnyourbackonbush.org, organizers are urging demonstrators to leave political buttons and placards at home, join other parade-goers on the afternoon of the inauguration and then, as Bush's motorcade passes, show the president their backs.
"Turning your back is as old as authority itself," said Jet Heiko, a
Philadelphia-based protest organizer. "It's a very understandable symbol for defying authority."
On its Web site, the group called it a unique action because "we won't know who is participating until the moment it begins."
The DC Anti-War Network is organizing a rally and march to the White House on the morning of the inauguration, getting the word out through the Web site
www.counter-inaugural.org, which says, "Bush isn't going away, and neither are we."
The violence in Iraq was one reason more than 100,000 protesters filled New York City streets on a Sunday morning in August before the Republican convention. Organizers of the inauguration protests expect stronger feelings toward the war to persuade thousands to travel to Washington next month.
Heightened security, January weather and the calendar - the inauguration falls on a Thursday - are certain to limit the numbers.
In 2000, additional officers from the Metropolitan Police and other law enforcement agencies kept order, and no major confrontations occurred and only a handful of people were arrested. Security is expected to be even tighter for the first inauguration since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Four years ago, protest organizers capitalized on strong feelings over the disputed election, which had barely subsided, and the timing inauguration fell on a Saturday. This year's election was settled weeks ago, on Nov. 3, when Democratic Sen. John Kerry called to congratulate Bush.
Still, organizers hope to attract a crowd.
"We got 80 percent of people to protest the Republican Convention in New York in the last week," said Jim Macdonald of the DC Anti-War Network
Education Crisis... Is there hope?
Where do we go from here? Where do we turn when our most valuable freedom is being taken away? What do we say to those in power representing us who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year? They won't be around in 20 years to deal with our fucked up kids.
Last week, Oregon Health and Science University, one of the largest institutions in Portland that employs over 11,000 people, was informed by Governor Kulongoski that he was cutting the University budget by 40%: a mere $33 million over the next two years. Public school teachers around the state were also informed of statewide public education cuts: $400 million over the next biennium.
Sure, we've heard of cuts again and again. What will it take to make them realize the err of their ways? Poor and disabled folks unable to obtain any healthcare. Thousands more on unemployment. Troubled youth loitering outside the gated communities of Lake Oswego waiting to sell drugs to the rich kids.
OHSU's Board of Directors has already met to discuss ways to deal with the loss, most of which hit poor people and critical public service programs first. Oregon's elementary school class size is already the second highest in the nation. Some school districts are already operating on a four-day school week. Besides the fact that we aren't able to adequately teach our children, what kind of example are we setting? What do you do when you need something desperately? You certainly don't reassess the situation, reallocate assets or use common sense (because no one was around to teach you those skills). You just take it away from those that need it most.
