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Talking Story  by Polo

From The Asian Reporter, V18, #5 (January 29, 2008), page 7.

On last December’s very last Monday morning, the Portland Tribune published its "2007 Culture Quiz."

"Take this quiz," the Tribune’s Portland Life section began in bold, "to find how closely you were paying attention to the arts, local culture, and current events in 2007."

"Oh boy," I said to my hot mug of Peet’s smoky Sumatra, "I love a morning tease." What’s more, I’ve always been up on our peep’s highs and lows. Portland’s one place on our precious planet I know pretty well.

That’s what I was mumbling to myself, spreading that paper and scanning those clever questions. So Q number 2 goes: "The Museum of Contemporary Craft opened on the North Park Blocks on the former site of what?" Offered answers were: a gay disco; a chop shop; an American Indian burial ground; a fabric store.

"Hmm." I knew for sure, the answer was not Indian holy ground. We would’ve heard about it. We would’ve worked on it. On them. You know, those Portlanders not always as connected as us traditional-types. The Irreverent Ones.

"Hmmm. Never mind." I skipped the question, not knowing their answer, and que mas: it wouldn’t have mattered much to those mattering a lot to me.

On to Tribune quiz question 3. "Which of these Portland cultural organizations is advertised as the oldest of its kind in the nation?"

"All right," I said aloud. I know something about o-o-old Portland stuff, like tribal councils, Filipino labor organizations, Chinatown family associations, and the like — you know, those elder aunties and big uncles we’ve always gone to when your business goes busuk.

But the only answers offered were a couple of big symphonies, a ballet theater, and a pro wrestling clinic. "Hmm." I sipped some more Sumatran and read on, hoping for something more homey.

It didn’t go so well, though I read carefully every last one of Tribune’s 35 Culture Quiz questions. Not even their answers, neatly set out on the bottom of B2, helped me much. But that’s not news.

What matters most, my dopiness aside, is that after finishing my first morning coffee, after folding 2007’s last Portland Tribune, I was pretty sure this paper’s editorial priorities, those rather exclusionary nods and elbows, had very little to do with our immigrant families, with our ethnic minority communities. With so many of us, making Portland ours.

So here are a few remedial quizzy questions. Here’s a little rehab on what mattered in 2007.

Test yourself:

As big as recalling when Mayor Potter sprouted his fab beard (Portland Tribune question 4) is knowing when veteran APANO activist Hue Le outed with his very cool goatee.

Indeed, who is APANO and what’ve they done to make our city hot and our schools cool?

A: Beard growing barely matters, but APANO’s work over our last decade matters a lot — educating Asian and islander voters; putting on public forums for candidates needing our votes to get them local, state, and federal offices; keeping bi-cultural/lingual staff working through our school district’s budget disasters; negotiating for culturally effective mental-health services as Port- land begins recognizing our communities’ diversity. To name a few.

As important as what musical Chicago star Tom Wopat did at Portland’s Keller Auditorium (Tribune Q. 9) — chillier than any performance of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, was what U.S. ICEmen did to whom when they went where in June ’07.

A: ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) officers rounded up and jailed 160 Del Monte workers; most were removed from the U.S., many had scared kids waiting on school steps. They still wait.

As meaningful as who nearly sued Sam Adams (Tribune Q. 27) last year, is which Portland Muslim spanked the FBI in 2007. Another local legal low point: Who did the Oregon State Bar, that regulatory body responsible for equal access to justice, ask to lend a credible process for clearing up their little ’07 Affirmative Action debacle?

A: (1) Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon attorney mistakenly linked to Barcelona’s 2004 passenger train bombing. Oops. And: (2) Dr. Phyllis Lee, recipient of the 2004 Asian Reporter Foundation "Lifetime Achievement Award."