Susan Wickstrom composed a poem that was published in the Willamette Week:
MICHAEL STOOPS
There is no hero like an activist
To make us feel respect,
Especially a homeless advocate
who always does his best.
But then the sad truth comes to light
And everybody knows:
This "hero" was actually a pedophile
Snagging boys at Baloney Joe's.
____________________________________
Well put, Susan...very well put.
KFOR-TV
LIVE STREAMING TORNADO DAMAGE COVERAGE
FROM OKLAHOMA
LIVE STREAMING TORNADO DAMAGE COVERAGE
FROM OKLAHOMA
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Holy Moses
Once again, Dave Fitzpatrick has written a story that has caught my attention. Click on the post headline above and you will go to his story "Dreaming Of A White New Year" published in the Willamette Week.
Nazi skinheads are about to descend on Portland, Oregon next month. And the comments made by Jim Ramm in Fitzpatrick's story reflect an ignorance that should have died a long time ago.
I sent the following comments to the Willamette Week, and the words are directed at Jim Ramm and his band of idiots:
_______________________________________________
I'm Caucasian, I'm straight and I am not Jewish.
So???
In almost fifty-years of life I have learned that a person's biological construction, sexual preference [excluding pedophiles] and religious belief are NOT the "boogie man" that you need to go after.
There are so many miracles needed in this world and all you can come up with is a message of hate?
Over 60,000 people have died in a terrible natural disaster recently. Good people are either going to help or are providing money to aid the earthquake/tsunami survivors.And all you can come up with is a line of hatred twisted around a [swastika]symbol of human failure?
Hitler was a monster and he ended up losing what never should have been a battle in the first place.
Get over it!!!
I could fit very easily into your group but I don't want to! You disgust me.If this is the best that you will ever do with your life, then I pity you. You're nothing but a bad link in a worthless chain. Skin THAT!
_______________________________________________
Elton John recorded "Border Song" and a part of the lyrics say:
Holy Moses, I have been deceived
Let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease
There's a man over there
what's his color I don't care
He's my brother
let us live in peace
________________________________________________
Amen.
Hayden Lake is over, boys...Butler is gone...say goodbye and go away.
Nazi skinheads are about to descend on Portland, Oregon next month. And the comments made by Jim Ramm in Fitzpatrick's story reflect an ignorance that should have died a long time ago.
I sent the following comments to the Willamette Week, and the words are directed at Jim Ramm and his band of idiots:
_______________________________________________
I'm Caucasian, I'm straight and I am not Jewish.
So???
In almost fifty-years of life I have learned that a person's biological construction, sexual preference [excluding pedophiles] and religious belief are NOT the "boogie man" that you need to go after.
There are so many miracles needed in this world and all you can come up with is a message of hate?
Over 60,000 people have died in a terrible natural disaster recently. Good people are either going to help or are providing money to aid the earthquake/tsunami survivors.And all you can come up with is a line of hatred twisted around a [swastika]symbol of human failure?
Hitler was a monster and he ended up losing what never should have been a battle in the first place.
Get over it!!!
I could fit very easily into your group but I don't want to! You disgust me.If this is the best that you will ever do with your life, then I pity you. You're nothing but a bad link in a worthless chain. Skin THAT!
_______________________________________________
Elton John recorded "Border Song" and a part of the lyrics say:
Holy Moses, I have been deceived
Let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease
There's a man over there
what's his color I don't care
He's my brother
let us live in peace
________________________________________________
Amen.
Hayden Lake is over, boys...Butler is gone...say goodbye and go away.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
An Earthquake Of Perspective
As I sat digesting my Christmas dinner last night, half-watching tv and lazing in a turkey stupor...my email inbox suddenly began to fill up.
"Bing" "Bing" "Bing"...I got up and looked at my monitor screen...in shock.
For the past several years, I have subscribed to the United States Geological Survey earthquake alert service.
It's free and the USGS will send emails immediately following a substantial earthquake to anyone who signs up for the alerts.
SIGN UP, HERE.
Last night...those alerts began coming in at the rate of one every five minutes. And when the eighth alert read 8.9 I was stunned.
As many of you know, I spent a good portion of 2003 and 2004 in Alaska. And while I was there, I visited the coastal town of Valdez.
That town was the site of the last major earthquake in recorded history...which took place in March of 1964.
When the tremor and subsequent tsunami hit, the ground dropped twelve feet in places and the wave stripped all of the bark off of the trees. Those trees that were left standing, anyway.
When I walked through the area that took the hardest hit in Valdez, I saw a roof sticking out of the ground.
"Where's the rest of the house?" I asked my friend.
"Underneath the ground" He replied "The earth sucked down the whole thing."
With the exception of a monument that honors the dead, that area has been left alone since that day in 1964.
And my friend believes that people were buried alive when that house dropped out of sight.
This is what CNN had to say on its website today:
"An estimated 11,000 people are believed to have been killed by the 20-foot-high waves with the most severe death tolls in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand."
I understand the plight of the homeless here in Portland, Oregon.
But their concerns pale in comparison to what the people in the above-listed countries are dealing with today.
And although it's sad to say...sometimes it takes a natural disaster to bring things back into perspective.
I am blessed. So are many people living in this city...including the homeless ones.
And when it comes to terrorism, no wild-eyed renegade in existence would stand a chance against the onslaught of Mother Nature's fury.
Every human being is reminded of his/her mortality every time a major earthquake, tsunami, blizzard, tornado or hurricane hits.
So today I am seriously counting my blessings, crossing my fingers and appreciating what I've got.
UPDATE 2012: And now, following the terrible earthquake in JAPAN, IN 2011 , waves of debris are starting to WASH UP ON THE WESTERN SHORELINE of North America, all the way up to Alaska.
"Bing" "Bing" "Bing"...I got up and looked at my monitor screen...in shock.
For the past several years, I have subscribed to the United States Geological Survey earthquake alert service.
It's free and the USGS will send emails immediately following a substantial earthquake to anyone who signs up for the alerts.
SIGN UP, HERE.
Last night...those alerts began coming in at the rate of one every five minutes. And when the eighth alert read 8.9 I was stunned.
As many of you know, I spent a good portion of 2003 and 2004 in Alaska. And while I was there, I visited the coastal town of Valdez.
That town was the site of the last major earthquake in recorded history...which took place in March of 1964.
When the tremor and subsequent tsunami hit, the ground dropped twelve feet in places and the wave stripped all of the bark off of the trees. Those trees that were left standing, anyway.
When I walked through the area that took the hardest hit in Valdez, I saw a roof sticking out of the ground.
"Where's the rest of the house?" I asked my friend.
"Underneath the ground" He replied "The earth sucked down the whole thing."
With the exception of a monument that honors the dead, that area has been left alone since that day in 1964.
And my friend believes that people were buried alive when that house dropped out of sight.
This is what CNN had to say on its website today:
"An estimated 11,000 people are believed to have been killed by the 20-foot-high waves with the most severe death tolls in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand."
I understand the plight of the homeless here in Portland, Oregon.
But their concerns pale in comparison to what the people in the above-listed countries are dealing with today.
And although it's sad to say...sometimes it takes a natural disaster to bring things back into perspective.
I am blessed. So are many people living in this city...including the homeless ones.
And when it comes to terrorism, no wild-eyed renegade in existence would stand a chance against the onslaught of Mother Nature's fury.
Every human being is reminded of his/her mortality every time a major earthquake, tsunami, blizzard, tornado or hurricane hits.
So today I am seriously counting my blessings, crossing my fingers and appreciating what I've got.
UPDATE 2012: And now, following the terrible earthquake in JAPAN, IN 2011 , waves of debris are starting to WASH UP ON THE WESTERN SHORELINE of North America, all the way up to Alaska.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Michael Stoops Continues Silence/Tina Talks
When I read the "Broken Halo" article about Michael Stoops in the Willamette Week, I did everything I could to contact Michael.
I sent email, I called from here in Portland, Oregon to Washington DC [twice] and left voicemail messages with both Michael Stoops and Donald Whitehead. I even sat down and handwrote a letter [something that I rarely do] and sent it by snailmail to the National Coalition for the Homeless office.
No one there ever responded.
Tina told me that when the original article was released in 1987, she wasn't surprised. She said that two people that she knew on a professional basis had told her about Michael Stoop's indiscretions years before the WW investigation.
She believed them then and believes them now. She told me that she has no reason to doubt the validity of what they told her.
She said that if it happened today, Stoops would most likely be facing a hotter firestorm than he did back then.
She believes that today the suspicions surrounding Michael Stoops activities would result in a serious criminal investigation.
She further states that the public wouldn't stand for it. At all.
Chuck Chambers, who works as a private investigator [in Florida] and worked on the Carlie Brucia murder case, told me that a pedophile is a pedophile for life.
So did Michael Stoops somehow manage to slip through the judicial noose a guilty man?
Did he turn his back on the vulnerable people that he exploited?
Tina Frost insisted that Michael Stoops leave the Portland provider-system altogether after the sheet hit the fan blades.
I asked her if she would do it again if it happened today.
She said "yes" without a second of hesitation.
I sent email, I called from here in Portland, Oregon to Washington DC [twice] and left voicemail messages with both Michael Stoops and Donald Whitehead. I even sat down and handwrote a letter [something that I rarely do] and sent it by snailmail to the National Coalition for the Homeless office.
No one there ever responded.
Tina told me that when the original article was released in 1987, she wasn't surprised. She said that two people that she knew on a professional basis had told her about Michael Stoop's indiscretions years before the WW investigation.
She believed them then and believes them now. She told me that she has no reason to doubt the validity of what they told her.
She said that if it happened today, Stoops would most likely be facing a hotter firestorm than he did back then.
She believes that today the suspicions surrounding Michael Stoops activities would result in a serious criminal investigation.
She further states that the public wouldn't stand for it. At all.
Chuck Chambers, who works as a private investigator [in Florida] and worked on the Carlie Brucia murder case, told me that a pedophile is a pedophile for life.
So did Michael Stoops somehow manage to slip through the judicial noose a guilty man?
Did he turn his back on the vulnerable people that he exploited?
Tina Frost insisted that Michael Stoops leave the Portland provider-system altogether after the sheet hit the fan blades.
I asked her if she would do it again if it happened today.
She said "yes" without a second of hesitation.
Monday, December 20, 2004
Michael Stoops Is Silent/Tina's Talking
It took a while, but Tina Frost finally contacted me last night and we had a good conversation on the phone. She comes across as a very smart and kind lady. I'm sure she is.
Tina did work alongside the provider-system here in Portland, Oregon when the situation involving Michael Stoops first became public.
The Willamette Week did a "Where Are They Now?" series recently and Michael Stoops was one of the people featured. When I read the article [you can access it by clicking on the post headline above] I was shocked. Michael Stoops now works as Director of Community Organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless! His office is in Washington DC.
http://www.nationalhomeless.org
I have known Michael Stoops for many years. And I had no knowledge of what happened here in Portland back in the late 80's. But Tina Frost remembers the entire scenario very well.
Back in the late 80's the WW ran an article that brought forth allegations that Michael Stoops was having sex with minor boys. Stoops, who was managing a drop in center/shelter for homeless youth was called on the carpet for allegedly getting boys drunk and having sex with them in his hotel room.
Stoops denied it. An attorney named Don Marmaduke compiled a report that damned Michael.
The provider-system "imploded" as Tina Frost put it and the people of Portland went ballistic.
No formal charges were ever filed. BUT!!! In a phone call to me, Don Marmaduke told me that he stands by his report. In other words, Marmaduke believes that Michael did do it. So, as a matter of fact, does Tina Frost.
UPDATE: Michael Stoops has not made any effort, to this date (May 27, 2012) to discuss this matter with me or answer any of my questions. He is still aligned (according to the N.C.H. website) with the National Coalition for the Homeless.
I have been to many homeless shelters across the Country since I last updated this blog in 2008. And none of those shelters has received any significant assistance, of any kind, from either Michael Stoops or the N.C.H.
Tina did work alongside the provider-system here in Portland, Oregon when the situation involving Michael Stoops first became public.
The Willamette Week did a "Where Are They Now?" series recently and Michael Stoops was one of the people featured. When I read the article [you can access it by clicking on the post headline above] I was shocked. Michael Stoops now works as Director of Community Organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless! His office is in Washington DC.
http://www.nationalhomeless.org
I have known Michael Stoops for many years. And I had no knowledge of what happened here in Portland back in the late 80's. But Tina Frost remembers the entire scenario very well.
Back in the late 80's the WW ran an article that brought forth allegations that Michael Stoops was having sex with minor boys. Stoops, who was managing a drop in center/shelter for homeless youth was called on the carpet for allegedly getting boys drunk and having sex with them in his hotel room.
Stoops denied it. An attorney named Don Marmaduke compiled a report that damned Michael.
The provider-system "imploded" as Tina Frost put it and the people of Portland went ballistic.
No formal charges were ever filed. BUT!!! In a phone call to me, Don Marmaduke told me that he stands by his report. In other words, Marmaduke believes that Michael did do it. So, as a matter of fact, does Tina Frost.
UPDATE: Michael Stoops has not made any effort, to this date (May 27, 2012) to discuss this matter with me or answer any of my questions. He is still aligned (according to the N.C.H. website) with the National Coalition for the Homeless.
I have been to many homeless shelters across the Country since I last updated this blog in 2008. And none of those shelters has received any significant assistance, of any kind, from either Michael Stoops or the N.C.H.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Two Oregon Women Missing in 2004
I hitchhiked through Alaska, Whitehorse Yukon Territory Canada, Washington State, Montana, Iowa, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and Oregon this year.
And I am seriously fortunate to be alive!
Two women went missing this year in Oregon. And neither one of them took the risks that I did.
The mystery of their disappearance stays with me.
The first woman, Brooke Wilberger, vanished from Corvallis, Oregon on May 24, 2004. I went through Corvallis after Brooke disappeared. I talked to people who work at the local MacDonald's and the public library. I remember the ribbons and the big sign outside a church. Posters of Brooke were everywhere.
I left Corvallis and hitchhiked to a whistlestop town called Otis.
After buying a sandwich and a soda at a small store, I walked a short way up the road. I sat down on a log by a wooded area and munched my lunch. Then I walked a bit further and decided to take a stroll down a marked wooded path by a river.
After wandering through the woods for a short ways, I came upon something that totally unnerved me:
Someone had fashioned a large "X" out of branches in the middle of the path. Suddenly, that wooded area didn't seem lovely to me anymore. I'm not sure why. But I ran right out of there. I definitely got a bad vibe on that path!
The second woman, Kim Forbes, disappeared on October 31, 2004. She was last seen in the Hood River area of Oregon.
Kim's disappearance bothers me because she has such a kind face. Even though I don't know her personally, Kim's photos show her to be someone that I would love to hang out with. She appears to be fun-loving and kind.
Kim is also very close to my age.
It's obvious that someone knows what happened to these two women.
Br
I pray that God taps the right person on the shoulder and the answers are revealed in 2005.
[UPDATE 2012: Brooke Wilberger: Her killer, Joel Courtney CONFESSED and told investigators where they could find Brooke's remains.
KGW-TV 8 NEWS UPDATE, FEB. 2011
Kim Forbes: The Hood River County Sheriff's Office in Oregon is taking another look at the Forbes case. Kim Forbes was recently featured IN A NEWS STORY by KOIN-TV 6, on May 9, 2012.
And I am seriously fortunate to be alive!
Two women went missing this year in Oregon. And neither one of them took the risks that I did.
The mystery of their disappearance stays with me.
The first woman, Brooke Wilberger, vanished from Corvallis, Oregon on May 24, 2004. I went through Corvallis after Brooke disappeared. I talked to people who work at the local MacDonald's and the public library. I remember the ribbons and the big sign outside a church. Posters of Brooke were everywhere.
I left Corvallis and hitchhiked to a whistlestop town called Otis.
After buying a sandwich and a soda at a small store, I walked a short way up the road. I sat down on a log by a wooded area and munched my lunch. Then I walked a bit further and decided to take a stroll down a marked wooded path by a river.
After wandering through the woods for a short ways, I came upon something that totally unnerved me:
Someone had fashioned a large "X" out of branches in the middle of the path. Suddenly, that wooded area didn't seem lovely to me anymore. I'm not sure why. But I ran right out of there. I definitely got a bad vibe on that path!
The second woman, Kim Forbes, disappeared on October 31, 2004. She was last seen in the Hood River area of Oregon.
Kim's disappearance bothers me because she has such a kind face. Even though I don't know her personally, Kim's photos show her to be someone that I would love to hang out with. She appears to be fun-loving and kind.
Kim is also very close to my age.
It's obvious that someone knows what happened to these two women.
Br
I pray that God taps the right person on the shoulder and the answers are revealed in 2005.
[UPDATE 2012: Brooke Wilberger: Her killer, Joel Courtney CONFESSED and told investigators where they could find Brooke's remains.
KGW-TV 8 NEWS UPDATE, FEB. 2011
Kim Forbes: The Hood River County Sheriff's Office in Oregon is taking another look at the Forbes case. Kim Forbes was recently featured IN A NEWS STORY by KOIN-TV 6, on May 9, 2012.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
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