Autumn 2003 Issue

Want to Get Involved?
Volunteer with the Task Force!

We know that many of you do volunteer work already, but if you have a little time each week, each month, or only once in a while, we need you! Here are some of the opportunities available:
· Office Support: answer and log phone calls; log email messages; help with organizing and archiving documents, help with mailings;
· Event Helpers: help coordinate individual events; distribute WHRTF info; assist with set-up/clean up; provide baked goods and other snacks; provide child care; and other tasks;
· Publicity: design poster and flyers; distribute posters and flyers; make phone calls; write press releases;
· Film series coordinator: help select films for the WHRTF monthly human rights film series; reserve space for showing; arrange publicity;
· Serve on standing committees including: Education; Fundraising; Membership; Victim Referral;
· There's lots more—let us know how YOU would like to help!

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Want to Get REALLY Involved? Be a Board Member!

The Task Force is currently recruiting additional nominees for one recently vacated board position. Please nominate fellow Task Force members to serve on the board.

Contact the WHRTF office at 733-2233 or nominees@whrtf.org. Please include your name and contact info along with info about the individual you are nominating.

The Board of Directors is charged by the general membership with guiding the Task Force in upholding its mission. The Board consists of eleven members. Board members are elected to terms of two years, with six positions filled one year and five the next.

2003-04 Board of Directors—one position open

Lisa Fox, Chair; Barbara Rofkar, Vice Chair; Julie Mauermann, Acting Secretary; Geneva Blake*, Treasurer; Joe Deeny; Nate Johnson*; Dennis Lane; Ceci Lopez*; Berns Portervint; Belle Shalom.
* Positions subject to confirmation at the Dec. 10 membership meeting.

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Literacy: It's a Human Right
by Whatcom Literacy Council Staff

Imagine what life would be like if you could not read to your children or grandchildren, help with their school work, read a book, a prescription bottle, apply for a job or health care. It is estimated that one in five adults in the United States is functionally illiterate. This means that 30,000 adults in Whatcom County may need literacy services.

The Whatcom Literacy Council will be hosting two volunteer tutor orientations in January for those interested in helping an adult learn to read and write or use English as a second language.
· Monday, January 12, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm, Bellingham Technical College, Building G;
· Thursday, January 22, 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm, Whatcom Community College (call for location).

You are welcome to come to either session to learn more about becoming a volunteer tutor. Tutors must be at least 18 years old and have graduated from high school. No previous teaching or foreign language skills are needed. Training is provided and tutoring is done in your own community. Many are patiently waiting for your help.

The Whatcom Literacy Council is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that has been serving all of Whatcom County since 1987. The Whatcom Literacy Council's mission is to help adults in Whatcom County learn to read or use English as a second language.
For more information, please call 647-3264 or visit www.whatcomliteracy.org.

~"I believe that our mission of helping adults obtain literacy skills is critical in human rights issues. If people have low literacy skills, how can they get information/knowledge needed to stand up for themselves and their rights as workers and individuals"~
— Whatcom Literacy Council staff member

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WHRTF Book Group Serves up Food for Thought

—by Belle Shalom, WHRTF Board member
The WHRTF Book Group is going strong. We continue to read a variety of books that have added to our awareness of different cultures and perspectives.

We just completed "Mexican Labor and WWII: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest 1942-1945", by Ernesto Gambos, which describes the use of Mexican immigration to help solve farm labor problems in the US during the early 1940s, and provides a glimpse into how the US Department of Labor developed over the years. Different government agencies competed for power, to the detriment of the farm laborers. Immigrant workers contributed billions of dollars in labor and were largely responsible for continued food production in the US during the war.

Earlier this summer, we read "To Fish in Common", by Daniel Boxberger, who joined us for a discussion about the history of Lummi fishing and its deterioration due to highly mechanized corporate fisheries and canneries.

In recent months we have read books by bell hooks, Dalton Conley, Sapphire, Linda Hogan, Sherman Alexie, Derrick Bell, Vine Deloria, Richard Delgado, and others.

We continue to read and discuss. The group is open to all; anyone can jump in at anytime. The more perspectives the better. We meet once a month at a member's home.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 2 at 7:00 PM. We will discuss "Walkin' the Talk: An Anthology of African American Studies", edited by Bill Lyne and Vernon Damani Johnson.
For more information, please contact Belle at 671-0631
For a list of current books and ordering information please see our book club page.
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Sixth Annual MLK Conference
Saturday, January 17, 2004
Preview
view full details on conference page

Reflecting on the Dream: A Half Century Later
– by Vernon Damani Johnson,
MLK Conference Planning Committee Chair

2004 marks the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark 1954 decision by the US Supreme Court that 'separate but equal' education for different races is unconstitutional. This ruling kindled the fire of the Civil Rights Movement, which would gain full force a year later with the Montgomery, AL Bus Boycott organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and its president, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The annual MLK Conference is organized around the central theme of civil rights. In keeping with the spirit of Brown, this year's work shop sessions will highlight education issues. In light of that emphasis, I am delighted to announce that Dr. James Banks, Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington will be featured as the conference keynote speaker. An internationally recognized leader in the field of multicultural education, Dr. Banks has also agreed to conduct a two-hour workshop on multicultural curriculum and teaching for educators.

Other sessions that are being planned include:
· Student Activism Then and Now, a panel discussion led by college and high school students
· No Child Left Behind Legislation: Implications and Implementation
· The Power of Identity
· African Americans' Role in the Civil Rights Movement

The day-long conference will take place on Saturday, January 17, 2004.
The complete program and schedule of other MLK-related events [see Conference page]
Conference location:Sehome High School
For more information, please contact Damani at 650-4874 or by email

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Jazz for MLK, Jr
Sweet Music, Great Cause

On Saturday, November 1,2003 WHRTF hosted a benefit Jazz concert at Boundary Bay Brewery that featured Los Angeles' Hammond B3 master Mikal Majeed, Seattle's Gary Hammond on tenor sax, and Bellingham’s own Nicholas Hoffman on guitar and Patty Padden on drums.

One hundred percent of the procceeds from donations collected at the door will be used to fund Martin Luther King Day events in Bellingham in January 2004.

Thanks to all who attended the concert.
Special thanks to Nicholas for once again generously offering to hold a benefit in support of human rights, and for bringing this quartet of top-rate jazz musicians together for the first time in Bellingham.
We extend our appreciation to the event co-sponsors, the Community Food Co-op, Carnelian Corporation, Manna Music, and Stratton-Kehl Publications

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Whatcom Civil Rights Project
Volunteer Training Contines

WHRTF and The Whatcom Civil Rights Project (WCRP) held a two-hour training session for volunteers on October 1. The training was conducted by local attorney Breean Beggs, WHRTF Board member Berns Portervint, and Fairhaven College Law & Diversity Program student Kathryn Johnson, who serves as the project's student coordinator. Over two dozen people participated in the training.

The Whatcom Civil Rights Project was founded in the fall of 2001 as a joint endeavor of LAW Advocates, WHRTF, and the Law and Diversity Program of Fairhaven College at Western Washington University. The WCRP provides free legal assistance and advocacy for victims of discrimination and civil rights abuse in the greater Whatcom County region.

Student volunteers from the Law & Diversity Program and WHRTF volunteers work together to conduct intake interviews with victims of alleged civil rights violations who have been referred the WCRP. During interviews, student volunteers seek to identify possible legal claims and then write case summaries of the facts, which are later presented to an Attorney Review Panel. WHRTF volunteers serve as advocates for the victims of alleged civil rights violations and help to provide them with access and referrals to non-legal resources.

More advocate volunteers are welcome and needed on an ongoing basis.
For more infomation about training and volunteer opportunities with the Whatcom Civil Rights Project, please contact the WHRTF office at 733-2233 or whrtf@whrtf.org.

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Letter from WHRTF Chair

Racist Symbolism of Flag Must be Understood
It seems frustrating to find ourselves dealing, yet again, with the undying symbols of racism, hatred and intolerance, especially as we prepare to enter the WHRTF’s tenth year of existence. This time, though, we didn’t find a burning cross on a front lawn, as we did ten years ago; we instead found nooses hanging from trees in our children’s school yard. We also found students wishing to express pride in their heritage. The display of the Confederate flag became their symbol of expression and rebellion in spite of the overt racist connotations.

The students of MHS, after these two allegedly unrelated incidents brought disciplinary actions, found themselves asking some hard questions. They questioned their right to rebel, their right to freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate pride in their heritage. These quickly became major topics of discussion.

In the glare of the media, community members, including members of the WHRTF, began holding dialogue and discussions regarding those questions and it involved the history of the Civil War and the Confederate Flag. This time, though, we found ourselves going deeper into history than just the South’s fight for independence. The discussions included the fight for independence that involved the continued enslavement of black people. This time we found ourselves differentiating between the symbols of rebellion and symbols of racism and oppression.

Thankfully, the Meridian School Board took a powerful stand – zero tolerance for demonstration or display of images which would promote racism and deter them from their mission of educating all students in a safe environment free of intimidation. It was a powerful statement and an empowering statement. As a result of this stand by the Meridian School Board, the students now have the freedom to continue these discussions, in a safe environment, which is their right and heritage as citizens and community members.

We as a community must take this opportunity to allow for a wider discussion. We must bring the unrequited voices of the rebel, the frustrated voices of students who just want to go to school and the voices of concerned citizens to some kind of public forum where we as a community can begin to balance the need for freedom of expression by a few with the right of all to feel safe.

We must bring to the discussion the possible danger that actions by this few can hold hostage not just the racial and ethnic minorities but the whole community. We must recognize that an act of intimidation indeed makes victims of us all. The future of our community lies in our differences; our growth lies in having more than one type of thinking.

The WHRTF stands ready to “come to the table” of public forum and help unify our community here in Whatcom County.

In Peace and Solidarity,
Lisa Fox, Chair of WHRTF

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WHRTF can use your financial support!

Please take a moment to read our 2003 "ASK" letter.[link to Ask letter]
It helps you to understand what we do for our community and what we hope to realize in the coming year.
** Thank you from the volunteers at WHRTF