Two nights ago, I tasted hope. It's sweetness came not from the homemade strawberry shortcake at our living room conversation on thorny immigration issues, nor from the soon-to-be flourishing produce in Newberg's newly completed community garden. Rather, that delicious sense of possibility came from Keyla, a young Latina organizer, who enthusiastically shared her vision of the garden as a space where young children and people with disabilities and immigrant newcomers will all work side-by-side, tending their plots and taking breaks at picnic tables under the large oak tree. And it came from the dozen folks gathered in Marni's living room, representing five different generations and multiple cultures, who demonstrated patience and compassion as we struggled to unpack the hate and fear that has become so embedded in our nation's discourse around immigration these days.
This jaunt to Yamhill County was my last official trip on the road as an organizer with the Rural Organizing Project. In several weeks I will leave ROP, and move to New York City for a nine-month stint at Columbia University, earning a master's degree in Oral History.