Daniel Speaks

Daniel Ronan, an early Obama adopter, is a frequent visitor to this blog. He wants you to know that he has posted on the widely read Daily Kos.

He reports there that University of Oregon students stuck around Eugene during spring break just to hear Obama speak. Change IS in the wind.

Daniel graduated from Wilson High last year and was one of the inspired instigators of the senior peace-symbol-planting prank that turned into a feel-good neighborhood clean-up party for Wilson.

Enough with the "Civil War"

Each year at this time, I rail against the use of “The Civil War” as the name for the rivalry between the University of Oregon and Oregon State.

The over-the-top appellation was invented by sportswriters back in the ‘20s, a mere 60 years after this nation suffered through a real Civil War.

I won’t go into my litany of reasons for dumping “the Civil War,” except to say that the play on words is stale, obtuse (It hinges on the word “civil.” Get it?) and decidedly unfunny.

Civil Wars, including our own, are blood-drenched, soul-wrenching tragedies. (see Mathew Brady's photograph)

Back in 2001, I actually thought I had some traction on the issue when I wrote the presidents of the two universities following 9/11. You may recall that in that wrenching time of reflection we were allegedly experiencing an “end of irony.”

In the spirit of ending the irony of a mere college rivalry escalating to "war," both presidents responded with moderate interest in my proposal. Nothing came of it. The country was too busy preparing to foment a real civil war in Iraq.

Now, through my Portland Community College teaching and other activities, I have contacts among students at the University of Oregon. I am urging one of them, Daniel Ronan (Wilson High School, ’07), to form “Students, Teachers and Alumni for Ending ‘The Civil War.’” Daniel was one of the organizers of this spring’s Wilson senior prank, the planting of marigolds in the shape of a peace symbol on the school grounds.

He stuck his toe in the war with a recent letter to the editor to UO’s Daily Emerald.

More than getting rid of the name Civil War, I hope this group, if it ever gets off the ground, can come up with a clever alternative name for the rivalry.

I’ve thought of a few over the years. “The Clear Cut,” “The Wet One,” and “Venue in the Valley.”

Don’t like those?

It’s your turn ….

P.S. The Oregonian sports page was in sync with its war metaphor today when it ran a story about injured Duck and Beaver players. The headline read: “The Wounded.” The story tells us that the “wounds” are all part of “a battle of attrition.”

Hey, it’s time for a journalistic armistice.

Peace already.

(To the right: Real Civil War wounded. Photo by Mathew Brady)

Blessings of Wilson's peace prank

The “restoration” of the Wilson High School plaza after peace pranksters cleverly transformed it into a “Peace Garden” was a feel-good event at mid-day today.

On Sunday night 3o seniors (pictured below), among them Maggie Collins and project leader Daniel Ronan (pictured upper right), created a huge peace symbol (last picture) out of 2,000 marigolds.

When Collins openly admitted to her involvement, school administrators threatened to withhold her diploma until she paid the $1000 restoration costs.

Today, friends, family and community came to her rescue.

Many of the pranksters, along with parents, other students and community volunteers, moved the marigolds and filled in the spokes of the symbol with sod. There may have been 100 people on hand for the work.

Today’s event came with many blessings, to say nothing of pizza, croissants and Gail Baack’s chocolate chip cookies, oh, and a minor media feeding frenzy of two TV film crews and an Oregonian reporter.

Blessing number one was that we found more work to do and had the hands available to do it. We weeded the garden, and then a small team went off to pull ivy in the trees north of the Wilson campus.

Blessing number two was that the newly sodded grass will contrast with the old grass. A subtle peace symbol lives at Wilson.

Blessing number three was that many businesses contributed to today’s project: Safeway — bananas and cream cheese, Noah's (bagels), Three Square Grill (beignets, French donuts), Baker and Spice (various baked goods), Rudy's pizza on Powell (pizzas), Wild Oats (water) and Portland Nursery (sod).

Blessing number four was that in the course of digging and scraping, someone hit a solid object under the turf next to the round garden’s perimeter. More scraping unearthed a square of a mosaic. Roman perhaps? No, more scraping revealed it to be definitely Trojan, as in the Wilson High School Trojans.

Still more Scrapings and the crew unearthed a 19-foot-long mosaic of letters spelling “Wilson High School — 2002.” A mere five years old, it was well along to becoming an archeological artifact.

So the class of 2007’s prank, a gift of peace, unearthed a bounty of new blessings.

One, we are told, leads others.

Peace Garden blooms at Wilson High

Daniel Ronan, the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association Board's first student member and a Wilson High School senior, reports that last Sunday night 35 seniors used marigolds to transform Wilson's central courtyard into a peace sign.

The planting was the seniors' graduation prank and bears the signature "Seniors 07."

The work, which involved planting more than 2,000 flowers, took approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Daniel writes, "The peace sign has a history at Wilson high school this year. In late February and early March, students from the Peace and Social Justice Club put up peace signs and messages with washable paint on various classroom windows. The depictions were done with the consent of each teacher whose classroom was used. But a parent's complaint about the signs sparked a debate as to whether the messages of peace were political."

The school administration instructed the students to take the peace messages down .

Sunday's prank planting will be removed and the original sod restored this Saturday at 11 a.m. The pranksters are inviting the community to help with the work.

It should be a fun event in a good cause.

"Picturing" Peace in Hillsdale

Wilson High School senior Daniel Ronan is a real spark plug for change in our Hillsdale neighborhood. One of his many causes is the peace movement.

Daniel has taken some photos from last Friday's Hillsdale peace vigil and posted them on his Flickr site. When you pass over the site photos with your cursor, his comments pop up next to the pictures. His photo to the right is of a girl whose brother is a Marine in Iraq.

Please join us at Capitol Highway and Sunset Boulevard this Friday evening, and every Friday evening, at 5:30 for our peaceful demonstrations.

For a half hour, we share the message of peace with hundreds of homebound commuters.