Author Archives: Jim Blackwood Jr

Portland’s Jefferson High — Why the Name is Essential

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Jim Blackwood Jr

  Over the years, the nascent movement to rename Portland’s Thomas Jefferson High School has bubbled just under the surface. Sometimes the heat gets turned up and the discussion breaks out again. We are, once again, in one of those … Continue reading →

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Who Are These Kids? #neveragain

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Jim Blackwood Jr

  After the Parkland Valentine’s Day massacre, the first time I knew this was going to be different was when I saw those kids on television. I kept saying out loud, “Who are these kids?” Poised. Articulate. Smart. Grieving and … Continue reading →

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Are you a White Supremacist too?

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Jim Blackwood Jr

The big, heavy blunt instrument feels so good. Anyone who has swung a sledgehammer knows how productive it feels. But that same person knows that the sledgehammer is indiscriminate. It destroys and often misses the mark. To build and finish … Continue reading →

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Coward? You May Never Know

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Jim Blackwood Jr

I can’t stop thinking about the case of Scott Peterson, the school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas High School. For 5 minutes, as shots rang out in a school building, he chose to wait outside. After 33 years as a … Continue reading →

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Why Live Music Keeps Me Alive

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Jim Blackwood Jr

I saw my first live rock show at 13 years old. In 1968, my mom dropped my buddy Gregg and I at the fair grounds so we could see Iron Butterfly. The opening act, from San Francisco, was called Floating … Continue reading →

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What Congress Can Do About Guns…Now!

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Jim Blackwood Jr

We have all seen this before. Right? Predictable violence against innocents followed by thoughts and prayers. Grieving people build shrines of flowers and balloons and painted signs. All of the news networks put their anchors on sleek Gulfstream 5 jets … Continue reading →

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Portland City Hall: It’s the System Stupid

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Jim Blackwood Jr

Portland City government is badly broken but not in the way that some people think. The public servants in City Hall work hard in a world of constraints, endless demands and never enough money or time to meet outsized expectations. … Continue reading →

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It Was My Hand

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Jim Blackwood Jr

  We flew down on my birthday. The funeral was the next morning. There are few things as consistently lovely as the Southern California weather in November. We had to be at the staging area at exactly 11:31 AM. Not … Continue reading →

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Sticks and Stones…

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Jim Blackwood Jr

Today, George W. Bush made the case against the rise of Trumpism. I don’t doubt the fact that Bush is a genuine patriot deeply concerned about the state of our republic. While I could go into a “lying sack of … Continue reading →

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The Road Taken — My Second Act

Posted on September 13, 2017 by Jim Blackwood Jr

When I take breaks from playing and working outdoors, I find myself streaming The West Wing on Netflix. Besides my fantasy of living in an Aaron Sorkin world where everyone is wicked smart and funny with heads brimming with useful … Continue reading →

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