I would be dead if I did the opposite. I managed to survive Jim Crow. As a vocational counselor I helped more than 13,000 Lane Co. residents find work, while working for the city and county. I'm the only black person to be a manager at EWEB in their 100 year history. I helped thousands of low income customers keep their utilities on. I documented that it is more cost effective to assist poor paying customers than punishing them. I designed assistance programs and I did fund raising outside of the utility rates. I got more that $20 million in donations to these programs. Over 90% of the folks helped were white. I was a founding board member of Well Spring Friends School that has saved many troubled youths. I'm the 1st black person to successfully sue EPD for false arrest of my teenage ward. EPD mistook 2 black 15 year old kids for a 30 year old Mexican bank robber. I helped create the police auditor position. I marched with MLK in 1964. How many have you helped get better lives?