History: Pause, think and remember

By Callie Vandewiele '08 

Almost three quarters of a century ago, 72 years on December 7th to be exact, the course of the history of the United States of America dramatically shifted and forever changed.  

At 7:48am, Hawaiian time, Japanese planes flying low over the US naval base on Oahu.  The ensuing attack, which took the men below by complete surprise, would result in 8 ships being sunk, with nearly a dozen more damaged, over 300 aircraft lost, and the deaths of 2,402 Americans.  Most of them military personnel. 

For a nation burned by World War I, and dedicated to leaving the world’s problems, to the world, the bombing of Pearl Harbour was a rude awakening.  An unwanted and costly notice that sometimes the world’s problems belonged to the whole world, and not just to one nation or region.  In bombing Pearl Harbour, the Japanese central command hoped to permanently cripple the United States military in the Pacific--and by doing so to limit US involvement in the escalating war.

In a world before twitter, instant updates, death tolls reported in online news sources, or even common color photography, the US government and population had put it’s whole might behind the war effort before all the families of the killed servicemen had even been properly notified.  A behemoth of an economic engine, shifted overnight, and with it the destiny of the United States.  The next five years would cost the nation dearly in both money and blood.  And yet at the end of the war, in 1946, the United States stood at the edge of the world stage as both the strongest military and economic force in the world.

It’s easy to take a minute to pause and think about soldiers on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day, and there was a time when WWII veterans were common.  Most men that most of us knew.  Not anymore.  As each year rolls by those surviving veterans get a little older and little fewer in number.  The people whose sons and brothers and fathers and husbands were on the USS Arizona or the USS California aren’t all around to light candles each year anymore. 

December 7th is bit by bit turning into just another day.  Just another point in history that we’re supposed to memorize to pass an exam sometime in the 10th grade.  Just another war that the United States fought and won. 

But December 7th is not just another day.  And the war that it launched pushed the United States into a position of world dominance (wanted or not at the time).  Our history, we learned, will be marked with moments when we as a nation get to choose our response, and in choosing our response, choosing our future.

The greatest generation woke up to newspaper headlines about ships sinking in the Pacific.  The millennials awoke to live news coverage of buildings falling down in Manhattan.  We cannot say which crises our grandchildren will face---or whether they will come in the sickening thud of sudden attacks, or the slow rise of global temperatures.  What we can ask of ourselves and of them, is to always remember.  To pause and reflect on the anniversaries of the days that the world shifted and changed.  To read the stories of the heros and the families.

To know the heavy burden of what choices we as a people make when faced with tragedies beyond comprehension.  To know that when we define the cost of an American life, we are valuing it in comparison to the cost of other, non-American, lives, and that the decisions we make can alter the world in good, bad and unknown ways.

So when December 7th rolls around, take a pause.  Think, and remember.

Sources include the US Navy Museum Website (http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/teach/pearl/aftermath/facts.htm) and USHistory.Org

Vandewiele '08 originally wrote this piece for the Beaverton-Valley Times in December 2013. 

Growing up here, this couldn't happen

By Callie Vandewiele '08 

The photo on the front page of the CNN website at 8:58 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 11 was a little disconcerting. It was a little disconcerting because it was of a place where I grew up. 

And on Fox News, BBC America and MSNBC, it was the same thing. 

The CNN headline reading "Gunman Opens Fire in Oregon Mall" was placed over a photo of the cinema where I watched the first Spider-Man movie and griped about the shiny Hollywood-style concrete they put in when they redesigned the entrance. 

The last time somewhere this familiar to me ended up on the news was in 2007, when an Eagle Creek man who was being evicted locked his three 200-pound pigs in the house before the bank repossessed it. They destroyed the house. That made the front page on what was perhaps a slow news day at The Oregonian. This is different. 

Growing up in Estacada, you kind of get the feeling that this sort of thing happens somewhere else -- not here. Sure, there's domestic violence. Some of us drop out of school, it can seem like half of us face serious battles with drugs and alcohol before we're even legal, and we all knew someone who got pregnant in 10th grade. 

But that's different. That stuff happens, and it happens to people we know. 

Someone walking into the mall -- the mall where I grew up, where I went Christmas shopping, where my sister worked for one eternal holiday season -- and pulling out a gun? That doesn't happen. In my mind it can't. At least, not here. But it did, and the proof is everywhere. It's odd to see the Clackamas Town Center layout spread across pages and pages of the Internet. 

Clackamas. Home. A place I wasn't allowed to hang out at alone until I was 16. It's so mundane. So Clackamas County. We're supposed to be famous for being bumpkins. Not for mall shootings. 

The awful truth is that this has been a reality for people in Colorado, people in Virginia, people in Texas -- Americans throughout the whole country -- a lot longer than it has been a reality for me. 

I always felt sad, shocked and bothered whenever I'd see the word "shooting" dance across the top of a news page. "Wow," I'd think, "I wonder if we can help." Then I'd follow it up with "I'm so glad I'm here, far away from all that. It's been a long time since anyone did anything like that here." 

Facing it, up front and personal like this, in a place so familiar to my high school years, suddenly reminds me how we are not immune to a form of violence that is increasing across the country. 

Vandewiele '08 pictured above

We can no longer disassociate ourselves from that bitter, dark trend. As the days and weeks unfold, we'll grieve with families, the 6 o'clock news will run grim expositions on what might have driven a human being to do this, people will fight for gun control and other people will oppose it. Eventually, the Clackamas County sheriff will release a report, and the whole thing will die down, fading slowly into history. 

For now, we will pray, send good thoughts, gather as a community and heal. What we should not forget is that this is not an isolated incident. Unless we take a long, hard look at the underlying causes, it won't be too long before another community has to face the terrifying and brutal truth that this is a national problem, and that this kind of violence has roots that run deeper than simple personal psychosis. To solve it, we need to do more than mourn. 

Vandewiele '08 graduated from Pacific with a degree in Politics and Government, and currently work for Girl Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington. She is an avid bicycle commuter and local improviser. This piece was originally showcased as a Letter to the Editor for The Oregonian.

Autism Awareness Month

Francis '99

Liz Francis '99

So, here it is, almost the end of April. 

April, if you are my Facebook friend know by now, is Autism Awareness Month! 

This year, I thought I would try something new and I dedicated my Facebook page to Autism Awareness Month. Every day, I posted a new fact or thought about autism and pictures which encourage awareness and education on the subject of autism. And, I got tremendous responses! 

So many people have thanked me for doing this because a lot of them don't know much about autism. I love the feeling I get when I am able to help educate others on autism and how it is such a major part of my life. My son, Allen is almost seven now and is just thriving in first grade! He is still in the Structured Routine Center program at Sexton Mountain Elementary school which is a specialized classroom for children with autism taught by an amazing staff, including Ashlee Yokom. 

He has been showing tremendous improvement in academics, speech, and social skills. He is much more active socially and is not as tentative about initiating language. I also know this is due to his private speech therapist, Megan Snow, who has been amazing in Allen's language development. So much has been happening in our household over the last year, including the arrival of a baby cousin for Allen, who he absolutely adores! 

Overall, this April has been a good chance for me to spread the word about autism and help others understand that although April is Autism Awareness Month, autism is a daily thing for me and my family and I want others to know and appreciate both the challenges and the joys of raising a son with autism.  

For those who want to help, I am sponsoring a team in the Autism Speaks walk this August and I would love it if people would join our team and walk with us, or if you can't make it, you are welcome to make a donation towards our team. All funds go to Autism Speaks, an organization that helps educate on the topic of autism, and also researches the causes and treatments of autism so that people may benefit from new techniques. I am attaching a link to my walk page. Thanks to all who have read my Facebook page and have asked me questions about autism.  

http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1010337&lis=0&kntae1010337=AD7B0605F05D409FA3618AC8B871944C

Francis '99 was an art major with an emphasis in photography at Pacific. She is the Office Manager at Degenkolb Engineers in downtown Portland and has been with my company for a little over three years. She is about to celebrate her 13^th wedding anniversary with her husband, Jason. Along with autism awareness, Francis also enjoys photography and wine tasting. She still hangs out with a lot of her friends from Pacific and they continue to hang at their old college hang-out, the Dublin Pub.  But her son, Allen, is the highlight of her life since college.