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Portland neighborhood addresses gun violence by transforming a turning lane into a park. It's working!

'You can see the smiles of the community and what they will always remember is that they were heard and we tried to help.'

Photo by Cory Woodward on Unsplash

Portland neighborhood transforms turning lane into park.

Amid a spiraling gun violence problem in America, one neighborhood in southeast Portland, Oregon, has done something to address a serious problem. Its actions have dramatically decreased gun violence at a particularly active intersection. The local neighborhood association worked with city leaders to take the radical step of removing the turning lane and turning it into a park. Yeah, you read that correctly.

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Praise and gratitude continue to pour in for two men slain in Portland while defending two young girls from violent harassment on a train.

On, Friday, May 26, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Rick Best were stabbed by Jeremy Christian after they confronted him for harassing two young girls, one wearing a hijab.

The response around the globe has been nothing short of inspiring.

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Portland's mayor took a stand against hate, but the ACLU is pushing back. Here's why.

You can't overcome hate with censorship, but that doesn't mean it has to win.

On May 26, 35-year-old Jeremy Joseph Christian allegedly stabbed three men on board a Portland light-rail train after they attempted to intervene on behalf of a Muslim woman who Christian was verbally harassing.

Two of those men, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best, died while a third, Micah Fletcher, survived.

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There are two sides to the Thanksgiving story — the one taught in most American grade schools and a more complicated one that coexists alongside it.

Every year, millions of Americans gather around family tables to eat turkey and toast the fellowship of the Pilgrims and their American Indian hosts. And every year, Native American educators attempt to re-contextualize the holiday to add more first-American perspectives to the traditional telling of the history.

The differences are often striking: While most lesson plans treat the first Thanksgiving as a feast co-planned by the Pilgrims and their Native neighbors, from the Wampanoag perspective, the meal was one they happened upon by accident and nonetheless helped rescue with a successful deer hunt. While many non-Native Americans treat the feast as a celebration, many Native people observe the holiday as a day of mourning.

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