Hope Marston

On November 25, 2002, Eugene became the 15th city nationwide to pass a resolution in opposition to the USA PATRIOT Act, the hastily-passed post-9/11 law that revokes civil liberties under the pretext of fighting terrorism. "By now, 87 communities have passed resolutions," says Hope Marston, a founder of the Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee. "Congress is starting to sit up and take notice." After high school in Peoria, Marston studied journalism at Southern Illinois, then spent 20 years as a TV news reporter and producer in several states. She wound up in Seattle, working for the McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. "I got out in '95, when Newt Gingrich got in," she says. "Even PBS is corporate TV now, not public TV." Marston tried her hand at criminal-defense investigation, then left Seattle, spent a year at Breitenbush, and settled in Eugene in 1999. She works part-time as a secretary at the UO. "I wasn't into activism until I got involved with the Green Party and the Ralph Nader campaign in 2000," she says. "With all that's happened since then, there's more and more work to do." To learn more about the campaign for civil liberties, see www.hopemarston.com.

happening people photograph and story by Paul Neevel Eugene Weekly / 24 April 2003