A Quick Break In Our Soccer Coverage

The SOLV annual Oregon Spring Beach Cleanup is fast approaching, specifically March 26th from 10-1 PM. Additional information here. This is a fabulous volunteer opportunity that we take advantage of every year. The beach cleanup is a good thing in itself that is connected with a truly laudable organization dedicated to making Oregonians better stewards of their state. The cause is made all the more important this year because of the high amount of debris that washed up with the Pacific tsunami last week.

We'll be grabbing trash at a State park beach somewhere south of Newport, just like last year (see photo). It's the Oregon coast, so the weather very likely might not cooperate, but who needs Coronas and beach balls? Swirling winds and a steady drizzle were good enough for the little guy in the photo at left.

And because this wouldn't be a Plain Blog About Oregon without gratuitous references to our favorite Oregonians, here's a hastily snapped cameraphoto copy of Oregon Governor Tom McCall from the 1971 battle to establish the Oregon Bottle Bill. The original photo is from Brenth Walth's must-read Fire At Eden's Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story. McCall was instrumental in the growth of SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism) and made Oregon a national model for waste management & recycling when he signed the SOLV-backed bottle bill in 1971. The photo was taken a day after McCall made his first endorsement of the bottle bill. "I want to put a price on the head of every beer and pop can and bottle in the United States," he said in January 1970, as he announced his support. The next month, he told a group of industry lobbyists the following: "The environmental crisis towers over us like a massive cresting wave. If we establish standards and hold ourselves to them, we resist engulfment and save ourselves- and business- from inundation, ocean to ocean, by bottles and containers... What happens in Oregon is going to set a precedent for the rest of the nation. We are the key state in what I feel will be a domino reaction- and as the key domino, the way we move will set off a chain reaction."

Amazing stuff. Oh, and by the way, McCall was a Republican!