Free Community Meetings with
Community Rights Douglas County
We hope you can all join us in our efforts to create communities in Douglas County
that are vibrant, sustainable and that recognize the Rights of all the entities in those communities.
Thursday, June 26th @6pm
Roseburg Public Library, rm. 17
THIS MONTH: We will be reviewing recent events, watching three short Oregon Stand videos, discussing our “Statement on the Principles of Free Government” and our plans to distribute it in Douglas county.
Thursday, May 22nd, 6:30pm – 8pm – On Zoom!
Presentation: An Agrarian Republic in Douglas County
Watch it live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Fy4cc72Wk
Presented by: Zach Whitworth – born and raised in Roseburg, Oregon. After attending primary and secondary school in Glide and Roseburg, he studied Art & Art History at Southern Oregon University in Ashland and completed a baccalaureate at Portland State University. He has previously worked with the Elsewhere Museum (NC), the Jewish Museum (NY), and the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (CA). He is currently affiliated with the Institute for Social Ecology (VT) and is a forthcoming graduate student in History at the University of Oregon.
In 1883, a motley crew of Russian Jews arrived in Douglas County with aspirations to work the land and model a new moral life. The Odessa Society of Farmers, otherwise known as the New Odessa Community, established themselves on 760 acres near present-day Glendale in the Cow Creek Valley, and for about four years attempted to create a Russian-style village based on common ownership and mutual cooperation. As they cultivated the soil and helped to construct the Oregon & California railroad, they engaged in critical debates amongst themselves about science, religion, economy, and how to build a just society. Some advocated atheistic anarchism, while others preached a radical conservatism. These discussions and changing conditions would lead the New Odessans to intentionally depart from Oregon by the end of 1886, with many core members later joining other utopian communities and engaging with burgeoning popular social movements.
What can New Odessa teach us about our region’s place in the broader world? And how might we gain through conversation with this piece of local history? Homegrown historian Zach Whitworth will present a novel view of New Odessa, offering key new insights from original research spanning three years and counting. We will address the life and legacy of the community, its members, and their ideas, which we may yet learn from and think with.
Saturday, March 22nd, Noon – 2pm
Deer Creek rm. Roseburg LibraryWatershed Protection and Community Rights
Featuring Michelle Holman and Rob Dickinson of Community Rights Lane County – Discussing the Lane County Watersheds Bill of Rights Initiative.
Also featuring Bob Hoehne from the Umpqua Watershed’s Wilderness Committee discussing their Crater Lake Wilderness proposal.
Thursday, November 14th, 6 – 8pm
Community Rights Douglas County’s Community Gathering
In Person at the Roseburg Public Library RM20
