Brief biography: families came from Western Europe between 1600 (London area) and 1865 (Irish). Migrated West through the 1800s, arrived in Oregon 1904 on Dad’s side, 1932 on Mom’s. Mom was born in Buffalo Montana in 1927 and is still alive. Dad was born in Corvallis Or. in 1923, died in 2010. My sister and I were born in Corvallis, she 1949, me 1951. Harding grade school, Highland View Jr High, CHS (1969), Oregon State University 1973, Willamette College of law 1976. I practiced next to our family retail bookshop until July, 2018.
In grade school we went on a field trip to the Oregon Capitol. Huge golden pioneer on the top of the dome. Inside the rotunda there are a number of murals depicting the early days in Oregon. One in particular had a bunch of guys with guns, dressed up as trappers. We asked about the guns. Our teacher explained that the very area we were standing on had been fought over as a war zone for a long time. Indians, British, American, French, Spanish, Russians. Everybody killing everybody on sight. War bands intent on eliminating the “others”. By 1840 there were enough settlers that they met at Champoeg, a town South of Portland, North of Salem to form a provisional government.
To replace the rule of guns with the rule of law.
In high school I was involved in the YMCA Youth And Government program. www.facebook.com/...High school students writing legislation and using the State Capitol for a weekend to meet and legislate. We had great advisers. My senior year they tried a new program involving the Court of Appeals, with students writing briefs and arguing a moot court type case before the Court of Appeals. Jim Eickelberg, a local lawyer and member of Grace Lutheran Church where my family worshiped offered to help me with the process. I was on the debate team, so this was right in line with what I wanted to do. I argued my only case to the Oregon court of Appeals as a high school senior.
I went to law school at Willamette College of Law. It is across the street from the State Capitol. I spent time my second and third year working for the Republican Secretary of State, Clay Meyers. We had a group working in the office revising a massive amount of statutes. We had no computers, but did have electricity. Dad and I took him steelhead fishing a couple times, he was the luckiest fisherman I ever saw. The Secretary of State oversees elections.
Elections are the soul of democracy.
When I returned to Corvallis as a brand new lawyer, 25 years old and looking to establish a practice our district attorney, Jim Brown, asked me to help him with the YMCA Youth and Government program. He was the South District Chairman of the State. I went with him and looked at the program from the other side. What fun. I went with him to the board meetings, and learned an important lesson: when you want to resign, you need to train your replacement. He resigned, I was elected the South District Chairman.
As part of my volunteer job I became advisor to the governor. The state was divided in two districts and each had a governor candidate. The election speeches and election happened first, then as the committees organized to consider legislation, I took the governor through the office and introduced the elected officials who were around. We almost always got a great meeting with the sitting governor. We took over the ceremonial office for three days. One of my youth governors, Aaron Felton went on to law school. After he graduated, I asked him if he would like to help me out with the South District. Then we elected him Chairman. He is currently the Polk County District Attorney. 20 miles West of our capitol.
I practiced law in Corvallis for 41 years. Much of it criminal law. I understand and celebrate the rule of law. I understand elections. I have heard it said elections have consequences. Duh. Our system says majority rules unless the majority wants to unfairly limit others. Basic constitutional guarantees may not be taken from individuals by even an overwhelming majority. Everything else, majority rules.
Government by minority is tyranny.
Government by threat of arms is terrorism.
This brings me to Senator Brian Boquist. www.opb.org/…
Boqusit is retired special forces, and has a special training company to train for real time combat situations. Unfortunately, some retired military think military solutions work on domestic issues. Is he a broken warrior? I sure have known a bunch of them starting with my Dad’s generation form WWII.
If the Republicans think for one minute that I do not see their “constitutional” movements for the armed terrorists they are, think again. If they think veiled threats and innuendo to incite violence against our duly elected representatives, even by our elected representatives, to achieve political ends is not terrorism, think again. If they think they are under attack, and are justified in using violence because they lost an election they are delusional, and dangerous.
Senator Sara Gelser is my Senator. We became acquainted through Grace Lutheran Church. She is just a couple years older than my first child.
I have been sharing my concerns about the current threat to democracy by the republican officials with her. www.dailykos.com/...I believe we can meet this threat with reason and process. We rely on our constitutions, state and federal. We rely on the laws we all had a part in adopting, even if we were on the losing side of the debate. We submit to duly authorized law enforcement officials making arrests, even if we know they are not justified and we will ultimately prevail in court.
We do not threaten to kill police officers doing their job.
This is personal for me, it should be for all of us. I will not be threatened or intimidated by threats of physical violence. If physical violence is necessary, we have institutions to carry it out, subject to civilian control, which is from the duly elected representatives of the majority of us.
Anything less is the end of our civilization as we know it.
Robert D. Corl, Jr