Health Care

Path Home’s Model for Addressing Family Homelessness

This story began in 1994 when the First United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, opened the Goose Hollow Family Shelter for homeless families with children in response to families with children being found camping in Forest Park and the Goose Hollow neighborhood. The church ran the shelter for over a decade in the building’s basement. […]

Clean Energy and the Inflation Reduction Act

When the U.S. Senate passed my Clean Energy for America Act last year as the centerpiece of the Inflation Reduction Act, I had to pinch myself after the floor vote. After all, Big Oil and other powerful special interests zealously guarding their precious and outmoded privileges don’t get defeated so resoundingly and deservedly every day back in Washington, […]

The Medical Trust Gap

In 1985, my medical school professor led our class astray. “Anti-viral science,” she said, “gets better every year. We did a great job with polio, but by the time the next pandemic rolls in, we’re gonna crush it.” In the past two years, her words have clanged in my head like an alarm in an […]

Principled Bipartisanship

We at Open Spaces asked Senator Ron Wyden to share his thoughts on principled bipartisanship with us and our readers. We appreciate his willingness to do so. They are presented here. A phrase that Oregonians attending my town halls in each of our state’s 36 counties each year will often hear is “principled bipartisanship.” As I […]

To Your Health

For centuries we’ve toasted to each other’s health with lifted glass. Not the most sophisticated form of healthcare, but for most of our history that’s all we had. The last century, however, has seen an explosion of scientific advances, gifting us incredible opportunities to truly affect each other’s health beyond good wishes and a pint […]

Climate Action is Good for Health

Historically, when Americans hear “climate change,” we imagine a polar bear struggling on ever-shrinking ice. But our perceptions are beginning to shift: we may now be as likely to envision people suffering while working in the heat, fleeing wildfires, wading flooded streets, and checking their children for ticks. People are being affected – your parents, […]

Hippocratic Hypocrisy

Several years ago, Congressman Raul Labrador (R- Idaho) proclaimed that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” * My experience has been different. When I heard his words I thought of a sweet young woman whose body and community both turned against her.  Somehow, I was supposed to be her last hope. […]