79 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
79 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
The Great Oregon Witch Hunt
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By Stephanie Fox
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Part 2 of 2
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IT WAS IN the secret meetings that officials may have made the decision
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to remove all books pertaining to the occult from the school library. Student
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president Shannon McPherson protested. "It's lousy," he said. "They're
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trying to keep us in the dark." The school superintendent, Ken Carver, denied
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that the books had been removed from the shelves. He claimed that he had
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merely "checked out" all 40 of the books "just like anybody can."
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He then passed them on to a censorship committee made up of parents and
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teachers.
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With the books gone, the lack of information availible on witchcraft only
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helped spread to alarm through the school student population. Any excuse was
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enough for one student to accuse another and they enacted medieval tests to
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determine whether another student was a witch. One student was suspected
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because she wore a black sweater and skirt. She was approached by another
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student who pressed a paper cross against her arm.
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"You must not be a witch," the student accuser said. "because the cross
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didn't burn you."
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Other students used the situation to get attention. They pretended that they
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were witches; they left death-threat notes on other students' lockers or
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claimed they'd hexed or been hexed by other students and teachers.
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The school superintendent made up a list of all students who had ever checked
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out any of the occult books and distributed it to the teachers. Those on the
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list were watched for possible involvement with witchcraft.
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Reverend Thomas advised parents to watch their children for signs of occult
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activity. He told parents and students to look to him and other local
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ministers to lead the fight against non-Christian religions such as witchcraft,
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Hinduism and Buddhism.
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"If you arn't a Christian, you can't fight it," he declared. "The devil will
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deceive you. This is a spiritual battle and the Devil is as real as God is.
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We have witches here in Oakridge from the very pits of hell."
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But the reverend and police chief had log since lost control of the situation,
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and the monster they'd created began to turn on them. Thomas was receiving
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negative letters from other ministers around the country. "They tell me I'm off
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the wrong end. Well, that's what told Peter and John," he said.
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Betty Taylor, one of the original women accused of being a witch, hired a
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lawyer who started making slander-suit noises. Accusations could no longer be
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made without proof for fear of litigation. Although it was announced that
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there would be other meetings, none was ever held.
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SEVERAL WEEKS after the final meeting, the Walkers appeared on a statewide
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television talk show. They told the audience that after learning about
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Paganism and Witchcraft from legitimate members of the Old Religion and other
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occult groups, they concluded that Newell wasn't a witch, although they still
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disliked her and thought she might have some responsibility for their daughter's
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suicide. They said they saw nothing wrong with Witchcraft and nature religions
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and felt everyone should be free to choose his own style of worship. "We don't
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believe in banning any religion," they said.
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The reverend continued to rail against witchcraft, other non-Christian
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religions and liberal Cristianity, which he called "tommyrot." But he could no
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longer make direct accusations against individuals for fear of legal action.
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The police chief was subsequently demoted.
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Ironically, durring the entire episode no one ever explained how so-called
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witchcraft had led to Ginny Walker's suicide.
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Since the episode Oakridge has again become the quite little town it once was.
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But beneath the surface here, and in places like it, runs a fear of things and
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people who might be different. Persecution takes many forms and comes in many
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guises. Witch hunts--- real witch hunts--- are not dim memories from the
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Dark Ages. They are real, they still happen and they can happen again.
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=============
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This article is from the February 1989 issue of: FATE magazine
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3510 Western Avenue
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Highland Park, Illinois
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60035
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