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July 2, 2014 OHA Director's messages on the web
To: All OHA employees
From: Suzanne Hoffman, Interim Director

Equality as a fact and equality as a result

"We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result."
~Lyndon Johnson

The 1964 Civil Rights Act, signed into law 50 years ago today, was a watershed moment in the struggle for equality. It came at a time of crisis for millions of Americans who were barred by discriminatory laws and policies from full and equitable participation in our society. Fifty years ago, segregation meant separate lunch counters, but it also meant segregated housing and education, discrimination in employment, and unequal access to the ballot box. Among our staff and certainly among our clients, there are those who remember that segregation meant separate wards in hospitals. It meant that some people waited by the back door to get health care, when they could get it at all.

The passage of the Civil Rights Act did not transform our country overnight. What we've learned, in fact, is that it's not enough to have a law. To really change lives, we must implement policies and services that ensure greater equity. That's why the Oregon Health Authority has undertaken numerous initiatives to put our core value of health equity into action.

Some of our equity initiatives are internal and will help us better reflect our community's diversity. Others, like the civil rights non-discrimination policy and procedures for members of the public, which is under development this year, will protect and uphold the rights of the people we serve every day.

Together, they bring us closer to realizing the promise of the Civil Rights Act – and the promise of a declaration made 238 years ago this Friday, that "All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." It bends because of the work not only of great leaders, but of local heroes, and the work of people every day to make meaningful change.

I urge you to learn more about our own celebrated local, state and regional civil rights heroes by attending the Freedom Fighters exhibit at the Portland State Office Building on July 14, and the Human Services Building in Salem on July 16 and 17. The exhibits will be accompanied by informational sessions hosted by staff from our Office of Equity and Inclusion, who will be on hand to discuss the equity initiatives underway at OHA.

Thank you for all that you do. Have a safe and joyful holiday weekend.

Suzanne Hoffman signature
OHA on the web