New West Network

My Page: Kelley Moen

Kiwanis club the victim of protest

A southern Oregon man was charged with stealing a flag that he burned to protest the war in Iraq.

According to an AP report, Ashland police arrested 36-year-old Jason Sherman after he stole a flag that belonged to the Kiwanis Club, climbed a statue and set the flag on fire.

Historically, flag desecration has been a deeply contentious issue. But today, defacing a flag is an act of protected speech under the First Amendment, as established in Texas v. Johnson in 1989 and reaffirmed in U.S. v. Eichman in 1990.

In these next few months of heated politics, as the media puts Democratic and Republican National Parties in the limelight and the November elections are just two months away, demonstrations against the war in Iraq will likely be as common as vanilla ice cream.

But some people are questioning why a demonstrator would steal from the Kiwanis Club to protest the war. [more]

Planting Good Education in Bend

It’s not easy being green, so a school in Bend has given the task to returning students once again.

At Westside Village Magnet School on Kingston Avenue in Bend, gardening has been part of the curriculum for the past eight seasons, according to a report in the Bend Bulletin.

The school uses green-thumb amenities, like a greenhouse for growing tomatoes and peppers, a pond that will become a solar-powered water feature and fruit trees, to teach kids and use what principal Wendy Winchel calls the “outdoor classroom”.



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New West Baby

Symbols have immeasurable power. They can dwarf the message of words in a single blow. Yet they can be small and so efficient that even a high-resolution photograph can’t compete.

The Olympics’ five rings, for example, would take pages to describe (and most recently 40 billion dollars, too!) Superman’s giant S emblazoned on his chest: a symbol that stands alone. The cross: another symbol with magnificent and historic meaning. Symbols infiltrate our lives, just look as you drive (or bike or walk) to work today: a green light, a red hexagon sign at the corner, and if you’re driving again, the yellow flashing indicator next to your gas gage on the dash!

We are surrounded by symbols.

If I were to pick one symbol to represent me, one symbol with the temerity to sum up my life as a new mom, it would be an easy choice: an alarm clock...

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Hello from Bend

As the new city editor in Bend for Newwest.net, I hope to carry on in the wake of former editor Joseph Friedrichs by reporting, musing and entertaining you with a taste of life in Bend, Oregon.

In cadence with what you’ve been reading in the past, each week you will find new articles, photos, news points, videos, guest writers, and muses from the community of Central Oregon’s high desert. As NewWest.Net aims for, I hope to promote conversation about the changes happening in Bend and to attempt to give you a 360-degree view of what’s important and happening here in my hometown.

Like Missoula, Bend has a growing population with tons going on, from world-class athletic competitions to wild music festivals. Schools are expanding, the natural resources are abundant and in demand, and the landscape is full of interesting stories.

I moved to Bend about three years ago. Living in southwest Montana for nearly 10 years, I first moved to Missoula and graduated from the University of Montana Graduate School of Journalism. Now I live here in Bend with my husband and newborn son. In addition to being a new mom and writing as much as possible, I enjoy trail running along the Deschutes River, fly fishing with my husband and catching good outdoor concerts at the Amphitheater here in Bend.

I hope you will continue to browse this page often, even with Joseph gone and onto new adventures as a reporter in Minnesota. If you have any story ideas, comments or concerns please contact me anytime at kelley@newwest.net [more]

The New West Baby

In our family, we like to believe that fishing is a genetically inherited trait: the fish gene, or the f-gene, as we call it.

While my four-month-old baby, Charlie, grips my finger, his knuckles white in a deadlock hold that could now probably fight even the biggest Oregon trout, I ponder the biological (or not so biological) phenomenon.

Does the pair of 23 chromosomes, stacked up like the Olympic rowing team, our very own Team DNA, determine everything that our children will become?

I know I have to wait a good 14 years to find out if the fishing gene is apparent in Charlie, but it won’t hurt to look at his chances by tracking the history of this gene in our family.....
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The New West Baby

What does Bend, Oregon have in common with Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics?

Well, it’s certainly not the air quality or population, as 225 times more people live in the Chinese city and its accompanying smoggy horizon, a polar opposite to that of Oregon’s pristine high desert air. But, in a stretch this author is willing to make, both Bend and Beijing currently offer the grand challenge of a life-changing experience.

Both places offer, at this very moment, the chance to reach a gold medal. How, you ask? [more]

The New West Baby

Sleep is a precious commodity in our new-baby household. With drooping eyelids, bags under my eyes and scrambled new-mommy brains, I am reminded daily that being a parent, while so wonderfully life changing, is utterly exhausting.

Sleep time for babies is a strange new world for me. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, babies need lots of sleep. But the method we use to get them to sleep is a widely contested, and highly individualized, topic. [more]

The adventures of traveling with an infant

Balance.

It’s a noun, a verb and an adjective. We use it to talk about our time, our meals and our checkbook. It’s everywhere. But most recently in our new-baby household, it’s a concept that is completely missing.

I was reminded of this word as we passed through Terrebonne, Oregon, home of the infamous Smith Rock State Park on another family-inspired Montana vacation. The vertical rocky spires, illustrating centuries’-old wear of water and wind, towered into the early morning blue-chalk horizon. Balancing in the air. A climber’s paradise. Yet any climber attempting to summit these precipices would also need balance- the delicate equilibrium of flexibility, strength, fitness and desire to get to the top. [more]

Breaking Free On The River

Charlie loves being held. He’s no dummy. Who wouldn’t like the unyielding affection and unquestionable adoration from everyone who crosses his path? Really, for the regular non-Hollywood star, when else in our life are we 100-percent certain that most every person we encounter will fall in love with us?

Charlie has no doubts about this. His favorite place is tightly wrapped in someone’s arms, anyone’s arms. As a new mom, I like to believe mine are second-to-none, as my arms are the ones to calm the storm on most every occasion. However, much to my chagrin, Charlie seems to have no preferences. “Any arms’ll do,” he seems to say. “Bring ’em on!”

Here in Bend, there is no shortage. [more]

Part I: Patience

“Ah-boo,” I whisper through a sweet exhale over my four-month-old son, Charlie. He stretches relaxed across my belly for his mid-morning nap. It’s a respite from the chaotic storm of his wakeful hours. His soft breathing, the barely visible rise and fall, reassures me that “Yes, I am still alive, mommy. Don’t hover over me and don’t worry, I can breathe.”

The past four months with a newborn at home has been a whirlwind - no a complete hurricane - of breastfeeding, napping, diaper changing, sleep-walking days and sleep-forgotten nights simply keeping my little boy alive with the basic necessities of living. If these past months were a movie, the soundtrack to this hurricane-inflicted story would be a complete cacophony. It would be ZZ Top and ACDC fighting it out with interludes of Mozart, Jack Johnson and John Denver in between.

I’ve never in my life done more rocking, feeding, changing, cleaning, cooing, soothing, dancing and “Ah-boo”-ing to this tiny creature that seems to need me with no end. It’s sleep-walking. It’s sleep-talking. It’s sleep tick-tocking.
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