Part III: "Save the Salmon" and other fishy stuff

Following is Part III of a series sharing the story of a time in the Pacific Northwest when I was a paid signature gatherer for a variety of issues. I couldn’t have imagined when I started this job, the highs and lows I would experience, the kind and incredibly interesting friends I would make and the strange and dramatic way it would all end.

Part I is free to all subscribers. You can find it at WhatABeautifulMess.Net

Parts II, III and IV will be for paid subscribers.

Part IV – Sunday.

Part III

“Save the salmon.”

I was back in Medford and this is what I was hearing from my fellow signature gatherers on the street.

“Sign here to save the salmon.”

“Salmon? What did I miss? Is there a new initiative?”

“They want us to tell people that the Indian Gaming initiative is actually the Save the Salmon initiative.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Here’s what Eddie told us: if the Indian tribes win in November, they will give money to help protect the salmon population. So now we can call it the “Save the Salmon” initiative. It sounds better and we’ll get way more signatures.”

Eddie was the boss and the patriarch of this odd “family.” The spin he was putting on this one made me dizzy.

A few days later, as I stood with my petitions in front of a Fred Meyer in Medford, a man passed by, put his hand up defiantly, and said, “Don’t talk to me. I read about you in the newspaper.”

What? They’d written about me in the paper?