I grew up on a farm in Nebraska—the old-fashioned kind that grew a variety of crops and livestock. My first “activism” was a march against the Vietnam War in Omaha in 1969. 

Now I live in northeast Portland, and while I had long been aware of OSPIRG, the first time I donated was after an evening knock on the door. I decided to support an organization that doesn’t seem to rely on partisan politics to accomplish goals, and as a pediatrician, I have been especially interested in OSPIRG’s projects that impact the health of children and infants— banning chemicals that become neurotoxins in utero, for example.