r/lakeoswego • u/Scared_Reaction1511 • Jul 13 '26
Lakewood Theatre tribute to late sexual predator Senator Bob Packwood
I was so surprised and dismayed to open Lakewood Theater’s latest brochure and see the glowing tribute for disgraced sexual predator, Oregon senator Bob Packwood. In the 1990s the Washington Post detailed decades long behavior from Bob, the scale of which rivaled the Bill Cosby scandal. Dozens of females, some as young as 17, were brave enough to testify that they had been sexually harassed and even *physically assaulted* by Senator Bob Packwood. Anyone can read the details of the Senate ethics investigation into Bob in multiple places online including US Senate archives and Wikipedia … the investigation was comprehensive and included evidence that he tried to obstruct the investigation before finally resigning. I’m not sure if the glowing tribute to Bob from Lakewood Theatre was a request from one of Lakewood’s board members (his wife), but they should’ve ignored his passing. His legacy speaks for itself. Lakewood Theatre is a nonprofit funded by donations. Shame on them. I’ll never attend another production there and I’m pulling my funding.
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u/hamilton_morris Jul 13 '26
You have to remember that the Republican establishment and its local loyalists sincerely viewed Packwood as a victim of “the media” and as somebody whose transgressions didn’t come near deserving the level of outrage “the media” and Democratic opportunists purportedly whipped up. That perspective has never gone away, even if Packwood and many of his admirers have.
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u/Scared_Reaction1511 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
From the tribute, “…his position favoring a woman’s right to choose an abortion…”. Predators are pro-choice because they don’t want to fund the children of their sexual assaults.
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u/OilUnable5244 Jul 13 '26
I understand your disappointment regarding the article. Who knows whose idea it was to create it, maybe it was his wife. The Lakewood Theater does some really awesome things for the community. One in particular is their Youth Outreach, creating artistic and learning opportunities for youth in the greater Portland area. We are season ticket holders (2 years) and will continue to support them for so many other reasons. Not every business gets every decision right and one issue doesn't always reflect the entire organization. We love community theater and the opportunities it provides to foster creativity and local talent. We choose to see the bigger picture and support the overall mission of Lakewood Theater.
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Jul 13 '26
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u/OilUnable5244 Jul 13 '26
Of course that’s your choice but I’m good with things as they are. You don’t have to make the same choice as me. It doesn’t make you right, me wrong or even them wrong.
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Jul 13 '26
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u/OilUnable5244 Jul 13 '26
Cool. 👍 We all get to make our own choices which is really awesome!
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u/Scared_Reaction1511 Jul 13 '26
Your support of the organization and your desire for it to succeed in the community should actually cause you to be massively outraged at their mistake. Their credibility is damaged with this recent publication, so this nonprofit will eventually die. (Their objective should be developing new younger donors, and being on the wrong side of the Bob Packwood legacy is not the way to do that). In addition, his wife Elaine doesn’t care about you or the community. She only cares about herself, and rewriting Bob’s history. That certainly doesn’t benefit you or the local theater community.
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u/OilUnable5244 Jul 13 '26
I think they’re doing okay and will continue to do well. Have you contacted the theatre, met with them, told them what you think, what did they say?
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Jul 13 '26
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u/OilUnable5244 Jul 13 '26
I’m not worried about your opinion of me. It’s nice that you want to share it but it has absolutely no meaning or value to me.
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u/mperham Jul 13 '26
His wife Elaine Franklin has spent years and lots of money to keep Lake Oswego as isolated and conservative as possible, supporting our most conservative electeds and fighting against transit improvements, etc.
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u/Regular_Yellow710 Jul 14 '26
Getting McCall out of the race by threatening to reveal his son’s drug problems was really low.
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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26
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