Land of the Free
You're not from around here are you?
If you live in Portland (whose name was chosen via a coin toss), you eventually realize native Oregonians seem to be the minority here (actually, if states were nations I can only claim to be a naturalized citizen, but anyhow).
Latest places I've mostly overheard people saying they are from: Georgia and Florida. This somewhat alarms me....I hear this and think an influx of people from this part of the country will only destroy things here (I always think of what is becoming/become of the (dying) Everglades and the ceasingly urgan sprawl that I understand is Atlanta). On the flip side....Manifest Destiny destroyed what was here over a hundred years ago.
Tonight at the pub I sat next to a group of people talking gloriously about Colorado. From the things they were saying and from my single trip to that state; I really wanted to ask them how wonderful Beaverton must be.
Well, that's your pointless Portlandia (why Google led me to a link about California really unnerves me) nose in the air to the rest of the country rant for the evening.....
Partial Role Call of an Infamous Day, Pearl Harbour, Hawai'i, November 2004, by LHD
posted by Dern @ 9:13:00 PM
7 Comments:
What would you do if more and more Floridians, Georgians, and the like moved to Oregon?
What will happen to Oregon?
- C
Good Questions.
What would I do? Same thing I always do, complain about it.
(bear in mind comments from a Portland perspective....being from Portland is not necessarily a good thing in parts of the state)
What would happen? (assuming attitudes are brought that create what they have where they came from) Possible softening of the idea that all beaches belong to the public, possible softening on recycling and keeping Oregon Green, possible softening on our prized Urban Growth Boundaries (keeping the city where the city belongs....not out in the country).
Dude, aren't you and your family from Sacramento?
If one came from another state, what would prevent that person from strengthening and/or adopting the positive aspects of Oregonian culture that already exists?
- C
Curious what chord was hit here.
I am originally; and one side of my family is from out of state (I get constantly ribbed from my pure-breed siblings for my naturalization).
There is nothing from preventing them to adopt the positive attributes (as Oregon....since conception of that name...has been a destination), but there is nothing precluding the equal weakening of those attributes; that is what makes me wonder/worry.
In this post, you come accross as self-righteous, xenophobic, and generally fearful of change.
But, "the chord" comes from the fact that I am often all of these things!
I am often threatened by people from other places. I think I try to deny this fact all the time. But, it comes out when I stereotype people from other cities and other states.
You fear people from Georgia and Florida because they may not be "green"?
(Maybe the ones who come to Oregon are green and want to be with others like themselves.)
My personal examples:
People from Lake Oswego = Shallow, materialists. Uncultured.
People from Alabama = Nice, but redneck. Poorly educated.
When I mark someone as this or that, I limit my ability to interact with them in an objective way. I limit my learning and experiences.
How many times have I not introduced myself to a black person wearing baggy pants and a stocking cap?
Every single day.
How many times have I rolled my eyes at a woman wearing fur and pearls?
Whenever I go shopping.
Why do people wearing turbans make me feel uneasy?
Terrorists. Oh my God, terrorists!
I am a xenophobe. I label people. I sometimes have hypocritical thoughts and practices.
This limits my friendships and it threatens my ability to love and make peace with others who are different from me.
God knows, I'm in a new place here in Seattle.
If I want any friends, I should keep an open mind.
Wow, a contentious post for a change....
Self-righteous? Yes, the post proclaims so in the last line.
Xenophobic (I had to relook it up, the way this word gets used, often I always translate it as fear of Jewish people....instead of fear of strangers/strange customs) and a general fear of change. I do have a fear of certain strange things and certain changes.
Does it limit me? Sure, but eventually I come around to something....my mind is open, but my feelings aren't always...seems like they're never in synch.
Yeah, tough being in a new place; you haven't been there a year yet (it seems like it takes around a year for social networks to start forming/stabilizing).
Oh what was the post's impetus? The preface to the Colorado conversation was aboot what they thought of Oregon (then compared it to life in Colorado).
(These comments are getting long...need a new topic....)
No new topic! What's the record for comments on Mundane-ity?
(jk - that was a fun and contentious topic, indeed!)
- C
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