There's no unique Oregon "culture" or "character" - not that I have found, can see or feel. There's no running, dominant theme through the state's population, other than being hostile to perceived outsiders. There's no "Oregon music," in terms of its own genre, and not even Oregon "cuisine." There's no Oregon style of housing, no Oregon style of gardening, no Oregon style of politics. I can define most of these for Vermont, every state of the South, Texas, Wyoming, California... but not Oregon.
So I have chosen to live in Parallel Oregon. It's a real place - you just have to know about it.
I was going to call it Alt-Oregon, since I listen to Alt-Country. But the Alt-Right highjacked the Alt term to mean something negative. So, Parallel Oregon it is.
Parallel Oregon has a flavor. It has a collective character. It's welcoming. It inspires people to write songs about it, the way they do about other states.
The people here in Parallel Oregon - and there aren't many of us - love that Oregon has so many different ecosystems and landscapes - ocean, mountains, deserts, plains and river valleys. Unlike the Other Oregon, the people of Parallel Oregon get emotional looking at the loveliness of Mount Hood or Crater Laker or Sisters or the Steens Mountain or the Alvord Desert or the Painted Hills or Tillamook Forest, the way people back East do when they look at the Mississippi or the Red River Valley or whatever, so emotional that they write songs about them that become nationally famous and standards in the American Songbook.
There are historic grange halls throughout Oregon, and here in Parallel Oregon, there are plans to use them at least every month for a community dance. The more remote ones host some kind of camping-related event at least once a month in good weather, like a gathering of motorcycle riders or folk music-makers. They also host some kind of annual celebration for local food - a strawberry festival, a marionberry festival, an elk meat festival... There's at least a few weddings there every year as well. Local people are happy to pay the taxes necessary for the upkeep of their local, historic grange hall.
Here in Parallel Oregon, when we go hiking or bicycling or touring on a motorcycle, and we meet other people doing those things, we greet each other warmly, as fellow residents of Parallel Oregon or just appreciative tourists visiting such. We're happy to see others also enjoying the natural beauty and backroads and bi-ways of this amazing place. We don't care if you've been here a day or all your life - all we care is that you are enjoying and respecting the landscape.
Unlike the Other Oregon, the people of Parallel Oregon understand that we co-exist with bears, cougars, wolves and coyotes, and know that, without those animals, we're a poorer state that would be far less interesting, in addition to being overrun with rats and mice. We know that ranchers lose far, far more animals to disease than predators.
Here in Parallel Oregon, we love bicyclists and pedestrians. We stop at intersections to let pedestrians cross - it's not only the law in other Other Oregon, the one most people live in, it's also the law in Parallel Oregon, but here, we follow that law. We know that roads are meant for EVERYONE, including people on bicycles and in cars, and maybe even pedestrians if there is no other place to walk.
Us folks here in Parallel Oregon, we're sad that Oregon doesn't have its own musical traditions like Kentucky or Texas or St. Louis or Bakersfield or Detroit, but we make up for it by just loving absolutely everything, from blues to country to jazz to hip hop to Ukrainian folk music to Japanese Taiko and absolutely everything in between.
Us folks here in Parallel Oregon, we'rel also sad that Oregon doesn't have its own culinary traditions like any of those places either, so, again, we make up for it by loving absolutely everything. We just hope that someone will start making decent Mexican food here, on the same level of quality as what can easily be found in Austin, Texas or San Francisco.
Here in Parallel Oregon, we know at least a bit of the local history, including the industries that have gone or are dying and how that has affected local people and economies. We often don't want those industries back at full throttle, because of the environmental degradation they caused, but we also appreciate that so much of the infrastructure and quality of life we enjoy was funded by those industries once upon a time, and we honor the people who worked so hard to support their families working in such.
Parallel Oregon is place where people love the diversity of the land and welcome the diversity of the people. It's a place where people see and appreciate the original settlers of this land and the immigrants who came after them and the good things from the past, but also where we fully acknowledge the very negative, horrible things of the past. We don't romanticize the time when everyone in a neighborhood was the same culture and religion and newcomers were unwelcomed - even run out.
In Parallel Oregon, we know that around 80 tribes or bands were living in the area before the establishment of European pioneer settlements, and we know that members of these bands are still here. We know that even before the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II in Oregon, the state's Alien Property Act of 1923 prohibited Japanese-Americans from owning property in Oregon and that Oregon supported the Chinese Exclusion Act, resulting in a very low percentage of Oregonians of Asian descent, especially in comparison to so many cities in California. The 1910 Oregon Census said that no Mexicans or Latinos lived in Oregon, which probably wasn't true. We know that the population crept up over the years because of agriculture, but during the 1950s, Operation Wetback, a military operation, rounded up a million undocumented Mexicans for deportation throughout the USA, including Oregon. We know that by the beginning of the 1980s, Latinos made up about 2.5 percent of the Oregon population, or 65,000 people, but that number is now easily over half a million. We know that, in 2013, only 2 percent of the Oregon population were black, and that the early white Oregonians were anti-slave - not anti-slavery - and also anti-black people. Oregon laws prohibited "any negro or mulatto to enter into, or reside” in Oregon. Oregon was the only free state admitted to the Union with an exclusion clause in its constitution. Oregon also embraced the Ku Klux Klan: racism, religious bigotry and anti-immigrant sentiments were deeply entrenched in Oregon laws, culture, and social life, so the Klan had fertile ground to grow. In 1922, Klansmen won election to local and county offices throughout Oregon, and some Klansmen won seats in the state legislature, and the Klan helped elect LaGrande Democrat Walter M. Pierce as governor. In 1923, Oregon passed a law prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religious garb, in order to prevent Catholic nuns from being teachers (for more information on this very dark side of Oregon, see
the Oregon Encyclopedia).
Here in Parallel Oregon, we find the lack of ethnic diversity in the state is jarring. In 1970, the census put it Oregon's population at 97.2% white. In 2010, the census said it was 83.6%. We welcome that changing much more!
We're intensely curious here in Parallel Oregon. We flock to events celebrating or exploring science - biodiversity, astronomy, public health, whatever. A science-based lecture at the local library results in a full house every time.
We're also intensely into sports here in Parallel Oregon. We love the local high school girls volleyball team and the Portland Timbers and some college or university basketball team in the state with equal passion, and even those who don't follow teams know when any of these teams are, or aren't, in championship games. It is a unifying thing, something that brings communities and even the entire state together.
Here in Parallel Oregon, we say "Good morning" to each other. Or "Good evening" It might not be said with a smile or much enthusiasm, but it IS said, with respect. We open doors for each other. We know our neighbors on sight, and at least nod to each other. We'll help someone on mass transit who is lost or having some problems getting somewhere. We know we live in the company of each other, and even if we don't all like each other, even if we'd rather be alone, we acknowledge the right of each other to be here.
Here in Parallel Oregon, we like when someone under 60 runs for political office. We encourage them. We celebrate them - or, at least, don't put them down merely for daring to try to be a leader. And we don't make fun of people who try to be leaders in community groups - we appreciate that they want to step up and do the work, even if we disagree with some of their views.
Here in Parallel Oregon, we don't shame people for what they choose to eat. If someone eats a frozen pizza, or treats the kids to McDonald's, or cooks a meal entirely out of canned foods, we don't turn up our noses and say passive-aggressive things meant to make that person feel horrible about their food choices. We don't shame people for not recycling to the degree that we might be doing.
Here in Parallel Oregon, we love wide open spaces, but we also understand that the Earth can't sustain every person, even every family, living in a single-family home with a yard. When we see an apartment building being built, we don't get angry: we know that many people prefer to live in such spaces, we know that it's better for the environment when people live in such spaces, and we welcome apartment dwellers as people who will patronize our local businesses - even work for such - and participate in our local community events and processes.
When we see homeless people in Oregon, or people who are facing drug abuse issues, we explore why these people are in these situations and what can be done to change those situations, including changing laws and better-funding for programs meant to help them - we don't say, "Why don't the police move them out of here?" and we don't start a canned-food drive thinking that occasional charity will take care of the issue. We know that temporary shelters, food boxes, free socks and public shower spaces help just for a few hours - they don't address homelessness.
The schools in Parallel Oregon welcome all community members as volunteers and event attendees - not just parents. They don't think it's strange that someone without children wants to volunteer at the school, and they use languages and policies that welcome everyone.
Police and fire departments in Parallel Oregon aren't semi-military institutions.
Gun owners in Parallel Oregon NEVER shoot at a sign, and if they are in the presence of someone that does this, they utterly humiliate the person immediately, even if it's a brother or a best friend, and they berate the person so thoroughly that that person never does it again. Gun owners in Parallel Oregon welcome their guns being as licensed and regulated as cars.
There are efforts in Parallel Oregon to create wilderness hostels along long-distance hike and bike trails. And local nonprofit or government-supported community radio staitons, to ensure local news reaches the largest percentage of the population possible, and to broadcast local sporting events and lectures at the local library - churches can pay a small fee to broadcast their weekly services.
Here in Parallel Oregon, much like the Other Oregon, jeans can be formal wear and untucked shirts are acceptable and flowy hippy dresses are good for anywhere.
And newcomers and visitors are welcomed.
More about my travels
Also:
Oregon called & said "No, thanks."
