Tag Archives: Oregon coast

local news

Home is where I live

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Long ago I adopted the mantra that “home is where I live.”

That always prevented me from saying that I would be “going home” upon returning to Oregon, the state where I was born and came of age.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I feel a strange sense of being “home” while coming back to Oregon.

My wife and I embarked on a remarkable journey through life nearly 50 years ago. It took us eventually to Texas — with excursions along the way to virtually all 50 states and about 20 countries.

Going “home” to Oregon usually fills me with a sense of familiarity. I know Portland. I know the Willamette Valley, the Columbia River Gorge, the Cascade Range, the Pacific Ocean coastline.

I know these places because I frequented them many times before my career led me to Texas, where we reared our sons and brought them into manhood.

Our most recent return to the Pacific Northwest has filled me with an added pleasure. It has enabled me to hook up with young men of my youth. These are fellows who were awkward and gawky once in their lives … in our lives. They have grown up just as I managed to do.

We all have enjoyed success in professional and personal aspects of our lives. It hasn’t been a joy ride devoid of potholes along the way. It’s just life as we all know and expect it to be.

I still believe that “home is where I live.” Coming back to where I used to call “home” has given me a strange sense of belonging. It feels mighty good.

environmental news

Climate change not a local matter?

My hometown newspaper, the (Portland) Oregonian has just announced that climate change won’t be on its agenda of important issues on which to comment in 2015.

I have a single initial response: Wow!

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/12/why_climate_change_will_not_be.html

The editorial, while written well — as always — seems to miss a fundamental point about climate change as it affects a coastal state, such as Oregon.

The issue is a local one that well could impact many thousands of people living in that state.

The editorial, in part, states: “Our editorials, like those of other news organizations, reflect a set of values with which regular readers are surely familiar. However, ideology has nothing to do with the scarcity of climate-change editorials. We seldom discuss climate change, rather, because we focus almost exclusively on state and local matters. Weighing the costs and benefits of climate-change policy is best done at the federal and international levels.”

” … we focus almost exclusively on state and local matters,” the editorial states.

Roll that one around for a moment.

Climate change, as I understand, is having an impact at many levels all around the world. One of those levels — pardon the pun — is the rising sea level of the oceans and the affect it will have on coastal regions.

Oregon has about 300-plus miles of coastline facing the Pacific Ocean. Its coastal region would seem to be as vulnerable to the shifting tides, not to mention the intense weather changes that many scientists attribute to climate change. They’re as vulnerable to these forces as, say, Texas, another significant coastal state.

The Oregonian sought input from its readers on the issues they thought the paper should emphasize. Those who responded didn’t think much of the climate change crisis. The Oregonian, therefore, responded to those who answered their question.

Does that represent a complete, fair and comprehensive view of the paper’s entire readership? I rather doubt it.

Still, my hometown paper — which has been honored with Pulitzer prizes in recent years for its editorial leadership — has chosen to skip what I believe will become one of that region’s primary issues in the coming decades.

Good luck, home folks.