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That's a luxury/necessity type of thing. I think the larger point is the lopsided nature of the rural/urban understanding. If we view the system as one large whole, and properly ascribe value to the parts, I posit that we should (as a whole) be paying more to the people who grow our food and shelter, generate our electricity, store our waste, and manage for us, on a daily basis the visual identity that is known as "Oregon." Rural doesn't have the place it should have at the table, and it's high time it did. Some of the best environmentalists I know are conservative republican farmers, and they have been doing it for four generations. You should see how tweaked they get when someone drives out from Portland to call them enviromentally insensitive......(They have a name for it. it's "did you drive here in your SUV to tell me that?") Out here, it's not environmentalism, it's stewardship. Shoot me an e-mail and we can take this offline....

posted 5 years ago
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Her response was a good one though. It does cost alot to send that bus out to pick up that kid. My view of it is that (to some measure, not in all cases) That's part of the social compact for them moving out on a farm, growing food. If we choose to be an Ag State, that's part of the deal that goes with it, more or less.....

posted 5 years ago
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Sending the taxes to Rural Oregon IS your community! That's the point! When you put up a picture of Oregon, your don't put up a picture of Portland, you put up a picture of Rural Oregon!

posted 5 years ago
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I think we have not as a state come to a fair agreement about an equitable balance of responsibility. In Eastern Oregon, services are difficult to provide (usually because of distance and population) However, we are charged with much of the resource managment. Often the laws passed in Salem don't adequately addresss an appropriate rural division.........We are charged with the management of, in many cases, Oregon's Ethos, yet are not adequately compensated for it.

posted 5 years ago
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