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I greatly appreciated the opportunity to be part of the panel on this show.  Three points I wished I'd had the time to make were: 1) Clackamas Heritage Partners will host a public meeting on March 31st at the Museum of the Oregon Territory at 6PM to talk about the situation we're in and to answer questions and enlist support 2) discussions of support for organizations like ours frequently turn to "grants".   Grants are great for initiating new programs or change,  but are not a stable income stream for operations 3) The hundreds of small museums in Oregon (http://www.oregonmuseums.org) are often repositories for important documents, buiidlings and objects that define their communities and yet have no stable resource base.   In many places these places are being lost. 

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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The character and values of American consumerism are obvious any time one visits a store or looks at the glossy advertising supplements. We are not being urged to "buy good quality things that we need" generally. We are instead being urged to buy a newer, faster, feature-laden, bigger set of items. At the home improvement store a dozen or more BBQ cookers are lined up with various added features. Essentially, they all cook food and the more fancy the rig the more arcane the explanation as to why this one is necessary. In fact, we are constantly encouraged to 'keep up with the Jones's" as they said in my youth. The majority of people don't have the income to do that---though they try. How many poor neighborhoods are full of people who've got inflatable lit ghost tableau in their fron yard at Halloween--just as an example. Choosing to buy quality, well made goods that will last for years is not 'consumerism'. If most Americans chose to buy things based on values like that would not support our economy as it's structured. The consumer economy at this moment is dependent on discarding the one you bought six months ago and getting the new one, whatever it is, with this season's colors, features, and styles. I am happy to say that I have all the 'things' I need, that I've had most of them for years, that they're very good quality, and that I put money in the bank because I am not constantly buying 'new stuff'. Consumerism of the sort our culture has adopted isn't good for us or the economy.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond when the show was still on. Two thoughts came to mind. In the case of the woman whose dog pooped and who found herself without a bag, I sympathized with her embarrassment and understood the perspective that that person who chased her down with the baggy of excrement was overreacting. However, would the situation be different if the pursuer continually observed people or even a particular person leaving their dog droppings on the lawn? Often in real life, people are goaded to act by repeated infractions as opposed to isolated incidents.
Also, I work in a setting which has a large public parking lot. Many of our guests are children. Employees here are often in the position of having to ask people--not customers-- to not use the parking lot as a place for 'expressing their affections" in ways better suited to private spaces. Often, these people get very irate at being asked to go elsewhere. I believe one issue is that we no longer share as many common cultural values.

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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