I was born and raised in yamhill county, on a farm 6 miles outside of a similar community (we played Yamhill-Carlton in sports). I lived out of state for 10 years and returned to live in Portland. I have not really been able to articulate my frustration with Kristoff, other than to say he is trying to parachute in after decades in New York and that feels condescending. The idea of storytelling as an extractive industry is exactly what bothers me. He has researched his classmates for a book and a stump speech. He hasn’t been here trying to be involved. He’s had rich people to his “farm” (I strongly react to people calling something a farm unless they are making their livelihood from it but that’s something for another day). But isn’t involved in the community. Thank you for this piece.
YES YES YES. Speaking on behalf of other people has always been a progressive achilles' heel, but it feels like it has been supersized in the last couple of years. As long as we live such segregated lives in our local communities, I fear the digging into the thankless jobs advice you give is harder than it sounds for us. I would love to hear more stories about how people are getting over the confusion and awkwardness of that, given that we aren't going to solve segregation.
I was wondering how long it would take for this corner of Oregon to show up in your newsletter. I’m a teacher in a town near Yamhill that’s been on a wild and distressing ride with our school board this year. I feel like your newsletter so often dovetails with what’s happening here. Thanks for the reminder again to do the unsexy local work. I really do believe it’s the path forward.
I was born and raised in yamhill county, on a farm 6 miles outside of a similar community (we played Yamhill-Carlton in sports). I lived out of state for 10 years and returned to live in Portland. I have not really been able to articulate my frustration with Kristoff, other than to say he is trying to parachute in after decades in New York and that feels condescending. The idea of storytelling as an extractive industry is exactly what bothers me. He has researched his classmates for a book and a stump speech. He hasn’t been here trying to be involved. He’s had rich people to his “farm” (I strongly react to people calling something a farm unless they are making their livelihood from it but that’s something for another day). But isn’t involved in the community. Thank you for this piece.
YES YES YES. Speaking on behalf of other people has always been a progressive achilles' heel, but it feels like it has been supersized in the last couple of years. As long as we live such segregated lives in our local communities, I fear the digging into the thankless jobs advice you give is harder than it sounds for us. I would love to hear more stories about how people are getting over the confusion and awkwardness of that, given that we aren't going to solve segregation.
I was wondering how long it would take for this corner of Oregon to show up in your newsletter. I’m a teacher in a town near Yamhill that’s been on a wild and distressing ride with our school board this year. I feel like your newsletter so often dovetails with what’s happening here. Thanks for the reminder again to do the unsexy local work. I really do believe it’s the path forward.
You had me at "storytelling as another extractive industry." This is great as always, Garrett!
💯💯💯 on all of this. Thank you, Garrett!