A Second Nomination

It's been coming for a while, but this week it's official: the Independent Party of Oregon has given us its nomination. This is the first time anyone's had both a major party nomination and the Independent nomination for Jackson County Commissioner. Oh, there's this small detail: carrying multiple nominations has only been possible in Oregon for the last couple of years, since "fusion" nominations have been authorized by Oregon law.

We're proud of this. The people who created this party are laser-focused on reducing special-interest ownership of our politics, and are working against steep odds to make that happen. I thank them for their bold work, and for this nomination.

They're stepping up purely for the good of it

Just came back from a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) outing up in the Oak Knoll subdivision on Ashland's southeast edge, 18 hours after fire destroyed eleven homes. We canvassed the neighborhood, making sure everyone was ok and looking for smoldering patches that the wind could possibly whip back up into flames.

Turned out to be a pretty uneventful canvass. And hot (104). But seeing a squad of volunteers show up to minimize chances of a second-round catastrophe, people moved purely by an urge to help and comfort -- that feels so good. Our Strength is Our Community.

Grounding a Slogan in the Real World

Our Strength is Our Community. It's our campaign slogan, and today I walked into a great nuts-and-bolts example, a meeting of the Jackson County Task Force on Homelessness. There I found about 30 dedicated people from a couple of dozen organizations, some of whom have been meeting monthly for 20 years to deal with this problem.

Think about it. Homelessness, spreading by the week at exactly the same time governments are cutting back on services, has to be near the top of the list of problems where people might throw up their hands and say "Man, it's really terrible, but there's no way we can solve it." This group of professionals and volunteer leaders somehow missed the memo that there's little or nothing that can be done. They're aiming not just to ease the worst pains of homelessness, but to eliminate it in ten years. And not by whistling a happy tune and thinking happy thoughts; check out their Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness and see if it doesn't raise the bar for you on what's possible in these rough times.

Making this plan work will take a mountain of effort, of collaboration, of tenacity and letting go of turf concerns. It will also take laser-focused leadership from County Commissioners. Not easy. But this report leaves you convinced it can actually be done.

And that Our Strength is Our Community.

Who's making a difference?

I'm completely excited that Community Building Blocks is up and running, thanks to volunteer coordinator Cynthia Salbato. It describes some of the amazingly creative work people are doing every day to make this Valley stronger, healthier, more resilient, and just more enjoyable as a place to live and work. Check it out, and then if you know if any project around here that deserves more attention, help us get the word out with an email to salbatoc@gmail.com.
We're hoping this chronicle of great & generous project will outlive this election, and stir even more folks to make a difference. Thanks, Cynthia...