Portland Oregon is Not a Warzone

We have shootings, but nothing extraordinary for a medium sized American city. We have a transient crisis, scores of the mental ill and addicted on the street, but nothing that requires the National Guard to be sent in. There are protestors surrounding the ICE headquarters, but they are peaceful (and will hopefully stay that way). I have a love/loathe relationship with this town. It has become one of my hometowns even if I dislike the rain and the incompetence of our leaders, even if I feel removed from the Progressive politics—

But it is one of my towns, and I will stand up for it…in writing, at least.

I could go down and join the protestors, add my voice, wave a sign, but it wouldn’t solve the problem.

The problem is not even the current occupier of the White House, it is why that creature has been placed in the White House.

But this is about Portland. For those who have never lived here, let me educate you.

I walk around the Downtown area late at night. Not the okay part of the Downtown but Chinatown where all the addicts and lunatics are. When I walk to work, I see people nodded off on the sidewalk, I hear people screaming obscenities at their imaginary adversaries—

They need help, we need those people off the streets and in a facility—

But that is not a reason to send the National Guard in.

That is not for Washington to “solve,” it is our problem, the residents of Portland. We need to vote in actual grown up people who will sweep the streets, get those people real help. Make our town safe.

But, let us not fool ourselves, the creature in the White House sending the National Guard to our city has never been about making Portland a better place to live, it is about control. About power. It is an insecure man seeing how much power he can acquire, what he can control, what he can get away with.

This is really not about Portland at all….