Yes,
and I was also trying to make the point here as elsewhere that teen
delinquency and suicides, alcoholism and other distress signals are not
exclusive to Indian communities.
Of
course, we all know that, it just hadn’t come up in the discussion, much as it
was noted recently that there had been no note of power in the transactions of
trade.
Elsewhere
I am trying to introduce the disparity in society and perceptions among a
different group of individuals who are less global, more entrenched inside the
box information and knowledge consumers.
Sometimes my posts carry over comments that may seem elementary here,
and I apologize for that.
Again,
here in Oregon, last summer’s water wars in the Klamath River area symbolized
the struggle the state has over allocating funds to rural areas that are not
producing revenue. The Klamath
farm belt was conceived and marketed by the federal gov’t long ago but
completely dependent on irrigation, which was legally acknowledged to be the
property rights of the Klamath tribe first and foremost.
Lee
Hockstadter did an excellent piece for PBS showcasing that the farmers’ wanted
their share of the water, but many of them did not invest in their own
equipment and are subsidized by the federal gov’t for water, and without it
would be out of business, something their bankers already know. This fall’s massive salmon die-off
after the Bush administration switched priority to the not-producing farmers,
lowering water levels and creating disease pools instead of river, added heat
to this environmental-business equation.
Sadly, many of those farmers would sell their land back to the federal
gov’t if the offer were made.
With Oregon’s current budget crises, there is more noise demanding that
the state quit “wasting dollars” in the larger rural areas and redirect it to
the metropolitan centers that are driving the state economy.
So,
the Prairie Wars continue. Always
good to see more of your field notes, Ed.
Ed wrote: Karen, thanks for the piece on rural decline in the
US. Several parts of agricultural Canada are in no better
shape. Increasingly, it does seem that rural areas are dependent for
their income on transfers from urban/industrial centres, and not on what they
can produce themselves. There remains a mystique about the rural way of
life and the family farm, but even that is beginning to wear thin with the
growing recognition that many farms are probably no longer viable unless they
are heavily subsidized or supported by special marketing
arrangements.
Karen
East
of Portland, West of Mt Hood
Outgoing
Mail Scanned by NAV
2002
