As I write this, 979 Oregonians – and counting! Yes, I’m absolutely watching the ticker move! – have signed up to join Oregon’s Kitchen Table and taken part in the first consultation on state budget priorities. We have also heard from a number of you with big ideas, corrections to glitches, and honest critiques. Thanks a lot – and keep them coming! That’s why this is an experiment. We’re learning more every day and continuing to adjust and adapt.
Over on our Facebook page, Cathie, a fellow Oregonian, shared a poem by Joy Harjo, which we think beautifully describes our goals here. “Perhaps the World Ends Here” opens with the lines “The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live. ” We’ve set up this table as a place of beginning, too. This is a place to nourish our views and ideas so we can begin to work together to improve the state we all inhabit.
Living here in Oregon, I’m a continent away from my dad, but we manage to keep really good conversations going about the issues affecting us in our different states. And he’s always sending me clips from his local paper or links to news articles. Then we exchange long emails or phone calls about what we’re thinking.
Everywhere I look these days, that smart northern neighbor of ours, Eric Liu seems to be saying something provocative and wise, but his article in last week’s Atlantic, “Democracy is for Amateurs: Why We Need More Citizen Citizens,” was right over the plate in terms of what we are trying to achieve here at Oregon’s Kitchen Table.
As people across the state start to gather around Oregon’s Kitchen Table, we’d like to thank you! If you sign up by May 31, you’ll have a chance to win one of four collectible, mint condition 1959 Oregon Statehood U.S. Postage Stamps, donated by an anonymous Oregonian committed to bringing us together on the issues we care about most.
Thanks for stopping by — pull up a chair and take a seat at the table! We want to talk over the issues and give some good advice to our decision makers. And, guess what? They want to hear it!
