My concern would be that I heard rural Oregon is like the opposite of urban Oregon in that it can be very right wing. How would the reception be for a brown Muslim looking family?
I could not. Those winters are ugly but getting a little less ugly, I hear. I wonder when their big fire seasons will come though -- seems like a matter of time. I was honestly getting very sick of San Francisco but having a bunch of neighbors who will get vaccinated and understand if you have a sick person at home... pretty invaluable. Really love our neighbors and the basic mask wearing indoors around here. But my inner gun rack will always simmer on the back burner. EDIT: Not to go all @Deckard story time, but here's a good Willamette Valley story. I moved to Oregon for a short while in my youth, with a sawed-off shotgun for home protection, because I'm a real Texan. Anyway, came to learn they were illegal in OR, and once I had a serious live-in girlfriend she was on me about it and I realized home invasion was never going to happen there anyway. I read up on it and saw that you could turn in illegal firearms at county courthouses, no questions asked. Somewhere there's a photo of me walking into an OR county courthouse with sunglasses and the shotgun on my shoulder. I mean, MAGA would be so proud, but I would not advise that these days, LOL. (Comment about white privilege redacted for Hangout.)
For any Clutchfans thinking of coming to the Bold North this is what Minneapolis looks like right now.
Notice you don't post pictures of the winter. ;-) If I didn't do snow, I would be out of Texas in a heartbeat. There are things I love about Texas, but the fact that there are large parts of the population that exhibit no empathy bothers me to no end. Especially religious people in the rural areas.
Here you go. That said with Climate Change winters are getting shorter. We still get punctuated episodes of -20 degree weather but unlike when I got here those only last a day or two rather than weeks.
I’m heading to bum F Texas right now as we speak. I’ll fill you in on all the warm, intellectual, and open minded conversations I have this weekend.
Agree w others that your characterizations of rural folk are no more accurate than FOX news summarizing city folk with sweeping generalizations. I know rural TX and there are some good-hearted sharp folk there, whether or not we agree on everything. Reading the New Yorker cover to cover doesn't define worthiness. God knows ive seen some jackasses who could intellectually converse with you about anything you like.
I am just picking. I even said I am heading there now so obviously I’m no stranger to places like Aggieland or East Tx. I wouldn’t be spending time there if there were no redeemable qualities. I’m stopping at Snows BBQ right now actually (edit… sold out) if that gives you any idea how deep in the buttcrack of Texas I am. And yes I do still hold the position that the people suck in a lot of ways while at the same time of course Texans are warm people who have a Neighborly culture. However I am a typical white dude. When we did our wedding down here my Hispanic friends in my wedding didn’t get the same warm Texas country welcome.
Benton County is a blue stronghold. The city is essentially built around OSU (college towns/uni cities are notoriously left-leaning &open-minded), Trump received less than 30% of the vote in both elections. All of Oregon is very white, I'm not going to lie and say you wouldn't be different, but that doesn't necessarily mean you and your family wouldn't fit in. Our family is interracial so I do think about how we would fit in some areas at times, but ultimately I think how safe the area is in general is by far the most important thing to consider, as well as the standard of living. I'd stick out like a sore thumb in Japan for example, but I'm certain I'd be very safe and would have a high standard of living. If you don't want to change the country, you can still change the state and local. Missoula is a great local area but you will still deal with many of the state issues, like Austin.
That little town has about 60k residents now They even got a trader joe, a natural grocer, and 2 co-ops... Is that only major to me?
