I was just continuing a conversation I started on FriendFeed, about not receiving a product several of us ordered. One of the members mentioned he was from Australia, and was used to a wait of two or three weeks. Ick. I expressed my condolences, and then mentioned that since the seller was in a southern state and I live in Oregon, "which is still in Amurika, last time I checked," it shouldn't take that long. What I wanted to type was "which is still in Amurika (no matter how many of us would rather secede!)." It stopped me. Maybe because it was the first time I typed it out.

Now, I've read Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging and I'm definitely NOT happy with what's been happening around here; we've always joked about our teeny little piece of land being our own country and we only keep paying taxes because, well, we're surrounded and it's Danegeld. The fantasies of myself and my friends have included finding some secluded island somewhere (or even making one, in one ingenious version). Secession in actuality, however, has only been achieved by one couple I know; they shook the dust of the USA off their feet and emigrated to Australia, where their chosen method of medication did not automatically make them felons, and their air was not always filled with artificial chemicals that made them sick. They saw it as a matter of survival, and they left.

To tell the truth, I don't want to leave. I love Portland, I love Oregon, I love the Pacific Northwet. (No, that's not a typo. The webbing between my native Oregonian toes is starting to crack; I'm looking forward to the rain forecast for later this week.) I feel tied to this land. Leaving would be too painful. I remember two weeks in the Bay, six months in Reno; always a little disconnected, a little confused for directions, a little less able to parse my surroundings. So I don't want to leave again. Ever.

And I love my country. I love the idea of my country, the history of my country, the founding documents of my country. I sorrow for the administration of my country for the last -- well, let's just say about the last half of my life, through both parties' administrations. (I'll never forgive Clinton for signing the Defense of Marriage Act in the middle of the night when no one was looking. Coward. Not to mention some of the things I found out about after he left office . . .) I have hope for the future at the moment, which I pray to any god/dess listening will not be proved vain; we'll see in November. But it would have to get pretty bad for me to consider leaving.

So, no, I don't really want to secede. I do think we might be happier if we did the ecoregion thing, or gave all their powers back to the states (I need to find that report I read back in the old BBS days about states created before 19something having a different status than states created afterwards). I'm fairly certain that the last thing we need in the White House is a neo-con yes-man and a fringe-Christian fanatic who thinks she knows foreign policy because she can see Russia from where she lives. But I'm also relatively certain that there's very little I can do about it. More's the pity.

So should I make fun of my country? Why not? I make fun of everything else. Yes, everything. Except Middle Earth. And sometimes even that. Besides, if I lose the right to poke fun at anything, it's gonna be one of those signals to seriously consider Getting Out of Dodge. Maybe BC. But I don't want to give up yet. Not while there's hope. Please let there be hope . . .

I so agree with some of your comments here. The current state of Dodge concerns the h*ll out of me. :P

Ain't that the truth?! Every time I finda reason to hope, there's something else terrible that pulls me back down. And with the current financial news, good news is hard to find . . . :-(