The locally produced radio talk show is an endangered species, so I make a point of listening regularly to Think Out Loud, a one-hour program that airs on OPB, Portland’s NPR affiliate. On Friday, the topic was Oregon. Oregon’s been on the receiving end of an attention blitz, fondly noted in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Vogue Italia. So the Think Out Loud people decided to ask recent transplants if Oregon lives up to their expectations, or not, and why.
I wasn’t invited to be on the program, which is understandable since I’ve been here since 1994, when the biggest news coming out of Oregon was Tonya Harding.
One of the first people on Friday’s program was a guy who moved here a few years back. The thing that attracted him to Portland, he explained, was a ceremony commemorating 9-11 that he attended. He was touched by it, he said, so moved he moved. At first I thought, oh boy, another 9 -11 banner waver. But this guy was actually working as a cop in New York City on the day of – not the anniversary of the day of – the terrorist attack. If you’d lived through something like 9 -11 as a New York City cop, I can appreciate the importance of forging a connection in a new city, of feeling welcome and respected for your service.
Things for Janet, on the other hand, haven’t been so great since she moved to Portland. She’s deeply offended, in fact, because we have the audacity, the utter insensitivity, to continue referring to a collection of buildings connected by enclosed walkways – two or three of them, I’m not sure exactly – in downtown Portland as the World Trade Center. “That really offends me,” Janet said, her voice a distinct blend of whine and snide, an effect I recognize immediately but have never been able to mimic. Janet thinks that the World Trade Center in Portland – which has been there since 1994 and probably for many years prior to that – should be renamed out of respect for her personal 9 -11 grief.
I don’t know how to respond, or where to begin responding, or which words to use to express how ridiculous I think Janet is, how shameless and self-indulgent I find her to be, how her willingness to turn events that irrevocably altered thousands of lives in a matter of minutes into a cheap and easy parody is an affront to what little faith I have left in the basic goodness of people.
While I may be at a loss for words, the Think Out Loud host was not. She offered, rather graciously, to introduce Janet to the former cop so they could talk amongst themselves. Which is just one more reason that I’m not the host of the program, because I don’t think I could have managed the situation without saying a few things that would have compromised the station’s broadcasting license.
I wasn’t invited to be on the program, which is understandable since I’ve been here since 1994, when the biggest news coming out of Oregon was Tonya Harding.
One of the first people on Friday’s program was a guy who moved here a few years back. The thing that attracted him to Portland, he explained, was a ceremony commemorating 9-11 that he attended. He was touched by it, he said, so moved he moved. At first I thought, oh boy, another 9 -11 banner waver. But this guy was actually working as a cop in New York City on the day of – not the anniversary of the day of – the terrorist attack. If you’d lived through something like 9 -11 as a New York City cop, I can appreciate the importance of forging a connection in a new city, of feeling welcome and respected for your service.
Things for Janet, on the other hand, haven’t been so great since she moved to Portland. She’s deeply offended, in fact, because we have the audacity, the utter insensitivity, to continue referring to a collection of buildings connected by enclosed walkways – two or three of them, I’m not sure exactly – in downtown Portland as the World Trade Center. “That really offends me,” Janet said, her voice a distinct blend of whine and snide, an effect I recognize immediately but have never been able to mimic. Janet thinks that the World Trade Center in Portland – which has been there since 1994 and probably for many years prior to that – should be renamed out of respect for her personal 9 -11 grief.
I don’t know how to respond, or where to begin responding, or which words to use to express how ridiculous I think Janet is, how shameless and self-indulgent I find her to be, how her willingness to turn events that irrevocably altered thousands of lives in a matter of minutes into a cheap and easy parody is an affront to what little faith I have left in the basic goodness of people.
While I may be at a loss for words, the Think Out Loud host was not. She offered, rather graciously, to introduce Janet to the former cop so they could talk amongst themselves. Which is just one more reason that I’m not the host of the program, because I don’t think I could have managed the situation without saying a few things that would have compromised the station’s broadcasting license.
