It's not just Inside Baseball

Jackson County says it's leaving the Association of Oregon Counties. That's never happened before, and the AOC goes back to 1906. They say it's because the Association isn't tough enough protecting county interests against cities and school districts. But that's not the kind of help counties need.

This is a much bigger deal than it looks like. It's also an opportunity to shake some things up and, as I laid out here, to think bigger.

The war against "Class Warfare"

Tired of getting treated like an idiot at election time? Me, too. Mostly it happens with slogans and buzzwords designed purely to trigger you rather than help you think through an issue that needs some thought.

The current example that bugs me enough to deserve its own column is the casual lobbing of the term "Class Warfare," an insultingly manipulative way to bring down tax measures #66 and 67 on the January ballot in Oregon. The next time you hear somebody using the phrase in speech or print, I hope you'll stand up and be clear that it doesn't work with you.

Give it a rest?

There's a feud in Ashland over a decorated tree -- holiday tree, Christmas tree, gift tree -- again. In the struggles of past Decembers, I've held a pretty steady ACLU line: if an emblem of the season feels religious, or if some people feel excluded by it, it doesn't belong in school. Where there can be harm infusing a religious flavor into schools, there's really no harm keeping it out, is there?
As I get older I'm less sure about that. Alongside my ACLU impulses I'm noticing another question: Can we just give it a rest? Breathe a little? Here's how I see it.

A small event that's big. And fun.

This is what our 8th Annual Abundance Swap looked like last Sunday in Ashland. We invented it in the heat of the "Black Friday" buy-buy-buy frenzy in 2002. We're proud of it.

We're proud of the experience people have there -- here's this year's report -- and because of the larger context. We're amazed at how this simple little event moves people. It strikes home more than all our eloquent rants against corporate consumerism.

This idea is about as replicable as they come, which is why we put up a simple website with start-up suggestions. If you are done with the retail madness of the allegedly Holy Days, but still want to be part of a giving tradition, you might want to check this out. Bring a few friends together and and start your own Abundance Swap next year. It's easy. It's fun.