Changing Portland

   Changing Portland

I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Ive been here since birth, which usually catches people off guard. There's not a lot of us native Portlanders anymore. People respond to that statement with usually a “Well, Portland has changed a lot, you know”. 

I am of course aware of this. There is a big difference between how Portland was when I was in high school and Portland 5 years later, though not for the reason people think. 

People always seem to default to the number of homeless people in the middle of the city as the reason why people don’t trust Portland anymore. I think that's a cop-out to just be angry and nihilistic. Others blame drug use or liberal politics. These are just more tactics to divide people.

The difference is the empathy. No one has any empathy to give to each other anymore. The working conditions of most customer service jobs run their employees into the ground. How can we expect people who are treated like this to have any energy to give into being kind and courteous. I, like many people, still get offended by being treated by a lack of respect of course, but we have to critically think about what these people are going through.

There is no giant safety net for those in need like other countries have. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck. This means a lot of people are just one paycheck away from being on the streets as well. In order for us to bring empathy back, we need to put empathy into our societal structures first. 

Bringing awareness to the lack of empathy in modern daily life is important. It helps to increase the quality of living for everyone involved. Apathy is a hard cycle to get rid of. Starting to treat each other with respect will bring a better future for humanity.

Help out the less fortunate with donations or acts of service here: https://blanchethouse.org/get-involved/

Marilyn Danley