Where exactly is this blog headed?
A partial answer and a call for your assistance.
“What’s your goal with this blog?”
It’s a fair and frequent question I receive. Below is my (admittedly partial and still developing) answer. My hope is that it gives you a sense of what this blog wants to contribute, what voices it wants to highlight, and what steps we plan to take to get there. I also hope that it compels you to help us get there by investing in The Oregon Way (you can do so here).
When I started this blog, I never imagined so many people would be willing to volunteer their time, energy, and two cents to revive that idea of an “Oregon Family.”
Nearly 200 pieces later, I can’t stop imagining what this blog could look like a year from now.
Imagine having a contributor (or more!) from every county.
Imagine contributors conducting interviews with mayors, county commissioners, and community leaders in every corner of the state.
Imagine events that bring this entire community together to turn our thought pieces into tangible plans.
We’re capable of that and so much more.
So, what is the goal?
Broadly, to improve Oregon. Specifically, to improve Oregon by creating new communities and connections that transcend our geographical and ideological differences. That means producing content that challenges the idea that just because someone historically has had a D or an R next to their name, you cannot agree with them in the present. That means exposing Oregonians to people and projects in other parts of the state that they’d like to connect with and collaborate on. That means calling attention to when our leaders seem to be putting party ahead of people.
How can one blog do all that?!
The first thing to know is that culture leads politics. What we read, watch, and learn trickles down into how we vote, protest, and debate.
The second thing to know is that currently what we read, watch, and learn here in Oregon tends to be geographically and/or ideologically specific. For a whole slew of reasons related to the changing economic landscape in the media sector, it pays for papers to share extremist, sensationalistic, and ideological content. After all, it’s that sort of stuff that draws clicks, evokes comment wars, and fosters sharing on social media.
The third thing to know is that there’s a big community of Oregonians looking for a different kind of politics and, consequently, a different kind of media.
These three premises lead to the conclusion that one blog can begin to change our politics by changing our culture. In fact, I believe The Oregon Way has already started to do that work.
We’ve helped break down partisan and geographic assumptions by, for example, sharing former Baker City Mayor Loran Joseph’s piece on the importance of wearing masks. We’ve introduced Oregonians to new people with whom they can collaborate, such as Sarah White and her work in Silverton. We’ve pushed on current officials to address the conflicting priorities of our electoral system—John Horvick did so just last week in his piece on the tension between Motor Voter and closed primaries.
All of this work is changing our culture. It’s fostering communication, community, and curiosity. To make this work more meaningful, we’ll have to invest in The Oregon Way’s infrastructure in a couple key ways.
We need to hire a part time editor (full time would be great).
I’m not going to tell you how many hours I volunteer working on this blog for three reasons: first, I don’t want my professors to know how I increasingly trade reading case law for reading Oregon Way submission; second, whatever work I do is a small fraction of the work the contributors spend on their pieces; and third, the only thing that matters is that I think this blog could better fulfill its goals by paying someone to do this work when I depart to serve in the Air Force.
That’s why a core part of The Oregon Way’s development will be to help pay someone who can spend more time working with contributors, identifying contributors from every corner of the state, and creating new partnerships for the blog to explore, such as our partnership with the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center.
We need a leadership team that is mission-oriented, and reflective of all of Oregon.
A few great folks, ranging from young journalism students in the mid-Valley to experienced reporters from Portland and Ashland, have already raised their hands to be a part of this team. We’d like to build this team out even further.
If you’re passionate about improving Oregon and care about this project, let me know. We’ll need help looking for partner organizations, creating strategies to share our pieces as broadly as possible, and developing processes that make this blog sustainable for the long haul.
We need to seek out organizations and funds that can help the Way develop
The big goals for this blog will not happen overnight. We’re ready and eager to work with more established organizations to provide the Way with some training wheels as we learn how to pedal on our own. If your organization wants to be a part of lifting up the Way, please let me know.
This is a partial answer. The full answer will not come from a single blog post. Help us Sustain the Way by investing your time (email me—kfraz@berkeley.edu—to get involved) and money (donate here) in its future.
To a better Oregon,
Kevin
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Kevin Frazier edits The Oregon Way. Originally from Washington County, he went on to attend the University of Oregon and currently operates No One Left Offline, a nonprofit focused on closing the digital divide.