We are incompetent to solve the times. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Greetings from the Far Left Coast. The heat dome parked over the city lifted Monday night. New record high temperatures were registered on three successive days, topping out at 116 on Monday. Roads buckled and rutted. TriMet suspended MAX light rail and Portland Streetcar service from late afternoon Sunday until start of service Tuesday morning due to high heat that burned holes in power cables and related issues (PHOTOS: The Record-Breaking Heat Wave That's Scorching The Pacific Northwest).
Yesterday at Providence Park Gov. Kate announced an end to mandatory mask use and social distancing and declared Oregon open for business! We have done better with vaccination than some states, but it remains a problem in some areas and among some demographic groups.
Of white Oregonians eligible for the vaccine, more than 60% have received a shot. Numbers among Black and other people of color don’t paint quite the same picture, with only 45% of Oregon’s Black population vaccinated, and just 44% vaccinated among Latinos and Native Americans in the state, according to OHA [Oregon Health Authority] data.
Rates among both Pacific Islander and Asian American communities outpace that of white Oregonians, at 80% and 64%, respectively.
The state is pushing to close the gap in vaccination rates among communities of color. Not much can be done about individuals who refuse to be vaccinated for reasons of their own. Heaven forfend their personal liberty should be infringed upon for the sake of public health and safety.
The Emerson quote at the top reflects my state of mind as I hammered out the new blog post: The Fire This Time. Kenneth Rexroth wrote that James Baldwin's book The Fire Next Time (1963) "is designed to make white liberals feel terribly guilty and to scare white reactionaries into running and barking fits." Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Today the running and barking fits provoked by Baldwin's heirs have less to do with fright than with cynical political calculation…
Keep the faith.
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Pictured below: Across from downtown MAX stop at SW 6th & Pine early Tuesday morning with temperature in the 60s. Whew.