Baby it's stinky outside

Here in the Willamette Valley we are experiencing an "Inversion" for the second time this fall. I am not sure how it works, but the effect is that we are having an "air stagnation advisory." And when I walk outside, it smells bad. Apparently we have very little wind, no rain, and air is trapped in the valley. Polluted air. It's special.

I have never seen this before. Usually when discussing Portland weather, I run up against the "it rains too much, it's too cloudy and gray" complaint. Having lived in New England I vastly prefer Portland for the following reasons:

The temperature hardly ever drops below 32 degrees.
Fall and spring last a long time. (People always raved about New England Falls. You know why it's beautiful? Because it lasts two weeks. That's it. Then all of the leaves fall off the trees and everything is dead for months. MONTHS!)
It's not very humid.
The temparature hardly ever goes above 90 degrees (a dry 90 - not humid).

For this I will put up with cloud cover. The clouds are one of things that keep in the heat. Not those days that fool you where you look out at see the sun and you think "hey cool it's a beautiful day" and then you walk outside and your nose breaks off and hits the pavement with a clunk.

Now the pollution and air stagnation is a new twist. Not only is it cold, but it is stinky. And the fog that is all around isn't fog, it's smog. Now I am used to the build up of smog in the summer when we go for a long time without rain, but here in the winter it is really gross. It's a combination of wood stove and chemicals and who know what else. My friends with allergies are having trouble breathing. And the government is issuing warnings not to drive or burn things.
http://www.weather.gov/alerts/or.html

So I would like to vote that we go back to the way it was before. Hardly any snow, lots of clouds and rain and no stinkiness!!

"I am not a racist"

George A. Fox is the City Manager for Ridgefield Washington. He made this comment because he fired the only African-American police officer in the town (it apparently is very small). He protested that the firing was not for racial reasons and ended with that quote. Here is the Oregonian article that attracted my attention.
http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/metro_north_news/113375310522870.xml?oregonian?nn&coll=7

I have no idea of the circumstances of this case. But I do have a problem with that quote. I hear things like that regularly. He is a racist, she isn't a racist, I am not a racist, etc. It's like saying "I don't have red hair." "I am left-handed."

It drives me crazy.

Saying that some people are "racists" and some people aren't implies that there are a finite number of people who are. And that you either are or you aren't. This is a very unsophisticated way of looking at our society.

We are all racist. We all in this country make divisions and comparisons on the basis of race. And as we have now discovered that there is no scientific basis of race, only a cultural one.
http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm

So all of us together perpetuate the cultural idea that someone races are different. And that there are races. Some of us work hard and spend our entire lives trying to unlearn and unteach those divisions, but then still make comparisons. Racism is powerful and pervasive and historical. All anyone can do is work very hard to think about what they are doing and whether or not they are making distinctions and divisions on that basis. And that poor City Manager needs to come up with another line of defense because that one won't work.