02/11/08 Go West Young Man

When I moved from the suburbs of Portland to farming country here in Central Washington nearly ten years ago in the process of adopting a black child I admit to being a tad worried about how our family would be accepted. I shouldn't have been, we were welcomed with open arms and my son went on to be his class president through junior high and high school. The media underestimates how inclusive Western communities are, instead focusing on weird radical fringe groups like the Aryan Nation. I am here to tell the ranching and mining communities that dot the western landscape are filled with folks that farm, hunt cowboy and&.. care . While those in elite urban circles were dumbfounded that Obama did so well in the "wild wild West." it didn't surprise me at all . In Anchorage traffic was backed up for miles for people trying to attend his rally. A record setting crowd of over 14,000 people flooded the Taco Bell Arena in Boise The magnificent West was settled by a tapestry of nationalities, pursuing the same dream, mavericks searching for a better way, probably explaining why Mr. Obama won so many of our votes.