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Posts published in “Day: November 21, 2024”

Californication

You might be wondering how an Idaho Democrat is feeling right now. Or maybe not. If you are, good luck trying to find one to ask.

I can tell you how I’m feeling, since I am a registered Idaho Democrat, should you have an interest. But you probably don’t care.

A lack of interest in what I have to say can deter me. But I have striven to overcome such passive opposition. Remember, I served six years in the Idaho State Senate. It is rare for a State Senator to command attention from the body. It is much more common that emails are answered, and attention is elsewhere when a Senator rises to speak.

So, telling you how I am feeling is much like windward pissing. Let’s let it go. You don’t care how I feel. I can accept that. The wind is my problem, not yours.

You could hear a confession if you chose. Maybe you have moved on.

I moved to Idaho from California.

So, me, a registered Idaho Democrat might be the Californication you seem to want to repulse.

Sorry, I’m here for the long run.

I could give you all the back story. How my great grandfather settled in Pine Valley, just fifteen miles from Idaho in Eastern Oregon in 1880, just after Joseph and the non-treaty Nimipu made their valiant effort to evade the US military and declare their right to be on this ground. Pine Valley is just south of the Eagle Cap, south of the Wallowa Valley that Joseph and his people called home. It was included in the original treaty Joseph signed. But then, the US government demanded a change. And our military and us people got it. Including my great grandfather.

Otto Schmidt raised horses in Pine Valley and sold them to the US government. It was good land to raise horses. The Nimipu knew this. But we took it from them, so my forefather could profit. But times changed, and by the 1920’s, the US military’s need for horses saw a steep decline. My grandfather Henry was always blamed by Otto for this failure. Henry went to work as a cowboy for Albert Campbell of the Circle C ranch out of New Meadows. He pretty much abandoned his two kids to work cows. But you got to make a living, right?

Henry ended up buying up a bunch of abandoned hard scrabble benches along the Wildhorse River that empties from Idaho into the Snake River below Brownlee reservoir.

Henry’s son, my father left poverty in Pine Valley, fought the WWII, and built a business in Salem Oregon, then struck out to places south. We ended up in southern California when the business melted. It’s a long story.

So, I came to this state from Southern California.

It was a good choice.

I didn’t like SoCal freeways and subdivisions. I liked the place I had seen in my summers visiting. I admired Henry’s hard work and the opportunity. And I respected what he had accomplished.

So, if I’m the Californication Idaho must repulse, come talk to me about it. If I’m the guy you want to leave Idaho, let me know.

But there are a lot of ex-Californians here in Idaho right now.

I suspect the reason some ex-Californians are here is because they wanted to escape liberal, progressive, Democratic politics that pissed them off. And so, me, as an Idaho Democrat might not be exactly who they want to talk to.

But you should.

I have always wondered if Otto Schmidt, my great grandfather, just off the boat and the transcontinental train wondered whose land he was settling. I never met him. He was dead before I was born.

But I’m here. And so are Joseph’s ancestors and so are you.

Maybe we should talk.