I do not like the term, Caucasian. I am not from the Caucas mountain region.

To my point: in 2006 I completed to police ride alongs, one in spring 2006 with Washington County, and one in Summer 2006 with Portland Poilce Bureau East Precinct. Then in 2007 I completed another in the east precinct. the main reason I did this was to explore and build upon my criminal justice theories class I took at PSU. I was also exploring whether I wan’t to be a police officer after I left the Coast Guard.

My reflections left me to decide that I did not want to be a police officer. My reasons were not that I could not do the job, but as of now I would have an exceptionally hard time dealing with the constant negative experiences. I would become overtly judgemental (more than I already am) and very suspicious of everyone.

Why do this relate to the article above??? Many of the calls taken when I was with Washington Coutny Sheriffs dept ended up at apartment buildings. I thought this was very wierd, but the officer pointed out that the Beaverton annexation made it this way. The city actively only annexed the portions of the county with lower service rates, i.e. single family homes compared to apartments. This showed a distinct economic difference between the urban county and the city of Beaverton.

In east portland, the two rides were with the same officer whom I know through a college friend. The first year we had one call where a Russian family’s son was accosted because of his family heritage. Apparently this was sort of common because of the Eastern Europeans moving into east portland. When we first arrived at the victims home, the house appeard to be a mid-1950s home common to east portland. It was on a busy street, but once inside the couple took great pride in coming to America and the progres they have made in improving the house. Of course, they were upset at the incident involving their son, ut took it in stride to work past the event.

Why write about this?? It appears that new immgrants coming to Portland are challenging the status quo of other minorites that have longer established ties to the area. Even in Compton, CA the traditional neighborhoods are signifcantly differenct then the early 1980’s because of the immigration from the southern border.

In a similar situation to Obama, a gentleman at my 101 membership to our church in California refered to himself as a banana. He is born Korean, but has lived in America since about 10 years old. He stated the term meant, “Yellow on the outside, white on the inside.” He attends the Korean affliated congregation of the church and feels caught between the old vs new.

So when we finally get universal healthcare, do you want it organized like our school system? You buy or rent into the local healthcare district and only can go to the district facilities. Or do you prefer an alternative school (healthcare) voucher program where the money follows the student (patient) to the service facilty?