Dear Dreamer
love, America
According to statistics in 2023 Oregon currently has the second-highest untreated addiction rate in the country. The state also ranks last in the nation in providing addiction treatment access.
<Update (1/20/26)> According to statistics, at the end of 2024, in a year-long effort to speak with and photograph nearly half the homeless in Portland, Oregon — Kevin Dahlgren, from Truth on the Streets, and his incredible friend/editorial photographer, Tara “Ghost” Faul, the majority of the homeless, by 2024, had never come into contact with the social-service system, despite a system that receives $744 million annually. Roughly 90% struggled with addiction or mental illness. This is a common theme in larger more liberal cities/states. FACT. PLEASE LOOK AT THEIR WORK. It is the individual, free of politics, bureaucrats and charlatans who change the world. They do more in one day, one year, than our leaders do in decades. At present Kevin and his good friend, John, formerly homeless on the streets for five years, are finding lost loved ones for families that have been looking for them. Authorities/social service do less and less work while benefiting from your tax-payer dollars. Kevin has also done a short documentary (at the end of his piece - click this link) exposing Los Angeles’ Skid Rowz, has documented Seattle, Vancouver, and I believe San Francisco, where my youngest walks with a street crisis group. Please check out Ryan Aanderud’s work on Instagram as well. He and Tara are slowly (and very humbly) bringing attention, as few photographers have done in past history, to a crisis that is completely out of control. They are true humanitarians with cameras. They do far more than take pictures.
Oregon is also one of the most farm reliant states. Farmers and ranchers here produce over 240 agriculture products that feed the state. They are renowned across the country and the world for their quality. It may be surprising that 97% of Oregon’s farms and ranches are family owned and operated. However, they are folding faster than ever due to suffocating, intentional legislative agendas, as land is purchased by more and more foreign entities — and good people, many who have held onto century farms, are swallowed up, along with our most important food chain.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
But what of them? what of all the people who have no say, no vote, in this meaningless word “Democracy.”
Dear Dreamer dare to dream as politicians boldly scheme Dear Farmer tilling soil for regulators you toil Dear Ranch home on the range cabinet birdcage in exchange Dear Doers that cannot do for their claws are scratching you Dear Drug Addict unambiguous your stump of sidewalk deciduous Dear Drug Racketeer we see your new frontier Dear Dying and the Dead your trust they surely tread Dear God upon the Universe help the idols of such foolishness Dear Dreamer stay awake for your time is sure at stake Dear Wordsmith, Poet, Artist hold on for you are stardust Dear Land of the Free release it back to thee. love, America ox Dear Dreamer - by deborah t. hewitt
Deb, this is beautiful and poignant and heartfelt and I feel the crushing emotion. ❤️
I think back to the very first settlers and all that they endured to farm this land and I can’t help but wonder what they would think of these foreign entities buying up the land that the first American settlers fought so hard for. For what purpose? And why are so many of the large chunks of land that the Chinese have bought so close to military bases? We live in scary, uncertain times.