The spring of 2010 was a transformative time in my life. In the winter of 2007-08, while working in Everglades National Park, Florida, I decided it would be my final season working my winter job as a naturalist park ranger there after 16 years. I wanted to pursue my vision to take action to pursue a career to speak out, organize, and even go to graduate school to reduce the threat of climate change. However, I had no idea how to follow this calling in 2008. 

I then returned to work at my summer seasonal job at Crater Lake National Park. My shared my vision to want to do something about climate change with my Crater Lake Interpretation Supervisor, Eric Anderson, and the Lead Naturalist Ranger, David Grimes. They were supportive and encouraging. Eric signed me up to attend an online National Park Service (NPS) training about communicating about climate change. It was informative to get the perspective and to hear rangers in other national parks talk about it, but the training did not lead me to any action. 

That summer of 2008, I was still grieving for the loss of my mentor, park ranger Steve Robinson, who passed away in October 2007. I did not feel like I had a sense of healing until I took a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii at the end October and the beginning of November 2008. 

During the winter of 2008 in between my summer seasonal Crater Lake ranger job, I stayed with my parents in St. Louis, Missouri. I found a short-term job working retail at the nearby REI (Recreation Equipment Incorporated) store. In January 2009, I was one of the first employees laid off after the Christmas holiday shopping season. Even worse, the Great Recession of 2008 impacted REI sales. The first hires that REI had to let go were short term employees like me. 

In June 2008, Eric Anderson invited John Morris, an Interpretive Program Manager for NPS in the Alaska Regional office, to give a communicating climate change training to the interpretative ranger staff at Crater Lake. During his visit, he gave an evening program to the park visitors about the impact of climate change in the national parks. John’s easy manner at sharing the complex and sobering information about climate change with the public, especially with mixing in some humor, made a deep impression on me. I knew I eventually wanted to give public climate change presentations. In 2008 though, I still felt I knew so little about the subject.

In March 2009, I returned to work seasonally at Crater Lake. I was selected as one of the three rangers to work in the Classroom at Crater Lake Program leading snowshoe ranger talks for grade school, middle school, and high school field trips visiting the park. 

During 2008 and the spring of 2009, I read books on the threat of climate change to absorb knowledge, but I still had no idea what to do as I became more alarmed about global warming. In August 2009, I visited my friend Lizzy Bauer at Redwoods National Park in northern California. She informed me that her evening campfire ranger program was on the impacts of climate change on the redwood ecosystem and wildlife. She showed me the PowerPoint of this presentation, and she even allowed me to have a copy of it on a flash drive. 

After I saw Lizzy’s ranger climate presentation, I knew I eventually wanted to give a climate change evening ranger program at Crater Lake National Park. I still had much uncertainty how I would do this because I still felt like I did not know enough about global warming to and how to communicate it with the public. In the summer and fall of 2009, it was a deep internal conflict for me wanting to pursue my passion to do something to speak out and pursue a career communicating about climate change. Yet, I had no idea how to pursue this vision. 

It was not until the fall of 2009 when my life’s vision became crystal clear. At that time, I was housesitting for a friend in Ashland, Oregon. As I wrote about in other blogs, I got into an argument with my friend Naomi about what I should do with my life. She deliberately and forcefully pressed me on that question: ‘What do you really want to do with your life?’ 

I then blurted out: “Fine! I would like to be the Climate Change Comedian!” 

She fell out of her chair laughing and replied, “I want you to go home and grab that website domain immediately!” 

I went home and did that. I bought the website domain, www.climateachangecomedian.com. Naomi then advised me to create my own climate change PowerPoint and build my website. I had no idea how to build a website. That was a daunting task for me for months afterwards. 

While I lived with my parents in St. Louis in the winter months of 2010, I created my first climate change PowerPoint, “Let’s Have Fun Getting Serious About Climate Change.” I showed it to my friend John Dantico in March 2010. He did not respond to the jokes in my presentation. He was unsure about the science of climate change that I showed in my PowerPoint. John was savvy with technology though. He agreed to help me build my Climate Change Comedian website. 

To build this website, we knew I would need images and a website logo to promote me. Another friend in St. Louis, Tyrone Manthey, was an excellent photographer. Ty and his wife Carna were the parents of my best friend from high school, Scott Manthey. They were like a second mom and dad to me when I was a teenager in the 1980s. In March 2010, they were in the process to moving from their home in St. Louis to their newly built dream home in Baraboo, Wisconsin. 

In their process of moving, I made a deal with Ty and Carna. I helped them with some of their packing and loading of boxes. In exchange, I asked Ty to take serious and goofy photos of me with my inflatable Earth Ball in a nearby park to create the promotional photos. The photos that Ty took were great and helpful. I used those photos frequently over the years in my climate change PowerPoints and in other ways to promote me. 

I was still looking for the ultimate iconic photo to promote me as a climate change communicator, public speaker, and even a comedian. In April 2010, I took trip to Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit friends. I would stay with my friends Dean and Bernie Shumway in the Door County Peninsula of Wisconsin. I then planned to travel to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit my friend Cherie Barth in Houghton. I would then stay with Ty and Carna in their new home in Baraboo, Wisconsin. I figured during this trip, I would get the ideal photo of me posing with my Earth Ball outside with one of the Great Lakes behind me. 

At the beginning of 2026, I wrote a 6-part blog of finding that perfect image My Earth Ball Photo by Lake Superior. When I visited Dean and Bernie Shumway in Sister Bay, Wisconsin in Door County, Dean took a good photo of me on April 7, 2010 on Washington Island. It is located on Lake Michigan just north of the Door County Peninsula. It is only accessible by ferry, which Dean, Bernie, and I took to the island. It was a cold overcast blustery day at the beach when I inflated my Earth Ball for Dean to take a photo of me with Lake Michigan behind me. 

With the gloomy grey sky and I was bundled up in the photo to stay warm, even wearing thick black gloves to keep my fingers from getting frostbite holding the Earth Ball. It was a pleasant photo that I liked. However, it was not the photo I was looking for to represent me as a climate change communicator and wannabe comedian. 

During that trip to Wisconsin and Michigan, I finally got the suitable photo I envisioned to promote me when my friends Cherie and Dan took me to Copper Harbor, Michigan on April 10, 2010. It was a sunny clear cool spring day. Lake Superior was mostly calm with a light chop on the water from a gentle breeze. The lake had a welcoming bright deep blue color looking like a gigantic inland sea. It was the perfect day to get the iconic image I wanted of me holding my Earth Ball looking happy on the rocky brown shoreline of Lake Superior with the huge lake stretching out to the horizon behind. 

I nailed the photo I wanted to promote me for climate action. I now needed to travel safely home to St. Louis, Missouri for John Dantico to help me build my climate change comedian website. This is the focus of this blog the journey home from Copper Harbor, Michigan to St. Louis, Missouri to next build my www.climatechangecomedian.com website. 

This blog is about the story in between my blogs For Climate Action, my EarthBall photo by Lake Superior, Part 6, which was about getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010 and my blog For Climate Action, my process of becoming a writer. 

That latter blog was about my friend John challenging me to regularly write after we created my website in late April 2010. I then detailed how I evolved to become a writer. To return from Copper Harbor, Michigan to St. Louis, Missouri with my ideal photo became a treacherous journey April 11-14th that I want to recount the details here. 

I should first point out that I took this vacation under risky conditions before I left my parents’ home in April 2010. Prior to the start of the trip, in March 2010, I took my car to the local Honda dealership to be serviced. I did not like how my 2002 Honda Civic handled driving at interstate speeds. The mechanic took it for a drive. He noticed wheel alignment to be out of balance, plus he found other problems in need of maintenance. The front compliance bushings were torn, the power steering fluid needed a fluid exchange, the right front strut was leaking and needed to be replaced. Moreover, the mechanic recommended I replaced the tires, especially the back two tires, because the tread was wearing out. The final bill was over $1100. 

I was furious when they informed me that the tires needed to be replaced because I bought a new pair of tires two years before. They should have lasted longer. It was not the fault of this Honda Dealership. I bought these tires elsewhere two years earlier, and they should have lasted longer. I decided to spend over $1,100 to repair my car, but I was not ready to spend money on a new set of tires. I thought I would chance it on these old worn set of tires to drive over 1,500 miles from St. Louis to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the first 10 days of April 2010. I thought those tires should hold up fine for the trip. Seriously, what could go wrong? 

April 11, 2010 – Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park in the U.P. of Michigan 

I was not sure how I would top the day before, April 10, 2010. It was memorable driving around the Keweenaw Peninsula with my friends Cherie and Dan to see waterfalls, rolling mountains, forests, and the shoreline of Lake Superior while capturing the optimal photo of me holding my Earth Ball with this Great Lake behind me. On April 11th, Cherie and Dan took me to one of the most beautiful places I saw in my life, Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park, located on northwestern shoreline of the U.P. of Michigan, just a few miles from the Wisconsin border. 

Cherie, Dan, and I went to Porcupine Mountain on a Sunday. No other tourists or locals came to the park that day, even though it was a weekend. It was a sunny cool spring day. The area was just beginning to emerge from winter. The park still had some snow on the ground. The deciduous trees were still barren of leaves. They all stood like wooden husks allowing more glimpses of the remaining snow on the ground and other trees than one would see in late spring and summer when the tree foliage hid the land surface and the trees in the forests behind them. 

Except for one or two other hikers, the only other visitor we saw that day was a Bald Eagle perched on a tree. It was so peaceful and quiet that the eagle did not mind our presence. It allowed us to get several photos of us before flying off to another distant tree. 

The signage on the trails and the wayside signs indicated the park was a popular destination for cross country skiing in the winter. But, those same hiking trails looked to be a rewarding experience to walk on in the spring, summer, and fall when it was not possible to travel by skis. 

Cherie, Dan, and I decided to hike in different directions to take in the natural solitude and make our individual heart felt connections to the park that day. This is Michigan’s largest state park around 60,000 acres to lose yourself in the outdoors. Dan and I hiked up at our own separate paces to The Lake of the Clouds Overlook. We hiked on the 1.7-mile Lake of the Clouds Trail which was a moderate trail with an elevation gain of over 300 feet to reach the overlook to get a panoramic view of Lake of the Clouds. This lake was only a couple miles south of the enormous Lake Superior. Yet, it was a hidden wonder nestled between two rolling mountains ridges. 

It was a great day to be alive! The stillness was so soothing there. It was a viewpoint where one could spend hours admiring the natural beauty of the enclosed lake with the old growth forests and raised rounded mountains as far as the eye could see. At the overlook and on the hiking trail, nearly no sounds of overhead airplanes, distractions no cars whizzing by on roads, nor people were there any people talking loudly. 

The scenic grandeur was so visceral there that I wondered why everyone wasn’t there. Yet, I felt so blessed that it was just Cherie, Dan, and I there with just a few other hikers at this hidden gem. The views and time spent in this park was an ideal place to renew one’s soul. 

I hiked for a couple of miles on the Escarpment Trail, which traversed the spine of this mountainous ridge so I could get more views of the majestic Lake of the Clouds and the pristine valley below. Though I hiked high above this lake on the trail, I still wanted to hike the distance of the length of the lake to see it from multiple perspectives. Each view of this trail was worthy to take quality photos and appreciate the scene. I even hiked past the lake to see the start of the Upper Carp River meandering through the marshes. 

I then hiked downhill to the main park highway to walk it for about a mile to the Lake Superior Trailhead. I walked a couple of miles on that trail to get better views of the lake. It amazed me this Great Lake was as calm as glass that day. My first experience seeing Lake Superior a few days before at Whitefish point on the far southeastern shore was that it was moody, angry and did not want to be messed with. Today, on the other end at the far southwestern shore of Lake Superior, the lake wanted to show it could be still, quiet, and peaceful. I was no longer religious, but it reminded me of the Bible verse Psalms 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” 

The pensive and relaxed state of Lake Superior that day was a reminder that life could be good, meditative, and restful. 

Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park was as mesmerizing and sacred of a place as any national park I saw. The words I write here cannot do it justice. I hiked a couple of miles on the Lake Superior trail hoping to catch a clear view of the lake unobstructed by trees. The trailhead started several hundred feet above the lake. The trail winded downhill through the forest but got nowhere near the lake shore on this portion of the trail. However, the vegetation started to subdue to enable one to get a wild screen view of this largest of all the Great Lakes. 

I took two self-photographs with my digital camera to try to capture this spectacular day with the placid Lake Superior and the leafless trees still in their winter hibernation mode behind me. I then walked back up to the trailhead to meet up with Cherie and Dan so we could start driving back to their house in Houghton. 

I was so focused on connecting with nature that day that I realized as I headed back to rendezvous with Cherie and Dan that I lost my winter Mountain Hardwear hat. That hat was mad of thick polyester material that kept my head comfortably warm in the freezing winter temperatures. I bought it with the hefty employee discount from when I worked the holiday season at REI just 14 months before. I hoped that I left it in Cherie’s car. 

I finally found Cherie’s car after I hiked a mile down the road to a pullout where I found Cherie’s car. She was there impatiently waiting for Dan and me to return. She was more upset with Dan than me for being gone so long that day. We did not set up a time to meet up. We just figured we would eventually find all of us to then head back to their home. 

When I returned to her car, I asked Cherie if she saw my winter hat on a trail or in her car. She had not seen it, and she became grumpy at me for losing my hat. I was not too concerned about it. I figured I could order another hat through REI or Mountain Hardware. She expressed more frustration with me that I misplaced my hat. I figured I was so delighted to be exploring Porcupine Mountain that it was the cost of recreating there that day. California naturalist John Muir once wrote, “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks”.

Yes, I totally agree with John Muir that I always receive more than I seek when I hike in nature. Sadly, sometimes others and I lose personal items losing ourselves in nature. I persuaded Cherie to drive me to the Lake of the Clouds Overlook to walk a short path from the parking lot to the overlook to see if I had possibly left my hat there. I even walked part of the Escarpment Trail again hoping to spot my hat. It was not to be found. I hope someone else was able to find it and use it with the extreme cold temperatures that area receives in the winter. 

It was too late for Cherie and Dan to cook a meal at home that evening. The three of us found a local pizza restaurant to dine 13 miles east of the eastern entrance of the park at the town of Ontonagon. It was just warm enough to eat outside. 

Across the street from the restaurant, I noticed a closed tourist gift store selling locally made souvenirs and nearby shiny mineral rocks. The sign at the top of the building announced it as The Gitche Gumee Landing. One of the Native American titles for Lake Superior was Gitche Gumee. It was the Ojibwe people name for Lake Superior, meaning “Big Sea” or “Huge Water.” 

Like many people over the last 50 years, I first heard term Gitche Gumee from Gordon Lightfoot’s song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” In the song, Lightfoot wrote and sang, 

For the song starts with Lightfoot singing, 

“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee…” 

After dinner we drove back to Cherie and Dan’s house in Houghton. The drive was only about one hour. I hiked so much that day that I fell asleep in the passenger seat during the ride back. The magnificent day wore me out! 

This was my last time seeing Lake Superior. The next day, I planned to back my car to head directly south to visit my friends Carna and Ty Manthey in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Ever since I took that trip 16 years ago, I schemed to try to return to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see marvelous Lake Superior and natural wonders of that area. I still hope to return there. I hope you will make it a high priority to visit there. 

Visiting my friends Carna and Ty Manthey in Baraboo, Wisconsin 

The next day, April 12, 2010, I say goodbye to my friends Cherie and Dan in Houghton, Michigan to drive straight down the Baraboo, Wisconsin to visit my friends, Ty and Carna Manthey. 

It was an uneventful drive from Houghton, Michigan to Baraboo, Wisconsin traveling through the small rural conservative towns as I left the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to drive through the center of Wisconsin. No awe-inspiring scenery that day. I reached Carna and Ty’s new log cabin home late in the afternoon. 

I looked forward to seeing them since I just helped pack up their belongings from their old home in St. Louis over a month earlier. Both Ty and Carner were born and raised in the Baraboo, Wisconsin area. I knew them since 1982 when their son Scott became my best friend in junior high school and high school. I frequently hung out at their house back then. I admired how they were always easy going, relaxed, positive people, with a great sense of humor. 

Ty’s job with the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency brought them to St. Louis in 1982, but Scott’s parents always dreamed of moving back to Wisconsin, to the area where they originally lived. They often shared their dream to build a dream home in the Baraboo after Ty retired from their job. Even more, they envisioned building a log cabin kind of home in a rural area just outside of the town. I was curious to see what their ideal home looked like. 

When I arrived, I noticed that their home was at the bottom of a steep curving gravel driveway. The wood of their log cabin home was an orangish brown color that glistened in the sun on a clear day. The roof had a dark green color that matched well with the wooden exterior walls. The house had a single second story room that sat in the middle of the home like a crown. The home was surrounded by dirt since the construction of the home and moving in was recently completed. Plus, it was coming out of winter, so no grass had time to grow yet. 

As I drove up the gravel dirt driveway in my Honda Civic, I was unsure how I would eventually drive back down the narrow sloping angled driveway. At least I made it safely to the top. Leaving to go down the drive would be a problem to solve for a different day. 

Ty and Carna’s new home was stunning. They did an amazing job designing it and investing the money to build it. Located a couple miles outside of Baraboo, he property had a wide-open country feel. The back side of their living room had a large window looking out into a forest of small pine trees. They frequently observed wild deer and other animals. When someone thinks of Wisconsin, people often think of daily farms. However, the scene out of their back window looked more like a scene from the American western states or even the Pacific Northwest. 

Their home had the feel of someplace you would want to go on vacation to an AirBnb or a Bed and Breakfast. I felt so content staying there that I did not want to leave ever. 

I was honored to be their first house guest, even before either of their adult children, Scott and Michelle, and their families, or other relatives came to visit. Ty and Carna took pride in showing me around their and the Baraboo area. 

They first took me to see Devil’s Lake State Park where they had met as teenagers and started courting there. Both of their parents used to bring them and their siblings there as children. The scenery there was fascinating. The park had a good size lake with a very large cliff behind it. The terminal moraines of an ice age glacier was located there. Ty and Carna told me the story how they initially met at Devil’s Lake. They shared the story with me with such delight like they were still two teenagers in love. I was honored to be there to have this experience with them. 

The town of Baraboo had a lot of character and history. We drove by old residential home that was painted in a bright Pepto-Bismol bright pink color. We stopped by to see a roadside historical plaque attached to a large stone that noted the first schoolhouse in the  Baraboo Valley was built on that spot in 1844. 

I took a couple of photos of an American Staffordshire Terrier breed dog sitting in a in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck patiently waiting for its owner to return. The way the dog sat near the steering wheel facing forward, it looked like the dog was driving this parked vehicle. 

During my visit, we ate lunch and dinners at the small diners in Baraboo. It still had the feel of a small, sleepy town where everyone knew each other and treated each other like family. 

I learned the trivia that Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus started in Baraboo in 1884. Right by the center of town, Ty pointed out the Clown Museum associated with the circus history for the town. I have always considered myself an amateur comedian and humorous idiot, so I had to get my photo in front of the clown museum. 

My car became stuck in a ditch leaving my friends’ home in Baraboo, Wisconsin 

On April 14th, I was eager to head home to St. Louis from this vacation to Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This was a fantastic journey, but it was time for me to go home. 

After I returned home, my friend John Dantico and I had an agreement he would help me build my www.climatechangecomedian.com website. I needed to start packing for my cross-country drive and summer park ranger job at Crater Lake National Park. Even more, the Honda maintenance department at my nearby dealership advised me to get new car tires. I wanted to replace my tires before that long multi-state two-thousand-mile drive from St. Louis, Missouri to Crater Lake, Oregon. I did not want to risk having a blown tire on that long car trip, especially on the most remote parts of that drive in the deserts and mountains out west. 

Ty left early that morning before 6 am for some errands in town and meet with some friends. I probably should have asked him to help me back down my car their steep curved gravel driveway. I would need to do that drive in reverse gear, since I did not see much room to turn the car around by their garage. Ty would have been happy to help me with that, but he left quickly that morning. Thus, I would be all on my own on this. It was all on me to get my car safely down the driveway to the paved flat street. 

After I loaded my car with my suitcase and belongings around 6:30 am. Carna was sleep in still that morning, so I was unable to say goodbye to her. I was determined to get on the road early because I needed to get oil change. I drove over 1,500 miles on this trip. I normally try to get an oil change every 3,750 miles. I was now over 4,000 miles.  

Thus, I was anxious to get on the road early and complete this oil change. I had a lot to do once I returned to St. Louis. I did not even eat breakfast that morning, which was unusual for me. I needed to get home later that day. I figured I would eat breakfast at a diner, Denny’s or McDonald’s while my car got an oil change. 

It was now time for me to conquer my fear to go down Ty and Carna’s narrow curving steep gravel driveway in reverse. Gulp! I wondered how I had allowed myself to get into this situation. 

My heart was in my throat as I slowed back down the steep driveway. I needed to keep angling the steering wheel to stay on the pavement. However, it was hard to tilt the steering wheel precise enough to stay within the parameters of the bending driveway. Even worse, I had to drive my car in reverse, which severely limited my visibility and maneuvering skills. 

I made several attempts to drive towards the bottom of the driveway. However, my car was getting close to veering off the driveway into a ditch with sharp rocks at the bottom. I did not know how I was going to get out of this situation without possibly ending up in this rocky ditch. At the same time, I worried about possibly even bottoming out between road and the ditch if my wheel went over the edge, possibly then damaging the undercarriage of my car. 

No matter how many times I tried, I could not safely guide my car in reverse to the bottom of the driveway. Each time, I started down the steep hill and came close each time to my car driving off the edge, I became even more worried, anxious, and scared. 

My worst fears came true when my back passenger wheel came off the driveway and it was dangling over a metal culvert near the bottom of the driveway. I was stuck. I could not drive my car further without possibly causing damage to the vehicle. The car seemed fine for this moment resting in this position, but it did not look like a stable situation for my vehicle to stay parked in that position. 

Fortunately, Carna was now up and awake. From her window, she saw what unfolded with my car. Some time before my visit, she had a stroke which she was then trying to recover. As a result of that ailment, Carna walked with a heavy limp, and she was limited in her speaking ability. Despite her physical challenges, Carna walked outside and asked me if she could call for a nearby tow truck to come rescue my car. My mind was out of control with anger, shock, and bewilderment that fate and my poor decisions up to that point allowed this precarious situation to happen with my car. 

Carna acted like a guardian angel. I will always be grateful to her for calling for a tow truck, with my permission. The tow truck came within about 20 minutes. The tow truck operator easily towed my car onto the road so I could finally drive it safely back to St. Louis. 

My flat tire when I had almost reached home in St. Louis, Missouri 

An hour drive from Baraboo to Madison, Wisconsin, I found a Honda Dealer service center I could get an oil change. They were busy servicing other cars that morning. However, they squeezed me in to get an oil change around 11 am. I braced for news that my car would need an alignment, tire balancing, or other major servicing after I maneuvered my car into the culvert in Ty and Carna’s driveway in Baraboo. They did not seem to find anything wrong with my car. Unlike the Honda Dealership in St. Louis, they did not advise me to replace my tires. 

I thought I would be safe to drive back to St. Louis. By the point, I had not eaten anything since dinner the previous day. I felt famished. My stomach and body yearned for food. I stopped by a Denny’s in Madison for a big breakfast that would fill me up for the day for the car ride home. I did not leave Madison to start driving back to St. Louis until sometime after 1 pm that day. 

I had a 5-and-a-half-hour drive ahead. I hoped to be home to my parents’ house in St. Louis for a late dinner. Along the way, I stopped for gasoline, used the restroom, and buy a late lunch. 

The drive leaving Wisconsin and driving south down the interstates in through the center of Illinois until I got 50 miles outside of St. Louis around 6:30 pm. It felt like I was driving on a rough patch of Interstate 55 when the sound of the road became unbearable, especially from the rear end of the driver’s side of the car. The car was leaning a bit and getting hard to handle of the road. I just wanted to ignore it and drive home, but the car did not want to drive much further. I pulled over to the shoulder of the highway to see what was wrong. 

After I brought the car safely to a complete stop, I got outside of the car to discover the problem. My worst fear was realized: my driver’s side rear tired had blown out and was completely flat. I should have bought a new set of tires before I embarked on this trip to Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Looks like I needed to use the tire jack that came with vehicle to elevate the back end, take the damaged tire off my car, and attach the small emergency donut tire. I would then have to drive slowly and carefully back to my parents’ house. I only had one problem: I had never changed a flat tire before, and I was unsure how to accomplish this. 

I called my parents to let them know what happened. My mom and dad decided they to hop into their car to start driving my way to help me change this tire. I was relieved and comforted my Dad and Mom were willing to drive to my location to assist me. The bad news: it would take them about 50 minutes to drive from their home to my location to assist me. 

I then took any suitcases and belongings out of my trunk to reach the donut tire and tire jack, located deep in the lower compartment of my trunk. Before I knew it, a car pulled up behind me. It was a slender young man with a crew cut hair style in early 30s where his U.S. Army fatigues work uniform. 

He introduced himself as Stephen Hrabusicky, a veteran who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He offered to change my tires from the worn-out flat tire to attach the temporary spare donut tire on my car. I gladly accepted his help. 

I mentioned to him how I drove on a rough section of I-55 when this happened. 

He retorted, ‘Welcome to the socialist state of Illinois where they don’t fix the roads.’ 

I appreciated Stephen was changing my tire during this odd conversation, but I was skeptical that anything that happened to my tire had anything to do with politics. The last thing on my mind was politics in that moment. I only wanted to get my tire changed and go home. 

Still, I could not let his bonkers comment stand. I replied, “I don’t know, but when I have traveled through Oklahoma, I found their roads to be in much worse shape than Illinois.” 

Steven: “That’s because they don’t have much money in Oklahoma.” 

I stopped myself from saying anything further because I appreciated his assistance. Before I knew it, he had the donut spare tire securely attached to my car and he was lowering the tire jack. I thanked him and I got his name and address so I could send him a thank you card. 

Steven left the scene minutes before my parents arrived. They were amazed someone graciously changed my tire. They wished they could have thanked him in person. My parents then followed me home as I drove 35 to 40 miles per hour on the interstate riding on the spare tire. 

I was exhausted and relieved I made it back safely to my parents’ home late that evening. 

The next morning, I quickly researched the best quality tires using Consumer Reports. For my wheel measurements, they recommended a set of Hancock Radial tires. I found a nearby Autotire Center that had those tires in stock. I made an appointment for them to install the tires the next day. They tried to sell me on getting my front and rear struts replaced. However, I seemed skeptical that they were trying to sell me on an unnecessary repair, so I declined. 

Final Thoughts 

After driving my car into a culvert and experiencing a tire blow out on April 14, 2010, the good news was that my car was in good working order for many months afterwards. A few days after my new tires were installed, I met with my friend John Dantico to help me set up my www.climatechangecomedian.com website. 

As I wrote in my blog, For Climate Action, my process of becoming a writer, I never forgot John advising me after he set up my website, “Now you will need to consistently set aside time to write a blog for your website so you can create followers and draw attention to your website.” 

At that time, I did not think of myself as a writer. I had no idea what specific topics I should be writing and blogging. Over time, I wrote many my blogs for my own website, as well as guest blogs for friends’ websites, a 2012 published article in Yale Climate Connections, and numerous newspaper opinion editorials, guest commentaries, and letters to the editor. 

As the years went by, I became more comfortable blogging about my own journeys. In early May 2010, I completed a cross-country drive from St. Louis to Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. I returned to Crater Lake to work another season as a naturalist park ranger. During that 2,000-mile drive in May, I stopped in Vail, Colorado to experience zip lining for the first time. One month later, in June 2010, I rode in a hot air balloon with my friend, Lise Wall. In July 2010, I flew in a small private airplane over Crate Lake for the first time. 

Ever since John and I created my website and I started blogging, I had adventures and peak life experiences that I blogged about that helped mold me into the climate and democracy organizer that I am today. 

Thank goodness I survived driving my car into a culvert in Baraboo, Wisconsin and encountering a blown tire in Illinois on April 14, 2010. I am grateful I blogged here about that experience. Even more, I feel blessed I wrote blogs about many other experiences trying to make a difference to create a healthier planet from climate change and trying to uphold American Democracy. 

Thank you for reading my writings! 

“What do you know for sure?”
– The question film critic Gene Siskel 
often asked his guests before concluding an interview.

February 1, 2025, marked the 15th anniversary when I started blogging. I felt pressure to begin writing a blog to maintain my www.climatechangecomedian.com website that my friend John Dantico helped me launch in April 2010. 

After he successfully helped me create my website, John gave me advice that shook me to my core. He remarked, “Now you will need to consistently set aside time to write a blog for your website so you can create followers and draw attention to your website.” 

My swallowed hard and my stomach tensed up. I thought, “Me! Write regularly? There’s no way! I am not a writer.” 

My website sat dormant for the next 10 months. At that time, I did not think of myself as a writer, so I made every excuse possible to not write. By the end of January 2011, I was out of excuses. One month earlier, I went through the worst break up of my life when a woman I deeply loved dumped me. As part of the way to re-invent myself and move forward in life, I decided it was time for me to start blogging. 

At that time, I spent my winters at my parents’ home in St. Louis, Missouri in between my summer job working as a naturalist ranger at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. I stared at my laptop as I sat at their dining room table for hours trying to come up with something to write.

On February 1, 2011, I did it! I wrote my My First Blog Ever. 

In that blog, I focused on the two things I knew for sure at that time: 

1) Think Globally,
Act Daily

2) Each and every one of us can change the world. We do this by
    a) The way we vote
    b) The products we buy
c) The attitudes we share with each other.

I came up with those two personal mantras or core beliefs when I worked as a naturalist guide in Everglades National Park in Flamingo, Florida from 1998 to 2002. I narrated two different boat tours. One tour that went into the open water of Florida with the possibility of seeing dolphins and a few wading birds. The other tour went into the mangrove backcountry with possible views of alligators, crocodiles, a few wading birds, and manatees. 

While I pointed out wildlife and notable plants and trees on these tours, I talked about the Everglades as one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems. Coastal human development spreading from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale shrunk the historical natural Everglades ecosystem in half. Most of the natural Everglades’ water in the went to the urban areas and farms. As a result, the ecosystem had lost about 90% of its fish, birds, and alligators since early 20th century. On some days, a visitor could still see some alligators and birds. However, all the historical reports stated the natural Everglades once teeming with fish, birds and other wildlife.

After I gave this sobering news to visitors, I went around the boat to talk to visitors individually after I wrapped up my narration. Some visitors felt angry at humans but felt hopeless to do anything about it. I affirmed that they can and must do what they can to save the Everglades and the planet. I always ended my talks with the Joe Pogder quote, “The Everglades is a test. If we pass the test, we get to keep the planet.” 

In addition, I quoted Marjory Stoneman Douglas, considered to be the Mother of Everglades National Park. Decades ago, I heard her say in a documentary that when it comes to saving the Everglades, the environment, and the Earth from human destruction, “It’s not a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic, it’s simply something that has to be done.” 

Those quotes did not seem to provide enough reassurance to visitors of their agency. Thus, I created my own quotes at that time to enlighten them of their own personal power. My conversations on those boats seemed to go better as I shared my unique perspective on the world. I especially liked my twist on that common expression at that time, “Think globally, act locally.” 

In the early 2000s, I was not motivated to act locally in a neighborhood or in a community sense. I lived and worked seasonally in the national parks. Looking back now, I was acting locally with seeing environmental destruction in the Everglades. However, I was not really interested in acting locally, just acting daily. Therefore, I loved my own bending of that sound bite. I liked the idea of acting daily of mentioning in my ranger talks the environmental damage and the solutions we could do as individuals. When I was not working, I wrote letters and made phone calls to the offices of my members of Congress and attended local Miami environmental meetings. 

I remember park visitors even laughing when I would say, ‘When it comes to taking action, I have often heard the expression “Think globally, act locally.” But what if I don’t feel like acting locally? Well, I can still act daily and that gives me hope.’ 

Those two expressions that I created on my own propelled for decades afterwards. I remember writing them down and posting them on my refrigerator somewhere around the year 2001 while living and working in Flamingo, Florida. While living at that time in Everglades National Park, I began collecting inspiring quotes by famous people to help guide my life and thinking. I ended up with a small green backpack filled with various insightful quotes written on scraps of paper in several Zip Lock bags to keep them safe. My first two quotes I shared here and in my first blog in February 2011 were always my favorites of my collection.

3. Ranger Brian’s Pocket-sized Wisdom 

In the summer of 2008, I worked in my third season as a naturalist or interpretation ranger at Crater Lake National Park. That August, the lead interpretation ranger Dave Grimes, assigned me to lead sunset guided ranger hikes up the Watchman Peak at Crater Lake National Park. The hike was less of a mile long one way and led to the fire lookout tower at the summit of the Watchman Peak, which was just over 8,000 feet above sea level. As I wrote more extensively in my blog post, For Climate Action, advice from a former park ranger, I was still grieving my mentor, park ranger Steve Robinson, passing away in October 2007. 

I choose to end my ranger hike up the Watchman Peak with a small pocket-sized card that I gave to visitors as a gift at the conclusion of my program. I called it Ranger Brian’s Wisdom. However, most of the wisdom was my mentor Steve Robinson’s advice to me in our many hours of conversation over the years when we both worked in Everglades and Crater Lake National Parks from 1993 to 2007. My pocket-sized prose was like a good John Lennon and Paul McCartney Beatles composed song because it was a synergy of both our ideas. Although I admit most of the thoughts originated with Steve, it was certainly things we agreed upon in our long discussions. I ended Ranger Brian’s Wisdom with my own original quote, “Think globally, act daily.” 

I stopped working as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park in October 2017. Thus, I ended giving my sunset guided ranger hikes up the Watchman Peak that same summer. However, I still have a stack of those cards Ranger Brian’s Wisdom in my dresser drawer that I give out to friends now and then. 

Besides my first two quotes I shared here and in my first blog, I hope to be remembered for the words I composed with the guidance of my mentor Steve Robinson in Ranger Brian’s Wisdom. 

4. Never Give into Despair, Cynicism, Pessimism, and Hopelessness 

For my liberal, progressive, and climate friends, 2017 was a depressing year for them and me. The swearing in of Donald Trump as President on January 20th soon led to his lie that his inauguration crowd size was bigger than Obama’s inauguration crowds. A few days later, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway promoted “alternative facts,” when host of NBC’s Meet the Press Chuck Todd pressed her on Trump’s falsehood of “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”  It was obvious from the beginning of the year that Donald Trump was not interested in the truth, being held accountable by the press and the American public, and that he intended to assert lies even when the truth was obvious. 

A couple of days later, Donald Trump issued an executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. It was the beginning of Trump’s actions as President to foster discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities he did not like. 

For climate action, the news was bleak in March 2017 when Trump moved to dismantle President dismantle Obama’s climate legacy. Trump issued an executive order to basically end the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s flagship policy to curb carbon emissions. Trump’s executive order rescinded the Clean Power Plan’s moratorium on the sale of coalmining leases on federal lands. His action was consistent with his wrong and shortsighted assertion since his 2014 tweet that “Global warming is an expensive hoax!”

With that 2017 executive order on coal, Trump conveniently ignored the evidence that coal is the most carbon-intensive and dirtiest fossil fuel causing global climate change. 

Trump followed up that March executive order on coal with withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords on June 1, 2017. In his announcement, he made the head scratching comment that he was “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” He blindly ignored that climate change is a global problem that was and would continue to severely harm the U.S. 

The decision was a blow to environmentalists, business leaders and international figures, many of whom have urged Trump to reconsider.

On the legal front, in May 2017, Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and possible ties to the Trump campaign and top aides.

A few days later in May, the U.S. Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee the growing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible ties to associates of President Trump. That cloud of impropriety hung over Donald Trump for the rest of 2017.  

The national news became more dour as the year progressed. In August 2017, the smoke from the fire season in the Pacific Northwest was so intense that NASA documented images of the fires from space. On a personal level, the smoke was hazardous to breathe, dampened park visitors’ experiences to Crater Lake National Park, and it made it more challenging for me to work as a park ranger there in the summer of 2017. 

For scientists and U.S. federal agencies, they had no doubt that climate change played a role in causing these severe 2017 wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. 

For years afterward, Trump was clueless about the connection with catastrophic wildfires and climate change. In November 2018, he continued his bogus assertion that solely blaming wildfires on poor forest management while ignoring the influence of climate change. 

While these forest fires raged in the Pacific Northwest, deadly violence broke out at a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Instead of condemning the racist hate groups for causing the violence, Trump declared “there is blame on both sides.”

In September 2017, the category 4 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico leading to widespread destruction. 

Sadly, in the recovery efforts after the hurricane in October 2017, Donald Trump gave a callous response of accusing the island’s leaders of wanting “everything done for them” as they cope with the devastation.

It proved once again his insincerity and lack of caring in response to a natural disaster. 

In October 2017, a mass shooting in Las Vegas led to nearly 60 deaths and trauma for the victims’ families as well as those in attendance. 

2017 would later become the deadliest year for U.S. mass killings in at least a decade. 

After the Las Vegas mass shooting, the other terrible news in 2017 leading up to that event, and Donald Trump’s continuous inappropriate reactions, I posted this on my social media on October 3, 2017: “My response to friends to friends who are feeling frustrated right now about climate action, gun control, civil rights, women’s rights, equality, immigration reform, voting rights, etc. NEVER GIVE UP HOPE. 

‘Action is the antidote for despair.’ – Joan Baez.” 

I followed it up with this meme I created: 

I felt like Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans’ response to climate change, natural disasters, the far-right violence in Charlottesville VA, gun violence, and promotion of disinformation from the beginning of the year was intentional to leave people feeling hopeless and losing the moral courage to take action. I wanted to boost people’s spirits. I had a need help people that care to see that Trump and the far right wanted Democrats, progressives, liberals, climate advocates, and friends not to give up. That they can and should try to make a difference, no matter how bad the news was then. 

Over the years, I continued to post that meme in response to tragic events when people are hurting. I hope this idea of mine goes on long after I am gone to never give into hopelessness. I believe strongly that we can never give into pessimism and giving up on action because that is exactly what the other side wants us to do. 

5. Make a difference with joy!  

As I wrote in my previous blog, it was a gut-wrenching blow for me when Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans won the November 5, 2025 Presidential election. I put all my work energy in 2024 into knocking on doors and organizing events to urge Oregon voters and elsewhere to not return him to power again. Fortunately, I received an award certificate from Oregon Representative Hoa Nguyen and a thank you card from Oregon Representative Ricki Ruiz for all my canvassing efforts. Plus, it was a morale boost when I traveled for a day to Woodburn, Oregon on November 21, 2024 to chase ballots for Oregon House Democratic candidate Lesly Muñoz who was declared the winner of her race less than a week later. 

Even though I felt raw after in late November 2024 with Donald Trump’s victory at the beginning of the month, it was a morale boost to travel with my wife Tanya to my hometown of St. Louis Missouri November 28th to December 8th to see my parents, Tanya’s parents, our siblings, and extended family living there. The good tidings of being on vacation and spending time with family inspired me to create this meme: 

It was a quick creative thought during our trip that I immediately turned into a meme and put on social media. I thought it summed up my attitude on life succinctly. As long as I could remember, I always wanted to make a difference in the world and do it in a way that was fun, fulfilling, and inspired others. 

For decades, I loved the quote: 

“Nothing great was ever done without enthusiasm,” Ralph Waldo Emerson

 So many people, including me, laughed and felt happier after hearing the song from Monty Python’s Life of Brian: 

“Always look on the bright side of life.” 

Oh, I must add as a fellow Brian, I love that movie title! 

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I have collected inspirational quotes for many years. One of my favorite quotes is from teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank who wrote in her book, The Diary of a Young Girl

“Whoever is happy will make others happy.” 

I admire the quote credited to American evangelical minister Billy Graham: 

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”

In addition, I was influenced for years by the quote falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln, 

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” 

According to Quote Investigator, no direct evidence exists Abraham Lincoln made that statement. I was drawn to that quote decades ago believing Lincoln said it. Even if I know better now it is most likely that Lincoln never uttered those words, I still believe it is an inspiring quote. I wish whoever originated it took ownership instead of attaching it to Lincoln.

to add to the previous quotes noted, I liked this Bible quote from Philippians 4:8.

“Finally, Brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

I could go on to share so many other positive quotes from my green backpack of quotes I wrote and captured on slips of paper over the decades. They are too numerous to count. 

All those quotes, the optimism I received from parents and teachers growing up, as well as other influencers led me to my personal outlook of “Making a difference with joy!” 

In Conclusion: So, what do I know for sure? 

Almost 30 years ago, I heard TV host and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey talk about an interview film critic Gene Siskel had with her when she promoted the 1998 movie Beloved. She was the leading actress in the film when she sat down with Siskel to create publicity for the motion picture. He ended the interview, the way he liked to conclude all his interviews with notable people, asking the question, “What do you know for sure?” 

Immediately after Gene Siskel asked Oprah that question, she was stumped, caught off guard, and did not know how to answer it. His question stuck on her mind for days afterwards. To this day, Winfrey thinks Siskel was the first person to ask her that type of question. It caused her to regularly take stock of her life. After Siskel’s death in 1999, Oprah choose to weave it into her television program and magazine. she then regularly wrote a column in the last page of her monthly O, The Oprah Magazine called “What I Know for Sure.” She then took those original essays from 2000 onwards and compiled them into a 2014 book, What I know for Sure. 

Gene Siskel posed this question of the people he interviewed, including Oprah, as to satisfy “His quest for knowledge and drive to understand the human spirit.” He was curious to reveal the interior of the minds and provide un-scripted and passionate responses from even the most frigid and guarded celebrities. His motive for asking the question was clear: “The world consists of people from diverse walks of life, each carrying with them a different life story. If he could get his guests to share with him and his viewers the one thing in life that they are certain is true, perhaps the world could be a better place.” 

No doubt that Gene Siskel asking Oprah Winfrey that question in 1998 made her a better person. Ever since Oprah shared that story on TV decades ago, I have been asking myself that question: “What do I know for sure?” 

I especially want my friends and family to know my answer to this question if I was struck by lightning or hit by a bus tomorrow, God forbid. I don’t want them to have to guess: What did Brian know for sure?

I hope it does not sound macabre to say this, but I heard recently that many wise men and women, philosophers, authors, and social commenters say that ‘the meaning of life is the preparation for death.’ 

One quote in particular:  

“Tota vita discendum est mori” (All of life is a preparation for death). – Seneca

Thus, I want family, friends, and anyone curious about me to know this is what I know for sure: 

1) Think Globally,
Act Daily

2) Each and every one of us can change the world. We do this by
a) The way we vote
b) The products we buy
c) The attitudes we share with each other.

3) Ranger Brian’s Wisdom
For Every Question,
There Is Not Necessarily an Answer.
Yield to the Mysteries of Nature.

Take Time to Enjoy the View
and Smell the Roses.
Find your Own Sacred Place.

If Nature is Your Hobby,
You Will Never Be Bored.
You Can Never Step in the Same Stream Twice.

There Are Things We Love, Things We Hate,
And Things to Which We are Indifferent.
However, In Nature, Everything Matters.

Every Single Person Makes the World Every Single Day.
Think Globally, Act Daily.

4) Remember that your political adversaries want you to feel demoralized, cynical, and hopeless about taking political action. NEVER GIVE THEM THAT SATISFACTION.

5) Make a difference with joy!

“Democracy is based upon the conviction that
there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.”
— quote from American Pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick

Democracy. It is defined by Meriam Webster’s Dictionary as

“1. Government by the people: rule of the majority. 
    a.  A form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies, laws, etc. according to law. 
    b.  a form of government in which the people vote directly against or in favor of decisions, policies, laws, etc.”

Since the January 6, 2021, an insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters trying to overthrow the U.S. Government election results, I am worried about our American democracy. Before the January 6th insurrection, I took it for granted that it was strong and would always exist. 

After January 6th, I switched from being strictly a climate organizer to a climate and democracy organizer. To document my lifelong shift in thinking, I wrote an 8-part blog from October to December 2023, For Climate Action, let’s protect our democracy. 

I followed up those writings with a related blog I posted in April 2024, For Climate Action, be kind to people knocking at your door. The blog was about my dedication and frustration to knocking on doors in in the Portland OR metro area as a U.S. Census Enumerator in 2020 and as a paid political canvasser/field organizer for the 2022 midterm elections. I wanted to uphold our democracy and to urge my fellow community members to vote for support Democratic candidates who would pass strong climate bills and uphold our democracy. 

With the Oregon Primary Election happening in May 2024 and the general election looming on November 5, 2024, I was eager to engage with voters to urge them to support strong Democratic candidates that would stand up for our democracy from the rising threat of authoritarianism. This multi-part blog is an account of my actions January to November 2024. In this blog, I conclude about my reaction to the 2024 election and what actions we should take now. 

Part 1: Organizing and canvassing for our democracy in the spring and summer of 2024 
Part 2: Rough times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024  
Part 3: The Good and Bad Personal Moments canvassing in the autumn of 2024 
Part 4: My actions and reactions to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

Part 4: My actions and reactions to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential Election 

The Final Days of the 2024 Election Campaign 

On Saturday, November 2nd, it was back to the hard work of canvassing with only 3 days left until election day. Around this time, I saw a sign on someone’s lawn that said: 

I took a photo of that sign to post on my social media with the comment, “For our #democracy, a sign I recently saw while knocking on doors for Democratic candidates in Gresham, OR. All of us need to step up our game to speak out, have tough conversations with friends and family, make phone calls, knock on doors, support Democratic candidates, and #vote if we want to keep our freedoms and standard of living.”

As it was a couple of days until the election, I thought all of us needed to be ‘all hands on deck’ to prevent Donald Trump from becoming elected President and losing our democracy. 

On the evening of Saturday, November 2nd, my supervisor with East County Rising (ECR), Billy Fish wanted me to stop by the office to make sure I had plenty of campaign lit to distribute to the other Field Organizers. I would be meeting and doling out campaign lit to half of the team daily for the remainder of the election season canvassing. 

As I walked inside of the front doors of the ECR office, it had the chaotic feel of various candidate campaigns scrambling to get campaign lit to volunteers and paid field organizers for the final days of the campaign push. I soon saw Aimee Santos-Lyons, the campaign manager for Oregon Representative Hoa Nguyen’s re-election campaign. We had not seen each other in weeks, and we were happy to see each other. Our work styles and methods did not mesh when I worked for her in August, but we still had deep respect and admiration for each other. 

I asked her how Hoa’s campaign was going. Aimee sighed and replied, “Not good! I am not sure if we are going to win.” 

I was surprised by her dour response. I didn’t buy it. I responded, “I ran into so many voters who told me that they planned to vote for Hoa. I think she is going to win!” 

Aimee smiled and remarked, “I hope so! From your lips to God’s ears!” 

Aimie then went on to say, “Win or lose, we plan to have a post-election party for Hoa this Thursday, November 7th. I hope you will come and please bring your wife!” 

I enthusiastically stated, “I will be there. Count me in! I will do my best to bring Tanya, and we are going to celebrate because Hoa is going to win!” 

Aimee appreciated my optimism, but she was too tired and stressed about the campaign to feel hope at that moment. 

The Presidential Election Day, November 5, 2024 

On election day, my supervisor Billy Fish wanted me to be at a union organizing office for a gathering at 6 am for an election day Latino Network Get Out the Vote last minute effort. I dropped Tanya off at work and I arrived at the union hall around 6:20 am. I was assigned to a middle-class neighborhood in southeast Portland to canvass around 8 am. It was a damp bone-chilling rainy overcast blah day to try to canvass. The kind of day when you want to stay in bed under the covers since it was cold, rainy, and windy. 

This was simply a lit drop, meaning placing campaign lit at people’s doors without knocking or engaging with people. This was early in the morning when many people have left for work or are not fully awake yet. 

With the cold damp air, I drank plenty of lukewarm water to stay hydrated and warm. After about an hour, I felt a small urge to use the bathroom. I seemed fine to make it through my turf or list of houses to drop off lit. It was a safe quiet middle class neighborhood. I felt I was in a steady rhythm of competing my turf or list. Sadly, I did not see any bathrooms nearby. No port-a-johns in this neighborhood, no parks with a public restroom, nor any fast-food restaurants or businesses with a public restroom on the busy street next to this neighborhood. The urge to use the bathroom grew stronger as I was further away from my car trying to complete my turf. 

I was about 80% through my list when I felt like I needed to just start walking back to my car to drive to the nearest public restroom in the area. I was still several hundred yards away from my car when the need to use the bathroom felt so strong that I had to walk carefully, almost limping or in a strange gait so I would not upset my bladder. 

Finally, my bladder could not hold it any longer and I peed in my pants. I felt angry and disgusted I let this happen to me. I decided to drive home to change into a fresh and dry pair of clothes. I was so finished with canvassing and working my heart out for this election. I don’t know what else I could have done by this point to help elect local Democratic candidates. 

It took me almost over 15 minutes to drive from southeast Portland to where Tanya and I live in outer northeast Portland to change my clothes. While I was at home around 9 am, I received a Signal message from Billy Fish. 

He asked me what my ETA (estimated time of arrival) was to the 9 am morning rendezvous point to receive my final campaign lit. 

I replied, ‘Actually, I am home right now. I had an accident with my bladder while trying to do the (lit) drop this morning. I had to go home to change clothes. I will be there in 10 minutes.’ 

Billy replied, “Oh no! No worries” 

He then gave me my turf assignments for the day. 

I then dragged myself to the rendezvous point to briefly meet up with Billy and then I worked on my first turf of the day. It did not feel like a productive use of my time. Very few people were home that day. For those that were home, they assured me that they had already voted. I had a couple of people who had not turned in their ballots yet. I showed them on my phone map the closest place to them to turn in their ballots. Around 2 pm, I sent this Signal message to Billy, 

“Hey Billy! I completed my first turf and my lunch break. However, I think I am going to call it a day. I started very early this morning at 6:20 am. I just don’t feel like I have any energy to complete a second turf, especially with the rain happening. Even more, my wife was anticipating that I would pick her up from work today, which would take time away from me completing a second turf. Thus, I worked from 6:20 am to 2 pm, with a half hour lunch break. It sounds like I can recycle the remaining lit. Thank you for this opportunity to work for ECR for the fall election campaign, especially to be a lead field organizer the last couple of weeks. I really enjoyed working with everyone on our team…Let’s keep talking and stay in touch!” 

Billy messaged back: “Ok thank you for all the hard work. It’s been great working with you.” 

I then went to pick up Tanya. I am not sure what we did after that. I just knew I wanted to get my mind off politics and the election. The problem was that it was hard to relax because that was nearly all I was doing for months. 

Processing the election night returns on November 5, 2024

I did not want to have the TV or radio on or even look at the internet to know what was going on with the world or the election. Tanya and I ate an early quiet dinner. It was wonderful as always to be with her, especially in this moment of peace for me that my election work was over. 

Around 6 pm, I laid in bed reading. It was hard for me to find a non-political book since nearly everything I read is political. However, I found something fun for me to read to get my mind away from politics and the election. I just wanted to relax and go to bed early. I planned to look at the election results the next day to see the results, good or bad. This method worked for me for the 2022 mid-term elections when I canvassed hard. I did not look at the results until the next day and the Republicans barely won control of the U.S. House and Senate in that election. 

Tanya was in the living room with the TV volume on low watching the election results. I could tell by her silence and the vibe from the TV in the other room that the results were not good. On the other hand, it was early in the evening. Anything could still happen. 

Then Tanya went to bed looking very glum and downcast. She might have even let out a scream of frustration. She did not have to say anything for me to know that Kamala Harris lost and the Democrats had a bad election. Then it sunk in that Donald Trump would be President again and the MAGA movement would be triumphant again. This was something I fought so hard from happening again over the last 4 years.  

Now I could not sleep, and I turned on the TV to see the results myself. It was as bad if not worse than I thought. My worst fears about the election were realized. I was stunned to see Donald Trump had won. I stayed up late into the night trying to contemplate it. I felt so let down by the United States and American voters. 

At 2:38 am on November 6th, I posted on Facebook: 

“Really America? I literally don’t know what more I could have done in this election. My back and shoulder hurts from all the doors I knocked on to support local Democratic candidates.” 

Fortunately, I had numerous supportive, kind, and appreciative comments from friends thanking me for all of my efforts in the 2024 election. 

Tanya had her own reaction to the election that she posted on November 6th that mirrored mine. I re-posted her comments on social media: 

“I don’t quite know what to say right now. We had the opportunity to choose democracy and we chose something horrendous.” 

In the days ahead, I posted more of my thoughts on the election results on social media, such as on Novembrer 12th : 

This post stirred up a hornet’s nest for friends and followers of mine on social media who wanted to blame the Democratic Party for the loss. I held my ground. For friends that wanted to blame the Democrats, I shared this quote with them from Democratic elections lawyer Marc E. Elias who said it best on Twitter: “If you are a Democrat who is spending time attacking Kamala Harris or her campaign rather than focusing on the fight ahead, you aren’t helping anyone.”

On November 13th, I created a social media meme holding up an American Flag with this text: 

Over week after the election, I posted this meme with a photo of me knocking on a door: 

I received mostly receptive comments to that meme. 

I had one more thought I wanted to get off my chest why Trump won the 2024 Presidential election, on November 21st, I created this meme: 

That meme created a good discussion with friends who responded they had ‘No soliciting’ signs on their doors. We exchanged ideas to best engage voters in the future. I appreciated friends who comforted me as I felt raw and bitter after the 2024 Presidential election results. 

My personal victories from the 2024 Presidential Election

Tanya and I attended the post-election party for Representative Hoa Nguyen on Thursday, November 7th. Good news! It was an election victory party! She beat her election opponent John Masterman 52.9% to 46.8%, a 6% winning margin or a winning margin of 1,678 votes. 

Campaign Manager Aimee Santos-Lyons’ worst fears of losing the campaign did not come true. Instead, her hard work and determination helped propel Hoa to victory. Tanya and I had fun attending this party. It was held at Hoa’s favorite restaurant Yoonique Pho and Grill in southeast Portland. This was a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant I discovered during the campaign since it was a favorite hangout of Hoa, Aimee and other volunteers in the campaign. We frequently had lunch there after a canvassing event. Thus, the food was delicious for this party. 

Several local elected leaders came to speak to congratulate Hoa at this party, including my Oregon Senator Kayse Jama, Oregon Senator Khanh Pham, founder of East County Rising and Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales. Aimee then had some remarks about the significance of Hoa’s win in this purplish district that Oregon Republicans targeted to try to win. She then had awards to volunteers who worked the hardest to help Hoa win. 

To my surprise, Aimee had an award certificate for me for knocking on the most doors while also encountering the most hostile interactions with voters. She estimated I knocked on over 2,500 doors for Hoa. Even more, Aimee never forgot my horrible day back in August when two different voters waded up Hoa’s lit after I knocked on their doors and threw it at me. A couple of times when I ran into her that fall at canvassing events would still talk about that day. 

Aimiee called me up to the front to present me with a certificate for “Most Grief Received Doorknocking” which was signed by Rep. Hoa Nguyen. This was totally unexpected for me to receive this award for the long hours of canvassing that summer and autumn. 

On the back of the certificate was printed: 

BRIAN
YOU ARE AMAZING! YOU ARE IMPORTANT! 
YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE! 
YOU ARE INCREDIBLY APPRECIATED AND YOU DESERVE THE BEST!

In addition, they gave me a bottle of Del Rio Pinot Noir wine from the Rogue Valley of Oregon. A few weeks later, Tanya and I shared this bottle of wine with good friends. I am normally not a wine drinker, but I loved the sweet taste of this wine. It tasted like victory and the satisfaction of completing a hard task. 

Before I left the party, I got a selfie with Aimee. We remarked how we enjoyed getting to know each other during the campaign. Tanya then took a photo with Hoa and me holding up the certificate. As Tanya and I got ready to leave and say goodbye to new friends, Billy Fish came up to give me a hug to tell me how much he enjoyed working with me and he hoped to stay in touch. 

Although it was a huge disappointment that Donald Trump won and the Republicans maintained control of Congress, all the legislative candidates I knocked on doors for in east Portland won their races. I felt like all my hard work knocking on doors, phone banking, and helping with campaign events made a positive difference.
 
Just two weeks later, I received a thank you card from Oregon Representative Ricki Ruiz. In his handwritten card, he wrote:

Brian,
The door knocking king!
The cat Whisperer! Thank you
for everything you did this
year for us and for other
campaigns. You are truly a
rockstar! I am very much
looking forward to seeing you
around! 
Thank you again! 
Ricki Ruiz 

I kept that handwritten card handy next to Hoa Nguyen’s Certificate to me for “Most Grief Received Doorknocking” promptly displayed in the spare bedroom of the apartment where Tanya and I live. I will never forget the kindness of Hoa, Aimee, Billy, Ricki, and the other dedicated local Democratic organizers I met on this election campaign season. 

The memories are bittersweet because this was the last time I saw Hoa. On February 28, 2025, Oregon Democratic Rep. Hoa Nguyen announced she had a cancer diagnosis. 

Sadly, she retreated from her public work to focus on her cancer treatment. Her battle with Stage 4 cervical cancer did not improve. She passed away on October 9, 2025, less than a year after her re-election victory. Her loss was a deep blow to the east Portland community for her advocacy for vulnerable and low-income students to stay in school. Plus, she was a strong environmental advocate for bills I asked her to support and co-sponsor. She is missed to this day. 

My final act of 2024 election campaign season: Ballot chasing in Woodburn, Oregon  

Two weeks after the November 5th Presidential election, I was still not finished with my campaign efforts. On November 15^th, the local news reported Democratic Oregon House candidate Lesley Munoz took a one vote lead over incumbent Republican Rep. Tracy Cramer in House District 22 to represent Woodburn. At that point, hundreds of ballots still needed to be counted but it looked like the there was a possibility that Munoz could win that seat. 

Later that day, on November 15th, Lesly Munoz was gaining momentum as voted were counted. The Salem Reporter noted a 34-vote edge for Munoz. 

I heard buzz from my fellow East County Rising Field Organizers and Democratic organizing friends that ballot chasers might be needed by the local Democratic Party and the local unions in Woodburn. The ballot chasers would help track down voters who did not sign their ballots or signed their ballot with a signature that did not match the one the state had on file. We would then encourage these voters to fill out statements that they voted if they forgot to sign their ballot or a statement that the signature on the ballot is their signature. They then had to turn in that statement at the elections nearest elections office in Salem for their vote to count. 

On November 21st, I drove one hour south to Woodburn, Oregon. I was “chasing ballots” for OR House District 22. Democrat Lesly Munoz was leading by just 132 votes over her opponent. I spent that day tracking down voters who did not sign their ballots or don’t have a matching signature on their ballots to help them cure their ballots by the November 26^th deadline. 

It was a fascinating experience to track down some voters at their homes to urge them to cure their ballots to make their votes count in this election. The voters I chatted with seemed interested in signing a voter statement certifying their vote and submitting it to the county elections office in person. 

It was a good reminder to fill out your ballot correctly before dropping it off in the mail. Oregon is an exclusive vote by mail state. It’s always good to double check your ballot or even have a family member to look it over to confirm you filled it out correctly. Make sure that your signature on envelope outside of your ballot matches your driver’s license. Local election staff who count the ballots check the signatures on the ballot against a database that holds voter registration information to make sure the voter is who they say they are. The signature you used when signing for your driver’s license is often the signature the county elections office uses to match your ballot with the signature they have on file to count your vote. 

Late in the afternoon, I headed to my car winding down a full day of chasing ballots in Woodburn. As I was right next to my car, I noticed into three friendly cats in who came out from under a chain linked fence to greet me. A sign posted on the fence stated, “Beware of DOG.” 

I never saw the dog, thankfully. But, a sign was needed that said, “Beware of the CATS.” These cats were so adorable that they would steal your heart and you would never want to go home. 

Two of the cats sat on my lap and they all wanted a lot of attention. They seemed like they were hungry, asking for some food, and possibly wanted to be let into their home. They looked a bit neglected, but they were thrilled that I spent several minutes focusing on them. I had fun taking many selfies with them to post on social media later in the day. To me, it was another reminder that if you are doing good work, the universe or at least cats will thank you!

On November 27th, the day before Thanksgiving, the news announced Democrat Lesly Munoz won over Republican state Rep. Tracy Cramer by a margin of 161 votes. By winning this House race, Oregon Democrats sealed supermajorities in both legislative chambers. The three-fifths supermajority allowed Democrats to pass any bill on raising new taxes on a party-line vote. 

The return of Donald Trump to the White House with Republican majorities in Congress cast a gloomy shadow over everything at that time. At the same time, Oregon voters electing a super majority of Democrats to the Legislature in November 2024 gave me hope at that time for keeping our democracy and fighting climate change. 

Final Thoughts

I am proud of my career as a seasonal park ranger, climate change public speaker and organizer, as well as a democracy organizer for years. I loved working seasonally at Everglades and Crater Lake National Parks from 1992 to 2017. Plus, it was a thrill to give 200 to 300 climate change talks from 2010 to 2022 in 12 U.S. states, Washington D.C. and Ottawa, Canada. I was honored to travel briefly to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress 10 times from 2015 to 2024. 

Having said that, I did not want to be anywhere else than to be canvassing to engage with voters in the east Portland metro area in the spring, summer, and fall of 2024. Upholding our democracy in 2024 was too vital for me to sit on the sidelines. Yes, I had many brutal days with canvassing with rude people slamming their doors in my face, dogs charging at me, tripping and slipping on porches, summer heat, and getting drenched in the rain. I was so glad when my job was over after the May 2024 election primary and the November Presidential election. The result of the Presidential election and GOP Congressional control of Congress broke my heart.
  
I think a lot about this quote from climate activist Greta Thunberg: 

“Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.” 

To keep our democracy, we must act by knocking on doors and phone banking to engage with people we don’t know to urge them to vote. In addition, our family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors look to us as social cues to how to vote and support various issues. Make sure you are chatting with strangers and people you know well about the importance of defending our democracy, fair access to voting, climate action, and other issues you are passionate. Hopefully, these blogs about my actions during the election 2024 will inspire you. 

As I documented in my blogs, engaging with voters is heavy lifting many days. As I write this in April 2026, the Presidency of Donald Trump seems overwhelming, deflating, and hopeless. Don’t ever give up! That’s what Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans want you to do. 

Instead, I think former Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi said it best: for our democracy, “We don’t agonize. We organize.”

Or, as I have said for many years:

‘In order to fix the climate crisis, we need to fix the democracy crisis.’
– Former Vice President Al Gore

Since the January 6, 2021, an insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters trying to overthrow the U.S. Government election results, I am worried about our American democracy. Before the January 6th insurrection, I took it for granted that it was strong and would always exist. 

After January 6th, I switched from being strictly a climate organizer to a climate and democracy organizer. To document my lifelong shift in thinking, I wrote an 8-part blog from October to December 2023, For Climate Action, let’s protect our democracy. 

I followed up those writings with a related blog I posted in April 2024, For Climate Action, be kind to people knocking at your door. The blog was about my dedication and frustration to knocking on doors in in the Portland OR metro area as a U.S. Census Enumerator in 2020 and as a paid political canvasser/field organizer for the 2022 midterm elections. I wanted to uphold our democracy and to urge my fellow community members to vote for support Democratic candidates who would pass strong climate bills and uphold our democracy. 

With the Oregon Primary Election happening in May 2024 and the general election looming on November 5, 2024, I was eager to engage with voters to urge them to support strong Democratic candidates that would stand up for our democracy from the rising threat of authoritarianism. This multi-part blog is an account of my actions January to November 2024. I will then conclude about my reaction to the 2024 election and what actions we should take now. 

Part 1: Organizing and canvassing for our democracy in the spring and summer of 2024 
Part 2: Rough times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024  
Part 3: The Good and Bad Personal Moments canvassing in the autumn of 2024 
Part 4: My actions and reactions to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

Part 3: The Good and Bad Personal Moments canvassing in the autumn of 2024 

Biking for a day on the Springwater Trail to renew my spirit and energy 

I worked 6 days a week for over a month, so I needed two days off to clear my head, recharge my batteries, and get a fresh start to return to work on Wednesday. 

On Monday, September 16th, I woke up and decided to take a bike ride around the city of Portland to refresh my spirits. It was a perfect sunny autumn day with the temperature in the upper 70s and almost no clouds in the sky. I loaded the bike that Tanya and I share onto the front of a public bus and rode the bus to SE 162nd and Powell Blvd. I then rode the bike through a southeast Portland subdivision to connect to the Springwater Corridor bike trail.

This multi-use pedestrian and bike trail is a wonderful hidden gem in Portland. No buses, trucks, vehicles, or motorcycles are allowed on it. For most of it, big deciduous trees lined either side of the path, with some houses, businesses, and industrial parks hidden but accessible behind the trees. This trail was definitely in the middle of the Portland Metro Area. However, all the trees and lack of noise of the made the trail feel more rural and outdoorsy than it should be. This bike path was the perfect tonic for me to forget about work while I enjoyed the beauty and serenity of it for the first time. Tanya and I had lived in Portland for over 7 years at that time, but I had never been on this paved bike path before. 

I rode on the section from behind Powell Bute to Sellwood, located several miles due south of downtown Portland. This portion of the Springwater Trail from behind Powell Butte to Sellwood was about 8 miles. The Springwater Trail in this portion was nearly flat with minimal curves. It was a breeze to ride the bike that Tanya and I owned on this trail. I steered around a few other cyclists, runners, mother walking children, skateboards, and a few homeless camps to remind me that I still resided in Portland OR. 

As I approached Sellwood, I texted my friend Walt Minkeski to let him know that I was bicycling near his home on the Springwater Trail. I asked him if we would be interested if I stopped by to say hello. Walt’s response was, “Please drop by…About what time will you arrive?”

I texted my estimated arrival time and I set my GPS for Walt’s house in Sellwood. Walt was a retired engineer in his 70s. I knew him for years since Tanya and I moved to Portland in 2017. Walt and I volunteered with Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV). Walt was slowing down a big since he had regular doctor’s visits to combat his lung cancer. Walt was a well-known climate and environmental champion in the Portland metro area. A few months earlier, he asked me to take over one of his volunteer roles: the CCL volunteer Congressional Liaison for the Oregon District 03. Walt liked how I had success reaching out to schedule CCL lobby meetings with the staff of our then Congressman Earl Blumenauer. 

Walt wanted to meet with me for months to share his cancer treatments were not going well. He hoped I would step up to be the CCL Congressional Liaison in his place. Since Tanya and I moved to Portland in 2017, Walt became a mentor to me. We attended numerous CCL Lobby meetings together in Washington D.C. and in Oregon. We also served together on the OLCV Multnomah County Endorsement Committee, conducting group interviews with legislative candidates and incumbents to determine if OLCV should endorse them. We developed a friendship over the years. He took me backpacking in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness at the end of July 2021.

Walt indicated to me that his doctors believed he only had about a year or two left to live. Thus, it was a blessing I was able to take time off work and serendipitously drop by his house to spend some quality time with him. We hung out in his backyard picking grapes off the vines of this fence. The grapes were tasty to snack on while we harvested the grapes. They were overall sweet with a hint of a bitter taste, but we had to watch out for the seeds within the grapes. 

Being with Walt was always a revelation how he treated everyone with kindness. At the house next door were men of Latino background working on the roof speaking to each other in Spanish. The fence and the grapevines were so high that we could not see them. Many years prior, Walt spent time in Belize where he was able to pick up Spanish. Walt had a pleasant conversation with them in Spanish just making sure they were having a great day. 

After Walt gave me a big container of grapes from his backyard, I continued my bike ride around Portland. I next took the Springwater Trail north along the east path of the Willamette River from Sellwood to downtown Portland. This portion of the Springwater Trail gave me lovely views of the river and Portland City Skyline. I then took the bike upon the MAX commuter train and public buses to head home. 

Balancing Enjoying Life while working hard to canvass for our democracy 

The next evening, September 17, my wife Tanya and I went downtown to see American Historian Heather Cox Richardson give a lecture about American history and the importance of staying active to protect democracy against the authoritarian threat of Donald Trump. After the bike ride on the Springwater Trail around Portland and the Heather Cox Richardson lecture, I was re-energized to knock on doors for our democracy. 

At the same time, I was still nervous about a negative outcome to the election. On September 18th, I posted on social media a photo of me knocking on a door with this comment: “For #democracy, this election is still way too close. I am still worried we could lose our freedoms to a strongman autocratic wannabe dictator who is running for President. Over these next 47 days, please do all you can to knock on doors, phone bank, and speak with your family, neighbors, & friends to support Democratic candidates.” 

I was back at full throttle to canvass to elect OR Democratic legislative and local candidates. The next few weeks, according to my social media posts, I estimated I knocked on over 930 doors. 

I balanced this hard work with pleasure. On Saturday evening, September 29th, Tanya and I attended an Oregon Symphony concert to see them accompany the music for the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This was one of the scariest and most entertaining movies of my childhood. We enjoyed seeing it on a big movie screen with a live orchestra playing the film music. 

On October 4th, Tanya and I had a fun date on that Thursday evening to go see Liberace and Liza Tribute Variety Show, performed by David Saffert and Jillian Snow, at the Alberta Rose Theatre in northeast Portland OR. Tanya went to college with David Saffert. We like to see this performance live when they are in Portland OR. 

On Friday evening, October 5th, I liked seeing climate scientist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson speak at Powell’s Books in downtown Portland about her new book, What if We Get It Right. The book was about envisioning a positive world we want to create where we effectively reduce the climate change threat. I enjoyed having her sign my book and get a picture with her. 

 Over the next week, I knocked on over 550 doors in east Portland for nearby Oregon Legislative candidates and local candidates. 

Tanya and I missed hiking with each other. With working up to 6 days a week canvassing, including weekends, we had not had a chance to go for a hike since our vacation in August. 

Tanya took a vacation day off on October 7^th so we could walk in a scenic area to close to Mt. Hood. We hiked to Mirror Lake and Tom, Dick & Harry Mountain (Yes! That really is the name) to get great views of Mt. Hood and surrounding mountains, as well as to see some autumn colors. This is one of my favorite hikes in Oregon. On a clear day, one can see 5 nearby Cascade Volcanos: Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Jefferson. The visibility was nearly crystal clear to easily spot all these mountains while we ate our lunch on the summit. It was spectacular clear fall day, the best kind of Indian summer day to explore in the outdoors. 

My good and bad days of canvassing in late October 

From October 8th onward, I worked almost every day until the election to urge voters to elect Democratic legislators and local candidates in the east Portland area. On my one day off on October 21st, I knocked on 30 doors in my own apartment complex to urge my neighbors to vote. Tanya thought I was insane. However, I thought it was important to make sure that my neighbors voted. Years earlier, I volunteered to be part of the Multnomah Democrats Neighborhood Leader program to canvass in my own neighborhood to increase the turnout for voters living nearby. I was able to sleep in that morning. It took only an hour and a half to knock on my neighbors’ doors. I felt like I made a difference for our democracy and my neighborhood. 

In the remaining weeks leading up to the election, I saw the best and worst in people as I knocked the doors. One October day when I canvassed in a rural area outside of Damascus OR, I had a long driveway to hike up to the house that was around a half mile long. When I got up to the front door and knocked, the old reclusive man just yelled at me, “Not interested!” 

He then slammed the door in door in my face. It was annoying to devote that much energy walking to one house only to have the voter be so rude to me. On the other hand, I had some other extremely long driveways where the voters were kind to chat with me when I finally reached their front door. 

On a cold rainy day in late October, I walked up to a front door. The rain puddle on the front porch created a reflective surface that made it hard to see the green algae living in the water. When I took a step into the algae, it was so slick that I slid into the air like I had stepped on a banana peel. I landed on my back and had the wind knocked out of me. I was briefly worried that I somehow injured myself. I lucked out that I was fine, just shaken up. 

I did have the joy of talking to an 88-year-old mom voting for the first time because she did not want Donald Trump to win. When I talked with her 50 something daughter who lived at the same residence, she was so proud that her mom was voting for the first time. 

I knocked on one door in Gresham where a middle-aged man acted rather frosty to me. I handed him the campaign lit. He was in the process of telling me, “You can have this back!” However, his 20 something daughter with purple hair and multiple piercings reached around to grab the information from her dad. She seemed intent to learn about the candidates and vote in the upcoming election. She would not let the grumpy attitude of her intimidating dad stop her. 

When I knocked on doors one afternoon, I had a long conversation with another young 20 something woman about the election and politics. She told me that she could not vote for Trump and the Republicans because she just watched the Handmaid’s Tale Series. That book and television series looked too bleak for me to watch. However, it amazed me that it left an impression on this woman to take voting seriously, especially against Trump and GOP candidates. 

I was so dedicated and tenacious as a Field Organizer that my boss Billy Fish promoted me to a Lead Field Organizer position for the last couple weeks of the campaign. I oversaw distributing campaign lit to have of the ECR Field Organizer Team. My other duties included providing water, snacks, and rides for restroom breaks for the Field Organizers without cars. It was good news to receive a boost in pay the last few weeks on the campaign. The bad news was that I worked more hours as I was already feeling burned out from the election work. 

Speaking to Danish High School students curious about the Presidential election 

My wife Tanya is Danish American, and my mother-in-law Nancy is originally from Denmark. In mid-October, one of Nancy’s Danish cousins asked me if I would do a live Zoom interview with Danish high school students who had questions for me about the upcoming American election. 

After exchanging emails for several days, I scheduled the Zoom interview with the Danish High School students on October 23^rd. I talked with 3 high school students, two young men and young woman. I greeted them with the little bit of Danish I could speak. However, like most Danes, they spoke English well. They asked me very insightful questions, such as, who did I think would win the U.S. Presidential election? 

I replied the same way that I had for months: “It depends upon which voter I talked with last.” 

I talked with many voters who absolutely did not want Donald Trump to win. That gave me hope Kamala Harris would win. On the other hand, I encountered many voters who told me that they did not plan to vote or planned to vote for Donald Trump. That always left me feeling deflated Donald Trump could win again. Even more, the polls were tight that it made me nervous if Kamala Harris would win. The Danish high school students appreciated my candid answers. 

Somehow the issue of guns in the United States came up. I informed the students that I encountered many voters who shared with me that they like their guns. Even more, those voters thought their guns were protecting them and they felt strongly the U.S. Constitution should continue their right to bear arms. Personally, I told the students that I was strongly opposed to gun ownership in the U.S. I shared with the students that a fellow climate advocate and friend of mine, KB Mercer, died by suicide using a gun on September 21, 2024.

I shared the well-known fact from the National Library of Medicine, linked in the Psychiatry peer-reviewed journal, and other sources that “People report that they need them for safety and/or sport. However, having a firearm in the home actually increases the rate for suicide, homicide, domestic violence, and accidents.”

We had a long pause after I gave my thoughts on guns to the students. They were silent for a moment. They then said to me in their best and their slow English-speaking style, “We are very sorry about the loss of your friend.” 

I was moved to know that they cared about the information I just shared with them about losing my friend KB. These students had a big heart. That was gracious of them to acknowledge and express empathy for my loss. I was impressed with the depth of their questions, curiosity about the U.S, and their great listening skills. 

I took a screenshot of the Zoom interview of the Danish High School students and me. Because of the time difference, Denmark was 9 hours ahead of Portland, we conducted this interview early in the morning. It was 7 am my time, around 4 pm Danish time. This conversation was a great start to another full day of canvassing. I will never forget their kindness and genuine curious to learn more about the world, especially the U.S. 2024 Presidential election. 

From October 23rd to election day, November 5th, I was singularly focused on knocking on doors to engage with voters, as well as performing my duties as a Lead Field Organizer to provide campaign lit, snacks, water, and car rides to the field organizers needing assistance. I still felt I needed to do all I could in the remaining days of this election to make sure that Kamala Harris and the Democrats won seats in Congress. I hoped other American who were as worried as me were fully devoted to engaging voters to vote to successfully shape the outcome. As I posted on social media on October 26th: 

“Let this sink in:
History will judge each and everyone of us for our actions for the next 10 days and last 9 years if we allow Donald Trump to become President on Nov 5th.

The actions you will take over the next10 days will determine if we get to keep our democracy. Please STEP UP YOU GAME to organize, support Democratic candidates, vote, and speak to your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers to vote.”  

My wife Tanya was my supportive and loving partner with all my election canvassing 

I don’t talk enough about all the sacrifices my wife Tanya made for our democracy. She was just as worried as me if Donald Trump was elected President again. She worked full time at the medical lab research job, plus she was going to school to get a master’s degree in data analytics. That did not leave much energy for her to work on political campaigns. She cares deeply about politics on issues such as maintaining and strengthening our democracy, climate action, women’s rights, respecting our international allies, protecting immigrants, access to affordable healthcare, and many other issues.
 
Tanya volunteered for Barak Obama’s Presidential Campaign in 2008. However, she was not as comfortable as me with knocking on doors, making phone calls, organizing events, etc. Tanya was our primary and mostly sole breadwinner while I have been political organizing since we moved to Portland in 2017. During the first 9 years we lived in Portland, we only had one car. We shared my green 2002 Honda Civic. She primarily drove it to her job. I primarily used public transit to attend climate organizing events in the Portland area. Plus, I would carpool with other climate organizers when I would lobby for climate bills at the Oregon Capitol in Salem. 

When I canvassed in spring, summer, and fall of 2022 and 2024, I needed my car. I tried for one day to use public transit. I quickly found it did not work because it took too long to get to the areas or turfs that I was assigned to canvass. Even more, the campaign lit I carried was heavy. I needed to store the excess campaign lit in my car. Plus, I always had a bottle of water on me since I would get thirsty, especially in the heat of summer, or after I had long conversations with voters. Because of my fear of ferocious dogs charging, voters slamming doors in my face, and possibly threatening people when I canvassed, I mostly felt a bit edgy and nervous. The stress would dry out my mouth and throat, so I drank a lot of water. Plus, I kept several containers of water in my car to keep me hydrated. Even more, I packed a lunch, which was easier to store in my car than a heavy backpack. With drinking lots of water, the urge to use the bathroom could happen suddenly. It was helpful to have my car nearby when I needed a bathroom fast. 

Because it was vital for me to have my car when canvassing, that meant Tanya had to make a sacrifice for her commute to work. The deal we worked out was I would drive her to work each morning around 7 am. She would take the bus home from work while I canvassed. Tanya never complained about taking the bus home, even though the bus was late sometimes and occasionally some odd characters were on the bus. Tanya walked almost a mile from the bus stop to our apartment. That meant some days she had to walk intense heat or rain showers. Even worse, she had a homeless encampment she had to walk around to get home from the bus in 2022 that she did not feel safe walking by. I did not feel safe walking by the camping trailers with homeless people living on the inside either. Some of them looked like they struggled with drug addiction and mental issues. Even worse, some of these homeless individuals had threatening dogs that liked to lunge at people that walked too close to their camping trailers. 

After Tanya came home, she was then trapped because I had the car. She could not drive to a grocery store, a gym, a hiking trail, or go anywhere she wanted involving a car because I had the car for my job. Again, she never complained, but I could feel that she felt constrained. I felt like she made many sacrifices so I could engage with voters. 

After watching the news, she would say to me, ‘I wish there was something else I could do.’ 
I would respond, ‘What do you mean? You are doing a lot. You are sacrificing taking a bus each day from work and supporting me so I can work so hard for our democracy.’ 

Tanya did not want to knock on doors, phone bank, organize campaign events, or work on a campaign. It was not her cup of tea to do what I did for political organizing. I respected her for that. I thanked her every chance I could for the sacrifices she made so I could work on political campaigns in 2022, 2024, and the spring of 2025. If you ever get a chance to meet Tanya, I hope you will thank her for all she did to help me be a climate and democracy organizer.
 
Taking Tanya to work each morning was draining for me. I am a night owl. I like to stay up past midnight to read, surf the internet and social media, and write. I then had to set my alarm clock early to take Tanya to work. This meant I had to drag myself out of bed when I wanted to sleep longer so she could get an early start working at her job around 7 am. Many mornings, I just wanted to stay in bed. At the same time, it was a chance to be with her for a few minutes while I dropped her off at work since I would not see her until I came home from work that evening. 

One of the few perks of taking Tanya to work early in the morning is sometimes I got to see glorious sun rises. On October 30th, I saw spectacular sun rise that was breath taking. As I drove Tanya to work, I noticed the pre-dawn sky to the east of us was pink absorbing the sun light while the sun was still below the horizon. Mt. Hood was visible to the east that morning with a healthy snowpack of autumn snow.  The mountain cast its own lighthouse beacon like shadow as the sun approached the horizon near Mt. Hood. Just the little glimpse I saw while taking Tanya to work inspired me that I must go to a nearby scenic spot to admire this sunrise. 

I knew immediately I had to drive to my favorite nearby viewpoint where I can a full view of Mt. Hood. It was a local protected duck pond that I liked to walk to on many days to admire the mountain and take photos. After dropping Tanya off at work, I drove directly to the duck pond to see the sunrise. The sun had not yet peaked over the horizon. However, it created a bright white glow on the horizon as the sun rose behind the distant clouds. The clouds behind and above Mt. Hood where first a brilliant salmon pink color and then the clouds turned to an orangish hue the sun approached the horizon. This was one of the best sunrises I saw in my years of walking and driving to the duck pond to see the early morning dawn sky there. 

This sunrise was what I needed as I became more tired of canvassing with the election less than a week away. Thank goodness I drove Tanya to work that morning, and I did not stay in bed. 

Playing Pickleball with Tanya for the first time on our wedding anniversary 

Two days later, Friday, November 1st, was the 9th wedding anniversary for Tanya and me. Because of how supportive she was of my political canvassing, plus I cherish every chance I can to spend time with her, I asked her what she wanted to do for our anniversary. Both of us worked during that day, but we could easily have a fun date that evening. 

When I canvassed in Troutdale in mid-October, I noticed a new pickleball would be opening soon, East County Pickleball. For a couple of years, Tanya and I wanted to try practicing or playing pickleball together. Tanya told me that she wanted to play pickleball for our anniversary. During the week of October 28th, I made a reservation for Tanya and I to play for an hour at this new Pickleball multi-court facility, which as a 20 minute drive east of us. Next to East County Pickleball in the same strip mall was a Thai restaurant that we ate at years prior that we liked. 

When I made a reservation for East County Pickleball, the confirmation email stated that one of their rules was for players to “have proper foot attire for court play (non-marking court shoes). No BLACK SOLES on the courts, unless they are non-marking court shoes.” 

Gulp! All I had was black and dark soled shoes. Thus, the night before we played pickleball, I drove to a nearby shoe store to buy a pair of shoes with light colored soles so I would not scuff up their brand-new pickle ball courts. I wanted this to be a successful anniversary date! 

This was a terrific anniversary date. The Thai dinner was deliciously. However, we could not escape politics and the election because the mounted flat screen TVs in the Chiang Rai Thai Cuisine showed Fox News with Donald Trump getting ready to give a speech at his next campaign election rally. We mostly ignored it though to enjoy our dinner and time together. We then walked next door at this small Troutdale strip mall to the new pickle ball facility. 

This new pickleball facility was spacious with 12 courts, with only a few courts reserved that evening. The place had a great atmosphere with old school and newer pop songs played on their sound system. The owner checked us in. She was welcoming, gregarious, and a pleasure to make small talk. Everything was freshly painted with pleasing light blue and beige colors on the pickleball courts. It felt like a hip and joyful place to be to learn, practice, or even seriously become a devoted pickleball player. 

Tanya and I had a blast laughing as we practiced hitting the pickle ball back and for to each other across the net. Before we knew it, the middle-aged couple next to us asked if we would want to join them in a mixed doubles game. Tanya and I knew nothing of pickle ball game rules. We followed their lead. They were patient, generous, and kind teaching us the rules, how the game is scored, where to position ourselves on the court, etc. 

Before we knew it, our paid one-hour reservation had expired. We were glad we tried pickleball together for our anniversary. We enjoyed the experience so much that we started coming back to play pickle ball there for several times afterwards on a monthly basis. Playing pickleball that evening was a great way to be for Tanya and I to be together. Even better, we forget about politics, canvassing, and the upcoming Presidential election for a few hours. 

Stay tuned for the next part of this blog:
Part 4: My actions and reactions to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential Election 

“Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, 
but it’s something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.”
– Activist, writer and speaker Abbie Hoffman

Since the January 6, 2021, an insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters trying to overthrow the U.S. Government election results, I am worried about our American democracy. Before the January 6th insurrection, I took it for granted that it was strong and would always exist. 

After January 6th, I switched from being strictly a climate organizer to a climate and democracy organizer. To document my lifelong shift in thinking, I wrote an 8-part blog from October to December 2023, For Climate Action, let’s protect our democracy. 

I followed up those writings with a related blog I posted in April 2024, For Climate Action, be kind to people knocking at your door. The blog was about my dedication and frustration to knocking on doors in in the Portland OR metro area as a U.S. Census Enumerator in 2020 and as a paid political canvasser/field organizer for the 2022 midterm elections. I wanted to uphold our democracy and to urge my fellow community members to vote for support Democratic candidates who would pass strong climate bills and uphold our democracy. 

With the Oregon Primary Election happening in May 2024 and the general election looming on November 5, 2024, I was eager to engage with voters to urge them to support strong Democratic candidates that would stand up for our democracy from the rising threat of authoritarianism. This multi-part blog is an account of my actions January to November 2024. I will then conclude about my reaction to the 2024 election and what actions we should take now. 

Part 1: Organizing and canvassing for our democracy in the spring and summer of 2024 
Part 2: Rough times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024  
Part 3: The Good and Bad Personal Moments canvassing in the autumn of 2024 
Part 4: My actions and reactions to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

Part 2: Rough Times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024  

Helping people in search of government services while canvassing in the fall of 2024 

After that August trip to Washington state, I had almost no breaks from canvassing until the November 5th election. My East County Rising supervisor, Billy Fish, assigned me to work 6 days a week as a field organizer knocking on doors. Except for dates with Tanya to attend a lecture to see Heather Cox Richardson on September 17^th  in downtown Portland and seeing the Oregon Symphony perform a live accompaniment to the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind on September 28th, plus I went to a book lecture and signing climate scientist Aryana Johnson on October 4th, I canvassed nearly all the time up until the November Election Day. I had one day off a week for me, but that did not feel like enough for me to recharge spirit and energy. 

The most rewarding part of canvassing was playing a small role to try to help people in dire circumstances. This happened at least three times during the campaign. 

On Friday morning, August 2nd, I canvassed for Representative Hoa Nguyen’s campaign in southeast Portland when I chatted with a constituent named Susan who needed help for her family. (names changed to protect their identity) Susan gave me permission from to give her phone number to Rep. Nguyen’s staff. Susan lived with her daughter, Sarah. 

Susan told me four family members total lived in their household. Susan was a full-time caregiver for her daughter Sarah, who had epilepsy for years. Sarah struggled getting approval for disability status in Oregon. They felt like the system refused to help them and they felt discouraged. I shared Hoa’s background as an education specialist with a focus to get students back into school and then help connect them with services so they can attend school. 

Even more, Sarah’s partner dealt with tumors on her uterus. Susan shared with me that her daughter-in-law Audra desperately wanted to work, possibly from home, but she will need accommodation for her disability. 

I received this reply from Hoa’s legislative staff, “Thank you so much for reaching out to us and connecting our office with this constituent. I will happily reach out to them via phone to provide some assistance in any way I can. It may take a few follow-ups with our legislative contacts at ODHS, but I will jump on this right away.

I really appreciate you letting us know about this! Thank you for your continued advocacy and engagement with our office.”

This felt so empowering for me to be able to connect this family with the legislator’s constituent services to see how they could help them. 

August 11^th, I had another constituent who needed help getting connected to services. It was a married couple from Myanmar. The wife’s name showed up as a registered voter in Rep. Nguyen’s district. The first thing they said, “We are not American citizens, so we cannot vote.” 

However, her name showed up on my VAN app canvassing list, so I assumed that she could vote. I told them that she could vote. Thus, I tried to find out if they could vote. The husband told me that they have these print out cards from the Oregon Health Authority. He wants to know where to go to the healthcare clinic and what is the name of the healthcare clinic. 

Even more, the man just moved to the U.S. from Myanmar, and he was looking for a job. He spoke pretty good English. In addition, he was fluent European Spanish (he emphasized that he did not understand Mexican or South American Spanish well). He wanted to get a job but unsure how to get one. 

He worked as a tour guide in Myanmar for years where he regularly used English and Spanish.

I passed along this information to Aaron on Rep. Nguyen’s staff. He replied he was happy to contact them directly. He thought there were a few different services that would be helpful. 

Aaron later advised me to be careful in these situations because the wife could not vote. He soon broke the news to her that she could not vote. She was not an American citizen. She was a registered driver in Oregon. In Oregon, when someone registers to drive in the DMV they are automatically registered to vote, unless they opt out. Thus, our VAN voter database incorrectly listed her as a voter. He warned me to be careful in these situations because we could be accused of trying to encourage noncitizens to vote. I appreciated his words of wisdom. 

On August 25, I had a conversation with a constituent, Jody, who could use some help/advice with constituent services that I emailed to Aaron. 

Jody’s daughter had a drug addict problem and Jody was concerned for her granddaughter. She wanted to adopt her, but she was unsure how to complete the paperwork. Jody had bad past experiences with Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) when she was struggling to make ends meet trying to raise her family. They refused to be helpful in her situation. If she wanted to go to college to improve her job situation, they would threaten to cut her benefits. 

I was eager for Aaron to engage with Jody. Aaron replied that he would connect with her and see how he could help her. 

On October 20, I chatted with a constituent of Rep. Ricki Ruiz in south Gresham, Oregon. This woman was upset because she lived in an apartment with a lease that stated, ‘No smoking.’ Unfortunately, her downstairs neighbor constantly smoked marijuana and the apartment building was not well insulated. The pot smoke drifted up through weak points in the ventilation system. She was an asthmatic with young kids. She was irritated with her apartment manager refusing to do anything about it. When she brought up this matter, the manager would say that he needed proof before they could act. I asked Ricki’s Chief of Staff Omar Sandoval if he knew of anyone for the City of Gresham that could help her while keeping her complaint anonymous. 

Hopefully, my interactions with these constituents in the summer and fall on 2024 helped improved their lives in some small way. 

My worst day of knocking on doors in a rural area outside of Damacus, Oregon 

At the other extreme, on September 8^th, I had the most hostile encounter with anyone I had ever canvassed. I knocked on doors in a rural area in Clackamas County south of the Portland metro area. It was a lovely summer Sunday afternoon with clear skies and a perfect day to be walking out in the country. The downside was that the houses were far apart with very long driveways and the properties were separated by vast fields or lawns. Because the houses were a far distance from each other, the good news was that I got a lot of walking exercise that day. I got selfie photos with a friendly horse and another with a baby goat. 

I knocked on the door of one family where it turned out that the man that answered the door was clearly a Trump supporter. He remarked, ‘I am not in favor of any of your candidates. However, can I get you some cold water to drink?’ 

He then offered for me to come inside his home on this warm September day so he could refill my water bottle with cold water, and he allowed me to use the restroom. It made me feel proud to be an American at that moment that we can still meet people who disagree with us about politics. Yet, we can still be neighborly and supportive to each other. 

I love animals. It was a thrill encountering a friendly horse and baby goat that day. When I was walking by a chain linked fence, a curious horse came up to say hello. I took three selfies with the horse, including one with Rep. Hoa Nguyen’s campaign. Later that day, I posted the horse photos on social media, especially the one with me holding up the campaign lit, to promote Hoa Nguyen’s re-election campaign. 

Towards the end of the day, the baby goat was loose from the farm it resided. It looked separated from a group of goats on a nearby property. It followed me down the road like I could somehow get it home. I did not have answers for this goat. However, it allowed me to take two selfie photos with it. Seeing the farm animals was the best part of that day. 

My low point of the day happened in the middle of the afternoon. I walked down one very side road to a large two-story house with a lively party happening on the inside. The person who answered the door lectured me that “people around here don’t like people walking around on people’s doors. This ain’t Portland and there ain’t no sidewalks here. People get suspicious when they see someone walking around knocking on doors.” 

I found his comments odd because I had met nothing but kind and polite people in this rural area. I just ignored him when he lectured me. I just smiled and I did not say anything. 

I turned around to walk further up the street. He then yelled at me, “This is a private street, and you need to go away.” 

I didn’t like his condescending tone towards me. It’s like my humanity didn’t exist for him and I didn’t want to give him any satisfaction that he could just order me around. I didn’t even look at him. I had one more house to canvas on that street. I then went up to the final house, which I thought was the address I needed to canvas. The house was totally empty. There were no blinds as I walked by the front windows, revealing no furniture inside. It looked dusty and abandoned for a long period of time. I then turned around to leave this house and side street. As I left that lonely house, the hostile individual came roaring up to me full speed on his four-wheeler. He then shouted at me, “Didn’t I tell you to leave this private street? That other house is empty and belongs to me. Did you not hear what I was telling you? Are you deaf?” I kept walking with my eyes straight ahead trying not to notice him. He temper exploded, “Did you not hear me?” 

I felt full of fear and dread. I stated as I walked, “I am just doing my job, which you are making it hard for me to do. I am leaving your street right now!”

Another two-story house was on this street that did not belong to him. He raced the four-wheeler in front of that house to then block it make sure I would not canvass that door, even though it was not on my list. He then swiftly rode the four-wheeler back to his house watching me the whole time. He acted like he owned the whole street. Oddly, one other property owner lived on that street. As I left the street, I took a photo of the signs. The top sign stated: “Caution: Speed Bumps Ahead.” The bottom sign read: “Speed Limit 5 MPH.” There was no private property sign. 

This incident emotionally shook me. I was alarmed that my stubbornness almost got me in a dangerous situation where I could have been injured or worse. I somehow endured through an incident where my life felt threatened. It was a quiet area with few cars traveling around. Yet, I could hear my heart beating in my chest very loud from what just happened. 

Friendly Cats when I was canvassing in the summer and fall of 2024 

Although that guy left a very searing memory in my mind, I was comforted by the many friendly cats when I canvassed from the end of July to November 5, 2024. 

It seemed like I encountered very loving and kind cats on numerous days when I canvassed in the summer and fall of 2024. Some of these cats were probably hungry and wanted food. Some of these cats lobbied me to let them inside their owners’ home. Some were just curious about me wondering what I was doing in their neighbor. Other cats just loved people and wanted affection from me. Whatever the reason, the friendly cats were the best part of canvassing. At one point, I had seven days in a row with a friendly cat to greet me. The cats made the grind of the long days and the many humans slamming their doors in my face well worth it. 

I don’t want to anthropomorphize the cats. At the same time, on my worst days, the friendly cats seemed to cross my path to say, ‘You got this, dude! Don’t let the rude human bastards get you down! I care about you! Oh, by the way, can you scratch my chin, rub my back, let me inside, and give me some food while you here?’ 

One of the first cats I remembered was a very friendly black cat in the Powellhurst-Gilbert working class neighborhood in southeast Portland. It was a hot weekday on August 13^th. I knocked on someone’s door, but they were not home. It sounded like there were teenagers inside having fun playing video games. They did not answer the door, which was fine by me. 

At the edge of the porch, curious slender black cat came up to me wanting its chin scratched and its back rubbed. It may have wanted me to let it inside. I took three photos with the cat. It did not seem to mind at all. I probably spent close to 10 minutes interacting with this cat on this porch. The kids and maybe the adults did not seem to care. They never opened the door to check on the cat or me. I finally said goodbye to the cat, so I could get some work done knocking on doors that day. I returned to this neighborhood on September 4th. I was shocked this same friendly black cat greeted me again and I took a selfie with it. 

In between seeing this short haired black cat, I encountered a long-haired black cat in a secluded upscale neighborhood in outer southeast Portland that wanted to get know me. 

I saw many different breeds of friendly cats when I canvassed in the summer and autumn of 2024. I had a sweet Siamese cat in front of a low-income apartment in southeast Portland. 

I had a white and beige fluffy long-haired cat that wanted attention in the Centennial neighborhood in southeast Portland. It did not mind that I took selfie photo with it. None of the friendly cats cared that I took self-photographs with them on my iPhone. The only constraint was not the cats. Sometimes the sun would be at odd angles behind a tree or building late in the day that would make it too dark to photograph the cats. The cats were not bothered that the lighting was too poor to photograph them. That was my problem, not there’s. 

I had a gregarious Russian blue that I took a selfie photo with me in the Gresham Butte neighborhood on September 29th. I had a lovely black and white tuxedo cat come up to me for affection on October 6th. This cat did the stop, flop, and roll maneuver on the hard pavement. My understanding is that the flop and roll action that cats do is to show you that they like you and trust you. When cats do that, they are exposing their soft underbelly, which they would never want to show that vulnerable area to predators. When the cats roll on their backs and show that soft area to humans, they are basically saying, ‘I like you and I trust you.’ 

On October 5, 2024, it rained hard in Gresham. I got soaked canvassing. I just wanted to give up and go to my lovely apartment. I hated my job that day. At my worst moment, a middle-aged Latino woman encouraged me to sit on her porch. She got a cup of coffee for me. I strongly dislike the taste of coffee. However, gesture was so kind that I had to drink some of it. The hot temperature of the water warming me up and the aroma of the coffee uplifted me in that moment. While she insisted I have a seat on her porch, she went digging through her house and car parked in her garage desperately trying to find an umbrella for me. All her generosity brought tenderness to my soul and a rejuvenation to canvass this neighborhood some more. 

The rain continued to pour hard. I canvassed more, but I had a difficult time locating one house listed on my canvassing phone app. I walked back and forth by this Victorian style house on a corner. I had such a hard time trying to find the address of a specific house that I wanted to go home and stop canvassing. On the porch of that Victorian House, a grey and white calico cat came out to greet me. It acted like it knew I was having a horrible day. It decided to be friendly and seemed to want to say to me: ‘Everything is going to be alright! Don’t give up!’
 
That cat in that moment provided so much comfort for me. It only wanted to interact with me for a few minutes before heading on. However, I will always appreciate that cat and that manifestation of the universe giving me joy and comfort on that blah grey cold rainy day. 

On another cool grey autumn day in October, I canvassed a middle-class suburban neighborhood in Troutdale, Oregon. I felt like I was making good progress knocking on a lot of doors that day. Not that many people were home, so I went through my big list of homes somewhat quickly. When I walked up the steps to knock on the door on one gray split level home, a long-haired gray and white hefty cat greeted me.
 
I then sat on the steps to allow the cat to approach me. The cat hobbled towards me because it only had 3 legs. One of its back legs was missing. This cat wanted lots of attention, but it also indicated that it wanted to be let inside. I tried to explain to the cat that I didn’t have a key or way to let the cat inside. The cat didn’t understand my excuse. After I petted the cat on the steps for a while, I walked down the rest of the steps to start heading to my next house. 

The 3-legged cat then followed me down the steps and the paved sideway. It wanted more attention from me while also still pleading with me to let it inside the house. I tried to explain to the cat again that I did not have an ability to let it inside. It then followed me through vegetated assortment of wild plants in the front yard. It seemed happy exploring the front yard while continuing to be curious about me. I then told the cat again that I had work to do and I had to leave. Finally, the cat got the message and headed back to the front porch. 

The cat then meowed on the front steps on the porch. This time, a human that I could not see cracked open the front door to let the cat inside. I thought it was hilarious that the whole time a human decided to avoid me while I interacted with their cat outside. Even more funny, I kept explaining to the cat that I could not let the cat inside because I thought nobody was home and the door was locked. The human waited for me to leave to let the cat back inside.

I never held it against anyone who did not want to answer the door. I would rather have someone not answer the door than to yell at me and slam the door in my face. Ultimately, the cat won because it went inside like it wanted the whole time. Actually, all of us won! The person inside did not have to talk with me. I did not have to talk to a person who did not want to chat with me. The cat got attention from a new person and then it was let back inside. 

Cats have an interesting if not mischievous sense of humor. On November 1st when I canvassed on streets not far from my home in my neighborhood, a curious Russian Blue breed cat approached me. I kneeled down to its level to interact with it and give it attention. I laid my canvassing bad next to me so I could focus on the cat. The next thing I knew, this grey cat plopped on top of my work bag so I could fully devote myself to it. I gave it a full neck and back massage for several minutes. I then had to find a way to reclaim my tote bag from the cat to continue canvassing. I snapped a photo of the cat on top of my bag. However, I don’t remember the cat’s reaction when I decided to reclaim the bag and continue canvassing. 

For East County Rising, we had a Signal chat for all the field organizers to stay in communications. On Signal, I would post my selfies with the cats to the delight of my co-workers. They liked my cat selfie posts so much that they started posting their own interactions with cats while canvassing, as well as friendly encounters with dogs, and other humorous happenings they experienced while door knocking. 

By the time the November 5th election came, I had worked 7 days in a row and  36 out of 40 days knocking on doors in Portland OR for ECR to urge local voters to vote for local Democratic candidates. I felt bone tired. 

On Sunday, November 3rd, I had a rough day canvassing in northeast Portland. I walked up 3 steps to a small house in the working-class neighborhood of Sumner in northeast Portland. When I moved toward the front door on the porch, my leg fell through a square hole on the porch that I did not see in time. It startled me to suddenly fall inside fancy designed air space. It was scared I had injured my leg, but I was only shaken up by the experience. This shock to my system, while I was thankfully ok, was another indication to me that I wanted to be finished with the canvassing that would end on election day, Tuesday, November 5th. 

As I felt jarred from falling through that spot on the porch, I stumbled across a friendly 
cat late in the afternoon. I walked up to a porch to knock on a door. No one answered so I rolled up the campaign lit and placed it in between the doorknob and the door frame. A black cat then came up to me wondering what I was doing and if I could give it attention. I spent several minutes doing my best to make this cat happy. I sat on this porch so long hanging with the cat that I think that the owner came to the door wondering what was going on outside. 

Just one hour after I engaged with this friendly black and white cat in northeast Portland on November 3rd, I saw a brown banner in front of someone’s home that read, 
“C.L.A.W.S: Cat Lovers Against White Supremacy.” 

Anyway, this friendly cat and that banner was the comfort I needed to get through the last 48 hours of knocking on doors to urge last minute voters to turn in their ballots. Just a few minutes later, I knocked on someone’s door of a middle-aged woman. When I said I was knocking on doors for the election campaign, she got excited: “Oh good! I am filling out my ballot right now and I am trying to figure out who I should vote for!” 

She let me inside her home. I then sat at her kitchen table with her and I gave her my recommendations for the candidates and ballot measures she should vote for on her ballot. She was appreciative and thrilled that I knocked on her door because she felt overwhelmed filling out her election ballot with only a couple days left to vote. I wanted to thank all the lovable cats who kept me going to reach this undecided voter with just a couple days left before election day. 

Again, it felt like friendly cats were placed in my path when I canvassed that fall to keep my spirit strong. Cats live in their own worlds, but it almost felt like they wanted American democracy to succeed. I doubt there is any research on this. However, cats probably thrive better in democracies than authoritarian governments, and cats probably somehow know this. 

The stress of canvassing when someone threatened to call the police on me 

If friendly cats were one of the best perks of canvassing, the angry people were the worst part of the job. On Saturday, September 14th, I had a busy day canvassing in Gresham, Oregon. Many homeowners had doorbell cameras. That makes my job as a canvasser easier. I ring the doorbell camera, and the homeowner looks on their smart phone app to see who is at their door. Most people can tell I am a political canvasser, so they don’t answer the door. I made sure I held up my candidate slate card lit so they can clearly see what I am placing at their door, and then I left. The doorbell cameras saved me from many uncomfortable conversations with homeowners who don’t want to talk with me. 

Occasionally, someone would answer the voice command speaker to ask me who I was and what I wanted. I explained I was leaving behind voter information about the election. On this day, the homeowner on the speaker said, ‘Don’t leave anything at my door!’ 

At this point, I canvassed full time for about a month. I was tired of many people slamming their doors in my face and being rude. I approached every door being humble and friendly. Yet, it felt like I lost a bit of my soul every time a person was antagonistic with me. When the person snarled, ‘Don’t leave anything at my door,’ I had enough of people being nasty with me, so I left the campaign lit at his door anyway. 

He then yelled over the speaker, “I am going to call the cops on you!” 

My thinking was: ‘Good ahead! I worked on the spring 2024 Gresham Safety ballot imitative for more funding for police and firefighters. The big reason for that ballot measure was that Gresham Police was understaffed and overworked. It took on average around 30 minutes for them to respond to 911 residential calls. Even then, it could take longer due to other robberies and violent crimes happening at the same time. I doubt they will make it a priority to respond to your complaint that someone left election information at your door without permission.’ 

I then canvassed other houses in this neighborhood. However, I felt paranoid the police would come get me. In fact, two Gresham Police cars drove by that afternoon, but they paid no attention to me. My heart level raced whenever I saw the Police cars thinking I would get busted. I then decided the stress of thinking the Police might confront me was too much. In the future, I would not be spiteful to homeowners who insisted to not eave anything at their door. 

The next day, Sunday, September 15th, I had some voters yelling and acting hostile to me. For Monday, September 16th, Billy sent me turfs for the same streets I had canvassed in the last few weeks. I was worried about browbeating the same voters. I asked him if I could take Monday, September 16th and Tuesday, September 17th off work, and he readily agreed. 

Stay tuned for for the next part of this blog:
Part 3: The Good and Bad Personal Moments canvassing in the autumn of 2024

 

“We don’t agonize. We organize” 
– Democratic Congresswoman and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Democracy. It is defined by Meriam Webster’s Dictionary as

“1. Government by the people:rule of the majority. 
    a.  A form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies, laws, etc. according to law. 
    b.  a form of government in which the people vote directly against or in favor of decisions, policies, laws, etc.”

Since the January 6, 2021, an insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters trying to overthrow the U.S. Government election results, I am worried about our American democracy. Before the January 6th insurrection, I took it for granted that it was strong and would always exist. 

After January 6th, I switched from being strictly a climate organizer to a climate and democracy organizer. To document my lifelong shift in thinking, I wrote an 8-part blog from October to December 2023, For Climate Action, let’s protect our democracy. 

I followed up those writings with a related blog I posted in April 2024, For Climate Action, be kind to people knocking at your door. The blog was about my dedication and frustration to knocking on doors in in the Portland OR metro area as a U.S. Census Enumerator in 2020 and as a paid political canvasser/field organizer for the 2022 midterm elections. I wanted to uphold our democracy and to urge my fellow community members to vote for support Democratic candidates who would pass strong climate bills and uphold our democracy. 

With the Oregon Primary Election happening in May 2024 and the general election looming on November 5, 2024, I was eager to engage with voters to urge them to support strong Democratic candidates that would stand up for our democracy from the rising threat of authoritarianism. This multi-part blog is an account of my actions January to November 2024. I will then conclude about my reaction to the 2024 election and what actions we should take now. 

Part 1: Organizing and canvassing for our democracy in the spring and summer of 2024 
Part 2: Rough times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024  
Part 3: The Good and Bad Personal Moments canvassing in the autumn of 2024 
Part 4: My actions and reactions to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

Part 1: Organizing and Canvassing for our democracy in the spring and summer of 2024 

From February to April 2024, I helped the Portland Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) chapter organize a Congressional Candidate Climate Forum on April 18, 2024. It was attended by Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal and Oregon Representative Maxine Dexter. I felt that the that candidate forum that I helped organize was a success. It may have played an important role in getting Dr. Maxine Dexter to win the Democracy primary on May 21st and elected to Congress on November 5, 2024.

In the middle of planning for this CCL candidate forum, in the second week of April 2024, Tanya and I took week-long trip back to St. Louis, Missouri to see family. Even more, this trip centered around a day long road trip to southern Illinois to see the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Seeing the eclipse was one of the highlights of my life. Months later, I blogged about it, 2024 Solar Eclipse Renewed me to take Climate Action. 

On May 1st, after the CCL candidate forum, I worked for East County Rising (ECR) as a field organizer, also known as a canvasser, to knock on doors to urge voters to support their endorsed candidates for the May 21^st Oregon primary election. I later blogged about this experience on the highs and lows of knocking on doors for the May 2024 Oregon Primary Election. 

A quick vacation to Crater Lake National Park after the May 2024 election primary 

After one day the primary election, Tanya and I took a much needed four-day vacation from May 22^nd to May 27^th visit Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon to go snowshoeing. It felt great get my mind off politics, elections, and trying to persuade people to vote.
 
The weather was beautiful on the Crater Lake rim when we snowshoed on that Thursday afternoon and Friday all day. On Thursday afternoon, the sky was clear with a stunning blue with no haze and just a few clouds. There was little to no wind, so the lake was a giant mirror reflecting the small band of clouds and deep blue sky. Friday was an overcast cooler day, reminding us that winter had not given up its grip on Crater Lake for the season. 

We have each owned pair of snowshoes for years. It was enjoyable to use them at Crater Lake where they still had a healthy snowpack of over 8 feet of snow on the ground at an elevation over 7,000 feet. I worked at Crater Lake during the summers from 1992 to 2017. It brought back a lot of memories since I spent a good portion of my life there. The park was just as splendid, awe inspiring, and serene as I remembered. At the same time, I was glad to just be a visitor, and I liked my life since 2017 of organizing for climate action. 

The calendar said May 25th. However, we had dinner at a picnic table by the Mazama Motor Inn cabin we were staying in the park. The elevation there is just over 6,000 feet. We had walls of snow surrounding us as we ate toasted hot dogs for dinner with a side of chopped broccoli. The temperature was probably a balmy 50 degrees, but the mounts of snow around us looked like we were having dinner in Greenland or Antarctica.

On Saturday, May 25th, we drove back to Portland leaving to travel north of the park on Highway 138 to see the various spectacular waterfalls on that route. We enjoyed walking on the short trails to see these waterfalls, such as Watson Falls, Tokatee Falls, and Susan Creek Falls. The falls were all roaring strong from a hearty winter snowpack that fed them high upstream in the distance. It was Saturday of Memorial Weekend. The popular waterfalls on this route certainly had other visitors, especially family groups, admiring them. It was not crowded though.

As soon as I returned from this trip, I prepared for my next excursion to Washington D.C. June 7-12 to attend the CCL conference and lobby day. Much later, I blogged about that trip, especially the highpoint of my thrill meeting U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin.

Visits to Portland Oregon from my friend Itzel Morales and my mom Fran Ettling 

The next day, I flew back home to Portland, Oregon. On the flight back, I had magnificent views of Mt. Hood out the window as the plane descended into Portland on this lovely summer day. 

The next weekend, my friend from Climate Reality Project, Itzel Morales Lagunes, visited with Tanya and me after she had attended a wellness conference near the Columbia River Gorge. Itzel and I were co-presenters at the Climate Reality Los Angeles Training in August 2018. I enjoyed co-creating and jointly delivering that presentation. I admired her enthusiasm, optimism for the future, the hard work she put into this presentation, all her climate work, and her flexibility in meshing our presentations together. Tanya and I were delighted that Itzel wanted to stay with us in Portland and spend time with us. We had very few out of town visitors in our 7 years living there. We were excited to show her our area. 

We first met at the Tryon Creek State Natural Area in southwest Portland, a 15-minute drive from downtown Portland. It was summer so the forest was lush green. This 658 acre heavily forested park featured 8 miles of hiking trails. We walked for about a mile so Itzel could get the feel of a Pacific Northwest forest. Tryon Creek is Oregon’s only state park within a major metropolitan area. It’s a second growth forest of deciduous and evergreen trees. This shady canyon valley with the meandering Tryon Creek wandering through provided a suitable environment for trees so tall it was hard to see the tops of them. 

After we got a good feel for this park, we then drove Itzel to see the Portland International Park Rose Test Garden. The brilliantly colored roses were at their peak for the summer creating a joyful spectacle for our eyes. The bright color range of red, pink, orange, yellow, and other fabulous variety of roses were a must to take many photos with our cameras. We then took Itzel to see the outside of the Pittock Mansion with its broad high view of the Portland skyline. 

From the Pittock Mansion, we walked a mile for Itzel to see the Redwood Deck at Hoyt Arboretum in Washington Park. The park contains 70 redwood trees — including coast redwoods (the earliest of which was planted in 1931) and giant sequoias. Since their planting almost 100 years ago, these trees grew to an impressive height and girth. From the deck and hike among the trees, it feels like one gets a small taste of Redwood and Sequoia National Parks in California.

The next day, Tanya and I made sure Itzel got to see the most accessible and impressive waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge. 

My mom Fran Ettling came to visit Tanya and me for four days at the end of June. She also wanted to see the Rose Garden. The roses were still looked fabulous just two weeks after my previous visit with Tanya and Itzel. I insisted on taking Portland’s public transit, TriMet buses and MAX commuter trains, to travel over an hour from our home into the city. My 84-year-old mom did great on public transit. She enjoyed taking TriMet. It reminded of her when she used to take the streetcars growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. 

My mom requested for Tanya, her, and me to have a dinner at the Portland City Grill, which it located on the 30^th floor of the U.S. Bankcorp Tower in downtown Portland. The restaurant has big windows with terrific views of the city, surrounding area, and sightings of Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams on clear days. It is a tradition when my mom comes to visit us in Portland to have dinner there every time from 2019 onwards. 

Attending and even speaking at Oregon Legislators campaign kick off events 

After my mom left Portland, it was time for me to network to see if I could work for a legislative campaign for the 2024 election season. I came to the campaign kickoff event for Rep. Ricki Ruiz in Gresham, Oregon on June 22nd. On June 30th, Rep. Zach Hudson asked me to give a short speech to introduce him as his campaign kickoff event in Troutdale. 

This was the first time that an elected leader asked me to give an introduction for them. I was honored to do that. Even more, Zach is a kind, decent, humble man, and dedicated public servant. I made sure that I crafted an introductory speech that Zach would be proud. 

Here are the remarks that I gave at the Kickoff Campaign even for Zach: 

Introduction to Representative Zach Hudson at Campaign Kick off

Thank you for coming to Representative Zach Hudson’s Campaign Kick Off event today. My name is Brian Ettling. I am a friend of Zach’s who has known him for several years. 

Zach wanted me to introduce him because he has admired me for years as a local climate organizer. I was honored because I am not a constituent, but I live just a few blocks away from his district at NE 158^th and Sandy. 

My story is that I worked 25 years as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. I loved being a park ranger, but sadly I saw the impacts of climate change there with a diminishing annual snowpack and more intense wildfire seasons. At times, the wildfire smoke was hazardous to breathe and forced visitors with health issues to cancel their vacations. I became so worried about climate change that I quit my summer job at Crater Lake in 2017 to organize and lobby for climate action. Thus, I have lobbied Oregon legislators to pass climate policies since 2018. 

Zach and I first met when he was running for office in 2020. I must have made quite an impression because he immediately asked me to endorse his campaign. Zach was the first candidate for office to ever ask me for his endorsement. Zach listed me as one of his endorsers in the 2022 Oregon Voters pamphlet. It was exciting because that was the one and only time my name has ever appeared in an Oregon Voters Pamphlet. 

I have always been proud to support Zach because he truly does listen when I chat with him about climate policy bills that I urged him to support. He has always treated me like I matter and he truly cares about me. I have had other elected officials and legislators besides Zach who have always treated me with kindness and truly listened to me who are here today. 

However, I have had a few negative experiences lobbying in Washington D.C. and Salem with elected officials who have not treated me well. They acted bored, uninterested, and it was beneath their time when I tried to chat with them. Incidentally, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz grumbled and refused to even acknowledge me when I said hello to him at the U.S. Capitol exactly one year ago. We are all very thankful that Zach is no Ted Cruz. 

I know for sure that Zach truly cares about me. However, I also have been around Zach long enough to know that he truly cares about you. Zach has lived in East Multnomah County for 18 years with his wife and three children. He truly cares about our community. He treats everyone like a neighbor. 

Zach has taught at Gresham High School, Corbett High School, Reynolds High School and Mount Hood Community College. At the moment, he substitute-teaches at local schools while the legislature is not in session. He cares about quality education not just for his kids, but for your kids, all the kids in our community, and his students. 

Since serving in the Oregon Legislature in 2021, Zach collaborated with legislators on both sides of the aisle on bills to help working families, first responders, students, and Oregon’s natural areas. Zach currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the House Education Committee, Chair of the House Higher Education Committee, and on the House Business and Labor Committee.

Zach loves the communities of East Multnomah County, and he enjoys getting involved. He served on the Troutdale City Council, the Troutdale Citizens Advisory Committee and the Troutdale Budget Committee, and he helped organize the Troutdale SummerFest for many years.

As someone who lives in east Multnomah County, I applaud the efforts of Senator Chris Gorsek, Rep. Ricki Ruiz, Zach and other to fight hard to keep open the Legacy Mt. Hood Birthing Center. 

As a climate organizer, I deeply appreciate all of Zach’s efforts in the Oregon Legislature to fight to

• Continue the electric vehicle rebate program
• Limit the impact of megafarms
• Reform the Oregon Forest Resources Institute
• Divest the State Treasury from investments in coal
• Monitor and support marine reserves 
• Increase state use of clean energy technology

I know I can always count on him to support strong and effective climate bills and to protect Oregon’s beautiful natural environment. We will need Zach in the Oregon Legislature in 2025 to help pass a major transportation package to fund and maintain our roads, highways, and bridges while also investing in public transportation, electric vehicles, and to continue transitioning the state to clean energy. I will be eager to continue to chat with Zach about climate legislation. 

I hope you will also be eager to engage with Zach as he intends to be a champion on education, access to healthcare – especially reproductive healthcare for women, civil rights and justice, affordable housing, reducing gun violence, campaign finance reform, consumer protection, and many other issues facing Oregon. I know from personal experience that Zach wants to listen and fight for you! 

On top of all this, Zach is a talented violinist. 

Please give a warm welcome for my friend Zach Hudson.

The attendees gave my speech a good response. They laughed at my attempts at humor, especially when I remarked, “We are all very thankful that Zach is no Ted Cruz.”

On July 10^th, I went to Rep. Hoa Nguyen’s campaign kick off event. Billy Fish, my old ECR boss from the spring of 2024, helped organize this event. I asked him if he had any jobs for the upcoming campaigns. Billy said he did, and he would be happy to hire me again. 

Settling on a Paid Field Organizer/Canvassing job for the summer and fall of 2024 

In June and July, I regularly chatted on the phone with my friend Katie Collins. She was the campaign manager for Nick Walden Poublon, who was running for Oregon House District 52, which represents an area east of Portland from The Dalles and Hood River to Sandy, Oregon. Katie and Nick recruited me for months to work their campaign. They were in negotiations with FuturePac, which is the Oregon House Democratic Campaign Committee, on when they could hire more staff. In early July, Katie encouraged me to submit my resume to FuturePac. 

It took a long time for FuturePac to respond after I submitted my resume. In late July, FuturePac told that I wanted to work for ECR under Billy Fish. I was then in a delicate situation where I just wanted a campaign job. I preferred to work with Katie and Nick. I was eager to help Nick win to flip that legislative seat from a Republican to a Democrat. However, friends who were seasoned campaign staff advised me that they did not feel like Nick could win. They felt like I would be better off working for a legislative candidate under the ECR umbrella.

It felt frustrating that people well connected with Oregon Democratic Party did not think Nick could win. This was a purple district. In the May 2024 primary, Nick received 5,319 votes as the Democratic candidate and his general election opponent Jeff Helfrich received 5,323 votes as the Republican candidate. Previous elections in this district were extremely close Democratic Representative Anna Williams won this seat by only 84 votes in 2020 over Helfrich. In 2018, Williams beat Helfrich by 897 votes out of 31, 414 votes cast (less than a 3% margin of victory. I could not believe no one else in Oregon was salivating like me to try to flip this seat. 

By late July, Billy Fish told me that ECR wanted to hire me for a Campaign Field Director. FuturePac seemed to be dragging their feet to hire a Field Director for Nick’s Campaign. On Thursday, July 25^th, I met Katie and Nick in Hood River, Oregon to knock on doors for Nick that day. Sadly, I broke the news to them that I decided to work for ECR as a Field Campaign Director since it was closer to my home and community. Even more, I did not want to burn any bridges with ECR since I had already indicated to them that I was interested in working for them. 

I liked Katie and Nick. I hated sharing this news to them. I had my eye on working on their campaign all year since I met Nick for lunch on February 4^th. When I chatted with them in Hood River on July 25^th, I lamented, “I sure hope I do not regret this decision.” 

Nick and Katie took the news graciously. They were not mad or disappointed with me. They understood I was in a tough spot to choose where to work. They were annoyed with FuturePac with dragging their feet to get a Field Campaign Manager hired that I ended up working with ECR instead. On Friday, July 26^th, I started work for Rep. Hoa Nguyen’s re-election campaign. 

Briefly working Full Time for the Representative Hoa Nguyen Re-election Campaign  

On my first day of work for Rep. Hoa Nguyen’s re-election campaign, I was introduced to Hoa’s campaign manager Aimee Santos-Lyons. My first interaction with Aimee was unusual. She texted me that she ran out of gas not far from where I lived. Fortunately, I have a gas can in the trunk of my car for such emergencies. I was able to fill up the gas can at the nearby Costco gas station and rendezvous with her where her car was stuck. We were able to put the gallon of gas in her Minivan so she could drive to a nearby gas station to fill up her car. 

After she filled her gas tank, we met up at a location to knock on some doors together. I admired her enthusiastic energy and how she greeted every voter with a perky, “Happy Friday!” 

Aimee took me out to lunch at a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant called Yoonique Pho and Grill in southwest Portland. My lunch looked so delicious that I took a photo with my iPhone. Yoonique is one of Aimee’s favorite places to eat in Portland, as well as for Hoa. It was a gathering place for Hoa’s campaign on Saturdays for lunch after we would canvass in the mornings. 

Hoa Nguyen is a big hearted and devoted public servant. I had known her for two years and was impressed with her. Besides being a state legislator, she served on the David Douglas School Board. Her full-time job for David Douglas was to locate students who were not in school and find the resources they needed to get back into school. I was honored to be working on her campaign. I enjoyed the times I canvassed with her. We even went to eat at Yoonique one time together after the two of us went on a joint canvass. 

Just days after I started working on her campaign, we laughed about my canvassing.  Her doorbell camera filmed me knocking on her door, posing with her campaign lit, and leaving the campaign lit at her door. I had no idea that was her home when I knocked on the door. She texted me the video. It was hilarious to see me in action doing my job. I proudly posted the video on social media. I included that video at the end of this blog.

It was not long though before I realized this was an all-encompassing job with little to no time off. I figured that I would spend many hours to do all I could to help this campaign win. The red flag that soon jumped out at me was that I served three bosses in this job: Judy with Future Pac, Bill Fish with ECR, and Aimee with Hoa’s campaign. Judy needed me to deliver timely reports to her about the canvassing on a weekly basis. Billy would be making my schedule and teaching me how to work the VAN data system where ECR and the Oregon Democratic Party kept their voter database and campaign statistics. Aimee and I would be in contact daily about organizing the canvassing, recruiting volunteers, phone banking, and setting up the house parties for Hoa. 

My decision to not be the Field Manager for Rep. Nguyen’s re-election campaign 

I soon learned the expression, ‘You can’t serve more than one master at the same time.’ 

Billy was so busy setting up and cutting the turf for canvassers that he little time to teach me how to use the VAN data system. When I took the job, I explained I needed some time off when my in-laws came to visit August 8-11. I knew I would probably be working, but I needed one full day at least to clean the apartment before they arrived on the 8^th. Tanya, her parents, and I planned to travel to the Olympic Peninsula August 17-21, so I would be away on vacation then. 

FutuePac expected me to knock on over 350 doors a week, plus commit to making over 100 phone calls a week to reach out to voters and to recruit campaign volunteers, plus provide planning for house parties. When I started in late July, Billy and I agreed that my days off would be Mondays and Tuesdays. With everything happening in the campaigns in August, it soon became one day off that varied due to all the campaign activities that were happening. 

Hoa Nguyen’s campaign had many plates spinning in the air with canvassing events, house parties, phone banking for donations, recruiting volunteers, etc. My stress level went up greatly when I would ask her, “What do you want me to prioritize right now?”

Her answer: “Everything!”

I really admired her energy and dedication to winning this very tight election campaign. However, our styles of organizing were soon in conflict. I really wanted to know what the biggest priority was when we would meet. She would then go over everything the campaign was doing. She would give me long lectures on how to prioritize my time. I felt like I was living the expression: “I asked this person what time it is and they told me how to build a watch.”

By mid-August, I was very unhappy with the job situation. I worked a full day and then Billy kept me for an hour and a half one evening to go over what to say when recruiting volunteers. Aimee and I would have these long-drawn-out meetings that I felt like were not accomplishing anything. The meetings took away my time from the Future Pac goals of hitting my 350 doors knocked per week and making 100 phone calls.

On Wednesday, August 14th, I reached my breaking point. I had a horrible day at work. I started work around 8:30 am that day to pick up campaign literature on a 30-minute drive to southwest Portland and back. Then I had a 10 am Zoom FuturePac Meeting. After that Zoom meeting ended around 11 am, Aimee cornered me into having another planning meeting with her that did not feel productive or effective. I asked her again what she wanted me to prioritize. The answer again was “Everything” followed by a lecture how to manage my time.

I was eager to start knocking on doors to try to reach the 350 doors goal for the week. I did not start knocking on the doors until after 2 pm since it took time for me to have lunch and drive to my turf (assigned canvassing area). After I started knocking, I had at least two people scream at me that they did not want to be bothered with people knocking at their door. Two different people even wadded up the campaign lit and threw it at me. After I came home after 8 pm, I wanted to quit. I did not want to do that job ever again. My wife Tanya was worried I would make a rash decision. We agreed that we should talk with Aimee the next day.

I requested a meeting with Aimee and told her that I did not want to be the Field Director for Hoa’s campaign anymore. Earlier that week, we were on a campaign marketing call. The internal polls showed that Hoa’s poll numbers were very dicey. She was running basically tied with her opponent. She could lose this race. I didn’t want Hoa to lose this race. I told Aimee that she needed a new Field Director that was not me. Hoa’s race was too vital to maintain a strong majority in the Oregon House. Aimee appreciated hearing my decision. She knew that the working relationship was not going well for us. I felt that Aimee was a good campaign manager. She was driven and completely dedicated to make sure that Hoa would win. I believed she needed a Field Director with more experience than me and she agreed.

She did not want to lose me as a field organizer. She knew that Billy would really want to keep me on as a field organizer for ECR. She asked me to stay on as the Field Director for a couple of weeks until they found my replacement. I affirmed that I would be happy to do that. I then knocked on doors for the rest of the day with a huge sense of relief that the chaos and responsibilities of the Field Director for Hoa’s campaign were no longer on my shoulders.

Vacation on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington in August 2024 

Our relationship was a breeze after that. With this weight off my shoulders, Tanya and I enjoyed a five-day vacation. We took an Amtrak train on Saturday, August 17th from Portland to Tacoma, Washington to meet up with my first college roommate Billy Maher. We roomed together at our freshman year at William Jewell College in 1988. I last saw Billy in 2012, over 12 years earlier. He started to date his partner Alvin around that time. It was fun to meet Alvin. 

Billy cooked for me a Thai dinner at his parents’ home in Kansas City when we were college roommates that was one of the best meals of my life. Before college, Billy spent a year in Thailand as an exchange student. Wow! He mastered how to cook Thai cuisine when I had the meal he cooked at his parents’ house 36 years earlier. Billy cooked an amazing meal when we stayed with Alvin and him in Tacoma on August 17th.

Since we roomed together in 1988, Billy traveled frequently to Asia and was fluent in several Asia languages. Tanya and I enjoyed hearing his storied about Asian culture. He had several funny stories about surprising Asian cab drivers by speaking easily in their language. It always floored these Uber, Lift, and cab drivers since Billy looks like an average white American who should not be able to speak their language so clearly. 

The next day, Tanya’s parents picked us up at Billy and Alvin’s home. We then headed to the Washington Coast to stay for two nights. My mother-in-law Nancy found a comfortable beach rental with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room area in Pacific Beach, Washington. The weather was overcast and drab when we went for a walk at the beach. At the same time, it was still serene and refreshing to spend time walking on the beach. Though the clouds made the beach seem a bit gloomy, the sunset we saw was outstanding. 

The next day we drove to the Quinault Rain Forest, located in the southern most part of Olympic National Park. We planned to walk several miles on a loop trail in the old growth rain forest. The trees were towering and majestic with huge ferns and an abundance of green plants on the ground. It was another Pacific Northwest coastal overcast day. The grey sky made it easier to photography the trees in the rain forest. It was one of those days where one could really strain their neck to keep looking up at the tall trees. Many of the trees were so large that you could not wrap your arms around them, and you could easily hide behind them. 

My in-laws, Tanya, and me love to hike. We relished our time in this rain forest until it started raining hard that afternoon. Even with wearing our rain ponchos, we got soaked. At the end of our hike, we saw a sign for the world’s largest spruce tree. We walked over to see it, but, it was a fast view. We were tired and weary from battling the steady rain that afternoon. We could not wait to return to our beach rental at Pacific Beach to change into dry clothes. The rain didn’t stop so we stayed inside to watch the Democratic National Convention on TV. 

As Tanya’s parents, Tanya, and I watched the Democratic Convention together, we felt a sense of hope from the speakers and watching Kamala Harris that she might win the election. 

The next day, we drove up the coast on Hwy 101 to see the beach by Kalaloch Lodge. The weather was most cloudy with patches of blue sky. After the dreary rainy weather we experienced the previous day, we glad to see a bit of blue sky with no rain. Like the beach we saw at Pacific Beach, we marveled at seeing and hearing the ocean waves, the view of the sea extending out to the horizon, and observing huge groups of sea gulls gathered on the beach. 

We then traveled to Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park to eat a late lunch and to take a short walk along the lake shore. We admired the steep green mountains that ringed the lake with the clouds shrouding the tops of the mountains on this overcast summer day. 

We next headed to Sequim, Washington to spend the night with my mother-in-law Nancy’s cousin Peter and his wife Karen. They own a comfortable and spacious home that sits high on a coastal hill. Their home is at an elevation to have a bird’s eye view out their back windows and deck of Sequim Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. One can see far enough out to Victoria, Canada and even see Mt. Baker and the northern most Cascade Mountains in Washington on a clear day. Peter and Karen’s home has the perfect coziness to visit family with surrounding scenery to put you at ease that you would never want to leave. 

We had no choice but to leave on Wednesday, August 21^st. Tanya’s parents had to catch their flight back to St. Louis, Tanya had to return to her job, and I had to resume my campaign work for ECR and Hoa’s campaign that next day. 

Stay tuned for the next part of this blog:
Part 2: Rough Times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024  

“Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say, ‘It’s all right’”
From The Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun,”
lyrics by George Harrison

This is my update to oral testimony I gave to the Oregon Legislature over the years. Here I document the two times I gave oral testimony to the OR Legislature during its 2026 short session.

This blog can be considered as a continuation of the 3 previous times I blogged about giving oral testimony to the Oregon Legislature: 

1. For Climate Action, my oral testimony to legislative committees Part III, focused on the 9 times I gave oral testimony in 2025. It was primarily giving testimony to various Oregon Legislative committees. I also included the oral testimony I gave to the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission on March 11, 2025.
 
2. For Climate Action, my oral testimony to legislative committees Part II” was about my oral testimonies to the Oregon Legislature from September 2023 to March 2024.

3. “For Climate Action, giving oral testimony to legislative committees,” detailed the times I gave oral testimony to the Oregon Legislature from 2019 to 2023. 

This blog focuses on the two bills in the Oregon Legislature for the 2026 short session where I gave oral testimony: The Balcony/Plug-In Solar Bill (House Bill or HB 4080) and the Make Polluter Pays/Climate Resilience Superfund Bill (Senate Bill or SB 1541).

Balcony/Plug-In Solar Testimony Story

In autumn 2025, I first hear about the concept of balcony solar, also known as plug-in solar. I heard Oregon legislator, Representative Sarah Finger McDonald from Corvallis, planned to introduce a balcony solar bill in the 2026 OR Legislative session. For the last 9 years in Portland OR, my wife Tanya and I have lived in an apartment. The chances were slim that the apartment complex where we live would ever install solar panels. Thus, I was immediately enthusiastic when I heard about this bill for apartment dwellers to be able to install solar panels on their balconies to create their own source of electricity to offset a portion of their electricity bill. 

As a climate organizer, I was an enthusiastic supporter of residential solar panels for years. In the spring of 2018, I worked for Tesla Energy selling solar panels to home owners at Home Depots in the east Portland area.

Balcony solar first became poplar in Germany. According to one source, “As of late June (2025), 1,009,390 balcony solar systems were registered with the German Federal Network Agency, including more than 220,000 added in the first half of 2025 alone. Given many haven’t been officially registered, Müller says that the real figure is likely to be two or three times higher.” 

Some estimates note as many as 4 million households in Germany have installed the systems, which people can order through Ikea. 

The demand for plug-in solar is growing in Germany with “A quarter of Germans want solar systems on their balcony or garden” in the findings of one survey. 

In December 2024, The Guardian reported, “Next in line after Germany in the solar stakes are Spain, Italy and Poland, while balcony power is gaining in popularity in France. Meanwhile, Belgium, which outlawed plug-in solar devices over fears of having unregistered systems feeding into the grid, will lift its ban.” 

In May 2025, Utah enacted the first law supporting plug-in solar, and now over 30 pieces of similar legislation were introduced around the U.S. The bad news is that Balcony Solar bills were delayed in Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Wyoming. The good news is that Plug-Solar bills recently passed the Maine and Virginia Legislatures. They now sitting on the desk of state governors of those states waiting for those governors to sign those bills into law. 

The 2026 Oregon legislative session ran for 5 weeks from Monday, February 2nd to Friday, March 6th. The Oregon Constitution stipulates that “The Oregon State Legislature convenes annually in January at the State Capitol in Salem, but sessions may not exceed 160 days in odd-numbered years and 35 days in even-numbered years.” Since the even number years legislative sessions are compressed to 5 weeks, Oregon’s 90 lawmakers are allowed to introduce two bills apiece, and legislative committees can introduce three. This meant Rep. Finger McDonald would spend half of her personal political capital on this bill for the 2026 OR Legislative session. Therefore, it was vital that climate advocates, including me, showed strong support for this bill. 

On February 5th, a coalition of labor unions, Oregon Food Bank, Oregon Working Families Party, environmentalists, and teachers organized a Fight for Our Future Rally at Oregon State Capitol State Park. This rally was a loud message to OR Legislators that massive federal tax breaks for corporations and the ultra-wealthy threatened funding for Oregon schools, healthcare, and other critical community services. They called on lawmakers to step up and fight for Oregon families during the session by reigning in giveaways that only enrich the wealthy.

As a climate organizer, I volunteer with Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV) and Mobilizing for Climate Action Together (MCAT). I like to attend OLCV and MCAT’s lobby days at the Oregon Capitol to urge legislators to support strong climate and environmental bills. OLCV urged its volunteers like me to attend this rally on February 5th. I told OLCV that I would be there. However, I needed to find a ride since Tanya and I share my 2002 Honda Civic. She needs that car for work, and I like to carpool to Salem to network with fellow climate organizers. Plus, I don’t like to drive, especially if I can save on gas and wear & tear on my car. Oh, I like to drive less so I am not polluting the air with more carbon emissions contributing to climate change. 

I found two friends from MCAT, Pat DeLaquil and Joseph (Joe) Stenger, who were carpooling to Salem on Thursday, February 5th. The catch was that they were leaving early that morning to give oral testimony for Rep. Finger McDonald’s Balcony Solar Bill (HB 4080). That bill was scheduled for a public hearing for the House Committee on Climate, Energy, and Environment at 8 am. That meant that we would have to meet at a TriMet park and ride lot at 6:30 am to beat the morning commute traffic from Portland to Salem to arrive in plenty of time for the hearing. 

When I learned that Pat and Joe planned to give oral testimony for the Balcony Solar Bill, I decided to sign up in advance on the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS) to give oral testimony. In my many years of preparing oral testimony to give to legislators in Salem, I knew they would be limiting the public comments to 2 minutes. The day before the hearing, I drafted my testimony, printed it out, and practiced it several times with a stopwatch on my Ipad to make sure I would be comfortably under 2 minutes. 

On Thursday, February 5^th, I got up super early before 5 am take the bus and a MAX train to meet Pat and Joe at a southeast Portland Park and Ride lot at 6:30 pm. It typically takes around an hour to drive from Portland to Salem, depending upon traffic. The morning commute traffic was not bad to arrive in Salem around 7:40 am. That was plenty of time to try to find a place to park near the Capitol Building, pay for street parking, go through the security check point to enter the Capitol, and walk to the hearing room. The Committee meeting was held in a hearing room in the basement or now known as the “concourse” of the Capitol. 

Hearing rooms and a new restaurant in the brand new “concourse” were in use for the first time during January legislative meeting days. This portion of the capitol was closed for over three years for construction for a seismic retrofit to make the Capitol Building safer in the event of a severe Cascadia Zone earthquake. When I walked into the basement hearing room, it had a glowing ultra-modern look. I heard Oregon Senator Lew Frederick say later at his monthly town hall that the new concourse committee hearing rooms looked like “something out of Star Trek.” 

Pat, Joe, and I arrived at the Hearing Room just before 8 am. The gallery was full of people seated eager to give oral testimony for the Balcony Solar Bill. The committee hearings typically last around an hour and a half. The Committee Chair tries to keep a tight schedule so the legislators can leave the committee meetings at the end of the scheduled times to arrive in time for their next committee hearings or other scheduled meetings. The House Committee on Climate, Energy, and Environment had hearings on several other bills that morning. In addition, this committee meeting had work sessions where they voted on bill amendments and/or takes a final vote to pass the bill out of committee to the House Floor or send to a Joint Ways and Means Committee if it required state money or a “fiscal” in order for each legislative chamber to pass the bill. 

The Chair of the House Committee on Climate, Energy, and Environment was Rep. John Lively of Springfield, Oregon. Fortunately, the other bills in consideration for this meeting had only a few citizens signed up to give oral testimony in person or online. The work sessions for the other bills took only minutes to complete. Thus, Chair Lively was able to open the last 50 minutes of the meeting to the Balcony Solar Bill, (House Bill) HB 4080. For the next 25 minutes, the Chief Sponsors who sat on this Committee, Reps. Sarah Finger McDonald and Mark Gamba, gave oral testimony supporting the bill and answered questions from their committee colleagues. That left about 25 minutes for the public to provide oral testimony to the committee. 15 people, including me, signed up to give oral testimony. 

Chair Lively remarked that he was limiting testimony to 2 minutes to try to “accommodate the majority of people (who signed up to testify) to give them a chance to speak.” 

At this point, I was not sure if there was enough time remaining for me to give oral testimony to support this bill. Not everyone who signed up in person to testify, such as my friends, Pat DeLaquil and Joe Stenger, were able to testify. The good news was that with 9 minutes left in the committee meeting, Chair Lively called my name to give oral testimony to the committee to support HB 4080, the Balcony Solar Bill. 

My Balcony Solar (HB 4080) Oral Testimony for February 5, 2026 

Members of the Committee, my name is Brian Ettling. For the last 9 years, my wife and I live in outer northeast Portland in an apartment complex. 

For many years, I dreamed of living at a location where I could have solar panels on my roof generating some if not most of the electricity that we use. I like the apartment complex where I live. They are very quick at fixing maintenance issues in our apartment.  But, my apartment complex is owned by a large corporation that is not interested nor has any financial incentives to put solar panels on the roofs our apartment buildings. It’s sad because I have a perfectly exposed south facing roof that would be ideal installing solar panels. 

This is why I love balcony solar. It will help renters like me. If you fully support it and fight hard to pass it, you would be following the lead of the Utah Legislature that it passed unanimously in 2025 with very strong Republican and Democratic support. 

Plug-in solar opens solar to over 70% of us Oregonians who can’t benefit from rooftop solar today, such as renters and homeowners who can’t afford rooftop or have shady or unsuitable roofs. Even more, passing this bill would be a cushion against rising electric bills in Oregon. 

This bill could make solar more widely available, push down the costs, and make solar even more affordable for Oregon homeowners. 

If you support this bill and pass it, it will remind me of one of the happiest songs from my teenage years from way back in 1986, 40 years ago! The song was “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.” 

Thank you for your time! 

The next day, I found the video recording of this legislative hearing on OLIS. I created my own video of my oral testimony from the OLIS video. I then uploaded my oral testimony for HB 4080 on YouTube for others to see. Here is the video: 

As I wrapped by my oral testimony quoting the Timbuk 3 song “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades,” I put on a pair a dark sunglass. As I hoped would happen, it received a big laugh from the legislators, the audience in the gallery, and basically everyone in the room. Republican Representative Bobbi Levy loudly chuckled and enthusiastically responded, “Great visual!” 

Only one other person had time to give oral testimony after me. His name was Karl Koening, President of the Oregon State Firefighters Council. He opposed the bill and legislators asked him questions about his opposition. The meeting adjourned after Karl spoke. Thus, I was lucky to speak to the committee to support this solar bill. 

Unfortunately, some Oregon electricians and fire marshals gave oral testimony and submitted written testimony against the Balcony Solar Bill. They primarily cited safety concerns of the balcony/plug-in solar panels potentially causing residential fires. Sadly, the testimony from the fire marshals and electricians led to Chair Lively killing the bill later in the session by not allowing it to come to the committee for a work session or final vote.  

It still felt rewarding for that chance to publicly advocate for solar power for renters like me. 

My Oral Testimony for the Make Polluters Pay or Climate Resilience Superfund Bill 

The same day I testified to support the Balcony solar Bill, I also gave oral testimony in support of the Make Polluters Pay or Climate Resilience Superfund Bill, SB 1541. This was a Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee bill put forward by the Chair, Senator Jeff Golden.

This 2026 bill was similar to a Climate Resilience Superfund Bill that Senator Golden introduced in the 2025 Oregon Legislative session, SB 1187. That 2025 bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and the Environment. At that time, the chair of the committee was Senator Janeen Sollman. She held a hearing this bill on April 7 and 9, 2025.

In writing this blog, I forgot I gave oral testimony for SB 1187 on April 7, 2025. Fortunately, I found the one minute video clip of my oral testimony I made that I posted on my social media on April 9, 2025. I created that video clip from OLIS video recording from the April 7th Senate Energy and Environment Committee hearing. While creating this blog, I posted it to YouTube. Here is the video:

Sadly, Senator Sollman did not schedule a work session for the bill, so the 2025 bill died in her committee. Senator Golden thought it was important to introduce the bill into the 2026 OR Legislative session. Even more, he made sure the bill was assigned to the Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee. He was the Chair of that committee. Thus, he could schedule a public hearing and work session to guide it forward out of his committee. 

The Oregonian described SB 1541 as establishing “a climate disaster fund, allowing the state to recoup the costs of responding to wildfires, droughts and heat domes and help respond and prepare for extreme weather. The bill is named and modeled after the 1980s-era federal Superfund program that requires polluters to pay for cleaning up the nation’s most contaminated land.

The ‘Climate Superfund’ bill targets multi-national companies that produce and sell crude oil, natural gas and coal – such as Exxon or Chevron – based on their historical greenhouse gas emissions. Just 32 companies have been linked to over half of global fossil fuel and cement CO2 emissions in 2024, according to a database of historical production data from 178 of the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement producers.” 

The SB 1541 was modeled after the Climate Superfund Bills that already passed in states such as New York and Vermont, plus considered recently by other state legislatures. 

Nearly every Oregon climate and environmental group that I volunteered with or had partnered in the past made it their top priority for the Oregon Legislature to try to pass this bill for the Oregon 2026 Legislative session. These groups included OLCV, MCAT, Building Resilience Coalition, 350PDX, Third Act Oregon, Oregon Environmental Council, and others that made up the Make Polluters Pay Coalition. 

I attended the 350PDX Make Polluters Pay Action Night on January 22, 2026, to energize Oregon climate and environmental advocates to contact their legislators, sign up to give oral and written testimony supporting the bill to the Oregon Legislature, and attend the Make Polluters Pay Lobby Day in Salem on Monday, February 16th. Many of the environmental and climate groups from the Make Polluters Pay Coalition were in attendance that evening.  Third Act Oregon had their own Zoom Call to organize volunteers for Make Polluters Pay on January 28th. MCAT had their general meeting on January 22nd requesting their volunteers to contact legislators to support the Make Polluters Pay or Climate Resilience Superfund bill. 

Many years earlier, I attended a training in San Francisco, California in 2012 led by former Vice President Al Gore to become a Climate Reality Leader. Thus, I have been involved with the Climate Reality Project since then. I am active in the Climate Reality Portland OR Chapter since it was founded in 2017. The Climate Reality Project had a national zoom call on January 28th to urge Climate Reality Leaders nationwide to contact their legislators to support Make Polluters Pay bills in their states. 

At the beginning of February, the Climate Reality Portland Chapter asked me to give oral testimony on behalf of the chapter soon after it was announced that the Oregon Legislative Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee would hold a hearing on the Climate Resilience Superfund Bill, 1541, on February 5th. They figured I would probably be in Salem that day for some kind of environmental or climate lobby day. I planned to be in Salem for the Fight for Our Future Rally at noon that day. I was happy to give oral testimony presenting the chapter supporting the Make Polluters Pay Bill at the hearing on that afternoon of February 5th. The chapter leadership scripted the oral testimony for me for me to read to the Senate Committee. 

Just like my testimony for the Balcony Solar Bill HB 4080, I printed out my oral testimony at home two days before February 5th. I then practiced it several times so I was familiar with the words and to make sure I was under the typical 2 minutes allow for members of the public to give oral testimony to the legislative committees. 

After I gave the oral testimony on the Balcony Solar Bill on Thursday morning, February 5th, I had time that morning to catch up on emails, have an early lunch, and wander inside the building to chat with various legislative staff. I then left the Capitol Building just before noon to walk to the plaza on the north side of the Capitol to attend the Fight for Our Future Rally. I was there at noon when the rally was supposed to start. However, the rally still had not started at noon. I talked with several organizers from around Oregon that I knew already. 

I heard buzz that morning that many citizen advocates planned to attend the 1 pm hearing to give oral testimony to support the Make Polluters Pay Bill, SB 1541. Around 12:15 pm, I thought it was best for me to leave the rally, which still had not officially started yet, and head back inside the Capitol to try to get a good seat in the hearing room for the 1 pm Senate Committee hearing on SB 1541. 

I encountered a long line of people which took around 10 minutes to get through the Capitol Security to go inside the Capitol Building. The good news was I arrived as soon as Capitol Security opened up the hearing room around 12:30 pm. I secured seats in the second row for Pat, Joe, and me. The gallery quickly filled up with citizen advocates hoping to give oral testimony on SB 1541. Not everyone would fit in this room. Capitol Security then opened an overflow room so people looking to attend and testify could still watch the hearing on a large video monitor. 

As the hearing gallery filled up with advocates just before the hearing started at 1 pm, Jacqui Treiger, Senior Campaign Manager for Oregon Environmental Council, was asking for people like me who signed up to give oral testimony to say, “Due to the large number of individuals who want to speak in favor of this bill, I will defer the rest of my allotted time to them.”  

Jacqui stated we had individuals who planned to speak who lost their homes to wildfires. We wanted to leave enough time for them to share their stories in their testimony. I gave oral testimony to OR Legislative committees numerous times over the years. Yet, I still get nervous when I am called forward by the Committee Chair to testify. Thus, I was relieved I could give that statement if called forward to testify to hopefully allow others the chance to testify. 

A few minutes after 1 pm, the Committee Chair, Senator Jeff Golden, gaveled in for the committee meeting to start. He informed the room: 

“We have a single bill to consider today: a public hearing on Senate Bill 1541. We have more people signed up to testify than we have more time to get to (them), so we have a panel in the first part of this that’s going to thoroughly explain the bill. Then I am going to be giving preference to people who are here in person and then, if we can, go to remote (oral testimony). And I always hate to say this, but we are going to be limiting testimony to 1 minute, and I know some of you have more to say than that. What’s really important to know is that we welcome your testimony in written form up to 48 hours from right now…

We know the level of interest here and we really do want to hear from you. Sorry that our time is as limited as it is. 

Opening the hearing on Senate Bill 1541…

I see myself as the first name to testify and I think I am going to really limit my remarks to try to get as many people in as possible. 

I will answer one question that I heard which is ‘Why do you bring a bill of this scale to the short session and my view is that in the last few years has proven that Oregon is on a path to complete disaster if something doesn’t change because of the scale of the costs of climate related damages and events, caused primarily from wildfires, of course. Those costs go into the billions already, and every indication is that they are going to increase. And unless we change direction and change our approach, I believe that Oregon local governments and special districts are headed to bankruptcy. State government itself might be headed towards bankruptcy. And what we know for sure is that Oregonians will be facing huge increases in their basis bills, primarily their insurance premiums and their utility bills. We have seen those double digit increases already and we are going to see more of them, so my view is that this bill needs to come to the table for serious consideration every session long or short until something changes.” 

About one hour into the hearing, I was called up to the front by Senator Golden to give oral testimony on SB 1541. To save on time to allow others to testify, especially those who lost homes to extreme wildfires, this is what I said in 30 seconds: 

“Chair Golden and members of the Committee, my name is Brian Ettling. I am speaking on behalf of the Climate Reality Portland Chapter to urge you to support the Climate Resilience Super Fund Bill, SB 1541. Due to the large number of individuals who yet want to speak in favor of this bill, I will defer the rest of my allotted time to them. Please refer to our written comments. Please support SB 1541. Thank you so much for your time.” 

A few days later, I found the video recording of this legislative hearing on OLIS. I created my own video of my oral testimony from the OLIS video. I then uploaded my oral testimony for SB 1541 on YouTube for others to see. Here is the video: 

I felt bad I did not read the full text of the oral testimony that Climate Reality Portland Chapter prepared for me. At the same time, I wanted to be a team player for the Make Polluters Pay coalition hoping to squeeze in as much oral testimony from advocates as possible. We especially wanted to lift the voices of the young and survivors of wildfires and other climate disasters. 

When I exchanged emails with the Climate Reality Portland Chapter Chair, Helena Birecki, later that day, she sent a gracious and appreciative email. She wrote: 

“I was able to (watch the hearing live on OLIS) just as you started speaking. Really appreciate you being there, And for ceding your time asking them to read our written testimony. You are wonderful.”

I will include at the end of this blog the prepared oral testimony from the Climate Reality Portland Chapter that they wanted me to read during the hearing. 

The next day, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), reported about the hearing, “Roughly 60 audience members, including many hoping to give in-person testimony, filled the hearing room Thursday. Overall, more than 70 people signed up to provide in-person or online testimony. Many supported the bill, with advocates ranging from local government officials and religious leaders to wildland firefighters describing the impacts of extreme weather events in their backyards.” 

Unlike 2025, Senator Golden successfully got SB 1541 passed out of his committee on February 10, 2026. It passed on a party line vote of 3 to 2 with all 3 Democratic Senators in support and the 2 Republican Senators opposed. The bill went to Ways and Means where it died. I heard secondhand that Senator Golden thought it would take around $1 million dollars of state funds to enact the bill. However, at the MCAT Geneal meeting on March 25th, Ways and Means estimated the bill to cost $6 million dollars. Due to a huge budget shortfall, the Ways and Means Committee Chairs and members basically killed any bills requiring state funding or a “fiscal.” This is due to Oregon experiencing a massive budget shortfall because of the federal H.R. 1, known as the “Big Beautiful Bill.” 

Senator Golden remarked at the beginning of the February 5th hearing, because of the financial damage climate change is costing Oregon each year, “this bill needs to come to the table for serious consideration every session long or short until something changes.”

Unfortunately, Senator Jeff Golden announced in February 2026 that he was not running again for his Oregon Senate seat and he was retiring from the Oregon Legislature. In his absence in future legislative session, I hope another legislator will step forward to pass a Make Polluters Pay Bill, similar to SB 1541. 

I hope to be around and available to help lobby to get this bill passed in Oregon in the future. Although neither one of these bills passed the Oregon Legislature in 2026, they still gave me hope for the future. I am feeling optimism for a brighter day. It reminds me of what George Harrison sang in the Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun,” 

“Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say, ‘It’s all right’”

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt quote from the “Man in the Arena”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

On October 30, 2023, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat representing Oregon Congressional District 3, announced his retirement from Congress. In December 2023, Dylan Hinson, a volunteer with the Portland Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), came to me with an idea to have a CCL Congressional Candidate District 3 Climate Forum a month before the Tuesday, May 21^st Democratic Primary. The goal of this forum was to interview the leading Democratic candidates to learn their positions for the top climate issues CCL prioritizes for lobbying Congress, such as a price on carbon, healthy forests, clean energy permitting reform, and building electrification & efficiency. 

Representative Earl Blumenauer was first elected to Congress to serve this Portland district in 1996. Portland CCL hoped that a good candidate forum would help establish a good rapport with the Democratic candidate that would succeed Blumenauer. Oregon Congressional District 3 is considered one of the bluest and safest Democratic seats in the U.S. Thus, a Congressional climate forum with the leading candidates before the May 21^st primary election could help the undecided Democratic voters pick which candidate they would want to serve in this seat. 

Earl Blumenauer was my member of Congress since my wife Tanya and I moved to Portland in February 2017. I met Rep. Blumenauer several times while he served in Congress. I experienced only one occasion where he was friendly, Sunday July 14, 2019. Congressman Blumenauer held an outdoor event in front of the Oregon Sierra Club Office, located in inner southeast Portland. His office and other local climate and environmental groups organized a rally rolling out of his Climate Emergency Resolution.

Before this Portland event, Rep. Blumenauer introduced this resolution with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders in Washington D.C on July 10, 2019. By the time of this Portland rally, It was co-sponsored by more than 50 House Members and 10 Senators. Later, this resolution reached up to 103 House co-sponsors. Thus, Blumenauer was in good spirits that Sunday July 14th rally in Portland, Oregon.

Just before this July 2019 event, the attendees and organizers stood around mingling waiting for the rally to start. At that moment, Blumenauer walked up to me. He was pleasant and lovely to have a conversation. He happily agreed to pose for a selfie photo with me.

All the other times I engaged with Blumenauer, I found him to be grumpy and acted uninterested in talking with me. Just one week earlier, on July 8, 2019, I tried to strike up a conversation with him at a campaign event for Washington Governor Jay Inslee when he ran for President for the 2020 election. I introduced myself as a climate organizer and a volunteer with (CCL). I thanked Blumenauer for all his work in Congress for climate action, including his recently introduced climate emergency resolution. He acted cold and like I was beneath his time to talk with me. I left that event feeling disappointed and discouraged meeting him for the first time.

On October 4, 2019, a group of Portland CCL constituents and I met with Rep. Blumenauer at the Portland Greek Festival. He acted condescending and prickly when we asked him at that time to support the primarily bill that CCL was lobbying for at that time, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. He became irritated when we mentioned that bill and acted uninterested in supporting it. In nearly all my interactions with him over the years, he gave me the impression that he was burned out working in Congress and interacting with constituents like me. Frankly, with his negative attitude, I wanted him to retire from Congress for years. 

By February 2024, it was apparent that Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal, Oregon Representative Maxine Dexter, and Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales were the leading contenders for this Congressional seat. 

I first lobbied Dr. Maxine Dexter in December 2020 when she was elected to serve in the Oregon Legislature one month before. In my Zoom meeting with her, successfully lobbied her to endorse CCL’s federal bill Energy Innovation Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA), H.R.5744. In addition, I persuaded her sponsor a resolution in the Oregon Legislature later known as SJM 5 that urged Congress to pass bipartisan climate bill to price cardon such as the EICDA. I found her to be very helpful and supportive working on climate issues while she served in the Legislature.  

Eddy Morales and I knew each other for a couple of years. In 2022, I worked as a field organizer for the organization he founded in 2018, East County Rising. I found Eddy to be very friendly, caring, with a sincere interest to improve the lives of people around him. 

I enjoyed attending Eddy Morales’ Campaign Kick Off Event in southeast Portland at the Mexican restaurant Mi Cava & Cocina on November 12, 2013. The restaurant event room was packed full of friends, family, and supporters from around the Portland area. It was an impressive start to his campaign. At that point, I was undecided who I would support for this Congressional campaign. I wanted to see who else would enter this race. At the same time, I was amazed by the turnout and the show of support for Eddy that day. At that time, he looked liked a viable candidate and a serious contender for this Congressional seat.

I only knew about Susheela Jayapal from newspaper and media reports. She seemed to be a good County Commissioner. I don’t remember having any issues against her. She quickly positioned herself as the most progressive Democratic candidate running for this office. At that time, I thought she might win since Oregon District 3 is a very progressive district. She seemed to be well known as a County Commissioner. Plus, she was the sister of Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who represented neighboring state Washington’s 7^th Congressional District. At that time, U.S. Rep. Jayapal was the leader of the Progressive Caucus in Congress. 

In the planning meetings for the Congressional Forum in February 2024, the Portland CCL planning team struggled with coming up with a date, event location, and which candidates to invite. After the filing deadline of March 12, 2024, seven candidates filed to run for this seat. We had much discussion if we should invite all the candidates. I highly encouraged the team to just invite the three leading candidates that would most likely win this race: Maxine Dexter, Susheela Jayapal, and Eddy Morales. Some of the group worried about offending the other candidates by not inviting them. The committee decided to invite all the candidates, but the candidates’ campaigns must demonstrate that they had received a total of at least $50,000 by March 8th 2024. 

The planning group struggled to find a location for the Candidate Climate Forum. They endlessly discussed different school auditoriums that would be ideal, but none of the options seemed good. I suggested the Sanctuary Room at Taborspace, a community event gathering space in southeast Portland. I helped organize a Climate Reality Portland Chapter event there in June 2019. The Sanctuary Room easily held 250 people. Some of the committee members were tepid if we could fill that space. My response was, “We are going to fill that space!” 

The team had uncertainty about what date to pick. I pushed to choose a date quickly so we could invite the candidates soon before their campaign scheduled was booked. Members of the committee reached out to the candidates in early February. Thursday, April 18^th was the best date available for them. A committee member put down a deposit for the Tabor Space. Now was my favorite part: making sure that we get out the word to pack the room for the event. 

As the calendar turned to March, I volunteered to be the Marketing Coordinator for the event.  Dylan sent out an email among the committee members that role that was available and needed to be filled. After I claimed that role, Dylan informed me that they had three people helping with marketing, but no one leading or coordinating the efforts. I reached out to the three volunteers to see if any of them had created a graphic image for the event. They had not. I asked them if they could create something soon since we about a month away from the event. Their response was very slow, so I decided I would create a marketing image for the event. 

We received confirmations from the campaigns of Maxine Dexter and Susheela Jayapal that they could attend the event. However, we could not get a commitment from Eddy Morales’ campaign. The message we received from his campaign on February 16^th was “Unfortunately we’re unable to commit to this event as we’re only scheduling events 2-3 weeks out at this time. We will, however, keep this on our radar and touch base as the date gets closer.” 

Several weeks went and we had not heard further from the Morales campaign. This was making it tough for me to create a graphic image for the event. Should I include Eddy or not? On March 11^th, we received this email from his campaign, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to attend at the moment. If our calendar frees up, we will let you know.” 

The uncertainty if Eddy would attend created a lot of division among the committee members whether we should use his image or not. I created two separate images, one that included Susheela, Maxine, and Eddy and one that had Susheela and Maxine without Eddy. We determined in mid-March that he would probably be a no show. On March 15^th, I then sent out over 65 emails and texts to friends and people I knew in the Portland area to invite them to attend this event. I included a graphic image of the event that photos of only Maxine and Susheela. I aimed to get a big crowd for this event. 

We finally heard back from Eddy’s campaign on March 28^th that he would not be able to attend our forum. A few days later, I learned he could not attend because he was committed to a campaign fundraising event in Washington D.C. 

On March 12^th, few days before I sent all those emails to friends inviting them to the candidate climate event, I sent an email to the campaigns of Susheela, Maxine, and Eddy. I wrote that I was an undecided voter alarmed about climate change. I stated that I was a CCL volunteer, and I looked forward to seeing them at the April 18^th CCL Candidate Climate forum. I directly asked them this question: “Will you be willing to do the heavy lifting that many climate scientists and economists say that is required to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel fossils, such as a carbon fee & dividend, permitting reform, a carbon border adjustment, and other tools that are needed to truly reduce the threat of climate change?” 

I never heard back from Eddy Morales or his campaign about this email.

Maxine personally wrote to me and gave a long-detailed response. She shared how she was “As the only scientist and person who has passed large-scale environmental legislation in this race, I am uniquely qualified to tackle the climate crisis in Congress. As a physician, my job requires me to learn from data and distill complex science to patients. In Salem, I leveraged that strength to work with my colleagues and pass major environmental wins.”

She wrote her environmental accomplishments while working in the Oregon Legislature. I included the full email from Maxine to me from March 21, 2024 at the end of this blog.

A campaign staff person for Susheela’s campaign named Andrea emailed me back a few days later after I sent my email to them.

from: Susheela Jayapal campaign@susheelaforcongress.com
to: Brian Ettling
date: Mar 19, 2024, 4:42 PM

“Hey Brian, this is Andrea, a campaign staffer, responding here on behalf of the campaign! Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your deep concerns about climate change, a cause very close to Susheela’s heart. I truly appreciate your long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship. 

Not sure if you saw the news but the Sierra Club and every other environmental organization (Climate Hawks, Food & Water Action, Friends of Earth, Sunrise PDX, more on our website), In Congress she will fight for a green new deal, phasing out fossil fuels (she’s also pledged not to take corporate PAC money or fossil fuel money), implementing a carbon fee & dividend, permitting reform, and a carbon border adjustment. 

That said – she really likes working with people who have a deeper and broader level of expertise on these issues to co-create policy – and I hope that is something you would be interested in? 

We are actually hosting our office opening this Saturday and we would love to have you come by and talk more about this if you’re interested”

I signed up to attend and I went to Susheela’s gathering on March 23, 2024. I arrived just as the campaign took a group photo with everyone at their event. I stood in the far corner of the photo since I was still an uncommitted voter and unsure who I was voting for then. 

I enjoyed mingling with her supporters and campaign staff. As the event started to wind down and some folks started to leave, I had an opportunity to talk with Susheela Jayapal. I thanked her for committing to attend the April 18^th CCL climate forum. She acknowledged that she knew about the event and look forward to attending. 

Susheela confided to me that she was under a lot of pressure to make fundraising phone calls. Thus, she was eager to attend our forum for a chance to engage with voters. I informed her that many of these voters are still undecided like me, so this would be a great opportunity for her to connect with voters. I found her to be very gracious, personable, calm, and a great listener. I left the event still open minded who I would vote for. However, I thought she was an engaging conversationist and a caring individual that I would be proud to have as my member of Congress. 

April 2024 started amazing with a week-long trip back to St. Louis, Missouri for my wife Tanya and me to see family. This vacation centered around a day long road trip to southern Illinois to see the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Seeing the eclipse was one of the highlights of my life. In January 2025, I blogged about it: 2024 Solar Eclipse Renewed me to take Climate Action. 

As our St. Louis trip reached its final days, our CCL Portland planning team received an email from Michael Jonas on Friday, April 12^th. Michael was a community advocate, businessman, and attorney who was a Democratic candidate for the Oregon 3^rd Congressional District. He stated one of his supporters brought the forum to his attention. He wondered why he was not invited. He wrote he was available on April 18^th. He asked us to remedy the situation and invite him. A member of our team emailed him back on Saturday, April 13^th to say we were sorry at that time it was not be possible to include another candidate at our forum. He explained to Michael that our group created objective qualification criteria that candidates must prove they could meet to qualify for the forum. One of those criteria was for a response to our inquiry by March 8th.

Michael then provided an email from this campaign manager dated on Thursday, February 29^th that they wanted to participate in the forum, and they put it on their calendar. In the email, they admitted that they would probably not reach a key criterion to attend. The stipulation was that received a total of at least $50,000 by March 8, 2024, as documented in the Campaign Finance Database of the Federal Elections Commission or by demonstrating through other documentation the financial viability of the campaign. They admitted that they only had over $12,000 in donations and would probably not reach the $50,000 limit by March 8^th. 

Michael thought the donation threshold to attend was arbitrary. He believed he should still be allowed to participate in the forum. In fact, the idea of accumulating large donations as a top consideration as a serious candidate was something he was fighting against in his campaign for Congress. In a further email on Saturday, April 13^th, Michael threatened with counter programming if we did not invite him. He relayed he had several supporters ask him why he was not included. He even offered to bring his own podium of reclaimed wood to attend. 

I thought it was the best decision to not include him the forum. My experience with political canvassing is that many voters are swayed by ads they see on TV. Raising donations for TV and media exposure does make a difference. Sadly, many voters are very busy living their lives and they do base their decisions on who they liked on TV, the 30 second ads, and who the people around them are voting for. Yes, money does matter in politics to run TV ads, pay people to get the message out, and recruit to hire canvassers. The fact he had not raised a lot of donations was a key factor for me. I did not see him getting an endorsement from the Oregonian, Tribune, or other prominent media sources. Even more, he has no legislative or government experience, unlike Maxine Dexter, Susheela Jayapal, or Eddy Morales.

On Tuesday, April 16^th, our planning committee had our final planning meeting before the Thursday event. We decided that Michael’s campaign did not meet our fundraising criteria that we set back in February. Our decision was final and our primary contact with Michael sent him an email conveying our decision. Michael sent a very terse response rebuking our decision. 

At this point, I decided to act to send an email to Michael Jonas the day before the forum. His angry response showed me that he didn’t have the temperament for me to be my member of Congress. However, I worried how Michael and his supporters would see the Citizens’ Climate Lobby brand. CCL prides itself on empowering their supporters to build positive relationships with elected officials, the media and their local community to achieve effective climate change solutions. Thus, I reached out to him offering to meet to chat. 

In the email, I introduced myself to Michael as a climate organizer in Portland and I am part of the CCL planning committee that is putting together the April 18th Congressional 03 Candidate Climate Forum. I thanked him for running for office and shared how much I admired his dedication and effort to do that. I shared that Michael’s email was forwarded to me about his frustration having been left off the final selection process for the forum. While other committee members made the final decision, I agreed with their decision. On the other hand, I wanted to meet with him sometime to hear what he had to say. 

I emphasized in the email that All of us live in the Portland area. We love our community. We are very worried about climate change and want to be part of the solution. If we are going to make progress on issues that we all care about, we do need to find ways to communicate, listen, partner when we find common ground, and maintain an ongoing positive relationship. I offered to meet up with him for lunch or coffee sometime. He sent an immediate reply that he appreciated my email, and he was getting over his disappointment not being included in the forum. He was open to getting together with me in the coming weeks over coffee to chat. 

Michael Jonas, two Portland CCL volunteers, and I met for coffee on May 2, 2024, and had a productive conversation. He still felt frustrated that he was shut out of our event and some similar events like ours. He felt like only candidates with deep campaign donations and experience in government were getting the attention, while his candidacy was not taken seriously. My friend Walt who was in the meeting and involved in Democratic politics for years tried to advise Michael how to overcome his frustration. He encouraged him to follow the process of the Multnomah County Democrats to get involved in school boards and local politics to make more of a name for himself before jumping straight into a Congressional race like this. I thought it was excellent advice. Michael seemed unable to hear that message at that moment. The meeting ended well. Michael and I decided to stay in touch. We got a group photo from our meeting. 

As far as the April 18^th event, it turned out to be a success. We had around 115 people attend this event. I thought that Susheela Jayapal and Maxine Dexter did a good job of answering the prepared questions how they would address various climate policies if they were elected to Congress. Most of my friends and I gave the edge to Dr. Dexter for providing more substantive answers to the questions. 

One friend Lea texted me the day after the event to tell me that she preferred Susheela’s answers Maxine’s. She thought that Susheela had a better of how the financial impact of climate change cannot be pushed onto “the masses” or onto the most disenfranchised. Lea thought that Maxine came across as elitest. Lea hoped Susheela would keep putting poor people at the forefront. Another friend of mine Katherine thought Susheela was out of touch and Maxine gave better answers. Katherine was swayed by the Oregonian’s endorsement of Maxine Dexter. The Oregonian is Oregon’s largest newspaper by circulation, and it is based in Portland. Katherine thought the endorsement aligned with how she perceived the candidates at the forum. 

The event was recorded for YouTube so anyone can still make their own judgements. Matt Zaffino, Chief Meteorologist for KGW TV – the NBC affiliate TV station for Portland OR, was the moderator for the forum. Because he moderated the event, it was featured on the 11 pm news. 

I enjoyed chatting with Maxine Dexter after the event and getting my photo with her. I thanked her for her time answering my March 12th email about what she would do about climate change if she was elected to Congress. She responded that she took personal time late at night to respond to emails from voters like me. I was dumbstruck that she was answering so many emails personally late at night to engage with voters. I told her I was worried hoping she was getting enough sleep. She remarked that she will get more sleep and rest after the May 21st election primary. I shared her sentiments that I hoped she would get more sleep after the election. I appreciated her time to chat with me after the climate forum.

Three days later, Tanya and I attended a Multnomah County Democratic Party Candidate-A-Palooza on April 21, 2024. This event had tables with many Democratic candidates running for statewide office and for Congress. The leading candidate for Attorney General Dan Rayfield recognized me and we had a friendly chat. I asked him how he knew who I was. He replied, “Brian you are all over social media!” 

I found him to be friendly and gregarious. I was amused that he knew me. I asked to get a selfie with him. He responded, “Are you kidding me? A selfie Brian Ettling! Absolutely!” 

At Candidate-A-Palooza, I chatted with all the major candidates running for OR Congressional District 3 seat. I met Michael Jonas for the first time. We promised to meet soon for coffee, which we did on May 2^nd. Eddy Morales and I chatted about his campaign’s hectic schedule. Tanya and I next talked with Susheela Jayapal. I found her to be a kind, caring person, and an excellent listener. She seemed open to supporting carbon pricing. I was impressed with her as a person and as a candidate. I liked all three of the main candidates Eddy, Susheela, and Maxine. It was a choice between three great people where I had to carefully weigh how I would vote. 

I spoke with Maxine Dexter last. She asked me directly if I was voting for her. She shared after the event that a CCL friend of mine KB Mercer told Maxine that she was “all in” for voting for her. I told Maxine that I was leaning towards voting for her and probably would if the election was happening that day. It felt like we were the closest aligned politically. I really appreciated her sponsoring the SJM 5 climate change resolution that I organized in 2021. Plus, she was one of the 30 Oregon legislators who endorsed CCL’s Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. She said yes in December 2020 after a CCL volunteer and constituent of hers had a Zoom lobby meeting with her on October 29, 2020. I was impressed how she always responded positive to any of my lobbying requests. I thanked her for that during this conversation. 

I was candid with her that the thing that held me back was that I felt ignored when I engaged with then Congressman Earl Blumenauer about climate change. She was sad to hear that and expressed empathy. I wanted to vote for a candidate that would be accessible to lobbying them on climate policies. Maxine responded that her kids are very scared about climate change. They would not let her ignore the issue or disregard climate organizers such as me. Her answers, plus the endorsement from the Oregonian, sealed the deal that I would vote for Maxine. 

Maxine Dexter won the May 21^st Oregon Democratic primary by a wide margin. She received over 51% of the vote, compared to 29% for former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal and 14% for Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales. A majority of the voters agreed with me that Maxine was the strongest candidate to represent Oregon Congressional District 03. 

In the November 5, 2024 general election, Maxine Dexter easily won the Oregon Congressional 3rd District race with 67% of the vote. She was officially sworn in as a U.S. Representative in Washington D.C. on January 3, 2025. At the end of the month, on January 27th, I thought she was off to a good start. Congresswoman Dexter held a joint town hall with U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley at a high school gymnasium in east Portland that had a huge crowd in attendance.

In early February, Walt Mintkeski offered me to take his spot to attend a Portland in district swearing in ceremony for Maxine Dexter to become my member of Congress on February 20th. I chatted with her after the ceremony to congratulate her. I mentioned that I was the CCL Liaison for Oregon Congressional District 03. I then shared that CCL would have a lobby day on Capitol Hill in July. We hoped to meet with her then. She made no promises that she could meet with us then, but she indicated that she would make every effort if her schedule allowed.

My wife Tanya and I were impressed how much she made herself accessible in the district. She held an average of around one in person town hall each month. She had a massive crowd of people for her town hall at a high school gymnasium in Gresham, Oregon on March 1, 2025.

One month later, on April 6, 2025, Representative Dexter held a town hall at the gymnasium at Parkrose Middle School. This school is located only 2.5 miles east of where Tanya and I live in outer northeast Portland. I arrived an hour early to get a good seat. I also wanted to network with Rep. Dexter’s Congressional staff, fellow climate and community organizers, and other people in attendance. When I walked inside the lobby of the school, Congresswoman Dexter was personally greeting the earliest arrivals. She was happy to see me. When I asked if I could get a selfie with her, she laughed and responded, ‘Of course! Brian, you are known for your selfies and photos of you out in the community on social media.’

The best part was that someone on Rep. Dexter’s staff snapped a photo of us when I took the selfie with her. They later posted it on social media. I learned a trick that day that if I arrived an hour early to her town halls that she talked with the first attendees. On September 6, 2025, she held a town hall at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. I repeated my trick to arrive early. Sure enough, Maxine was in the lobby engaging with the early bird attendees like me.

On July 22, 2025, I led the CCL lobby team that met in her Washington D.C. office. I expected a meeting with her staff. I did not think she was available to meet with us. I lobbied in Washington D.C. in CCL Lobby days 10 previous times. I never had a member of Congress join us for a meeting. The good news was Rep. Dexter’s schedule changed and she could join us. The bad news was we had a CCL volunteer who was not a constituent that argued with her about one of the bills we supported. Even worse, at the beginning of the lobby meeting, I asked how much time she had to meet with us. She stated 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, some of my fellow CCL lobbyists were still asking questions while Congresswoman Dexter’s staff were pointing at their watches. Furthermore, Rep. Dexter and her staff shifted in their chairs, indicating with their body language that the meeting must end to get to their next scheduled event. I felt disappointed and irritated with my fellow CCL lobbyists.

On September 6th, it was a relief that I could share my frustration about the other lobbyists with Rep. Dexter. I apologized that one of the CCL team members became argumentative and we ran over time. I was relieved she did not recall any of that. She thought the July CCL lobby meeting when great. She shared it was common for constituents and citizens expressing strong emotions to her. She put me at ease I had nothing to worry about. She must have been a terrific pulmonologist (medical doctor specializing in the respiratory system) and critical car doctor with excellent bedside manners because she left me feeling happier after our interaction.

With her monthly in-person town halls, monthly telephone town halls, and her active presence on social media, Tanya and I, as well as other friends, in the east Portland area are proud and thrilled that Dr. Maxine Dexter is our member of Congress. She has worked hard to bring home immigrants wrongly detained by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), defending our democracy, protecting our veterans, fighting for access to affordable healthcare, demanding accountability for survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, and reducing the climate change threat.

Rep. Dexter currently serves as Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which is responsible for overseeing federal agencies within the Natural Resources jurisdiction. In CCL lobby meetings with her and her staff, she conveyed that she intends to work closely with us and other climate/environmental groups. She wants to keep a conversation going if Congress flips to Democratic control in 2027. She aims to be ready with climate and environmental protection bills since she will be the committee chair.

I am glad that Dr. Dexter represents me and my east Portland and east Multnomah County community in Congress. I feel that the April 18, 2024 CCL Oregon Congressional District 03 Climate Forum that she participated in and I helped organize may have played an important role in getting her elected to Congress. Thank you to Dylan Hinson and other Portland CCL volunteers for allowing me to get involved that Climate Candidate Forum.

From left to right: Matt Zaffino, Susheela Jayapal, Maxine Dexter, Dylan Hinson, and Jana Gastellum at the Portland Citizens’ Climate Lobby Oregon Congressional Candidates District 03 Climate Forum on April 18, 2025.

from: Info Maxine for Oregon info@maxinefororegon.com
to: Brian Ettling
date: Mar 21, 2024, 8:23 AM

Brian,

Thank you so much for reaching out and I hope you’ve been well, I am very much looking forward to your upcoming climate forum. Climate change is the existential threat facing our planet and a huge reason I first ran for office in 2020. I saw the anxiety my children were having over climate change, the lack of hope they had that “the adults” cared enough to make hard decisions and knew I needed to take action. I don’t just talk about it – I live it. I have been a vegetarian for climate reasons for 15 years, we stopped drinking cow milk over 10 years ago, I was the first person I knew to have a Chevy Bolt in 2017, we drive our electric car rather than fly whenever possible, I don’t use plastic to the greatest extent possible and we as a family don’t buy new things unless absolutely necessary. We have lived a thoughtful life and I believe others would as well if they knew the impacts of their actions and policymakers made it as easy as possible to make more climate-informed decisions.

As the only scientist and person who has passed large-scale environmental legislation in this race, I am uniquely qualified to tackle the climate crisis in Congress. As a physician, my job requires me to learn from data and distill complex science to patients. In Salem, I leveraged that strength to work with my colleagues and pass major environmental wins. I played a critical role in reviving the Environmental Caucus and ensuring it was staffed for the 2023 legislative session. This initiative was vital for forging strategic alliances and addressing the nexus between environmental justice and broad policy areas. Environmental policy is not an insular policy niche but deeply embedded in everything from health and labor policy to education funding and housing policy. 

As the Chair of the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness, I worked intimately with Republicans and more moderate members to pass an unprecedented $200 million investment in 2023 and $376M in 2024, directly tackling our pressing housing crisis. As a part of the 2023 package, I was the chief negotiator for the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (OHNA) policy which was an iteration of our landmark land use policy, SB100 from 50 years ago. The OHNA policy fundamentally shifts how Oregon cities plan and meet their housing goals for the decades to come. I brought environmental leaders, land use advocates, developers, cities, counties and state agency experts together, facilitating a groundbreaking compromise to meet the moment we’re in to prioritize housing production while protecting sustainable and responsible development and strategic land use policies. The basic premise of these negotiations was we must build up and build in before we expand the UGB, create walkable, resilient communities and once it was clear we needed to expand the UGB, that we made it data-driven and efficient. 

As someone committed to living as sustainably as possible and ensuring Oregonians have access to sustainable living, one of the first bills I introduced in the legislature after winning election was a ban on single-use take out containers in 2021. Typical of initial bill introductions, refining the details with stakeholders to ensure equitable policy making took years, but in 2023 with the partnership of Senator Sollman and countless environmental organizations and advocates, we passed a ban on single-use styrofoam food containers and toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.

Another win I am particularly proud of was legislation passed in 2021 to set Oregon on the path to reach 100% renewable energy by 2040. The bill holds electric companies accountable, increases our renewable portfolio standard, establishes new powers for Oregon’s Public Utility Commission and Public Purpose Fund Administrator, and requires the state to launch a thorough stakeholder engagement process with our tribal communities to expand tribal adoption of renewable energy.

My philosophy for working in Congress will be the same I use in the exam room and in Salem: I show up, listen, engage, and then act, grounded in science and data. As your next Congresswoman, hearing from and engaging with you and other constituents will be my top priority. I am courageous and this seat demands someone courageous is in it. I have repeatedly taken hard votes, sometimes being the only no in the chamber and I know that there will undoubtedly be hard votes in Congress. I will stand up for my values and the values of our district and I am clear that taking action demands that we don’t wait for others to lead, I need to make a clear path strategically and effectively on day one. My promise is to clearly articulate my position and also engage thoughtfully with you and other partners to learn and iterate my perspectives as more data and insight is shared and then incorporate it into future legislation.

Thank you, Brian, for reaching out, I look forward to the April forum and I hope I can earn your support for the May primary.

Best,

MaxineMaxine Dexter, M.D. (she/her)Candidate for Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District

MaxineforOregon.com 

In November 2009, I took on the title of “The Climate Change Comedian” and grabbed the website domain www.climatechangecomedian.com on a dare from my friend Naomi while I temporarily housesitting in Ashland, Oregon. On April 10, 2010, I created the ideal brand photo of me to market myself. I had a friend take a photo of me holding up my inflatable Earthball on a clear late afternoon standing on the shoreline by Copper Harbor, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula with Lake Superior directly behind me. 

With owning the website domain and a suitable image to promote myself, I felt ready to create my climatechangecomedian.com website. My big problem: I had no idea how to create a website. While spending the winter in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, I asked a family friend, John Dantico, who was adept at internet technology, to help me build and launch my website. He readily agreed and asked me to be at his house around 9 pm on a weeknight.

We picture people considered to be night owls as staying up to around 1 am to work on projects and focus on tasks. I am a late-night person, and my body yearns to go to bed around that time. However, John liked to stay up to about 4 to 5 am working, reading, and contemplating life. We spent hours working on this website as I grew more tired, grumpy, and eager to head home to go to bed. Finally, John got the website good enough to launch around 3 am. He encouraged me to write a quick introduction on my website’s homepage to describe briefly myself and how my website will benefit the reader.

John then gave me advice that shook me to my core. He remarked, “Now you will need to consistently set aside time to write a blog for your website so you can create followers and draw attention to your website.” 

My swallowed hard and my stomach tensed up. I thought, “Me! Write regularly? There’s no way! I am not a writer.” I would freak out in high school and college when I had to write required essays and term papers. When I was a student, I would spend hours procrastinating and stressing out over writing assignments. I was a B student in high school and college because I had to force myself at the last minute to complete my class writings. Because these required writings were often rush and sometimes late, they had many grammar and punctuation errors. I would put a lot of pressure on myself to write something to submit to my teachers. As a result, I hated writing as a teenager and young adult. I wanted nothing to do with it! 

On the other hand, I always loved a good challenge. In the previous three years, I satisfied my sense of adventure by skydiving in Florida and Oregon in 2007. I went out of my comfort zone to try surfing, parasailing, and snorkeling on the Big Island of Hawaii in October 2008. I jumped of the diving rock to swim in Crater Lake to keep up with my friend Lizzy when she came to visit me there in August 2009. By doing those activities and others, I had briefly conquered my fear of heights and fear of swimming in deep water. Thus, after John gave me that guidance, I said to myself, ‘You have overcome your fears by participating in adventurous activities. You can rise above your fear of writing by writing. You can do this!’

The problem was for that the next year, my fear of writing dominated over my eagerness to write to keep my website up to date. Days after John launched my website, it just sat there with no new writings. Towards the end of April, I drove across country from St. Louis to Crater Lake, Oregon. I planned to work another summer there as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park. During the journey, I stopped near Vail, Colorado to try zip lining. Clearly, my craving for adventure seeking was not yet fully out of my system. 

After I returned to Crater Lake, I focused on delivering my ranger talks, hiking in the park, and hanging with my ranger friends. In June, I paid an outfitter in Grants Pass, Oregon for my friend, Lise Wall, and I to go up in a hot air balloon. In July, I arranged for my friend David Grimes, and I for a local pilot friend to take us up in her small airplane to get aerial views of Crater Lake. 

At the end of July, I began dating my ranger co-worker Lesley. I was absolutely smitten by her. For the rest of that summer at Crater Lake, I just wanted to spend time with her hiking, socializing with our mutual friends, and camping in the woods with her near our ranger housing. She left for the season to return to her home in Berkeley, California near the end of August. I took the train from southern Oregon to Berkeley to visit her that Labor Day weekend. She came to stay with me at Crater Lake on a weekend trip in early October. When I completed my season at Crater Lake in mid-October, I drove to Berkeley to stay with her until the beginning of November. I then traveled back to St. Louis to spend time with family for the winter. In early December, I flew from St. Louis to the Bay Area to be with her to attend her brother’s wedding. 

My relationship with Lesley was all consuming and turbulent with frequent arguing. I thought at that time I had found the one person to be with for the rest of my life. However, she never seemed fully committed to the relationship. She was hesitant to get too deeply involved with me. She was in therapy for bipolar depression from trying to overcome childhood abuse and trauma. One day, she would be delighted to see me, the next day she was cold and distance. I put all my energy into trying to make the relationship work when it was clearly not working. She broke up with me in early January 2011.  

To say this relationship had been a distraction from pursuing my passion to be a full-time climate change public speaker, organizer, and comedian would be an understatement. My website sat idle the entire time I dated her. 

I felt devastated and deeply depressed by the breakup. I needed to rebuild my life outside of her. In January 2011, I volunteered to lead a historical ecological program in the spring for Missouri Botanical Garden’s Earthways Center. That same month, I joined the local Toastmasters Club, South County Toastmasters, to become a better public speaker and climate change communicator. For almost a year, I ignored my www.climatechangecomedian.com website. 

On February 1, 2011, I still felt raw from my recent breakup. However, I decided I needed to adhere to my friend John Dantico’s advice to regularly blog and write on my website. I remember spending hours at my parents’ dining room table staring at my laptop to trying force myself to type up the first words for my blog. After hours of struggling what to write, I published a short blog on my website that day called, “My first Blog Ever.” It was only about three paragraphs long. It was a start. I forced myself to complete this blog. It was not fun. At the same time, I knew I needed to keep my website updated with writings. 

The next day, I wrote another blog, “Taking that First Step Forward.” It was about briefly describing myself and my climate change passion. It felt like a painful chore for me to write. I did not write more blogs until November 2011. I still felt a lot of pressure to blog for my website to motivate myself from overcoming writer’s block, I wrote my third blog on November 20, 2011, “Feeling Blue? Go Take a Hike!” It was a reminder to myself that I had always used hiking, spending time in nature, and working in the national parks to renew, discover, and inspire myself. 

In December 2011, I wrote blogs about my Toastmaster speeches. On December 1, 2011, I gave a speech for my Toastmaster’s Club called, “It’s Easy to Be Green.” I referenced the Kermit the Frog song “It’s Not Easy to be Green” to show that Kermit was wrong. I argued that becoming more energy efficient in your home, basically becoming more environmentally green, was easy and it saved you money. The fellow Toastmasters who were climate deniers liked this speech. They complimented me on it. Some of them even told me, ‘I still don’t believe in climate change, but I like to save money.’ The club members voted me to be the Best Speaker of four club members who gave speeches that evening. 

I discovered that I liked to write the speeches I would give for me Toastmasters Club. I could then turn the text of those speeches into blogs. This was a way to help me overcome my stress of having to create blogs and writings for my website. 

December 3 to 9, 2011, my friend Tom Smerling encouraged me to join him to attend the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Conference in San Francisco, California. It is one of the largest and more prestigious annual scientific conferences in the world. Nearly all the top climate scientists would present their latest findings there. He thought it would be an excellent opportunity for me to see these scientists up close, learn about climate change science from their presentations, and network with the climate scientists, as well as fellow climate change communicators. Tom’s advice to come to this AGU Conference was some of the best advice I received in my life. 

At the AGU conference, I met many renowned and respected climate scientists and communicators. One of them was Bud Ward, an environmental journalist and journalism educator. For 15 years, he was editor of Yale Climate Connections from 2007-2022. During this conference, I struck up a conversation with Bud about pursuing my passion of wanting to go to grad school and pursue a career as a climate change communicator. He gave me his business card and encouraged me to contact him after the conference. 

In the spring of 2012, I reached out to Bud to chat with him on the phone. I expressed my interest of wanting to go to grad school at possibly Yale University or elsewhere to devote myself to a career in climate change communications. 

As I explained my dream, Bud cut me off to bluntly say, “I don’t have any advice to help you with that. However, I do have something that is self-servicing that might benefit you. I was wondering if you could write something for my Yale Climate Communications website about how you were successful and your failures in communicating about climate change as a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park. If you can submit something soon, 800 to 1,000 words, within the next week or two, I will be happy to pay you for it.” 

I quickly jumped on this opportunity to submit a writing to a website associated to Yale University. Even more, it was exciting to know that Bud would pay me if he published my submission. That evening, I wrote out a 1,000-word essay for Bud about my experience communicating about climate change in the national parks. I wrote honestly about my high and low moments engaging with Crater Lake visitors about climate change. I submitted it to Bud the next day. 

Over the next two weeks, Bud and I exchanged emails about edits he wanted me to make with my writing submission. He corrected grammar and punctuation errors. He asked me to delete certain sections, and he wanted me to write more to expand my thoughts in other sections. When we agreed that the writing was to both of our satisfaction, Bud told me that my writing would be published several weeks later around the end of April 2012. 

On April 26, 2012, the excitement felt like Christmas Day when my essay, “Communicating Climate Change in a National Park” was published on the Yale Climate Communications website. Outside of my website, I had never seen my own writing in print before then. My parents, family, and many friends were very excited and happy for me. 

Weeks later, Bud mailed me the check for my writing submission. The amount of money was the equivalent to one of my paychecks working as a ranger at Crater Lake National Park. For the first time in my life, I was a paid writer! I never dreamed I could get paid for writing. I treasured receiving that check and getting paid for writing an article that I enjoyed creating. For the first time in my life, I could see writing could be fulfilling and I could even receive money doing that! 

I will always be grateful for Bud Ward for that opportunity to get published and paid contributing a writing piece to the Yale Climate Communications. It was the first time in my life that I started seeing that I could be a writer. In a sense, I have been writing ever since then on my www.climatechangecomedian.com website, I have written over 160 blogs. Several friends over the years, asked me to contribute writings to their blogs. 

On April 19, 2013, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published my first opinion editorial, “For Earth Day a GOP Market Solution to Climate Change.” This published writing happened the same weekend my parents, family, and over a hundred of their friends came together to celebrate my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary. My first published newspaper commentary added to the joy of that occasion. On March 1, 2013, the Post-Dispatch published my first letter to the editor urging our local electric utility, Ameren, to close the nearby Meramec Coal Plant in South St. Louis County. 

On July 10, 2013, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published my second opinion editorial, “What Keeps Me Up Late at Night.” Like my March letter to the editor, this opinion commentary asked Ameren to close the Meramec Power Plant. 

Those successes getting published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch inspired me to submit opinion editorials to newspapers across Oregon in the fall of 2013 while I worked as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park that summer. Ten Oregon newspapers published my opinion commentary, including The Oregonian, on October 4, 2013. I estimate my I have had around 20 opinion editorials published in Missouri and Oregon over the years. I had numerous letters to the editor published over the years, including most recent in The Oregonian last Sunday, March 15 asking Oregon Legislators to prioritize climate legislation. 

I cannot imagine life without regularly writing now. Since January 2023, I regularly took a “Writing Your Story” adult continuing education class through Mt. Hood Community College. My dream is to eventually compile and edit my blogs to write a book about my life as a park ranger turned climate organizer and wannabe comedian. My hope is that a major book publisher will want to publish my memoir. I want to inspire others through my writings and hopefully a published memoir someday to take action to reduce the threat of climate change, as well as pursuing their dreams, as I have in my life. 

I am amazed how far I have evolved in life from a child who hated writing for school assignments to someone who can’t imagine life without writing and blogging about it. 

From 1992 to 2017, I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.
 
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, and one of the deepest lakes in the world. No outside rivers or streams feed the lake. The lake received all its water and is replenished by snow and rain. Thus, it is considered one of the cleanest and purest bodies of water in the world, giving it a deep blue cobalt color on clear days. With the snow and pine trees on the mountains and in the caldera, the dramatic volcanic peaks and edges, plus the brilliant blue water, Crater Lake National Park is one of the more picturesque places you can behold. 

When I was at Crater Lake, I never tired of standing on the rim to admire the beauty. Even more, I loved hiking up the trails to the 8,000-foot mountains along the rim to get even more dramatic views of the lake and surrounding area. 

Spending time working and exploring Crater Lake, I regularly saw planes flying over the national park. Crater Lake was on a flight path of some commercial jets. During my time living there, my parents came from their home in St. Louis, Missouri to visit me several times. To this day, my mom and dad talk about viewing Crater Lake from one the flights they took. While l loved enjoying the scenery from the rim and hiking up the 8,000-foot peaks inside the park, I was curious to see how Crater Lake looked from a commercial jet or a small private plane. 

Part 1 of this blog was about flying over Crater Lake in a small private airplane on July 23, 2010. This blog, Part 2, focuses on my sad and heartbreaking experience flying over Crater Lake in a commercial airplane in August 2017.  

Becoming a Climate Change Speaker, Comedian, and lobbyist 2010-2017

After I flew over Crater Lake in July 2010, I slowly started to organize more for climate action. In April 2010, I created my website www.climatechangecomedian.com. In the early months of 2010, I created my first climate change PowerPoint, Let’s Have Fun Getting Serious About Taking Climate Action. I showed that presentation to my ranger friends at Crater Lake in early August 2010. I practiced that PowerPoint in a few more friends on my cross-country drive from Crater Lake, Oregon to St. Louis in November 2010. 

In February 2011, I joined South County Toastmasters to be a better climate change communicator and public speaker. That same month, I started this blog as an online journal shows my life’s evolution as a climate change communicator and speaker. In March 2011, I worked two months at the temporary Climate Change Exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center. In August 2011, I began giving my climate change ranger evening program at Crater Lake. 

In November 2011, St. Louis area businessman Larry Lazar and I co-created the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up group, known today as Climate Meetup-St. Louis. In early 2012, I met Tanya Couture at one of the meetings. In February 2013, we started dating. On November 2015, we got married.

In May 2012, I joined Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) as a volunteer. In August 2012, I attended my first Climate Reality Training in San Francisco, California. At this training, former Vice President Al Gore trained me and over 800 attendees to become Climate Reality Leaders to give his climate change presentations.

In January 2014, Tanya and I made a joint video promoting me as the Climate Change Comedian. My mom, Fran Ettling, and I made a similar video in February 2014. My mom, dad, and I made a goofy video to showcase my climate change comedy in March 2015. This led to my first appearance on Comedy Central’s TV Show Tosh.o in August 2016. 

As a park ranger, Toastmaster, CCL volunteer, and Climate Reality Leader, I regularly gave climate change talks from 2011 to 2017 at Crater Lake in the summers and my hometown St. Louis Missouri in the winters. Even more, I attended the Climate Reality Project trainings as a mentor in Chicago, Illinois in August 2013; Cedar Rapids, Iowa in May 2015; Houston, Texas in August 2016; and Denver, Colorado in March 2017. In November 2015 and 2016, I attended a CCL Conference and lobbied Congressional Offices for climate action in Washington D.C. In addition, in November 2016, Tanya and I traveled to Ottawa, Canada where we attended a CCL Canada Conference and lobbied members of the Canadian Parliament for climate action. 

Returning to Work as a Crater Lake Park Ranger in May 2017

In February 2017, Tanya found a job that moved us to Portland, Oregon. By this time, I yearned to become a full-time climate change organizer and transition away from my summer job a Crater Lake park ranger. In May 2017, I blogged about this struggle as I returned to Crater Lake to work there temporarily for the month. Tanya and I were happy that I worked there that May. The park had its highest level of snowpack in 6 years. When we arrived at Crater Lake on April 30, 2017, Tanya and I were awestruck by the amount of snow we saw. 

The snow was so tall that it buried one story buildings almost up to the top of their roof. It looked like 15 to 18 feet on the ground the park headquarters and Rim Village, with snow drifts piling up the snow much higher. When I stood next to the snowbanks, especially on the roads where the snowplows removed the snow, I felt small. The height of some of the plowed road cuts made the snow look four times higher than me. The sky was a sharp bright blue with no pollution or haze. The lake had a deep blue color that was mesmerizing. The combination of the glistening white snow everywhere around the rim of Crater Lake, tall evergreen pine trees, crisp blue sky, and the sight of sacred lake waters made us feel like there was nowhere else Tanya and I wanted to be that day. 

We could not take enough photos of the towering snowpacks, the buildings nearly swallowed by the snow, the lake, and each other as we lived in the moment of this day. When we walked on top of the massive snow at Rim Village, the snow was piled up so high it almost felt like we were floating in the air. Tanya was dropping me off so I could start work at Crater Lake the next day. However, we wanted to enjoy this moment together in the park as long we could. 

Tanya left me with a large bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies to enjoy. She then had a five-hour drive back to our apartment in Portland OR. Even more, she needed to return early enough in the evening because she had to return to work that Monday morning. I missed her, but I was thrilled to return probably one last time this temporary ranger job at Crater Lake. 

It was an honor and privilege to once again where my National Park Service ranger uniform. It was great to answer questions at the Visitor Center Desk, as well as respond to public emails and phone calls for folks curious about planning a visit to Crater Lake National Park. In the third week of May I started giving ranger talks at the Great Hall at Crater Lake Lodge. 

When I was off work each day from my ranger job, I found a way to travel to the rim to take in the glorious natural beauty of Crater Lake. I loved walking down the plowed portions of the West Rim Drive to among the walls of snow. I would hike a couple of miles down the road until I saw the parked snowplows at their resting spot of the evening. I was curious about their progress getting the West Rim Drive plowed for the season. Frequently, I journeyed on this road by myself emersed with just me in the great outdoors.

At the same time, I was busy working my Crater Lake ranger job and exploring the park in my free time, I was also devoting energy to regularly meeting online to plan for the two-week Oregon CCL tour I would lead at the end of October and early November. The planning committee and I were still trying to determine which Oregon towns and cities I would speak, who would host me, who could volunteer to assist me, etc. It was uncertain and daunting if this tour would happen when we were meeting by Zoom in May 2017. Many of the decisions we made at this time led to a successful CCL tour across I led in the autumn of 2017. 

Tanya and I liked that I worked at Crater Lake that May and her visits to come see me. She stayed me the weekend of her birthday, May 13^th and 14^th. She brought her skis and got to go cross country skiing at Rim Village. I had to work that Saturday. Tanya loves to cross country ski when the opportunity presents itself. It snowed about an inch or two overnight. It was partly cloudy when she went exploring on the Crater Lake Rim with her skis. The park had new overnight snow with the grey overhead clouds giving a fresh winter appearance. Tanya is a talented photographer. She inherited that interest from her dad. She brought back great photos from her excursion that day. I was so happy for her, even if I could not join her due to work. 

Tanya visited me Memorial Weekend so we could be together and enjoy Crater Lake. I saw it snow a few times that month, which was not unusual since May is still considered a winter month there. However, the weather was clear and balmy for Tanya and I to hike on top of the snow around Rim Village. We also walked on the West Rim Drive on a three mile hike to see the progress of the snowplows in their efforts to clear the road to open it up to traffic in late June. 

A highlight was when we ate dinner at Applebee’s in Klamath Falls, located over 60 miles south of Crater Lake. We chose to eat dinner there because it had a mural in the back of the restaurant of local people in action intermixed with the scenery of the area. This mural included a picture of me in my ranger uniform demonstrating how to put on a PFD (personal floatation devise) before narrating one of my boat tours at Crater Lake National Park. I learned about this mural from my supervisor Marsha on social media the previous winter when she randomly visited this Applebee’s one day. I had no idea that Applebee’s planned to include me in their mural. They did not ask me beforehand. However, I was honored to be included in this display. 

Tanya and I sharing my car when I worked at Crater Lake in May 2017

Tanya and I shared a car, my 2002 Honda Civic. I talked her into getting rid of her car when we moved to Portland from St. Louis in February. While I worked at Crater Lake in May, we made it work. This was primarily because I stocked up on groceries for almost 2 weeks when she dropped me off at Crater Lake on April 30^th. Some of my Crater Lake co-workers and friends picked up some food items for me when they went shopping in town. When Tanya visited me on May 13^th, she took me out for groceries that weekend. I made sure Tanya had my car for all of May because she needed my car to commute to her job. However, we agreed she would take the car to come see me every two weeks so we could see each other and I could get groceries. 

The logistics became complicated in June. I needed my car to drive from Crater Lake back to Portland on Thursday evening June 8^th. I had a early flight to catch to Washington D.C. to catch from Portland on Saturday, June 10^th. I needed time to pack in our Portland apartment on Friday, June 9^th. Thus, I needed to transport myself to Portland the weekend of June 3^rd to retrieve my car to take to Crater Lake so I could quickly leave to head back to Portland on June 8^th.  

I reserved a ticket to take the Amtrak Train from Klamath Falls to Portland on Friday, June 2^nd so I could get my car. Fortunately, Tanya’s workplace is less than 2 miles where we lived. She bought a bike in April to help her commute when I would have the car at Crater Lake. 

The train ride from Klamath Falls to Portland on Friday, June 2nd turned out to be an adventure. It took me several days before this trip before I found a Crater Lake employee who could give me a ride to Klamath Falls. Laura, who worked for the Park Maintenance Administration, gave me a ride on Thursday evening, June 1^st from Crater Lake. She dropped me off at the motel I where I had a reservation that was walking distance to the train station. 

The train was scheduled to depart around 7:30 am on Friday, June 2^nd. However, I kept receiving voice messages on my phone that the train would be several hours late. It was a total bummer that the train was 6 hours late due to the train hitting a farm tractor in central California. We did not leave Klamath Falls until almost 2 pm. The good news was that it was a clear warm spring day to take a train ride across Oregon to get lovely glimpses of Mt. McLaughlin and Mt. Scott, which is the highest point in Crater Lake National Park. 

My time was limited on this quick weekend trip to spend the evening with Tanya. We were able to spend some time together on Saturday, June 3^rd. I left that afternoon to start the over 5-hour drive to get groceries and return to Crater Lake that evening. I wanted to get a good night’s sleep at Crater Lake before returning to work on Sunday, June 4^th.  

On Thursday afternoon, June 8^th was a momentous day for me. I performed my climate change training to my fellow Crater Lake rangers how to talk to park visitors about global warming. I presented this climate change training to my ranger peers at Crater Lake since 2012. They gave my presentation a positive response. They were amazed I was driving back to Portland from Crater Lake to catch an early morning flight in two days to attend the CCL Conference and Lobby Day in Washington D.C. June 10-13. 

I had a wonderful time working as a ranger at Crater Lake in May. I did not feel ready to give it up yet, even though my true long-term passion was to find a way to organize for climate action. Towards the end of May, I asked my boss Marsha if I could work there for the summer. She readily agreed. I had already committed in June to attend the CCL Conference and Lobby Day in Washington D.C. Even more, at the end of June 2017, I participated in the Climate Reality Training in Bellevue, Washington as a mentor and a breakout speaker. We agreed that I would return to work at Crater Lake on Monday, July 10^th. 

Traveling to solo Washington D.C. and locally with Tanya – June 2017

My month leave of absence from working at Crater Lake from June 9^th to July 9^th was a packed schedule for me. I traveled to the CCL conference and lobby day in Washington D.C. from June 10^th to June 13^th. I attended two previous November CCL conferences and lobby days in 2015 and 2016. This was my first summer CCL conference. The November conferences had several hundred people. This June 2017 conference had around 1,000 people in attendance. 

Adding to the excitement of this trip, I organized a breakout session “Protecting and Conserving Species in the Face of Climate Change” during the conference on Monday, June 12^th. CCL staff and I recruited panelists from the National Park Service (NPS), Audubon Society, and the Alaska Wilderness League to discuss cause and effect linking climate change to ongoing disruptions in the natural world. We explored what was happening to vulnerable species populations. 

I asked my friend John Morris who works for NPS in Alaska to be one of the panelist speakers for this breakout session that I organized. When John canceled due to health reasons, I decided to step in to speak about the impacts of climate change on pikas living in the western mountainous national parks. It was a delightful experience for me to lead and participate on this panel. My friend Ashley Hunt-Martorano who was on the CCL staff at that time was able to record a minute and a half of the question-and-answer session with her smart phone, which I was later uploaded to YouTube and my social media. 

I arrived back in Portland late in the afternoon on June 14^th. From May 1^st to June 14^th, I had not spent much time with Tanya since I was away working at Crater Lake and traveling to Washington D.C. It was a blessing to spend the next week together. This was the first time in my adult life from mid-June into the first week of July that I was living in the Pacific Northwest but not working at Crater Lake. I wanted to take advantage of this time off to see the Northwest. 

On Sunday, June 18th, Tanya and I traveled into Washington state to see Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It was an overcast day with the mountain shrouded behind the clouds. However, we had a great time exploring the displays in the visitor center and going on short hikes near the building. 

Trip to attend and speak at the Climate Reality Training in Bellevue WA

Monday, June 26th to Thursday, June 29th, I was scheduled to attend the Climate Reality Training in Bellevue, Washington. Even more, the Climate Reality Project selected me to be a mentor for this training. Climate Reality required the mentors to attend an all-day training on that Monday. I determined that Tanya would drop me off at the hotel in Bellevue were the conference was held on Sunday afternoon, June 25th.

I planned a weekend trip for Tanya and me in Washington state. We would drive from Portland to Mt. Rainier National Park on Saturday, June 24th. We would then head to spend the night with my friends Steve and Melissa who near Shelton, Washington, located on a 20-minute drive northwest of Olympia, WA. On Sunday morning, June 25th, Tanya and I would drive to Tacoma to meet up with my friends Brad and Maureen before Tanya would drop me off at the conference hotel on that Sunday afternoon.

It was a perfect clear summer day to see Mt. Rainier National Park on that Saturday. No clouds were in the sky, nor was there any haze from pollution or forest fires. The sky was perfect for outdoor scenic photography that day. Mt. Rainier still had its robust winter snowpack clinging to the mountain and the stately evergreen pine trees in the park looked at their finest. The weather conditions were magnificent to see the mountain and take lots of photographs. We arrived at the southwest Nisqually Entrance to the park around 10 am. We drove up to the Paradise Visitor Center at Mt. Rainier to have lunch around 1 pm. We stopped at every viewpoint along the way to get views and take photos of the mountain. 

Sadly, I was so enamored with viewing Mt. Rainier that day that I forgot to wear sunscreen. For days afterwards, my face was almost as red as a tomato and feeling painful to touch. I bought an aloe vera gel the next day at a nearby pharmacy in Bellevue to ease the discomfort on my face. I wanted the impacts of the sunburn on my face to diminish by the time I gave my breakout presentation on the Climate Reality Conference on Thursday, June 29^th.

Before Tanya dropped me off at the Climate Reality Training on Sunday, we had a good visit with my friends Steve and Melissa on Saturday evening at their home near Shelton, Washington. On Sunday morning, Tanya and I met up with my friends Brad and Maureen to have brunch with them in Tacoma, Washington.

As far as the Climate Reality Training, the most memorable part for me was giving a joint presentation about “Reaching Your Audience: Tips and Techniques from Climate Reality Leaders” on Thursday, the last day of the conference. I gave this presentation with Maddie Adkins, one of the persons I mentored at the Climate Reality Houston Training from August 2016. Maddie and I brainstormed and created our presentation in Portland in mid-June. Plus, we practiced our talk several times before we gave it on that Thursday. The conference attendees gave us positive feedback on this talk. Climate Reality Project considered this presentation to be so successful that they invited me back to be a joint breakout speaker for their Climate Reality Trainings in Los Angeles, California in August 2018 and Atlanta, Georgia in March 2019.  

Sightseeing locally in Oregon with Tanya in July 2017 

After I got a ride to Portland from a fellow Climate Reality Mentor on Thursday evening, June 29th, Tanya and I had 10 days together before I went back to work at Crater Lake on July 9^th.

On Saturday, July 1^st at the start of the July 4^th weekend, Tanya and I chose to drive to the Oregon Coast. Our first stop was Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock, an irregular basalt rock formation that stands 235 feet above the beach. It was overcast when we admired Haystack Rock. The dark rock looked more ominous against the gloomy grey sky. Because it is a protected habitat for several bird species such as the Tufted Puffin, it is strictly prohibited to climb on Haystack Rock. It looked too steep and treacherous to climb. We were happy to walk on the sandy beach, but it felt chilly for summer. The high temperature was in the lower 60s. Brrrr! 

Tanya and I then took a fifteen-minute drive north to see Seaside, Oregon. This small city is known for its End of the Trail Lewis & Clark Statue where the edge of downtown meets the wide expansive beach. The statue is situated in a spot known as “The Turnaround.” It’s considered to be the official end point to the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s journey—the place where they “turned around” to return home. This beach was much larger and longer than the beach at Cannon Beach. At Seaside, it seemed like a quarter of a mile walk out to touch the Pacific Ocean. Somehow in that 9-mile distance from Cannon Beach to Seaside, the clouds found a way to dissipate. We had a brilliant blue sky contrasting to the vanilla-colored sandy beach, dark green steep coastal hills, and the vibrant blue color of the ocean to gaze upon.  

After walking around and at Seaside, Tanya and I were curious to drive north to see more of the Oregon Coast. We drove thirty minutes north to Astoria, Oregon. We stopped to admire the wide expansive mouth of the Columbia River as it met the Pacific Ocean. Without ever knowing about it before, we drove up to the highest point in Astoria to see the Astoria Column. This monument is a 125-foot-tall column tower that serves as a monument to the history Pacific Northwest. Tanya and I took the steps to the top of the Column to get an extra high sweeping bird’s eye view of Astoria, the Oregon Coastline, the Astoria Bridge that crosses the mouth of the Columbia River, and the lush green Pacific northwest pine forests located on the east and south view of us. We found a seafood restaurant to eat in downtown Astoria. We then had a two-hour drive back to our home in Portland.

On Sunday, July 2^nd, Tanya and I decided to have a staycation day to explore Portland. It was another perfectly clear summer day in the Pacific Northwest. We traveled just south of downtown to take the Portland Aerial Tran. It transports passengers in an enclosed silver metallic gondola that travels on a steep cable from the South Waterfront neighborhood to the OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) medical facilities. The Aerial Tran transports passengers to an outdoor deck at OHSU which provides panoramic views of the downtown Portland skyline to the north and a clear view of Mt. Hood to the east. After a very rainy weather for our first winter in Portland, Tanya and I were amazed how beautiful and pleasant the summer weather was in Portland for our first summer living there. The inviting gentle weather and magnificent scenery made us feel like we did not want to live anywhere else. 

For 4^th of July, Tanya and I drove 20 minutes east of our residence to spend time hiking in the Columbia River Gorge. We saw the roaring waterfalls of Wahclella Falls, Horsetail Falls, Ponytail Falls, Middle Oneonta Falls, and several other scenic sights in the Columbia River Gorge. From the rainy winter, the trees and vegetation in the Gorge were an exuberant lively green color. It was another clear day. Portland and the surrounding area seemed to be the perfect place to spend the summer. It was so much fun to explore our surrounding home area with Tanya. 

Returning to work as a park ranger at Crater Lake in July 2017 

At the same time, Crater Lake was drawing me back. I made a commitment to return on July 9^th. I loved working there during the summer and I wanted to enjoy being a ranger there for this one last season. When I returned to Crater Lake to work, I was already a different person. I had my eyes checked by an optometrist in mid-June. I was now wearing distance eyeglasses, reading glasses, and prescription sunglasses for the first time in my life. 

I left our apartment in Portland around 1:30 pm. I had to stop to buy groceries, plus stop to eat dinner along the route. The good news is that the North Entrance was open for the season. It opened sometime in late June, which greatly shortened the amount of time to drive into and through Crater Lake National Park. I arrived on the West Rim of Crater Lake around 7:20 pm. The sun was getting low in the sky for that time of day. It created some dramatic shadows on Wizard Island, the lake surface, and inside the crater. It looked a tad hazy like possible forest fires from northern California and southern Oregon were messing a bit with the visibility of the distance mountain vistas. I missed Tanya, but I was happy to jump back into performing my ranger talks and wear my ranger uniform again. 

My first day back at work on July 10^th, I gave my climate change evening ranger program for an audience of around 80 people. The audience liked the program, especially the kids who attended. I first started giving this campfire program in August 2011. My friend and Lead Crater Lake Interpretation Ranger David Grimes make a video recording of this talk in September 2012. I uploaded the video to YouTube one month later. I was proud to give this climate change ranger talk to large audiences of Crater Lake visitors. This was probably my last summer giving this talk, so I appreciated the times I got to perform it in July, August, and September 2017. 

I drove back to Portland the weekend of July 15^th and 16^th to spend time with Tanya, especially before my birthday on July 18^th. We had a low-key weekend to hike and spend time together. I was glad I made the long 4-and-a-half-hour drive home each way from Crater Lake to Portland to be with her. Tanya gave me a terrific birthday gift: She bought a new driver’s side back tail/brake light for me to replace the broken one I taped up for the previous 7 years. It was easy to attach the new brake light to my car. My car felt restored again with this new part. 

On my birthday, July 18^th, I narrated the boat tours on Crater Lake, my least favorite ranger program. Yes, it is beautiful to be on the water inside the caldera. I enjoyed narrating the tours on the lake. However, the sun beats down on you on the boats. There was no shade on the boat tours. The worst part was the 1.1-mile hike from the Rim to the lake shore. It was not a bad hike walking down hill in the morning when I was fresh with energy. But, after I would narrate two tours, it felt exhausting to walk back up that trail with that 700-foot elevation gain. 

The visitors would not make it any easier. Each of them would ask me, ‘Do you do this every day?’ The answer ‘no, only about once or twice a week.’ 

The weather was a calm breezy day on the lake. It turned into an adventure towards the end of the second boat tour. We had a full boat with about 38 passengers, plus the boat captain and me. The boat’s battery died and the engine would not start. We were about two miles in the water from the boat dock. Because the engine was dead, we were drifting towards a rocky shoreline with the water a bit choppy. The rocks and small wave action from the windy breezes could have made things dicey for us. However, we asked the passengers to wear PFDs (personal floatation devises) to be safe. Before we knew it, the park research boat met up with us and towed back us to the dock. I steered the boat while it was towed. The captain was in the back of the boat guiding the boat with a handheld rudder since we had no power to the rudders. 

We returned to the dock safely, which made me appreciate my birthday more. I did not want to part of any dangerous incident celebrating my birthday. 

Every day was a wonderful day leading some kind of ranger program at Crater Lake, such as narrating the two-hour trolley tours around the Crater Lake Rim Drive, leading the guiding hike at Sun Notch, giving my ranger talk about the Crater Lake National Park founder William Gladstone Steel at the Crater Lake Lodge, engaging with children at the Junior Ranger Program, etc. 

One week after my adventure with a dead boat battery on the Crater Lake boat tour, I had a terrific time I had leading 29 visitors on a ranger guided hike to Plaikni Falls at Crater Lake. The Plaikni Falls Trail is mostly flat with a one-mile hike to the Plaikni waterfalls, a 20-foot-high waterfall. The falls tumble over a glacier-carved cliff. It originates from a spring above the Crater Lake Rim nearly 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) above sea level. The waterfalls ran strong in late July and a lot of wildflowers were in bloom near the waterfalls and creek running from the base of the falls. That evening, I had 54 people at my climate change ranger evening program.

Appearing in Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power 

On July 26^th, I drove back to Portland for a long 4 day weekend. Tanya’s parents visited us for several days. When Tanya worked on that Thursday and Friday, I went on local sightseeing trips with my in-laws. We first went to see Willamette Falls in Oregon City, about a 30-minute drive south of where Tanya and I live in northeast Portland. Willamette Falls are 42-foot-high and 1,500-foot-wide. These falls are the second largest, by volume, waterfall in the United States. They are recognized as the end of the Oregon Trail for the 19^thcentury pioneers. The falls were physically altered by the papermills built by it starting in 1866 and the site of the first successful plant in the United States for long distance transmission of electrical power in 1889.

We then traveled two miles up the road in Oregon City to see the End of the Oregon Trail Museum, which is shaped like a gigantic, covered wagon.  

On Saturday, July 29^th, Tanya, her parents, and I took a day trip to Mt. Hood. We walked around the Timberline Lodge, and we took a sky lift to get a higher view from the mountain. We ate homemade lunches at a picnic table not far from the sky lift. It was a clear day with excellent visibility to be able to see Mt. Jefferson sticking out tall on the southern horizon. We then hiked on trails with an abundance of wildflowers near the Timberline Lodge. 

This same weekend, I made it a priority to stop by a local Portland bookstore. The book, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power by Al Gore was released. This was a companion book to An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power film scheduled to be shown widely in movie theaters that August. The book was meant to be “Your action handbook to learn the science, find your voice, and help solve the climate crisis.” 

In April 2017, the Climate Reality Project contacted me for permission to use a photo of me giving a one of my Climate Reality presentations. I gladly signed the photo release form for them to legally use my photo. At the end of July, I was able to find the book in my nearby Barnes & Noble bookstore. Sure enough, I found a tiny photo of myself giving a climate change presentation on page 314 among the collage of photos of Climate Reality Leaders. It was exciting that my in-laws were staying with us and I was with Tanya when I had the thrill of seeing my image in a climate change book authored by Al Gore. 

On Sunday, July 30^th, Tanya’s parents departed Portland and I drove back to Crater Lake to start my next week of work. At the beginning of August, the weather changed at Crater Lake and throughout the Pacific Northwest. The weather became hot and very dry. Wildfires, primarily started by lightning, were igniting inside Crater Lake National Park and elsewhere. 

Seeing distant wildfires during my Crater Lake sunset guided ranger hike

On Wednesday, August 2^nd, I led a ranger guided sunset hike at Crater Lake National Park up to the 8,000-foot Watchman Peak. When I drove along the West Rim Drive to trailhead for Watchman Peak, I could see a large column of wildfire smoke not far but at a safe distance from the Watchman Peak Trail. The Crater Lake Fire Crew named it the Spruce Lake Fire. They discovered it on July 29th along the western boundary of Crater Lake National Park. It was stunning to learn that this forest fire blew up to over 1,400 acres from over 100 acres the day before.

When visitors met me at the Watchman Pullout parking lot, I shared we would have a fabulous time hiking to the Watchman Fire Lookout Tower at the sunset. We warned that we might not see the sunset due to the wide column of wildfire smoke. At the same time, we would have the thrill of observing a wildfire from a safe distance. 

The Watchman Peak sits at a spot on the West Rim that gets some of the deepest snowbanks and snowdrifts in the park. Thus, we had to hike on top of the snow for part of the trail. The kids in this large group for my ranger hike were excited to throw snowballs at each other, as were some of the adults. It was surreal to walk on snow on a mountain while literally we had smoke from a large wildfire in the background. 

When we reached the fire lookout at the Watchman Peak summit, we had the wildfire smoke drifting high above our heads. It did not interfere from getting spectacular views of Crater Lake with Wizard Island in the middle as we looked towards the east. As we gazed towards the west, the large smoke column was polite to shift to the side as we could see a magnificent sunset from fire lookout summit. We were a safe distance from the fire, but we saw distance flames from when the forest fires torched some tall Douglas Fir or other pine trees. In my 10 seasons leading sunset hikes up the Watchman Peak, this was one of my most memorable and fantastic hikes. I took over 40 pictures that evening of the snow, visitors walking and standing on the snow with the forest fire in the distance, photos of the wildfires, and photos of Crater Lake. 

While I preached in my ranger talks about the importance of natural forest fires, I hoped this forest fire would go away soon from all the smoke it generated. Sadly, smoke from the wildfires inside and outside the park stayed with us for well over the next month. 

Watching An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power documentary with Tanya 

On Friday, August 4^th, I drove back to Portland to be with Tanya for the weekend. I was ecstatic because the documentary film An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power was released in Portland theaters that weekend. I bought my tickets online on Sunday, July 30^th while I was in Portland with Tanya. I made sure to print them out before I drove back to Crater Lake. On Saturday, August 5^th , we went to a downtown Portland movie theatre to see the movie at the 5 pm showing. The theatre had just a few attendees besides us. Because of the threat of climate change, I thought it was a vital film to see. However, it looked like it was not going to be a box office smash like a Marvel superhero film or other summer popcorn thrillers. 

I attended the Climate Reality Training in Houston, Texas in August 2016 when the documentary crew filmed Al Gore giving his climate change presentation to a small studio audience. I sat in the front row hoping to appear in the movie. This might be my only chance to be in a Hollywood film in my life, so I wanted to be seen. Tanya and I thought we saw a glimpse of me for a second at the edge of the screen frame. During the videotaping for the documentary, Al Gore made a statement about climate change that caused me to say, “wow!” 

Al Gore turned in my direction and responded, “You can say that again, ‘Wow!’”

Sadly, that interaction did not make it into the movie. 

Towards the end of the film, Al Gore talked about how we must be more effective in communications to inspire the public to take climate action, including using humor. Tanya and I both thought he was looking in my direction when he said that. Just two weeks before sitting in the studio audience to film this scene with Al Gore, I was on August 2, 2016 episode of TV Comedy Central’s Tosh.o using comedy to talk about climate change. It was probably a coincidence that Al Gore looked in my direction. He may not have been aware of my appearance on the national TV show. Yet, Tanya and I thought it was a fun happenstance. 

Boarding for a commercial flight from Portland to Klamath Falls, Oregon 

On that previous Sunday, July 30^th, I made a reservation on Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, for Sunday, August 6^th to fly to Klamath Falls to so I could return to work at Crater Lake. I wanted Tanya to have a chance to enjoy my car during the summer. She basically gave it up for all of July, riding a bike to commute to work and other errands she took. My plan was to fly from Portland to Klamath Falls airport. I would have a ranger co-worker pick me up and I would get some groceries. We would then drive back to Crater Lake. I have always loved to fly commercial. The Klamath Falls Airport was not always available for commercial flights when I worked at Crater Lake over the years. Thus, I seemed lucky to have been able to book this flight. 

Tanya dropped me off at the Portland International Airport on Sunday morning, August 6^th for my flight to Klamath Falls. I walked downstairs to what looked like a seldom used wing of the airport for flights on tiny commercial airplanes to nearby small regional cities. When I got to the gate, I saw one or two other people waiting for possibly this flight. 

The airline gate agents made the announcement that my flight was boarding. I waited for them to announce something like, ‘Now boarding for first class, then business class, then families with small children, then veterans, then the A Group, then the B Group, and then finally we will be boarding the individuals who waited until the last-minute check in on this flight.’ 

Instead, the airline agent just looks up and announces, “Brian Ettling.” 

That was my only cue for me to board my flight. The airplane was so small that I took a photo of it as I walked outside the airline gate. I then strode down a ramp to walk on the tarmac and then take about step on board the airplane. We then took about 8 steps up to aircraft steps to board the airplane. This plane only had about 8 rows of seats with about 3 seats in each row. The plane was so small that the overhead bins were skimpy. Thus, all the luggage had to be placed in the checked bags storage area in the rear or tail section of the plane. It did not seem like any carryon bags could be carried into the airplane cabin, except for backpacks and items that could be stored under your feet. 

I was amazed there was only 3 passengers on board this flight. This was probably the emptiest commercial flight I have ever taken or will ever take. In recent years, Tanya and I flew on Thanksgiving Day where the commercial jets were only about 30% full. This flight from Portland to Klamath Falls looked even more sparse than those more recent flights I took. It seemed like we had the same number of passengers, if not less than the pilots and flight attendants. Thus, we had our choice to sit anywhere in the airplane.

I sat in a window seat on the port or left side fasting the cockpit in the very back. I wanted to be where the airplane wing would not obstruct as much from any photos I intended to take of Crater Lake or other scenery. The great thing was that once the flight reached 10,000 feet and the fasten your seatbelt light came off, I could move to the window seat in the very back row on the other side of the aisle. The flight attendants did not notice. As long as I was not obstructing other passengers or their job duties, they did not care which side of the plane that I sat. I was not sure which side of the plane Crater Lake or other dramatic features I would see from the left or right side. Thus, I liked that freedom to shift from the port to starboard side to try to get looks out of the windows of each side. 

Trying to see Crater Lake from the window of a commercial flight 

It is normally about a 5-hour drive from Portland to Klamath Falls, but this flight completed the same distance in about 1 hour. For me, the best part of flying is sitting in a window seat getting aerial views of the scenery. It was a decades long dream to see Crater Lake from the window of a commercial plane. I was eager to take this flight to see what Crater Lake and the mountains of southern Oregon would look like from an airplane window. Sadly, it was not meant to be on this flight. My dreams were crushed. 

By this time in the first week of August, forest fires generating a lot of wildfire smoke were happening at Crater Lake, throughout Oregon, and even in much of the Pacific Northwest. As soon as the plane took off from the runaway from Portland International airport, the visibility looked terrible. I could hardly identify the St. John’s Bridge, downtown buildings, or any other features in the Portland area. My heart sank. I might not be able to see any dominant Oregon scenic features from the air, let alone Crater Lake. 

I remained optimistic that maybe the smoke was just obscuring any views of the Portland area. However, I knew better. Crater Lake was experiencing wildfires and smoke, as well as other areas in southern Oregon, when I left the park to come to Portland for the weekend. On the other hand, we had times at Crater Lake where the winds would come from certain directions to clear out the wildfire smoke. You just never know. 

Sadly, the horrid smoky visibility did not change at all as the airplane journeyed into central and southern Oregon. I could make out the dark silhouettes of the Three Sisters Mountains by Bend, Oregon, but that was it. The wildfire smoke and haze made all the land features in central Oregon made everything look like an uninspiring grey soup. 

Above the wildfire smoke, a blanket of clouds moved in as the plane ventured into southern Oregon. It looked bleak if I would see Crater Lake. Then the clouds then pulled back a bit and I could barely make out a shape. It was Crater Lake. I had to strain to see it through the wildfire smoke, but it was there. We were flying above around 10,000 feet when I got a peek of it. It looked nearly colorless with a slight hint of blue because of the wildfire smoke and high overhead clouds. Wizard Island was in the foreground since the plane flew close to the west rim. 

It was interesting to see, yet so disappointing. I wanted to see it under better conditions than this on a commercial flight. It felt like I made a journey to see the Mona Lisa in Paris. Yet, when I landed in Paris and traveled straight to the Louve, I came to the room where the painting is displayed only to barely see it in a room filled with smoke. Even worse, it felt like the oil industry and climate deniers were laughing at me when I had a hard time seeing Crater Lake from the wildfire smoke. I organized for climate action for the previous 7 years. There’s a good chance that climate change made the fire season happening that August inside the park and throughout Oregon worse. Yet, the fossil fuel CEOs, managers, and stockholders, as well as the climate deniers, did not care about the damage to the planet and our environment that they caused. 

I was so lucky with all the beautiful clear weather I experienced at Crater Lake in May, Mt. Rainier in June, and the Columbia River Gorge in July. My luck finally ran out that summer with the heavy wildfire smoke in August. 

Showing the aerial smoky images of Crater Lake in my climate change talks 

Fifteen minutes after I saw Crater Lake from my airplane window, the airplane arrived at Klamath Falls. My Crater Lake ranger colleague Thomas picked me up at the airport. I shared my disappointment with him and anyone else that I looked at Crater Lake on a commercial flight. However, it was nearly hidden behind wildfire smoke. During the flight, I took 9 photos of Crater Lake obscured by the wildlife smoked. The images were seared in my memories. 

From that time forth, I used those photos for my climate change talks for years afterwards. They were in my climate change speaking tour talks I conducted across Oregon at the end of October and the beginning of November 2017. At the presentations I gave in the Portland area the next few years, I included that image. When I gave a climate talk in Tampa, Florida in February 2018, I included that photo. When I spoke across the state of Missouri at my college and high school alma maters in October 2018, I included one of those pictures. 

With those images, I wanted to show people that I loved working and living at Crater Lake National Park as a park ranger for 25 years. However, I saw climate change during my time there. I will never forget witnessing excessive smoke from wildfires standing on the rim and flying over the park in a commercial airplane in August 2017. Seeing climate change motivated to act every day since then. I hope knowing that climate change impacts our national parks and our most sacred wilderness areas will inspire you to take action.