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Point 2– highly agree. When I show people around I feel like I’m always showing them my daily life vs a tourist itinerary! Love the Substack Mike keep it up

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Thanks Emily!

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Jul 18Liked by Mike Thelin

I recently hosted a young couple who grew up in a relatively free Afghanistan and escaped with much peril during the fall of Kabul in 2021. One of them, a creative helped our troops as an interpreter and found his to the U.S. because of that risk. They have several sponsors in the U.S. willing to help them get settled in a city of their choice. They feel more at home in bigger cities. Both are amazingly well educated. They were blown away by Portland. They had heard so many negative things and expected a hell-hole. Instead, they explored a city that left them giddy with hope. But they also met a lot of people who told them “hang on” there’s an undercurrent here that you aren’t seeing: entitled weird class is how this undercurrent was described to them. They asked if I thought it was true. I had to think about that word salad for a minute. There’s so many ways to think about the entitled and the weird part, and I honestly could not answer that question.

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Thanks for the comment. I think for the most part people here are pretty cool. I suppose there are some entitled people, but I have never felt that to be a dominant culture.

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Jul 9Liked by Mike Thelin

Exactly! Portland is about being yourself and doing things with heart. That is what creativity is all about.

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