Winter is here, the Seahawks are struggling and the excitement of the elections is over. You want to escape. How about we head off to the country of Cascadia? Where is it, you say?

With substantial research help from “Wikipedia” I will try to get you there. It is tough because Cascadia is actually a bioregional independence movement concept based in the Cascadia bioregion of western North America. Potential boundaries vary depending on the source but many folks will usually include British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and some of Northern California. The boundaries also tend to be affected by ecological, cultural, political and economic interests. Beyond these general descriptions we must agree that in reality Cascadia is only a concept, an interesting concept but still just a concept. However, this concept actually has a flag, the “Doug Flag”. (The Douglas Fir tree seems to play an integral part here.)

From Wikipedia, “The Cascadia movement contains groups and organizations with a wide range of goals and strategies. Some groups, such as the Cascadian Bioregional Party, focus on the independence of the Cascadian bioregion[5] while others, seek to build an alternative to the nation-state structure.”

Cascadia naturally has a colorful history with references in the early 1800s to the development of a separate country involving John Astor and the city of Astoria. This was long before the “Goonies” movie. There were rumblings of such activity even through the establishment of the states of Washington and Oregon. Those rumblings effectively ended at the beginning of the Second World War and the attack on Pearly Harbor. Imagine that.

The subject of an independent country of Cascadia seems to be rarely discussed in polite company except upon the occasion of rising discontent with the other Washington.

In an effort to move on from complex and confusing subjects such as Cascadia I remind you that again this year the DePauw Tigers from Greencastle, IN will this Saturday meet the Wabash College Little Giants of Crawfordsville, IN in the Monon Bell Classic. The schools will compete for the 130th time. Wabash lost the game last year in the second overtime period. Yes, it was sad, particularly since BJ and I were there with our 15-year-old grandson. Well, I guess I was sad. Maybe I should consider moving to Cascadia.

The program at the weekly meeting of the East Jefferson Rotary Club celebrated Veterans Day with a presentation by Rear Admiral Kristen Fabry. She retired two years ago to Silverdale. Her presentation included some current information on the Navy as well as interesting stories from her 31 years of service to our country. Yes, she agreed that any of us who served in the military probably had interesting stories to tell. As it turns out, her father served in the Navy for over 30 years and he is a high school classmate of Port Ludlow local Julie Umbreit! Both he and his wife also attended the meeting and joined in the recognition for all veterans. Regular readers may remember my sea story about encountering the Russians in the Mediterranean on the day the US landed on the moon, or was it the Cascadia!

You probably noted all the flags being displayed on Veterans Day in East Jefferson County. There are several reasons folks subscribe to this fund raiser but the biggest one is providing a salute to the veterans in our community.

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week!

ned@ptleader.com