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Desperate times call for a public television host.
Rick Steves is the sleepy-voiced European wanderer best known for his travel guidebooks and PBS specials. But he's also something of a lefty firebrand: He wrote a 2009 book, Travel as a Political Act, and was among the leading proponents of Oregon's cannabis legalization campaign.
Steves visits Portland on March 1 to give a lecture on the political implications of travel in an era when the president is trying to restrict it.
What's so important about travel now?
There are powerful political forces that would like us to be dumbed down and would like us to be more fearful. When we're dumbed down and fearful, it's easier for them to have their way with us.
The irony is, we're a perfectly safe society. If we become more fearful, we could become endangered. I'm just saddened that years ago people use to say "Bon voyage" and now they say, "Have a safe trip." I tell them: "You have a safe stay at home, because where I'm going is safer than where you're staying."
I'd like him to hang out in Europe and talk to people about why they are so willing pay their taxes, and why they believe a society can work together to provide a safety net for people who are struggling. I would think that if he traveled in Latin America, where wealthy people have to live behind designer fortification and where there are armed guards in front of every bank and every pharmacy, that he would realize even if you're motivated only by greed, you don't want to be filthy rich in a desperately poor world. I hope I could take him to Israel, so he could talk to people on both sides of that wall and get two narratives.
Have you ever been to Malmo, Sweden, where Trump says crime is rampant?
Yes. The level of crime in Scandinavia is like small-town British Columbia. Even with the refugees. If you want to find the most successful societies in Europe, you would go to Scandinavia.
Do you think Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a danger to the marijuana legalization you fought for?
Where would you travel to escape Trump?
I wouldn’t travel to escape. It’s exciting to go, especially to Europe, because to me Europe and America are sister societies. We’re both basically democratic, affluent, Christian, pluralistic societies.
I like to learn from my travels and come home with a little broader perspective. Or we can just go to Orlando and get selfies with Mickey Mouse for the rest of our lives. The only guidebooks that outsell my guidebooks are guidebooks to Disneyland.
