One on One ~ Rod Krehbiel
Spring 2008
by Theresa North
I recently spent the morning with Rod Krehbiel at Dog River Coffee Co. where he was having a music jam/practice session with fellow band member Paul Blackburn. Later, at home, he agreed to answer questions regarding his background, his medical and musical interests, and how RiverHOURS fit into his life.
TN: Tell our readers about yourself.
RK: I work for La Clínica del Cariño as a family practitioner, and occasionally in the ER at Skyline Hospital. I also like to play music and have played with several local groups including The Red Haired Boys, the Family Joules, and The Peace Tigers.
TN: What originally drew you to the Gorge?
RK: We were living in Madras, Oregon, where I had a family practice for three years. We kept
coming over here to visit our good friends and eventually just decided to move here. I eventually found a really great job working at La Clínica and scaled back my ER work.
We love this area for the scenic beauty and the recreational opportunities. I love to mountain bike or hike or just spend time in the woods, and there’s no better place than the Gorge for that! I can enjoy really great mountain
biking less than a mile from my front door.
We also felt that we were in a very conservative community in Madras and Hood River is much more balanced with a lot of liberals and progressive thinkers whom I can relate to a lot easier.
The Gorge has a very interesting political dynamic with a solid base of what I call ‘old order Oregonians,’ people who believe in the status quo and are most concerned about private property rights and low taxes.
Then there’s a really
strong contingent of people who are more concerned with preserving the natural environment, with sustainability, and with peace and justice issues. I’m really excited about the local food network and about RiverHOURS and all the work that people are
doing to strengthen our local connections. There’s such a wealth of talent and productivity here that if we can just harness it and keep it in the community, we’ll be in a good position to weather the coming economic storm.
Another big draw for our family is the really great educational and
entertainment opportunities here. We’re homeschoolers and the
community education offerings, the homeschool groups, the Columbia Art Center shows, and all of the musical offerings here are really great and getting better by the year.
TN: What do you think of the local music scene?
RK: It seems like I’m constantly hearing about this or that professional level musician who has moved to the area. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I get out to see performers as much as I’d like to. I guess the most remarkable thing to me is that there are so many amateur musicians here. This place seems to inspire people to pursue those passions. I’ve really enjoyed jamming with some of the local bluegrass musicians.
TN: How does RiverHOURS fit into your personal philosophy?
RK: I’ve thought a lot about our economic system and I’ve come to the conclusion that capitalism has several major flaws. Now, I realize that we tend to equate capitalism with our other ‘icons’ like the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, and because of that it’s almost sacrilegious to question it, but I think we have to look critically at what the results of unbridled greed and unrestrained growth really are. What I see is a system that looks great on paper with lots of quarterly profits for corporations, lots of productivity, but there are 50 million Americans with no health insurance and rising levels of poverty. Along with that financial insecurity comes rising levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and suicide. We’ve got a system that functions pretty well to create jobs but doesn’t do so well creating financial security or fulfilling careers for people.
Another ugly byproduct of our current economic system is that we’ve given up control over our food supply and we’ve learned to settle for nutritionally-challenged, processed and factory-produced foods in the place of real high quality and healthy foods.
I think RiverHOURS is a very important step towards creating local networks for goods and services. Using local currency helps to keep locally-produced items in the local system, but it also helps us to find other people who are interested in forming these kinds of networks, to find farmers who are interested in sustainability, and to find business people who put more stock in helping the community than in their short-term bottom line. As a health care provider, I think it’s important for our individual health and for the health of the whole community to create a sense of belonging and to be working toward a system that makes sense.
TN: Where do you earn and spend your RiverHOURS?
RK: I’ve made a few RiverHOURS from playing music and I will be receiving some from La Clínica soon. A few of the things on which we spend our RiverHOURS are piano lessons, coffee, acupuncture, massage, recycled building materials, food, fair trade gifts, violin lessons, clothes, reflexology, tax accounting and of course, ice cream.
TN: Is there anything you would like to add?
RK: I would like to say that I really appreciate the amount of work that the RiverHOURS steering committee has done to get this system rolling. It took an immense amount of time but, really more importantly, it took belief in a vision and that we can make the world a better, more functional place. Thanks to you all.
Spring 2008
by Theresa North
I recently spent the morning with Rod Krehbiel at Dog River Coffee Co. where he was having a music jam/practice session with fellow band member Paul Blackburn. Later, at home, he agreed to answer questions regarding his background, his medical and musical interests, and how RiverHOURS fit into his life.
TN: Tell our readers about yourself.
RK: I work for La Clínica del Cariño as a family practitioner, and occasionally in the ER at Skyline Hospital. I also like to play music and have played with several local groups including The Red Haired Boys, the Family Joules, and The Peace Tigers.
TN: What originally drew you to the Gorge?
RK: We were living in Madras, Oregon, where I had a family practice for three years. We kept
coming over here to visit our good friends and eventually just decided to move here. I eventually found a really great job working at La Clínica and scaled back my ER work.
We love this area for the scenic beauty and the recreational opportunities. I love to mountain bike or hike or just spend time in the woods, and there’s no better place than the Gorge for that! I can enjoy really great mountain
biking less than a mile from my front door.
We also felt that we were in a very conservative community in Madras and Hood River is much more balanced with a lot of liberals and progressive thinkers whom I can relate to a lot easier.
The Gorge has a very interesting political dynamic with a solid base of what I call ‘old order Oregonians,’ people who believe in the status quo and are most concerned about private property rights and low taxes.
Then there’s a really
strong contingent of people who are more concerned with preserving the natural environment, with sustainability, and with peace and justice issues. I’m really excited about the local food network and about RiverHOURS and all the work that people are
doing to strengthen our local connections. There’s such a wealth of talent and productivity here that if we can just harness it and keep it in the community, we’ll be in a good position to weather the coming economic storm.
Another big draw for our family is the really great educational and
entertainment opportunities here. We’re homeschoolers and the
community education offerings, the homeschool groups, the Columbia Art Center shows, and all of the musical offerings here are really great and getting better by the year.
TN: What do you think of the local music scene?
RK: It seems like I’m constantly hearing about this or that professional level musician who has moved to the area. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I get out to see performers as much as I’d like to. I guess the most remarkable thing to me is that there are so many amateur musicians here. This place seems to inspire people to pursue those passions. I’ve really enjoyed jamming with some of the local bluegrass musicians.
TN: How does RiverHOURS fit into your personal philosophy?
RK: I’ve thought a lot about our economic system and I’ve come to the conclusion that capitalism has several major flaws. Now, I realize that we tend to equate capitalism with our other ‘icons’ like the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, and because of that it’s almost sacrilegious to question it, but I think we have to look critically at what the results of unbridled greed and unrestrained growth really are. What I see is a system that looks great on paper with lots of quarterly profits for corporations, lots of productivity, but there are 50 million Americans with no health insurance and rising levels of poverty. Along with that financial insecurity comes rising levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and suicide. We’ve got a system that functions pretty well to create jobs but doesn’t do so well creating financial security or fulfilling careers for people.
Another ugly byproduct of our current economic system is that we’ve given up control over our food supply and we’ve learned to settle for nutritionally-challenged, processed and factory-produced foods in the place of real high quality and healthy foods.
I think RiverHOURS is a very important step towards creating local networks for goods and services. Using local currency helps to keep locally-produced items in the local system, but it also helps us to find other people who are interested in forming these kinds of networks, to find farmers who are interested in sustainability, and to find business people who put more stock in helping the community than in their short-term bottom line. As a health care provider, I think it’s important for our individual health and for the health of the whole community to create a sense of belonging and to be working toward a system that makes sense.
TN: Where do you earn and spend your RiverHOURS?
RK: I’ve made a few RiverHOURS from playing music and I will be receiving some from La Clínica soon. A few of the things on which we spend our RiverHOURS are piano lessons, coffee, acupuncture, massage, recycled building materials, food, fair trade gifts, violin lessons, clothes, reflexology, tax accounting and of course, ice cream.
TN: Is there anything you would like to add?
RK: I would like to say that I really appreciate the amount of work that the RiverHOURS steering committee has done to get this system rolling. It took an immense amount of time but, really more importantly, it took belief in a vision and that we can make the world a better, more functional place. Thanks to you all.