Portland had long been wracked with strife between those calling for tolerance and those preaching hate and violence when the Second Great Depression started. The city leaders tried to maintain a balanced response to the hatred by only punishing the worst of the intolerant aggressors, but there was always someone else willing to take their place. Then the Federal government collapsed and the most deplorable examples of humanity took up arms all over the nation to bring their bigoted, racist, secessionist ideas into the light they did not deserve to inhabit. Portland fought back by helping form Pacifica, which they see as the final redoubt of the tolerant and loving America they wish to bring out of the darkness. The rest of America abandoned their enlightened leadership, and will suffer for the bigotry and racism they fomented when they did so. But Portland will ever remain the light on a hill, helping worthwhile, repentant Americans see the true utopia that hope and change, and the tolerance and love that goes with it, can create in our modern, fallen world.