The acceleration of bad news that is now pulling G’s in our National Cockfight Pit make it increasingly difficult to compose a decent message to the menwomen of Vashon. That’s because Vashon persists in thinking it is immune from, or using its language, cannot affect, national chaos. Do I therefore start writing in capitals with color and hold down the exclamation point key? Possibly. So read carefully now lest I do:

Vashon society is dysfunctional, and here’s what the tea leaves in my last cup at the Luna have to say about that. We’re dysfunctional because our bond with youth and our bonds with neighbors are broken. A prominent example is K-2 wherein a few elite and a cloistered Community Council never got beyond thinking the problem was how to make money off it. They should have asked how K-2 could be used to prepare Vashon for the coming economic and social challenge. Another example, we adults wring our hands and twist our knickers over this or that misbehavior in the young. Please PLEASE PLEASE uh-oh, please note that the space in the town core set aside for youth to congregate in, and grow up in, is nil, nada, unthinkable. Oh, we have fine restaurants and boy oh boy do we have the arts. And, civic minded, not to be outdone. Pass the levy, root for the football team, rah, rah. Put a roof over some ping pong tables downtown, you crazy? And this final example, letting King County steal our trash. There’s a whole industry begging activation that can extract remaining value from solid trash. The homeless figure prominently in that extraction. So much for examples of what the Vashon ostrich does with its back end while its head is buried in the hardpan. Now for the tea leaves.

At the Luna the other night I was told that thoughts along this way are not mine alone. Cheez, and all these years I thought I was the only brain on the island. There even was a hint that others have passed me by the wayside in this thinking. All right then, let’s find out what’s going down among islanders whose heads are up and can see what’s coming. Let’s find a place where youth and age can talk or just hang out.  Meantime, the Luna will do. Second and Fourth Thursdays 6:30 until the broom hits our feet.