The first collateral evidence that Greener Times is no more is that I no longer know what day of the week it is. In addition, or rather, more importantly, GT leaves a Nation in disarray. It's difficult to find words to express the dread emotion with which I see on the tube nice people talking about a well-meaning, functioning US government while at the same time that government is sanctioning assorted crimes against humanity. Vermont wants out. California is reaching for a sky hook to get real health care. North Dakota  has its own State bank. But Vashon, sweet Vashon, is in clover.  The Thriftway lot is full, our Gardens are Toured, and our bistros rock. Unify against Patty Murray the war goddess of Easter Island? Unify against Glacier? Unify against the Federal Reserve? Unify against the most regressive tax system in the USA? Hey, smell the lavender, you'll feel better.

By now, given the unmistakable warning signs, we could have had a dual currency and self-paid health care working in synergism. K-2, not the Thriftway, would be Vashon's  "economic engine", so appropriately named by Ryan Sweet. Renamed The K-2 Dump, it would have become our local source of many goods vital to our survival during inevitable hyperinflation.

Bur don't mind me. I'm just an over-educated, disgruntled, tree-hugger. Go ask the Chamber of Commerce or the Community Council what will happen when the osmotic oozing of US wealth overseas hits a pressure relief valve or the US atrocities in South Asia trigger chaos.