Sep 4

Written by:
9/4/2010 7:51 PM 

The Beachcomber online has been discovered thanks somewhat to he who publicly shall not be thanked. But Roger is to be thanked since it was he who posted the link to the online article on the council breaking up. Of course, without he who, etc, having caused the breakup, that article would not have been. Discovered, TBC online is updated almost daily with comments on the print edition, and thanks therefore are given. It is too bad that most of the comments contribute nothing useful.

The uproar is being confined to the narrow issue of public disclosure. That issue is an artifact of the Council being an arm of the County which is bad and, yes, therefore should be addressed. But of far greater importance there is the issue of what the council was not doing nor intended to do, the issue of Vashon’s economic, social, and moral survival. While the tempest in the pee pot over the plight of the Council continues to rage there has been only one constructive voice, the combined voice of Margot Boyer and Bob Powell. Even there, a sense of urgency is wanting.

Vashon as presently composed will not survive the collapse of the United States. The ferries will soon be priced out of use. Crime on the island will increase. The food bank will be rupt. Homes will stand empty. Garbage will pile up. This can be prevented only by facing the truth of what the US has become and then by taking control of the island economy.

If arable land is fully used then Vashon farms could support a certain number of people. Full use of the land will require infra-trades like smithys, battery rebuild, solar crafts, you list. Almost anything is possible if we drop the pee-potting and get to work on a governance that will enliven our potential for hard work and imagination.

I think the nub is not our mutual distrust and disagreement, rather it is something more basic. It is that we cannot accept what is happening to the United States.