Written by:
6/2/2009 1:34 PM 

This past Monday evening the Council Board discussed my motion for a new committee to be called the Transition Committee. The title came from the book Transition Handbook, and the text also except that I replaced Rob Hopkins' words with my own and threw in some local names, like Vashon, and like "commute". The reaction was two-fold, bury it in an existing committee, or forget the idea. There's merit in each.  As to creating another committee there's no way a committee could accomplish much and the reason for that is given in Hopkins' book: progress comes from the root up, never from the council.  As to burying it in an existing committee of similar charter, the board might have gone along with that but I think that Hopkins' point applies there as well. So, then, why did I try? As you might guess it was a way of finding out how the Board felt about the coming perfect economic storm. Gathering together the comments, I'd say most of the board are just as worried as I am, but have their hands full doing what needs to be done, one day following another. And this board works hard.

Where, I wondered last night tossing and turning, does the event leave me, he who hath little to do and when frightened tends to generate impractical ideas. For sure it was worth the effort if for no other reason than driving home the point that fundamental change is not going to originate with those in control. But that's no help in plotting what to do. How can a goodly portion of ten thousand people be turned around to face the bad news that daily floods the Internet? Chicken Little tried the direct approach to no avail. Consider now, that  everybody and hiserher brother is trying to reset Vashon back to its pastoral heritage, examples of note Vision for Vashon and Backbone. But neither of these has put commute reduction on the front burner. And so, If not the Council, if not Vision for Vashon, if not Backbone, if not the Chamber of Commerce, if not the churches, if not the political clubs, if not the Youth and Family Services, who is going to stand at the intersection of Bank Road and Vashon Highway and pull the Chicken Little act: "The commute is killing us, the commute is killing us, the . . . ."?

I feel a little burned out, like Kari when she recently decided the dent in the brick wall was deep enough. But then, I have not even begun to try as hard as she did. But I do have a plan of sorts: look for people who are aware that we are headed for an economic cliff, and listen to them.

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