Just like that, the region’s nearly three-month-long drought ended and a new season blew in.
“Nice things,” our youngest daughter murmurs. Four sets of eyes dart from one face to the next, and with the arch of an eyebrow and a subtle nod, a quorum is convened. Her twin brother looks at his splayed fingers splintered like a small shipwreck in his lap. “I hid the remote and then I let you use it,” he remembers, squinting at her.
Thinking is one of my hobbies, but here in America, thinking has fallen out of style. I’m guessing it’s because the powers that be don’t want us to know what is really going on. A functional democracy requires a thinking electorate, but thinking is optional in the United States, whereas in Europe, it’s mandatory. This may be why so many politicians are down on Europe, similar to the way flat-Earthers don’t like Neil Armstrong.
This week, The Beachcomber had to make a hard call. We had to decide if we were going to write about Palmerston Burk’s death, a suicide that hit Vashon’s teen and school community hard.
Whether it’s a major winter snowstorm complete with power outage (as in 2006, 2008, 2010 and earlier this year) or a massive earthquake, if we want to be safe and know that those we love are well, then we need to get together and make our plans now.
Property owners within the proposed Center Historical District have some legitimate reasons to oppose such a designation. The most obvious is that it could lower their property values, according to some real estate agents. And after the free fall in prices over the last several years, that’s an understandable concern.
Part one of All Island Forum’s “Navigating Conflict: Learning about ourselves through differences and disagreements” will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10, at the Open Space for Arts & Community.
The Backbone Campaign deserves some special thanks for all their hard work getting a community solar project designed and approved to be installed here on our Island. For people like me who had considered putting solar on my home but live in an area with many trees, this project is a perfect way to invest in the alternative energy of solar while partially fulfilling what I consider my environmental and social responsibility.
This year we are celebrating a momentous occasion in our volunteer organization. As we mark our 25th anniversary, Partners in Education has funded just over $1 million in grants for our Vashon public schools.
October is almost upon us — time to give the annual ugly face and heart of domestic violence a public showing. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the purple month. and this year the sign of awareness on the Island will be the DoVE Project.
I think the Vashon Park District board as a whole has failed our community in its fiduciary responsibilities. As a medical center CEO, I know what it is like to have financial “surprises,” but not finding thousands of dollars of bills from a prior year or to suddenly find there is a substantial deficit in cash flow when the budget forecast was a surplus — these are all things that get chief financial officers fired.
At a time when public resources for those in need are declining, how refreshing it is to see five Vashon agencies work together to obtain a van for their clients. And how smart.
Those who attend the King County Landmarks Commission’s hearing on Center Thursday night might be tempted to make the proceeding a referendum on Vashon Allied Arts’ proposed performing arts center — either in support of the new structure or in opposition to it.
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