Last week I wrote of the Oberlin Project in Ohio and the lessons it might teach the planners of the new high school and the proposed performing arts center.
This just in: As the rest of the U.S. continues to sizzle in sweltering heat, tiny, ventilated Vashon Island, with average temperatures in the 60s and cloud cover you can count on, has become the go to place this summer for desperate citizens seeking relief from the insufferable sun.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, the darling of the far-right and a contender for the Republican nomination for the presidency, says that in her travels of late, no one has said to her, “Please, tax me more.” But that’s a politically cheap and shallow question, as she — and many of her fellow Tea-Partiers — know.
The Oberlin Project is a planned $300 million redevelopment of rust-belt Oberlin that Dave describes as a “working model of sustainability that integrates economic revitalization, green-building, education, agriculture, forestry, public policy, renewable energy and finance into a system in which the parts reinforce the vitality and resilience of the larger whole.”
My goal as an artist has always been to create work that shines light on environmental issues, to try to make a difference while there is still time.
Do you ever think, “There’s the real world, then there’s Vashon”?
In The Mists of Avalon (a top- 10 trashy novel for neo-pagan Islanders), Avalon, the Isle of Priestesses, gradually disappears into the mists, even as they await a great king (Arthur) to bring lasting peace (and effective governance) to their land. Just like Vashon.
Vashon’s easy acceptance of gay and lesbian couples likely seems normal to those of us who have lived on the Island for any length of time. Indeed, the issue of whom one shares one’s intimate life with may seem worthy of scant discussion anymore.
A three-way race for King County Council’s District 8 seat means Vashon residents have a reason to weigh in on the primary election currently before voters — with mail-in ballots due Aug. 16. The Beachcomber urges voters to support Joe McDermott for what would become his first full, four-year term on the nine-member county council.
Your grandmother isn’t eating well anymore because she won’t go to the trouble of cooking for one. She’s losing weight. How can you get her the nutrition she needs? Your parents are getting older and want to remain independent but still need some help. You’ve noticed that your elderly neighbor is having more trouble finding rides to her doctor’s appointments. There’s only so much you can do to help. Who can you call?
Every now and then, when the sun is bright, the sky cobalt blue and the air so hot that the frigid waters of Puget Sound beckon, we remember why we live here.
As I get older and my awareness grows, I’ve started to wonder what values America expresses to the world.
When America first formed, it was founded on the principles of freedom and democracy and to demonstrate to the world that a nation can abide and prosper under these ideals. The older this nation becomes, though, the more these principles appear to have been altered in ways to benefit not even the majority of people but a few select groups.
Under the headline “Illegal immigration,” in the Letters to the Editor column of the July 6 issue, a Beachcomber reader suggested a novel and totally unique method for detecting illegal aliens by simply observing who is cheering for whom at a soccer match.
During the last few months, I have been explaining (which is hard to do when your tongue’s firmly planted in your cheek) that VASHON is not a name but an acronym — which is to say, a gathering of letters which hint at a hidden message one can understand only by parsing each letter.
