After I referred to the robin as a thrush in the Enjoyment of Birds class, a woman asked me, “Alan, what exactly is a thrush?” I digressed to say a little more about this family of robin-like songbirds. Characteristically plump and upright, they hop across the ground feeding on worms and grubs and foraging for berries and insects in trees and shrubs. A diverse family worldwide including bluebirds, solitaires and other species, thrushes are perhaps best known for their lovely songs.
Over the last several months, in all the brouhaha over the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council, one issue keeps cropping up: How it is that the King County Council two years ago quietly rezoned the K2 building, changing its status from industrial to commercial.
On Good Friday, Christ hung on the cross from noon until his death at 3 p.m. Growing up, I spent those three hours, called the Tre Ore, in church with incense, gold, candles and Gregorian chant filling my senses and soul. Middle age, I spent those hours shopping for Easter dinner at Costco, buying ham, asparagus and fruit salad. Mid-Costco a dozen years ago, I suddenly missed the intense ritual of those holy three hours. I was shopping; Christ hung on the cross.
The mass resignation of the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council (VMICC) board late last year was deeply disturbing. Vashon had nine civic-minded people working hard to provide an open, neutral forum for discussion of Island issues. Suddenly, aggressive requests by an Islander citing the Public Records Act, along with a King County opinion that since the VMICC had an Unincorporated Area Council (UAC) contract with the county, the VMICC must comply with the far-reaching Public Records Act, caused the entire board to resign. I understand why the board resigned. No one in their right mind would want to let a lawsuit eat up countless hours of their time, on top of the hundreds of hours they were already volunteering. I’ve been there (in Vashon Village vs. Water District 19.) It’s no fun.
At the end of last year, the King County Council essentially defunded the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council (VMICC) and the rest of the Unincorporated Area Councils (UACs) and tasked the King County executive with formulating an alternative by April 15. The alternative the county council recommended was a commission of representatives from all of the six current UACs. No explanation for this move was given. Since that time, the county executive’s staff has been meeting internally (and occasionally with the UACs) to facilitate this change.
I’ve had this experience many times: I’m in the city, I say I have to leave to catch my boat, they ask where I live, I say Vashon … and their eyebrows raise and their head tilts back slightly, as if to say, “Ah, that explains everything; now I understand…”
At a time when public programs are being dismantled for a lack of funds, it’s encouraging to see a handful of Islanders work to re-establish an Island-based domestic violence program on Vashon.
Parents should make decisions about immunization based on the best science.
It’s been a tough winter for some of our Island merchants. Now, with the days growing longer and occasional breaks in the seemingly ceaseless rain, we urge you to resist the urge to buy anything online that you could find at an Island store and shop locally instead.
We urge Vashon Island parents to vaccinate their children for pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial disease that can prove deadly for small children.
But when was the last time you saw one of these alleged sea creatures?
Islanders proved once again that they know how to hold a meeting, address tough issues and do so, for the most part, with civility. Indeed, those who attended the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council meeting Monday night hoping for fireworks may have been disappointed. It was a rich and energetic meeting — but hardly the stuff of raucous political theater.
A neighbor recently said, “Hey Alan, the birds are back!” She described the songs she had been hearing, but she was surprised when I told her those are resident birds that never really left. What’s “back” is the sun; the birds are singing on cue to the lengthening of the day.
