Performance space

Grateful to Godsey and McAlpin

The Vashon Island Chorale expresses its gratitude to Janet McAlpin and David Godsey for their vision and generosity to performing arts groups and our community.

The chorale is very excited about the possibility of holding future concerts in a space actually designed for musical performances by many singers accompanied by a large orchestra and with capacity audiences.

We will be watching the development of Janet and David’s dream building with great anticipation.

Jo Ann Bardeen, President, Vashon Island Chorale

K2 Commons

Vashon is now a walking town

Thank you, Bill and Susan Tobin, for reminding us of our earlier community planning. I remember the discussion and the process. I also remember many discussions about how to make Vashon more of a walking town. Did we need more centralized parking? Better sidewalks? I don’t remember the specific outcomes of those discussions, but you know what? Vashon has become a very walkable town!

Barb and I moved into town center last summer, and we are the envy of our friends. Everyone wants to move “uptown” for the convenience. I can well imagine housing values here skyrocketing in the next decade.

Also in last week’s Beachcomber Melinda Sontgerath reported that “the economic vitality on Vashon is stronger than any time in the past 30 years.” Island businesses did unusually well over the holidays, compared to the national averages. Could this be because we are now a friendly, accessible walking town? I think so.

I love walking around town, seeing people and, yes, buying things. On days that I don’t drive to work, I rarely drive. It’s enough easier to spend my money here that I’m not motivated to shop on my way home from work on the mainland. Certainly that helps support the local economy.

As Bill and Susan noted, this makes the town greener, too. It’s such a simple, easy way to burn less gas (and save money).

I don’t know much of the specifics of the K2 plan, but I’ve been watching with interest. Certainly the property deserves a rezone. We don’t really want to limit the place to only industry — unless there are some clean industries that would do well there. I don’t know if that option has been explored.

However, I don’t think we would benefit from making it into a second town center. It would be essentially a “remote” shopping center. I know, it’s not very remote, but as Bill and Susan pointed out, the people who walk around town now would drive or ride to K2. That’s not a development we really want to encourage.

At a time when many jurisdictions are trying to reduce their carbon footprints, it would be a shame for Vashon to make decisions that would increase ours.

Lotus

Green Party

Voter fraud gave election to Bush

I want to thank the Vashon Film Society and curator Peter Ray for bringing the documentary “Hacking Democracy” to the Vashon Theatre.

“Hacking Democracy” proved, indisputably, there was voter fraud in 2004 and Diebold machines could be hacked. More importantly, a member of John Kerry’s own legal team states Kerry knew the machines were hacked and still conceded the election. When I saw this interview and follow-up footage of Kerry conceding, it turned my stomach. Left fighting the battle by taking it to the courts in Ohio was — here’s the clincher — the Green Party.

This raises the issue as to the blame for Bush’s victory that has been laid at the feet of Greens by our fellow Vashon “progressives.” I’m convinced the spin-doctors within the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) did this to keep their groupies in line. Could they let the truth come out that Kerry won and the Democrats did nothing to challenge the results? In the 2000 election, Gore also conceded. It was the U.S. Supreme Court, not the Green Party, that gave the victory to George Bush. Obviously, there is a history, long before this newest Congress, of the Democrats avoiding confrontation with the Republicans and over as important an issue as how every vote should count. The truth is now out.

The DLC has done everything within its power to destroy the Green Party and has done a good job. Unless we recover members lost since the 2000 and 2004 presidential races, we may be finished as a third party. Even now, you will hear Vashon “progressives” bad-mouthing Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader. This cannot be taken lightly as we are the only peace party and possible opposition party to confront the one-party, corporate-owned system we now have. 

Before you get duped into voting for a Democrat by buying the “what about the Supreme Court” or “what if the Republican wins” argument, please come talk to me first.

Maryrose Asher

The Middle East

Imagine Vashon as the Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip is the size of Vashon Island. Imagine 1.2 million people living here instead of 10,000. Imagine being restrained from leaving the Island for any reason: jobs, medical emergency, or family needs, by a powerful military force. Imagine that the powerful military force will not let food, fuel or medical supplies onto the island. Imagine, also, that out of frustration and desperation, some among us build hand-made rockets and fire them into West Seattle killing a few people, and in retaliation bombs are dropped on the population of Vashon, killing and wounding hundreds of innocents. Imagine that the rest of the world knows and does nothing. It happened once in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Kate Hunter

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