Vashon250 explores the Revolution, then and now

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Last fall, Jon Flora approached me with the idea of doing a radio show that celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by linking the events of the American Revolution with events in Vashon’s history. It was an intriguing idea and as I discussed it with several fellow historians on the island, including Nancy Bristow and Doug Sackman from the University of Puget Sound and Rob Crawford from UW Tacoma, it became apparent that the show could not only link Revolutionary War issues with Vashon issues, but also link those Revolutionary War issues to the larger sweep of American history and to the current issues we face today in a deeply divided nation.

Each week since the beginning of February, Jon and I, with the engineering support of Truman O’Brien, and the advice of our panel of historians, the constitutional scholar Craig Beles, and Bryan Long’s expertise about Thomas Paine, have recorded a 30-minute discussion of Vashon’s relationship to the issues that created the American Revolution.

Our approach each week is to use the Declaration of Independence as a “mission statement” and the Constitution as a “user’s manual” guide to understand these connections. The events beginning with the Stamp Act in 1765 through the ratification of the Constitution and election of George Washington as the first president in 1788 provide the boundaries for the series.

Our intent is to provide a story that links us all back to the revolutionary beginning of our country by exploring how the issues and events of that era have always been a part of our history, are part of the history we are living today, and that Vashon has experienced it all in its own distinct and local way.

An example of what Vashon250 does each week will be broadcast on June 30 as Nancy Bristow, Jon, and I discuss the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson saw the Declaration of Independence as “the genuine effusion of the soul of our country” … “an expression of the American mind.” We will look at how the Declaration of Independence shaped future statements like the Seneca Falls Declaration of Women’s Rights and the Gettysburg Address. How the Declaration of Independence shaped current events like the Black Lives Matter movement and the resistance to authoritarian trends in our current politics by Indivisible Vashon. And, we will discuss how the Declaration of Independence shaped the eight times Vashon has attempted to separate from King County by either forming a new county, by joining Pierce County, or by incorporating as a city.

Join us each week on Voice of Vashon Radio, 101.9 FM, at 1 p.m. Tuesday, or find our weekly broadcasts at voiceofvashon.org/show/vashon250/ on the Voice of Vashon website or at Spotify Podcast/Voice of Vashon/Vashon250.

Bruce Haulman, island historian; Jon Flora, president of Voice of Vashon board; Truman O’Brien, Voice of Vashon board member and radio engineer.