Mainland cities have always been built near dependable fresh water sources: large rivers, lakes, snowcapped mountains. Small islands rarely enjoy such luxuries but depend upon rainfall to replenish their wells and creeks. Like Vashon, most islands are sole-source aquifers with nothing but juicy clouds to wet their whistles.
For more than an hour, a standing-room only crowd waited patiently as the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council waded through committee reports and other business to get to the hot topic on hand: an emergency motion by Tom Bangasser about King County’s rezone of the K2 site.
But when the issue finally came up, three people — one-third of the community council board members present — voted that the measure was not an emergency. And thus it ended, with scarcely a word on the topic spoken.
If there was one thing that anyone who ever attended St. John Vianney Catholic Church in the past 10 years knew, it was that our parish priest, the Rev. Richard Roach, was a man of many words.
The photographs of indigenous people from Puget Sound and the rest of Washington State are especially poignant; they are beautiful images. Yet the Lummi, Duwamish, Suquamish, Snohomish and other Native people in the images, even those who physically survived, were the victims of genocide. I’m glad these pictures are on display to remind us of local history. At the same time, I’m perturbed by the way they are sometimes treated.
Listening to the deep caring and thoughtfulness of my own daughters led me to plan a celebration for the young citizens of Vashon Island on Nov. 4, at the Backbone Campaign’s election night party.
Why is that? Why do some places grab us by the throat, the way a good detective mystery does right from the first paragraph, so we can’t let go? What is it about them that makes us feel so comfortable?
Sinus Block sounds like a nasal problem, but it was also the name of my maternal grandfather.
Newspapers are inherently flawed mediums. They take snapshots in the moment, without the benefit of hindsight or the polish of analysis and try mightily to make sense of them. The “rough draft of history” — delivered to your home.
And yet these snapshots are invaluable because they can — especially when pieced together into a bigger whole — offer a window into our lives and our community.
The question of replacing a four-way stop with a stop light has implications much more expansive than traffic control. It is a question of whether we can continue to be, or not to be, Vashon.
As our school district considers a massive remodeling of our high school and selecting a new superintendent, one thing is certain: Change is coming.
It seems like yesterday that my oldest daughter prepared to go to Camp Waskowitz.
For more than 30 years, I have been happily engaged as an independent school educator, most of that time working primarily with middle school students — early adolescents.
