Back on the Planet

I've taken an unanticipated break from blogging, but I suspect things will come a bit more regularly now. The week before Christmas, my father-in-law died. He was quite a man -- a leader in the Spokane community, someone who truly made an obvious difference that anyone from Spokane over the last 35 years would notice. His name was King Cole, and he was the orginator and moving force behind Expo '74, the World's Fair that put Spokane on the map, and changed forever the shape of the city. The fair had an environmental theme, and the whole effort included cleaning up the river and the downtown area, leaving a beautiful park and community center on the island where formerly there had been a mess of railroad tracks, surrounded by urban blight. There are too many links to list here; just go to Google and type in "King Cole Spokane" to see some of them.

The holiday season has ended, but now the dead gray of winter and the endless Seattle rains are now upon us. I usually don't mind, but frankly, my heart is heavy with the condition of our state and country. I'm usually a very optimistic person, but in the state of Washington, there is very little good news if you're poor and in poor health, if you're homeless, if you're mentally ill, or in general if you rely on any kind of government assistance. The state is cutting its budget and services drastically, by over 20%. California is as bad, Oregon is worse, along with several other states.

I don't feel guilty to have a job, to be in (reasonably) good health, or to have a roof over my head. But I do feel that I have failed somehow, when the communities that I am a part of are allowing this to happen. In Washington state, voters decided to end a tax on soda, candy, gum, and other such items. They turned down a proposal to tax the wealthiest Washingtonians to help relieve the budget. And they voted to require ANY NEW TAX LEGISLATION to be put to a vote of the people, and to require a super-majority to pass it. Sometimes I am ashamed to live here. I will have to do/say something about this, even if it costs something.

More to come, believe me.