By Rich Osborne Yes, Vashon, at long last, we need to fully fund our fire department. Someone wiser than I said “Expecting better results while repeating the same behavior is the definition of insanity.” VIFR just getting by is risky in a warming climate with, whisper it, GLOBAL WARMING increasing our fire risk every year….
Commentary
VIFR Levy: Con
By Caitlin Rothermel The Vashon Island Fire and Rescue levy (Proposition 1) is coming to a vote this August. If the levy is voted in, the VIFR annual budget will grow from $6.7 million in 2023 to as high as $10.4 million in 2029. In our population-stable community of 10,866 people (based on United States…
Commentary
Our Electric Vehicle Future
Short of being plugged directly into Hanford’s nuclear power reservation, Vashon and Maury Islands are the ideal run-about ranges for electric vehicles. Although the Island has enough elevation changes to be notorious to visiting bicyclists during the annual “Passport to Pain,” we sit at a confluence of undersea cables sending us clean, stable, and practically…
Commentary
What Happened to the Cathlamet?
When our Cathlamet ferry crashed into a dolphin pier on July 28, 2022, we were told three things in short order. First, all crew had passed drug tests after the accident. Second, the following day, the captain resigned. Third, the USCG – United States Coast Guard – would lead the investigation and determine why the…
Commentary, Llaughing Llamas
Llaughing Llamas Chronicles
The story I want to share this month is a simple one. Do you remember the man, named Carl, who had hearing aids in both ears? He always told the best Dad Jokes ever. One day, he was at the Senior Center telling jokes around the room. But all you could hear was the punch…
Commentary, Island Voices
The Dorsal Spin: Indigeneity
The COVID-19 lockdown brought into sharp focus our intergenerational trauma – emotional and spiritual baggage habitually restrained in “normal” times. We dove deep into our Indigeneity. Our thoughts turned to our First Nations ancestors who endured countless pandemics inflicted on them by colonization, the federal government, and the military. Would we survive this novel coronavirus?…
Commentary, Editorial Page, Island Voices
What We Hold in Our Hands
Money. Hold-in-your-hand coins. Pull-out-of-your-wallet cash. Circles of metal that last decades, centuries and millennia … matter. Not only are coins “literally” matter, but they offer an experience, a record of human society, an imprint on our lives and tactile memories that no electricity-dependent, Virtual Reality method of accounting or digital currency can offer. A child,…
Commentary
Right? Right.
By Andy Valencia I built a nice device for a huge company (well, I did most of the system design and all of the software). It made lots of money, and – yay! – I was a rock star at my company. Sic transit gloria mundi. I measured its performance, and determined that it could,…
Commentary
VIFR Upsize
By Andy Valencia In the years we’ve lived on Vashon, I’ve read many an article on Vashon Island Fire and Rescue. All too often, I have finished the article befuddled and no more informed than when I started. As I join the club of people who have written about VIFR, I’m finding a newfound sympathy…
Commentary
The Roasterie News
by Eva Deloach My Foundation, called Traditions, (est. 2003) is a 501(C)(3) that contributes to indigenous communities and individuals at the vanguard of the natural environment. Indigenous Elders and these communities protect the natural environment. Numbering more than 370 million individuals worldwide, these cultures have not lost their unique understanding of local environments and cosmic…