In January and February 2023, rumors began to circulate. A proposal was afoot! The goal? Rehiring Washington state employees lost due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. On the Jason Rantz Show (Conservative Talk Radio 770 KTTH), King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn stressed the need to “rehire” King County employees lost to vaccination mandates. He’s standing on…
Literary
Farming is Easy
Empty pastures are like the vacuums which nature abhors. If you happen to have one, fenced and reasonably capable of growing grass, things will appear to fill it. Soon enough, someone is bound to notice, and ask, “Would you like a slightly used goat? How about two?” If you respond, “Yes, but only if you…
News
The Rebirth of Green Burials
Patricia Buchanan’s green burial was a first at the Vashon Cemetery, but not the first on our island. Long before European colonists arrived, the native people living in the Puget Sound received what we today would call a green burial. Begging the question, what exactly is a green burial? Within the realm of traditional burials,…
Editorial Page
Don’t Go it Alone – Build Community Resilience
Photo by Julian Dahl. Used with permission. Several of us were out on the land, picking out microplastics from the compost-laden field (see “Plastics in the Soil” on page x). Our friends had put out a call the day before that they needed help, and here we were, on a beautiful almost-spring morning, plastic bags…
Editorial Page
Code of Conduct
The United States of America was founded on a set of agreements and goals that were unique in their time, and remain unique today. As of Monday, February 27th, only 336,142,103 humans enjoy the protections of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which specifies our individual rights in relationship to our government. Such…
Editorial Page, Terms of Concern
Terms of Concern
Totalitarianism is a form of government / political system that prohibits opposition, outlaws individual and group challenges to state-sponsored claims, suppresses free speech, freedom of movement, and freedom of philosophical beliefs / religion, exerting excessive control and regulation over public and private life. How do we recognize a totalitarian state in the making? Answers to…
Gardening
Spring Gardening
The delight of watching our Island bloom. Ah, Spring. I delight in the small things that, in time, will turn into something big. Spring invokes that feeling in so many ways, with greenery tips from the bulbs planted last fall, the new buds on shrubs and trees that make the woods bright with their chartreuse…
Island Voices
The Whimsy of Wisdom and Loop de Loop
In junior high, 7th grade to be exact, I decided that Diane Fargo had the most beautiful cursive handwriting. Hers, with the perfect “F’s,” the top line swooping over the graceful, descending vertical, providing the exact structure for the carefully curved middle horizontal line. So beautiful. Deep sigh. Yes, hers was the cursive styling I…
Island Resilience
Self-Sufficiency and Money, Money, Money …
As we know, money challenges for an individual or a family are a great cause of stress, and are a contributor to divorce or separation. If money is a challenge for you, there are 4 steps you can take to become more self-sufficient and feel less stress with finances. Step 1: Keep a $1,000 emergency…