I’ve always considered myself quite logical – perhaps more logical than most. My husband often concedes that this is true, but he also points out now and then that my logic is sometimes not in line with the rest of the world’s.
Take, for instance, the second section of this week’s Chinook Observer. Most of the first page of that section is devoted to color photographs by staff photographer Damian Mulinix. This week they were Easter pictures and under the largest, the caption reads: When the word was given it was quickly a mad egg scramble on the grounds of the Beach Barons field Saturday during the club’s annual Easter egg hunt.
Hunt? Easter egg HUNT? The eggs were lined up in plain sight on the lawn. No hunting required. Must have been one of those “fair for everybody” things. Surely, some misguided party planner must have thought, ‘it wouldn’t be right to really hide the eggs so that only the most persistent and keenest of hunters might get the most.’ So it turns out that the grabbiest and greediest get the most and no one feels like they really met the challenge. How very sad that we have come to such a pass.
I well remember the egg hunts of my childhood in St. Francis Wood in San Francisco. I was one of the youngest cousins and I hardly ever got as many eggs as the older girls and boys. But how excited and proud I was about the ones I did find! It wasn’t a “just snatch as fast as you can” sort of game. It took some work and when you were finished you felt a real sense of accomplishment over every egg you had managed to find. Once I found a stuffed bunny, too! I treasured him for years.
Right next to those disappointing and illogical pictures in the paper was this headline: WellSpring hosting annual town hall gathering. Good! I shifted my attention to reading about a form of democracy that is near and dear to my heart. I’m sure that my New England ancestors were gathering in town halls as early as the seventeenth century, coming together to become informed and to discuss the issues of the day.
But my logic button went totally berserk when I read about the WellSpring plan: “Our focus is a little different this year… We decided to invite a number of different community service, charitable and healthy-living focused organizations to be the center of the event said one of the town hall committee members.
The event will be organized like a fair with representatives sitting at tables handing out information. There will even be carnival games and food. But there was no mention of an open forum or opportunity for the public to exchange ideas.
How in the world does that describe a town hall meeting? Unless I am living in a seriously parallel universe, WellSpring is hosting a fair. Plain and Simple. Not a town hall meeting where people can come together to discuss important issues. Not a gathering where the point is to conduct serious discourse in a public setting.
What is wrong with this picture? And this article? Please oh please. I hope it’s not just me!
Perhaps my response to the gathering is not unbiased because I am the same age as are you, the same gender as you, and evolved, as you did, in the Bay Area of California but…..I’ve had similar reactions, lately about “goings on” such as fairs with carnival games. Reminds me of Food and Fun days when my daughters were in elementary school. Your remarks about being informed and aware, discussing the issues of the day reminded me of a forum we attended with residents running for city council presenting their views and asking for questions. Would you like to estimate the number of people in the audience? More contenders than interested people. Our little town was just named as having and enjoying one of the best plazas (an award from Travel and Leisure Magazine). Any guesses as to what and why? My rocking chair calls me.
It isn’t you, Sydney )unless you were the second-grade teacher for everyone who mislabels an event). I’d like to blame it on modern times and poor language skills, but let’s be honest: we call this country a democracy, when in reality our president isn’t elected by the popular (democratic) vote, but rather by a select college of electors. Huh?
The easy way out is being taken by our leadership in local government. Whether it is the PUD or County Commissioners, they seem to not be addressing the bigger picture of the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. (Declaration of Independence)
A couple months ago I went to the DCD of Pacific County and inquired about putting up a hoop house over a garden space. I was given an estimate of $931.70 by the secretary and Bob Hazen was standing there as my witness. I still have the forms with the ‘post-it’ attached. Which leads me to the question of why would the most deprived and poor counties in the State of Washington be taxing and central planning an individuals ability to live and grow food.
I have since proposed to Steve Rogers a form of standing committee to represent the interests of people’s right to food and sustainable living in the form of a Food Policy Council, http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/foodpolicyinitiative/, which has been a model for reforming local and regional governments around the USA. This is not open field Easter Egg Hunt or a Carnival rather than a town debate. If you take time to look at the Harvard document and all of the offshoots that have come from it’s policy center, it is an earthshaking human revolution in the individual’s access to food. Not necessarily the right to food, a person can still choose to starve, but the systems in place so a person may access food if they choose.
Presently there is no place at the table for a Food Policy Council, in fact, I am not sure if there is a table. The Department of Community Development (NOT) just ran out of money and started taxing shit. It didn’t matter what, it just mattered money. The low hanging fruit comes first: outbuildings, animal shelters, wood bins and green houses. Remember, the original intent of the building code were all about human habitat, now it seems to be more about building the fortress of County Government and strengthening their power base. The County Government is already the largest business in the county, what do they want?
I’m with you, Sydney! I don’t see “town meeting” anywhere in the activities listed. And, as for the Easter Egg Hunt, it seems to me they took the fun out of it. My mother always hid things “in plain sight”, but that meant the eggs were not in a container with a top on it. They could be hidden among the leaves of flowers, behind an object, or in a container without a top. We had to work for our eggs and thoroughly enjoyed them as a result. I don’t understand having them all on the lawn so you could sit in one spot and grab.