Choosing Our Future

Living in an unincorporated area, especially with 3 miles of water between us and the governing body, can be seen as both good and bad, depending on the government activity your talking about and who you are talking to. Generally speaking, if it has to do with regulation or oversight of your activities, distance makes for good relations. If it is about getting services or making complaints about things, getting overlooked is a bad thing. I’d like to put forth the premise that we do a lot better when we do for ourselves. Doing for ourselves, though, is not as easy as it seems, so we have been willing to put up with "one size fits all" rules and regulations from the county, even though more elegant solutions might be had if we applied some creative effort to it.

We Vashon and Maury islanders identify strongly with our little Mid-Sound duopoly. We love the beauty, the opportunity to pursue activities that are difficult or impossible to do in the city, and we like the ability to choose the level and frequency of our social interaction. Several hundred of us spend a lot of time volunteering to take care of our children, the poor and the sick, to safeguard our environment, to educate ourselves about being more efficient and self reliant, etc. Most of the rest support those activities with donations.

Given that laudable state of affairs, we are still a community of communities. We have separate communities that are involved with sports, farming, boating, hunting, horses, flora and fauna, arts and on and on. Once in a while, two or more of our communities have a conflict and resolution usually involves one side conceding, not because a satisfactory solution was arrived at, but because they didn’t have the time or resources to pursue it, or they just didn’t have the votes.

We’ve not had to make many hard choices because we have been relatively prosperous and our extensive, complex support systems have been stable. While some of us couldn’t care less about ferries, most of us are very dependent on them. I’m sure you noticed that the state was considering dropping the Tacoma and Southworth ferry runs. It’s hard to imagine that they would actually do it, but the fact that they would even consider it should tell us that we need to start looking at some options. Another sign is the county’s decision to cut back on the maintenance of our roads. We need to imagine a future with more limited services from the county and the state.

Although nobody knows what the future may hold, we in Transition Vashon would rather err on the side of caution by building resilience into our community. We can contribute to this personally by learning to be more resourceful, living more simply, and keeping most of our transactions closer to home. Besides, every crisis is really an opportunity to change for the better. We could all benefit from a community conversation to arrive at a common vision for Vashon, and to use our imagination and creativity to the fullest to build resilience into our future. It will take some time to build the trust and understanding we will need to work from.

For this reason, I have been interested in what the All Island Forum has been trying to do. They began meeting about a year ago after the mass resignation of the Community Council Board. It had become apparent that a better way had to be found to resolve conflict and make decisions. Rather than trying to resolve a problem within an hour of opposing statements and a vote, they have opted for a more casual, respectful exchange and discussion of positions, and allowing the conversation to continue through as many sessions as it takes to work toward agreement. Most of the time, the County will go along with a community decision if it is clear and has broad support as long as it doesn’t have serious financial implications. The important thing is that we address our own future and arrive at plans uniquely adapted to our situation.

The All Island Forum will be holding their second event, "Vashon: What Really Matters To You?" on Monday night, February 27th, 7-9pm at the Open Space. Join friends and neighbors to share ideas about the character and future of Vashon. They want as diverse as possible a group to attend this. If you feel that your interests have not been heard, they want you there to blend your ideas into the community pot. At the end, we will all decide what we found out and where we want to go from there. It should be fun and informative. Hope you can make it.

The Food Security Group will have its second session on emergency food storage, "Three Month Supply Basics," on Sat., Feb. 18, 10am-12pm and Mon., Feb. 20, 7-9pm. Although now full, call Cathy Fulton at 463 5652 to inquire about any openings.

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terry@vashonloop.org