Strong Feelings Change Nothing

That was the headline in a recent copy of the Reflector; I found it painfully applicable to a situation detailed in a different article.

That article, titled instead "State invites comments on SR-502 project" explained just exactly what will happen when WSDOT turns 219th St into a four lane highway, changing the lives of everyone in the area. Let me quote the article itself, as it displayed unusual genius for listing each catastrophic effect in a numbingly banal fashion.

"Create 28 acres of new impervious surfaces"--Well that's an incredible way to put it. A full 28 acres of asphalt poured between us and the ground. Hopkins wrote "nor can Man's foot feel, being shod". I think this lends new meaning to his poem...oh, the world is still charged with the grandeur of God, but in an age of progress and efficiency, society will try to keep God's handiwork to an absolute minimum while vaunting Man's creations to the utmost. How anyone can really view "impervious surfaces" as an improvement on grass remains mysterious to me. But then I was always the one asking why today's society values money over land. True value seems beyond anyone's ability to grasp these days.

"Convert 54-60 acres of grassland, forest, and agricultural land to roadway"--Tell me I am not the only human being left on this earth whose heart does not cry out in agony at that chilling statement. I cannot further expound on it: it is devastation.

"Displace 16-22 businesses and 20-30 homes"--Here we come to something I cannot regard as other than evil. I understand that Eminent Domain is within the government's prerogative, and that building roads is considered necessary for the common good. (Thank goodness there are still some who question the governement's power to arbitrariliy throw up strip malls where it chooses.) But something in me rebells at the thought of any man coming onto my property and telling me I must sell or the government will condemn my land and do with it whatsoever it pleases. It is vile to set a price on the roots we send into our land, to so calculatingly evaluate the deep and natural love we have for home. Vile and loathsome to tell a homeowner that his protests amount to nothing and that if he does not sell he will be forceably evicted. (Oh yes, with compensation. How kind.)

"Adversely affect three historically significant properties"--At this point, that's just icing on the cake.

Tomorrow is our independence day. I wonder how independent we can truly say we are when we, American citizens, cannot own property. We rent it from the government through property taxes and live there at the government's pleasure. If the day comes when the government decides it needs what we jestingly say we "own", it's a wry smile, wad of cash to the hand, and swift kick in the back. Do I have strong feelings about this? Strong feelings about the fate of those who live in places WSDOT has decreed should be highway instead? About the government's legal right and indisputable propensity to ruin lives? Yes I do.

But as the headline so aptly stated, it changes nothing.

guess whose feast day it is!

The Magnetic Fields song "All My Little Words" on a Gameboy

First I decided I had writer's block. Then I started thinking about beautiful my home environs is. So I thought I would post a picture and have done. But the more I think about my home, the less able I am to remain silent. It is in my personality to cling with fierce loyalty to that which is familiar and loved. I prefer my house to all others, my street to all others, my county, my state, my region of the country, and so on.
However, I think even laying aside my natural bias, there is a strong case to be made here. The Pacific Northwest may be the most beautiful place in the world. I remember flying over the Willamette Valley as I came back from Michigan from the summer and actually catching my breath as the color hit me. Your eyes almost refuse to believe that anything could be that green. After months spent in the Midwest, it was all I could do to stop myself from believing my home was, in fact, enchanted. I don't deny that Michigan has a beauty all its own, but in comparison with Washington or Oregon it is staid and almost bland. There is something exotic and eerie about the forests and waterfalls here; something that makes you wonder if you aren't toeing the line between this world and the land of Ireland's Sidhe. I grew up surrounded by woods and water, bounded by the Ocean and in view of three massive volcanoes. Mountains were my horizon and I could smell the freshness and mystery of the sea with every breath.

So I started google imaging the Pacific Northwest...you know, to post a picture. I had to cut myself off. There were just too many. As you can tell.

A Canticle Resung

The first book of the summer for me was A Canticle for Leibowitz. It was the second time around, and definitely intensified upon the rereading. While before I was distracted by the strangeness of the setting and trying to figure out why a creature of primal innocence was frolicking in the wreckage of a nuclear disaster at the end, this time I was blown away by the power of its Catholic core. It is one of the most Catholic novels I have ever read, and were I to create a list of best Catholic novels ever written, it would go in my top three. It is an extraordinary work that masterfully propounds the Church's position on human life and man's relation to God.

It also is the reason I first became intersted in the Wandering Jew, who is far and away the most memorable character of the story. The first time I read it, I did not catch how clearly he is supposed to be Lazarus (I don't know how I didn't notice--it's pretty blatant) and it prompted me to look up the Wandering Jew story on Wikipedia. It sounds like an interesting Medieval tale, and I'm very interested to further explore its relation to the Joseph of Arithemea Arthurian legends.

I also found a Wandering Jew plant in Shorty's and have since found references to him in all sorts of literature.

you ain't no kind of man...

...if you ain't got land.

So spake Danny Glover's character in Silverado. I think he was right, at least in part. To me, wealth in the land you own is infinitely more valuable and defining than hard cash or stock options. Which is why Eminent Domain makes my skin crawl.

Sure--the government will reimburse you for your loss. Sorry there's a highway running through your orchard, but here's a few thousand to ease the pain. This is, methinks, a pretty clear case of someone knowing the price, but not the cost.

How can money mend the heartache of seeing something you've known and loved taken and changed unalterably? Memories cannot be bought, love is not purchasable. When you grow up or grow old with the land, the loss of it is beyond price. At that point, the idea of someone thinking they could make good the loss is almost insulting. There is a country road just two miles from my home that is going to be turned into a four lane highway sometime soon. Apparently our good representatives in the State legislature felt that the convenience of four lanes just couldn't be passed up. So those who live on either side of that road will bid farewell to ancient apple trees, blueberries, and other irreplaceable landmarks so that the devilishly impatient denizens of Battle Ground can whiz along to the freeway with even more reckless abandon.

And don't worry! Not only will this be more convenient, the land "owners" whose land is being appropriated by the Department of Transportation will be compensated in full.

I don't think the good folks in charge of this project have the faintest idea of what the cost will really be.

In the words of the fantastically sarcastic Dirty Harry: "Marvelous."

This American Life

For those of this blog's readers who are fans of This American Life (as I am), there is a nifty way to download any episode you like. Just type in http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/EPISODENUMBER.mp3 to the search bar with EPISODENUMBER replaced with the episode you want. (1-382 currently). For a list of the best episodes to try, go here http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Favorites.aspx.