And a Swift note
A Short Pre-script:
The response to and readership of last week’s post “I Think I’m Becoming a Swiftie” was entertaining and broad. A friend, Dale Damron, remarked, “I tried seeing you as a shrieking front row adulatory fan with a faux leather “Fearless bracelet”…….I’ll try not to do that again.” The post also garnered one of the highest click rates on one link that I’ve yet seen. The link was to U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell’s (D-CA) video set to Taylor Swift’s “Only the Young.” I still find that YouTube video inspiring and for that reason I offer the link again in case you missed it.
Vote!
Every year for at least the last twenty years a February Special Election has been held in Spokane County. (Source: Spokane County Election archives) This year ballots are due in by next week, Tuesday, February 13th. These elections don’t get a whole lot of publicity for a simple reason: the February Special Elections are locally specific. They usually concern proposed bonds, levies, and local propositions relevant to local school districts, libraries, and municipalities. In any given February Special Election your particular address may not lie within any district for which there is an issue, and, consequently, no ballot will appear in your mailbox at all.
If your voting address lies within Spokane County, it is likely that you’ve already received a February 13th Special Election Ballot in the mail—as well as a copy of “Your Spokane County Official Voters’ Pamphlet.” Click here for an online version of the Pamphlet, here for more information, or here for access to what’s on your particular ballot at vote.wa.gov. I urge you to click that last link to vote.wa.gov, sign in (or register), and explore. It is an education in itself. Click around, look in the nooks and crannies. There is a lot of information there, including “Explanatory Statements” for each issue and “Arguments For and Against”.
Just as one example, if your voting address is within the city limits of the City of Spokane your ballot includes “Measure No. 2” offering an amendment to the city charter concerning redistricting. I was a bit leery of it at first, but under “Arguments For and Against” for Measure No. 2 one learns that the two City Council Members who were somewhat at odds over the recent city redistricting process, CM Zack Zappone and CM Michael Cathcart, jointly wrote the “Argument For”. In addition, “After repeated recruitment attempts, no volunteers against the ballot measure came forward to write a statement.” That was good enough for me. I voted “Yes.”
After all the attacks in recent years on school boards and libraries driven by über-conservative, pseudo-religious groups like “Mom’s For Liberty” I consider it my civic duty to cast a “yes” vote for pretty much any bond or levy proposal put before me. I know that is emotional and certainly not strictly rational, but I figure that I helped elect the people who serve on the boards that make these proposals, people serving on these boards without pay, usually as a civic duty. The least I can do is support what they propose.
I don’t personally spend much time in libraries. I have internet in my home. I have a computer. I usually buy, rather than borrow, books. But here’s the thing: I know there are a lot of people not as fortunate as I who rely on libraries for exactly those things. Moreover, libraries are increasingly seen and used as community spaces for people of all ages. Let’s support that. For more about libraries, levies, and bonds if you have a Spokesman subscription read Emry Dinman’s “Stakes are high for Spokane Public Library as it recovers from pandemic.”
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry