Memories of 9/11

My remaining little bird in the nest was working on a school project this week and came with interview questions for me regarding my memories of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  I do remember that day. 

I was quietly lying in bed, listening to NPR, while my husband shaved and waiting for him to leave the bathroom so I could get started on my day.  Because of my experience as a Macy's Christmas season temporary in the Contra Costa Mall when a small plane crashed into it in the 1980's, I knew right away that the planes had purposefully been flown into those buildings.  The year of 2001 had been very difficult for our family beginning with the very harsh impact of the Dot Com bust on our small business, the February Nisqually earthquake which left our home with significant latent damage, a family member who was significantly injured in a car accident in March, and on that day my country was under attack.

My daughter bravely left a few days later to take her first job in New York on Long Island as a nanny.  I remember thinking that it was probably the safest time in years to be flying. My oldest son was on a mission for two years for our church, and while I worried for him, I was actually glad he was not in America during those weeks and thought he was probably safer in Brazil. Of all the many heroes of 9/11, I was most moved by the brave passengers of Flight 93 who represent the best sacrifices of the ordinary and imperfect American in doing what we think of as right and moral when faced with extraordinary circumstances.

Reflecting back, in some ways, I think the terrorists accomplished what they set out to do by destabilizing our economy which had large institutions building ever larger houses of cards based on what really cannot be described as anything short of fraud.  While it is convenient to blame the government and large corporations, individuals who stretched the truth in a variety of ways have a lot to do with the sub prime loan mess that ultimately took the economy down.  I do believe without the significant interruption and blast to our social fabric caused by the terrorist attacks of that fateful day, we could have happily continued kicking the can down the road.  Much of this fraud would not have taken place but for the climate created by deregulation of the financial industry and the glorification and reward of greed caused by regulators looking the other way as long as the economic boom continued.

It boggles my mind to hear calls for reducing regulation as a way to grow the economy when clearly that is how we got to where we are today because we created a climate where the worst inclinations of some of the people toward greed and corruption could grow unchecked and unfettered.  As I attend my church in the morning with a few hundred other people during our regularly scheduled Stake Conference, I expect to hear various speakers mention 9/11.  I will silently ponder the loss of so many lives on that day and the loss of so many lives since then.  I will mentally pray for all who suffer innocently and those who suffer in their guilt.  I will ask myself again what I as an individual should do differently in terms of my own integrity and ethics and I will continue to support thoughtful, prudent regulation and fully funded government enforcement of regulation to protect against those very human foibles of greed and corruption which put us all at risk.

I hope other Americans will also end their personal reflections on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks with an increased sense of urgency to do the right thing, even when we have to make a small or large personal financial sacrifice (i.e. pay taxes or comply with a regulation that we think perhaps shouldn't apply to us-and I've got a few I don't like as a small business owner), or whether it is funding our promises to our senior citizens, caring for our disabled poor or simply saying that we will not tolerate the fraudulent business activities that threaten the financial health of our country and people in the same way that we have mobilized to fight terrorism.

 Cross posted on my Law Blog on September 10, 2011.

Tom Foley: Another Eastern Washington Democrat and Champion of Civility in Politics

Last Saturday at the 4th Congressional District Democrats meeting, the chair, George Fearing, asked those assembled to introduce themselves and talk about their favorite Washington State Democratic Politician past or present.  George went last with some prompting from those assembled.  As it turns out, George spoke movingly about the character and civility of Tom Foley.  Tom Foley was the Fifth District congressman who ultimately became Speaker of the House.  A few links I recommend to learn more about Tom Foley and his legacy are:

A wonderful video featuring Tom Foley on government service:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWEPWm3Le50 
Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Foley
The Foley Institute at WSU:  http://foley.wsu.edu/about/index.asp

The "Lovefest" and a Post Fourth Potpourri

Regarding the Doc Hastings Fundraiser at Wild Horse, a Republican friend of mine, has dubbed it the "Lovefest."  Yet another Republican friend of the Tea Party persuasion finds it a disgusting use of taxpayer money in that PSE received a 26 million dollar windfall of sorts from the Stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) and now they are providing payola to politicians.  To your neophyte chair of the Democrats it appears that this is now how things will work ever after, after Citizens United, and how things worked in the past.  To my Kittitas Democrats who seem to have convinced themselves that the Republicans in Kittitas County have everything together in perfect harmony, I say not so, mon cheri.

I heard only good things about the Kittitas Democrats Fourth of July Activities.  Second Vice Chair James Green and State Committeewoman Anna Powell literally and figuratively carried the party banner in the upper county Pioneer Day Parade.  First Vice Chair Beverly Vifian, Treasurer Debbie Strand, Secretary Hanna Fredeen and Communications Guru Ben Oblas helped set up the booth with help from Ben's beloved Sara Oblas and the love of my life, Daryl Petrey, all volunteered at our table/booth at the City of Ellensburg's Fourth of July celebration.  And last, but not least, we thank Bruce Tabb, an endorsed candidate of the Kittitas Democrats for city council and sitting Mayor of the City of Ellensburg, for his assistance and the assistance of the lovely Mrs. Mayor, Von Ellison.

Returning from my Fourth of July odyssey to all things Idaho, I stopped at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just outside of Baker City.  Leading up to the center, highway signs announced that the roadside clean up was provided by the Baker County Democrats.  Very beautiful and no trash and wonderful publicity for that county committee and our party.  I was proud to be a Democrat.  Good Job Baker County Democrats!

Looking forward, your Kittitas County Chair wants to have a little fun and perhaps is stepping over the bounds of decency, but would really, really like to ride an equine of the long eared variety in the Ellensburg Rodeo parade.  If you have an animal of said ear length that can accommodate a person of size such as myself, I'd like to start tuning up both the long eared equine and my back end.  I do not have any objection to riding a Republican owned equine of long ear length.  Let the jokes from the peanut gallery begin . . . .

The Roslyn Shuffle

Funky stuff going down in Kittitas County and rumors of Republicans getting set to do the politcal version of the "Roslyn Shuffle."

It must be something in the water or the phase of the moon, because my inbox has been busier than normal and filled with many curiousities in regards to local political issues.  Among the strangest of the strange, was a forwarded email advising of a reception planned by the Puget Sound Energy PAC out at the Wild Horse Renewable Energy Center to honor Doc Hastings and raise money for him on July 18, 2011.  Proudly hosting the event are the three current sitting Republican Kittitas County Commissioners (Alan Crankovich, Obie O'brien, and Paul Jewell), my counterpart on the Republican side, Matt Manweller, and Representative Bill Hinkle.  If you've been around Kittitas politics involving land use for some time you may find this particular cast of characters playing in this venue quite ironic.

I'm wondering just exactly what it is that Doc Hastings has ever done to warrant being honored by PSE or anyone else in the wind energy industry?  Given that he voted against the stimulus spending and has criticized every form of stimulus spending put forth under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) as implemented by the Obama administration except the Highway Transportation Funds, it cannot be a thank you for the recent stimulus funds that PSE received in 2010 to expand the Wild Horse Wind Farm.  Or would it be to his general opposition to wind farms when the decision making process is not local, i.e. the EFSEC process leads to a final decision by the governor?

The local control issue is what has led Kittitas County to butt heads with a variety of state agencies. Commissioners Obie O'brien and Alan Crankovich often chant this mantra and have used it in regards to their comments on the wind industry.  Exercising "local control" has taken the form of utilizing the prosecutor's office to litigate issues that many voters think should not be litigated.  Or, as the independent candidate for Prosecutor in 2010 advocated, at minimum the commissioners should be required to hire their own outside counsel which would result in some small level of transparency as to the cost of such litigation.  Right now it is deeply buried in the prosecutor's budget.

I do believe that had there been "local control" there would have been no wind farms in Kittitas County.  Ever.  And that includes Wild Horse.  I have also witnessed more insiduous forms of "local control" which included a blatant threat made by Mr. Manweller against the then executive director of the local economic development group which took the form of advising her if she couldn't control the members of her board (and prevent them from supporting wind farms or bringing recall efforts) she would lose her job.  Never mind that in most non-profits the board "controls" the executive. 

Perhaps the oddest fellow playing the wind farm venue would be Paul Jewell who ran on a promise to extract royalties from the wind farms and may have won his commissioner seat on the basis of this false premise.  Never mind that he was advised both before and after his election that there isn't a legal way to impose a royalty on a wind farm here in Kittitas County.  Commissioner Jewell's most recent foray into places the county should not go includes a proposal to enter the water banking business in upper county by buying scarce water rights and allowing for "incidental uses" by certain select private citizens.  This screams obvious potential "appearance of fairness" issues.  There must be times that Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Neil Caulkins feels like a broken record when telling the commissioners no, no, and no.

Which only leaves Bill Hinkle who I know better than the other cast of characters.  I actually do think Bill supported the wind energy industry here but he was late in formulating an independent identity on the issue perhaps due to some fence sitting behind the idea of local control and also due to his personal and political involvement with real estate developers (who by the way are not monolithically Republican) in the county. Of all the Republicans listed, I find his presence at Wild Horse the least incongrous. Which now brings me to rumors of Republicans doing the Roslyn Shuffle.

There is a joke in the Upper Kittitas County town of Roslyn about the dating scene among single adults.   There is a limited pool of people to date, and, consequently, it is not unusual for a single resident in Roslyn to date someone who is an ex of a friend or relative, and have that friend or relative dating your ex, or your current partner's ex.  This is referred to as the Roslyn shuffle.  Rumors have circulated for months as to what Bill Hinkle will do next:  He will run for state wide office, he will run for county coroner, etc.  The current permutation involves Alan Crankovich resigning early, Bill Hinkle resigning early, Bill being appointed to County Commissioner (interesting because he is an Ex-Kittitas County Commisisoner), Matt Manweller, the current Republican County Party Chair, being appointed to fill Bill's legislative district seat, and so on . . .  and some form of sinecure employment somewhere being obtained for Alan Crankovich in exchange for leaving early(interesting because I'd always heard he just wanted to sit long enough to get a minimal number of years in his county pension anyway).  All of this occuring against the back drop of redistricting issues and additional rumors regarding more Republican elected officials in the county leaving early. 

As a political neophyte and new county chair of the minority party it will be interesting to watch. And, the Doc Hasting event out at Wild Horse may well be the theatre for the announcement of the results of the shuffle and the Republican positioning of candidates for the next election cycle.

Democratic Party Boosts Candidates Through Training Workshop and Endorsements

From a June 13, 2011 Press release-Special thanks to first vice chair Beverly Vifian for her assistance in drafting the press release.

June 13, 2011-Ellensburg, Washington:  The Kittitas County Democratic Party invites candidates for non-partisan office and anyone interested in running in either non-partisan or partisan offices in the future to attend a training workshop on June 23 at 7:00 pm in the conference room of the Rodeo City Barbecue Restaurant.   This hands-on, practical workshop features local presenters, including former Ellensburg City Councilman and Mayor Stan Bassett, Kittitas County Auditor Jerry Pettit, former Alaska campaign manager Steve Williams and others, who will share specific strategies that work.  Traditionally, members of the party meet at 6:00 p.m. to share dinner and conversation and the public and workshop attendees are invited to come early for the meal.

Candidates who have applied for one of the seventy non-partisan offices in Kittitas County may also seek early endorsement by submitting a one page request for endorsement by  June 22 at 5:00 pm.   There is no requirement that a candidate running for non-partisan office identify as a Democrat in order to receive an endorsement.  Endorsements are granted by vote of the Precinct Committee Officers in attendance at any meeting in which a vote for endorsement has previously been scheduled.  The party may consider additional endorsement requests at the August and September meetings and candidates should immediately request consideration by the party now.  Requests should be directed to Theresa Petrey, Chair, Kittitas County Democratic Central Committee, PO Box 1341, Ellesnburg, WA 98926, or via email to

Book Review: As Always, Julia

With one child in culinary school, I settled in with the movie Julie and Julia a few weeks ago.  I enjoyed it thoroughly and Meryl Streep's transformation into Julia Child is both charming and eerily accurate at the same time.  Thinking that I would attempt to do what Julie, the character in the movie, did and work my way though Mastering the Art of French Cooking over the course of the next year or so, I went in search of the venerable tome at one of Ellensburg's fine used bookstores.  While Brick Road Books did not have a copy, they did have the new collection of the letters between Julia Child and her pen pal, and, ultimately dear friend, Avis DeVoto. 

As Always, Julia is remarkable not only for the insight into the making of a cookbook classic, it offers important insights to all Democrats who came of age after the Bay of Pigs as to what life was like during those years, especially for Democratic women.  Both Julia and Avis make no attempt to hide their loathing of Senator McCarthy and the anti-communist fervor which some commentators have indicated touched one out of five Americans.  Indeed, Paul Child, Julia's husband who was a foreign service officer, was called to Washington to appear for questioning before the House Un-American Activities Committee.  As the movie suggests, Paul Child was questioned on the basis that he was a "treasonous homosexual."  All indications were that he was a straight man happily married to the love of his life.

The cultural climate was such that a political figure whose gay son was outed, actually took his own life after the revelation ruined his career.  Both Avis and Julia mirthfully recalled the "pixie-fairy"  incident in the McCarthy hearings wherein McCarthy staffers were gay bashed verbally.  This in spite of both the DeVoto and Child families having dear friends who were homosexual men or women.  While it would be tempting to think we've gone beyond that in 2011, I'm not entirely certain those attitudes have been eliminated in spite of the expansion of laws against hate crime and speech.

Avis, who was married to a prominent writer of the day, worked in publishing and had many literary friends of her own or due to the work of her husband, also met many political figures and government agency officials.  She made it her business to make sure Julia understood the campaigns of Adlai Stevenson and the yearning of Democrats to see him elected.  An entire array of other political luminaries and lesser governmental officers provide fodder for Avis to explain the political goings on of the day to the expatriate Julia.  Julia in turn provided Avis with the European outlook on American politics which was not positive in regards to the McCarthy hearings with most of the European press being profoundly disturbed and unsettled by the hearings.  Both women were not above "smack talking" the Republican opposition. 

The book is also a fascinating peek into the world of women forging a way for themselves in a work world that was not accommodating or fair to women.  When her husband Bernard died, Avis eventually had to leave publishing and take a more lucrative or at least steady job as a "house" secretary at Harvard.  Reading about the house selection procedures was a fascinating glimpse into a world that while it may still exist, seems like something right out of the Harry Potter books.  Avis eventually returns to work at Alfred Knopf.  It is easy to see the role both women were societally required to play in building or maintaining their husband's careers by entertaining or being entertained. 

It was satisfying to finish As Always, Julia on the first night of my foray into Mastering the Art of  French Cooking.  In the letters between Avis and Julia the stated concerns of the executives at Houghton Mifflin over the size of the book, the style of explanation and the general intimidation level to the American Housewife were laid out ad nauseum.  However, they were right.  I did feel intimidated, the book did seem too big and it seemed like a lot of trouble to take on these recipes.  Add to that the fact that I don't drink and so many of the meat recipes include wine or cognac, I was mentally telling myself this really isn't for me.  Then I discovered I was out of milk, onions and had no Swiss cheese in the house.  I persevered though and I did roast a chicken (Poulet Roti) and make scalloped potatoes with Meat Stock and Cheese (Gratin Savoyard).  The results were absolutely delicious and there will be many more meals with Julia in our house.

Local Democratic Party History-Colin and Margaret Condit

Colin and Margaret are providing our fundraising dinner venue next week on St. Patrick's day, read a few things you may not have known about them in this Daily Record Article.
Many thanks to Willa Lou Brukhetta for hosting and Jay Clough for agreeing to be our Keynote person at this event.