“Have you ever driven while drunk?” a young lawyer asked me.  “Have you known anyone who has received a DUI?  Are you or anyone close to you a police officer?”  The questions were easy to answer, and yet one by one potential jurors were dismissed from the case.  Of those left, I was the youngest of the “chosen” to preside over a three-day period of both sides presenting evidence of a young Hispanic man accused of driving while drunk.  Of course, it was my unfortunate intuition that proved me right when my number was chosen as the alternative juror, so I was not allowed to determine the fate of the accused – a young and stupid person who had over twelve beers in his system, but who was never actually seen driving.  He claimed he had walked home, lost his house keys, so let himself into a broken-down car and fallen asleep in the driver’s seat, where he was found by a police officer.

In the case of Camille A. Spink of Everett, the accused will not get off with a not-guilty verdict.  Two people have already died because of Camille’s decisive action to drink over her known limit and then proceed to drive, with the intention of arriving at a bar, no less.  Sheena Blair was one of the victims this past winter.

Sheena Blair’s death rocked Pierce County locals – hundreds knew Sheena directly, and thousands of others indirectly through her father, Frank Blair, a local radio talk show host who always glowed about his two beautiful daughters to whoever would listen to him.  Since the February 26, 2010 deaths, thousands are experiencing the raw pain of Frank Blair through his Facebook updates, radio shows, emails, and personal encounters.

I haven’t seen Frank since we met up at Tacoma’s Bull’s Eye shooting range for a few rounds of target practicing right before Sheena’s death.  As we were taste-testing whose doughnuts were better, Frank told me I should meet Sheena as he knew we’d be fast friends.  A few months later, Chris called to tell me Sheena had been killed the night before, hit by Camille A. Spink, who knowingly drove while intoxicated.

A fellow friend’s pain hurts to the core.  How do you provide comfort to someone who has lost one of the most precious gifts?  “I’m so sorry,” repeated thousands of times must either hurt or keep you chilled inside.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Sheena or Frank.  I had to tell the story to everyone I met, just to keep the sadness from rotting my insides.  In March, I went to a hairdresser and yet again told the tragic events.  My hairdresser, who is usually a very chatty individual, went stone-cold silent.  The next thing I felt were hot tears falling on my neck, and a soft sob escaping her lips.  My hairdresser, a 30-something woman, was grief-stricken.  I suddenly felt like a priest as I listened to her spill her guts regarding her three DUI’s.   I was incredulous, then angry.  Who in their right minds could have three DUI’s?  For the next hour my hair was in a firm grip as she told me how stupid she had been and how sorry and told me to tell Frank she promises to never, ever, drink and drive.

Frank Blair is developing a grass-roots campaign to lobby the Washington State Legislature to accomplish two tasks: the first has to do with enforcement, adjudication and incarceration of drunk drivers.  The second has to do with providing people who drink with reasonable accommodation and a viable alternative to driving while intoxicated.  To support Frank and his request to the State Legislature, become a follower of his blog, write your state representatives, and most importantly, write to the Judge presiding over the sentencing of Camille A. Spink.  Ask for the maximum sentence.

Frank writes:

I try hard to not dwell on our loss, I get up every day and do what I’m supposed to do. Some days it’s almost robotic, some days feel almost “normal”. People ask if some days are better than others. I tell them that it’s more like some days suck less than others. This is NOT getting easier. It is NOT going away. The first couple months, some “things” or some kind of trigger would set me off. Like Sheena’s stuff or a benchmark day. Now I get sad for no particular, specific reason. These God Damn sunny days get to me. We used to pack up the family and the dogs and go places. We still do, not as much, but it’s not the same. I wish it would rain. I wish for thunderstorms, but that would rain on everyone else.

I DO have ways to cope. I can write. I can beat my drum and pray for strength. I can also vent through two 15″ JBL D140Fs and a 100 watt 42 year old bass amp. I can turn it WAY up and just hit an open E chord and let it sustain. It’s like screaming, but it doesn’t hurt your voice. I can bang out speed metal riffs over and over. It’s cleansing. OR I can turn on the chorus and play melodic, lyrical phrases, it’s soothing.

One thing I am NOT doing is self-medicating. Thank God. I am NOT making any major decisions. For the first time in memory, I am avoiding crowds. I don’t know when a wave of sadness will come; I have NO control over my emotions. I allow myself to be sad, I don’t force stoicism. When I write, I try to be honest and not hyperbolic or self-indulgent. When people ask how I’m doing I try to NEVER say “fine” because I am NOT fine. For the first time in my life, I cry more than I laugh.

I miss Sheena more than I thought possible. I allow myself to grieve. I do my best to not wallow in it or obsess. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to function at all and if I didn’t physically force myself to go out and do stuff, I could easily sink into a deep depression that could lead to a catatonic mental paralysis. I can’t do that, I have responsibilities. Amy [Frank’s daughter] for one, my own health for another.  Besides, the alleged perpetrator got one of us, that’s ALL she gets.

So that’s how I’m doing. For those of you who think I’m all strong and stuff, I appreciate the sentiment, but I actually feel like a scared man struggling to maintain my grip. I feel like a gelatinous mass of sorrow. I was sitting on my front porch yesterday and saw a little red car drive down 80th street. For a split second, I thought “Sheena’s home”, I catch myself doing that once in a while. It hurts….again. This is all normal I’ve been told, but it doesn’t make it easier. It’s not supposed to be easy, it’s not.

If you wish to join Frank in solidarity, please submit your comments on Frank’s blog, http://franksblog.org/ and volunteer your time, writing and/or lobbying skills and let’s get Sheena’s Bill passed.

For consecutive weeks now, the City Council of University Place has been the target of TEA Party (my description – not necessarily theirs) protests and ploys.  These activist have at times filled the council chamber to capacity, dominated public comment, and – although I have not personally witnessed it – reportedly threatened elected members once the camera goes off.

Their aim is to derail possible attempts by the council to put levies on the ballot – levies that would provide for the maintenance of streets, to replenish a depleted police force, and to keep parks and recreations afloat.  Some have openly stated that they would like to see the Cirque/Bridgeport Skate Park closed and paved over with cement – suggesting that the park represents an undeserved luxury for local youth and promotes unlawful behavior.

These activists believe that by dominating the discussion at council, they can convince those council members who remain on the fence that they speak for the majority of their community.  This assertion is unlikely, given that University Place recently approved a school levy by a +60% majority.

Nevertheless, inside sources suggest that their weekly protests are proving effective, and that if more moderate members of the community don’t begin to attend and address the council immediately – UP residents could see a steep decline in terms of public services and general quality of life.

Key meetings will be held at City Hall on April 26, 27th and May 3rd to decide the fate of countless boards/commissions, parks and public services.  I urge anyone living in UP to check the city’s calendar and compare it with their own to see if they are available to attend one of these upcoming meetings and share their thoughts on these proposed actions in a calm and constructive way.  I also encourage anyone who is reading this to forward this article to their UP friends and spur a real debate: before it’s too late.

Last night I received the following email from Historic Tacoma.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with American Express has chosen 25 historic properties in the Seattle-Puget Sound area to compete for  $1 million in preservation grants. Of those 25 properties, two are located in Tacoma, the Spanish Steps and westside’s Titlow Park Lodge.  Sites in Pierce County include the Anderson Island Historical Society’s Johnson Farm; the Orting Soldiers Home, Garfield Hall; and Skansie Brothers Net Shed in Gig Harbor.  How can you help assure that these funds come to Tacoma and Pierce County?  You can VOTE!  Just go to www.partnersinpreservation.org where you can vote for one project each day from April 15th through May 12.  Not only can you vote, you can forward this information to friends, family and co-workers or post it on your Facebook page and encourage them to vote.  Not only will your vote inform the overall grant making process, but the top vote recipient is guaranteed to have their project funded; a number of the other 25 properties will receive some level of funding.  You can learn more about the process on the Partners in Preservation Website….Historic Tacoma encourages you to VOTE for funding for these Pierce County projects and to help spread the word by encouraging others to vote too.

The criteria that determined how these historical sites were selected for this process is explained here.

Several hours after casting my first vote and I still find myself stuggling with the concept of assigning significance to a historic place based upon the contemporary sentiments of the modern majority.  Granted, that’s not what Partners In Preservation is advocating – all of these sites are already winners for having made it onto the ballot and this election will not, in itself, determine anything beyond a “grant” to the most popular place.  Nevertheless, it would certainly seem absurd if the National Parks Department, in the face of declining revenue, were to hold an online election asking citizens to vote for their favorite national treasure to ensure funding.

Imagine being asked to dissect and then appraise the historical significance of Pearl Harbor relative to Gettysburg. Then again, by offering this very analogy I betray my own message and reveal that in fact I have already placed greater value in Pearl Harbor and Gettysburg as historical landmarks than Tacoma’s Spanish Steps or the 5th Avenue Theatre.  In the end, perhaps I’m really just full of myself, and this whole article is just about me trying to fill space on The Melon.

Still, the fact that after two days of voting only one Pierce County historical site - the Skansie Brothers Net Shed – has climbed its way into a top-ten ranking suggest to me that something about this process is sacrilegious.

As Chris Van Vechten’s article so candidly presented, it’s time for a change in Washington State and we need to start with our name. Washington State is the most uncreative State name in the country and by changing it to something far more interesting and representative we’d be the first State in history to do so.

Vote for the name which you believe suits Washington best and we will then draft a proposal to the state legislature asking our elected leadership to adopt legislation to formally change the name of our state.  In 2010, The Melon will endorse only those candidates who agree to change the name from Washington to our newly endorsed alternative.

It may be political suicide for me to say this, but when I forget to take my adderall I lose all fear of such things.  I’ve been saying it for years, as a name “Washington” is the least creative nom de guerre awarded to any state in our union.

Aside from the obvious fact that our state shares its name with the nation’s capitol (consequently leading to unnecessary confusion across the heartland) our state lacks any of the indigenous flavor that peppers our neighbors.  States christened in native tongues include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North/South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Other states were named by explorers who found something unique about the land, it’s climate, or people.  These include: Colorado (from the spanish, “ruddy” or “red”), Florida (from the spanish Pascua Florida, meaning “feast of flowers” (Easter)), Maine (used to distinguish the mainland from the offshore islands), Montana (from the spanish word meaning “mountain.”), Nevada (spanish for “Snow-Capped”), Vermont (after the french “vert mont,” meaning “green mountain”)

A few were named after similar places.  These include: New Hampshire (From the English county of Hampshire) New Jersey (from the English island of Jersey), New Mexico (you guessed it) and New York (after the English city of York), Rhode Island (after the Greek island of Rhodes)

Finally, there are states whose names were derived from the imaginations of Europe’s most popular writers, like California and Indiana; and states with names whose origins remain a complete mystery to linguists and historians alike.  These include: Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and Oregon.

True, a few states were named to honor certain individuals – but that was usually accomplished by adding an “a” at the end of the name:  Georiga (after England’s king Georgia II), Louisiana (in honor of Louis XIV of France), Maryland (in honor of Henrietta Maria (queen of Charles I of England), North/South Carolina (in honor of Charles I of England), Pennsylvania (in honor of Adm. Sir William Penn), Virginia/West Virginia (after Queen Elizabeth).

Washington remains the only state named after a president and that president is usually ranked second to Lincoln in the public’s esteem.

So I vote we change our name to something more appropriate and fitting of this great land we call home.  I have a list of suggestions and will be accepting more as the days and weeks go by before asking you – The Melon’s loyal readership – to vote on which name you like best.  We will then draft a proposal to the state legislature asking our elected leadership to adopt legislation to formally change the name of our state (a first in United States history).  In 2010, The Melon will endorse only those candidates who agree to change the name from Washington to our newly endorsed alternative. (We would have settled for a pledge to introduce a flat income tax but that seems unrealistic.)  The following is my brief list of alternatives.

1)  North Oregon

2)  West Idaho

3)  New Canada

4)  American Columbia

5)  Cascadia

6)  Salmonia

7)  Seatacolycane (Seattle -Tacoma -Olympia-Spokane)

8)  Clevelend’s Folly

9)  Middle Earth

10)  Altruria

11)  Ecotopia

12)  Camelot

13)  Wankalupa

14)  Aquaterra (water land)

15)  Verdeterra (green land)

16)  Washingtonia

17)  Skoocoom (lummi for “supernatural”)

18)  Sasquatch

19)  Holistic

You may vote for any of these or suggest your own. The top 10 will be funneled into a poll until we reach the final name.

The Melon has just received word that the 2010 World Tulip Summit will be taking place in our very own Washington State. We’d heard rumors of the splendor that is the Skagit Valley Tulips but now they’re officially world renown.

The 2010 World Tulip Summit will take place April13-15 up in Skagit Valley, which is about 2 hours North of Tacoma and 1 hour North of Seattle.

What is the World Tulip Summit exactly? Apparently is an event where tulip experts, festival organizers, enthusiasts, aficionados and tulip-crazy individuals convene to talk shop, celebrate the beauty of the flower and promote the symbols of tulips – friendship and spring.

Find out more about this gorgeous festival at http://www.2010worldtulipsummit.com/.

Tall Ships is sunk; at least for the foreseeable future. Most natives to Tacoma fondly remember 2005 when the ships first sailed into the City of Destiny. The event itself was unspeakably cool and something very alien to Tacoma: a festival that was created by the Non-Profit Organization, Tacoma Events Commission, for the sole purpose of cultivating the community of the city. Strangely enough, it worked. The festival in 2005 was a resounding success. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Tacoma Events Commission a group of non-profit volunteers networked with local businesses to create a majestic weekend for the citizens of this gun-metal gray cesspool. In 2008, however, the vultures that govern this city gorged themselves on the carcasses of the small businesses that were civically minded enough to invest their resources in Tall Ships.

The main difference between Tall Ships 2005 and Tall Ships 2008 (aside from the 400,000 USD that businesses were stiffed) was leadership. By 2005, the Tacoma Events Commission has spent four years of work to get the Ships into the city and after succeeding in starting a festival that was intended to enrich Tacoma for decades to come, everybody involved got reimbursed for their goods and services; even the police who charged an extra twenty grand for security at an event where the most dangerous thing was the amount of sugar being ingested by the patrons. But such behavior elicited by the Tacoma police department is a vast improvement from a few years ago when the chief was playing Russian roulette with his wife and everybody lost. Contrast the success of 2005 Tall Ships with the fiscal black hole of 2008. In 2008, the leadership was politicized away from the Tacoma Events Commission to Thea Foss Development Authority whose most notable achievement was constructing a museum of hippie paraphernalia associated with a pseudo-celebrity pretending to be an artist.

That and the vista of empty condos are great examples of the sheer idiocy of Thea Foss Development Authority. In their shortsighted if not blatantly dastardly strategy, TFDA thought it wise to funnel local dollars into out-of-town event planners. Because, logically, who better to re-vamp an already successful festival if not event planners from Mercer Island and Bellevue?

That’s not the worst of the Tall Ships pillage however. The most egregious acts of looting were when TFDA left numerous local businesses holding their empty hats when it came time to pay the bills. The best example is when the night before the event, TFDA contacted the local Signs by Tomorrow and took their name in the most literal translation. TFDA ordered thousands of signs in the evening that needed to be done the very next morning. Signs by Tomorrow worked their asses off throughout the night, completed the order, and then after Tall Ships was over, TFDA dicked them on the bill. They got nothing—less than nothing, in fact, because now they were out the materials for the signs and labor. If you don’t believe me call Signs by Tomorrow, and they will be happy to articulate how difficult it is for a small business to recovery from such an affront—if it is even possible. And why was Signs by Tomorrow so eager to front an order for the Tall Ships people? Because in 2005, when Tacoma Events Commission ran things, raping local business and re-directing local money to out-of-town assholes was not on their agenda. Signs by Tomorrow are only one example. The list of those who got fucked out their livelihood is rather lengthy including, but not limited to: AA Party Rentals, The Pollard Group, numerous dealers, vendors and sound system providers. TFDA also substantially raised the fee to have a table at the event promising an increase in sales to all those involved. That didn’t happen. The opposite happened instead. In 2008, pirates sailed into the city, raped and pillaged it for at least 400,000 dollars, then sailed away never to return.

The best part (or worst part, depending on your perspective) is that although these local businesses where collectively robbed for 400,000 USD, it is so expensive to go to court in this country where justice has a price-tag (as does everything else) that if one of the affronted business went to court, they would then heap on the associated fees with their current losses. That is to say: as the local businesses struggle in the upcoming years to recuperate their losses, they would also spend thousands of dollars and hours of their time to sue people who are rich enough to follow the law at the discretion of profit.

So I say, “Bon Voyage” to Tall Ships, and “Fuck you I hope there is a special ring of Hell for social rapists” to anyone involved in the 2008 plunder of Tacoma.

“I heart the 253″

Jack Faust

After learning a few weeks ago that the Tacoma School Board will finally start filming their meetings we were pleased to be able to set up a meeting with current School Board Member & Director for Resources for Education and Career Help (REACH) Kurt Miller.

Kurt was generous enough to sit down with us to discuss the decision to start filming, what that means, some of the current issues facing Tacoma Schools, as well as give us some information about the exciting new REACH center being built for Tacoma youth.  (Length – 42:04)

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As a former University of Puget Sound student who worked on the “Yes on Three” campaign to bring ranked choice voting (or, as we called it during the campaign, instant runoff voting) to Pierce County in 2006, I was disappointed to hear the news that the Pierce County Council voted put a repeal measure on the ballot this fall. Its action flies in the face of how well ranked choice voting (RCV) is working in other states and the rising support for the system, which now includes President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain.

Talking to friends back in Pierce County, the perception is that not enough voters understand the system. This comes as a big surprise to me. Of the countless number of voters that I talked to in 2006, only a single person objected to the system because they thought it was confusing. In the nine other municipalities that have run ranked choice elections this decade, voters have handled it quite well – in fact the number of invalid ballots was very low in Pierce’s RCV races as well. I have faith that people in my former county can handle ranking candidates just as well as they can in any of the other places using RCV.

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