Blaine Confidential

Glen Pentland, former member of the Downtown Advisory Committee, wrote an email to city council this week that addresses my concerns about the absence of public involvement in planning Blaine's future that is keeping us from moving forward. I have addressed the city council numerous times about this. 

When Lummi Nation defeated the coal export developers at Xwe'chi'eXen (Cherry Point), Lummi councilman Jeremiah Julius called Cherry Point their Jerusalem, a sacred place where their ancestors resided prior to being displaced by white settlers. Long before it was a toxic waste site occupied by petroleum refineries, Cherry Point was a place of significance in Lhaq'temish (Lummi) culture. As one of several prime reef netting locations, Xwe'chi'eXen was a community of unpolluted abundance. Recently, the petroleum industry announced its intention to come after Washington state and all the "clean green" programs initiated by the Washington Legislature and Governor Inslee. While Washington develops the latest in electrical conversion of its ferries, the petroleum industry is preparing for war in 2024.  Meanwhile, toxic discharge by the Cherry Point oil refineries into the Salish Sea continues. They can't even imagine a future without them. But I can. Imagine...

The usual modus operandi (m.o.) of the theocratic bigots is to conflate issues by repeating ad nauseum imaginary problems caused by treating transgender people like human beings who need our empathy in dealing with a very traumatic experience rather than our scorn. The two most repeated horrors relate to restrooms and sports, as though such minor problems cannot be easily resolved by goodwill and ingenuity. Unisex restrooms with private stalls and open walls so teachers and staff can see any misbehavior such as smoking and bullying are one. We use unisex port-a-johns at public events all the time, so it's not insurmountable. And transgender students would no longer get bladder infections because they are discriminated against wherever they go.

Culture (worship earth) began as an expression of gratitude for the generosity of nature. This gave rise to matriarchal religions of joy and love, later supplanted by the perverted patriarchal religions of fear and hate.  Reality-based matriarchal religions thus succumbed to fictional patriarchal religions designed by men to dominate women. Based on faith rather than reason, the fear and hate religions operated on the principle of exclusion, thus displacing understanding with belief. Children brainwashed by fear and hate doctrine are often damaged for life, unable to overcome the social pressures to conform to an unhealthy mindset, instilled by notions of a vengeful god. The story of Sarah Cloyce helps us to understand the Puritan roots of this scourge in America.

It has now been one month since Blaine and Birch Bay voters elected a bigot to Blaine School Board, and only one citizen of Blaine has said a word--me. Despite inciting violence against LGBTQ+ students, Cliff Freeman won by a wide margin. 

Tragic as it is, the scourge of fentanyl is but one of many symptoms of a society that has given up hope. Even the mania of mindless consumerism cannot heal our collective soul.  We can continue to destroy other countries who never did anything to us, or we can redeploy our tax dollars toward healing and housing here at home, instead of enriching war profiteers like Dick Cheney.  The oil wars were bipartisan, as were the bank bailouts, which signals a level of corruption that might seem insurmountable today, but it is a battle worth fighting--win or lose.

Anomie, a state or condition of individuals or society characterized by a breakdown or absence of social norms and values, would seem to describe America today. It was recently noted in CDN that a whopping 51% of eligible voters in Whatcom County bothered to vote, compared to 36% in King County. This means roughly half of our citizens cannot be bothered to take ten minutes a year for democracy.