So, there’s this little strip of land in downtown Olympia that has become the focus of much arguing and fighting. Some people want to build high rise buildings on it, some others think it ought to be a park. This post is not about which of those viewpoints I agree with. I’m still trying to figure that out.
This post is about why the discussion has to be so mean. Really, people, does every land use disagreement have to end up ugly? Does every discussion of importance in our society have to be framed for winners and losers? Are we really becoming a culture of people who just line up and shout at each other?
These are real things that people have said to me about this issue:
Pro-high rise person: You will be responsible for the death of downtown Olympia if you don’t approve this.
Anti-high rise person: If you approve this you will rip the very heart out of this city.
Pro-high rise person: People who oppose this are delusional anarchists.
Anti-high rise person: People who support this are greedy fascists.
Pro-high rise person: If you don’t vote for this you will be finished on the City Council.
Anti-high rise person: If you don’t vote against this you will be finished on the City Council.
The hyperbole is objectionable enough, but the anger coming from the people who want to talk about this issue is really astonishing. People who have lived here for much longer than me (6 years) tell me they’ve never seen anything like it.
A former City Council member, T.J. Johnson, has fanned the flames by posting this screed claiming the Olympia City Council has been taken over by “the forces of greed”. Really? T.J.? I’ve been sitting in your seat for just 6 months and you want to treat me that way? That after I posted this in response to your arrest while you were serving on the Council.
My Reaction to TJ Johnson’s War ProtestThu, 03/15/2007 - 17:10 — rhenda
If I had to point to one thing that makes this country worth defending with my life it would be that people here are, more than any other place on the planet, afforded the opportunity to make decisions based entirely on their own conscience. That kind of freedom is so precious to me that (if it came to middle aged grannies fighting in the streets to protect it) I would take up arms and fight.
Olympia City Council Member TJ Johnson has recently made a decision of conscience that led him to subject himself to arrest in protest of the United States occupation in Iraq. Like most peace loving people in Olympia, I was invited to join TJ and the others in his action. I declined. While I share their opposition to the Iraq war and subsequent occupation, I do not believe the way to express my disapproval is by encouraging military people to defy their civilian authority and follow my lead instead. I think I have a right to my own decisions of conscience precisely because the United States military is loyal to a civilian chain of command. I would not want it any other way. We have a name for governments where the military sets the foreign policy: dictatorship.
My quarrel, and TJ’s, is with the civilian command. I work through peaceful means to change the command. The work is frustrating and most of the time it seems my efforts are not producing any results. Sometimes I think people just aren’t listening and I think maybe doing something drastic would get their attention. Then I think better of it and get back to the tedious business of being politically effective in what ways I can.
TJ made a different choice. While I disagree with his choice, I won’t condemn him for it. TJ is a patriot, just like me, and I don’t think his act of conscience makes him any less fit to serve on the Olympia City Council.
–Rhenda
I wrote this while people in the community were calling T.J. a traitor. I wrote this when it would have been more politically expedient to issue a press release calling for his resignation. Now that he’s off the council and I’m on (reminder: I did not run against him, he chose not to run) he is lobbing grenades at me and my colleagues. Nice.
What has happened to civility?
