When This Place Works - And Could Work Better

Beautiful October day over dry grass.

Yesterday's dental appointment was at 2:30 pm, and I had to take the 9:20 bus to Forks, so even after some small errands, had so much time left. Grabbed the Quilleute Tribal bus (runs on the hour) and went down to spend an hour at LaPush on the beach. 

On the busses, my position as the West End North Correspondent came in handy. Yes, that's my title - and get THAT on a nametag; the smaller the job, the longer the title.

The Mother Log on the LaPush beach.

I as able to start linking people up with the new health care system in Washington State, and maybe help a woman - and local vets - get coverage for dental, using specialized funds.

Discovered that people read this blog - where else would they be getting this information? - and they're learning and listening. 

Women agree boys, by hyperlinking on the internet and having to learn to spell, are getting smarter and listening to their mothers. They agree that trophy hunting - hunting for sport or "fun" - is a gateway drug to joining the military, where the ultimate prey can be accessed. We were talking hunting. I said there was NO problem with getting food if it was needed, and a hunter or fisher who fed the family has every right to be proud of that. We're omnivores - we put anything in our faces we can pick or catch. But triumphing over dead animals as though they're an enemy is reprehensible. If you're hungry, hunt and fish and eat. If you're not, leave them alone.

A woman liked the idea of having a yearly thanks ceremony to recognize the animals and fish who feed us, with respect and love and sorrow. As the Makah elder said, weeping as the whale came in: the young men had their tradition back - "But one of our brothers is dead."

A young man on the bus was upset about cash money, as opposed to barter. Somehow the rumor has got running around here that the Federal Reserve is a corporation, and not part of our government. I think it might originate in the prison being privatized. 

Amanita in the RV park

Let me explain money really quickly; it's not little pieces of paper. It's numbers. You may want to barter salmon for everything, but if you want to keep using that cell-phone, Centurylink does not maintain a Halibut Morgue (that's a local reference, to the holding freezer for fist at Neah Bay). If you want to barter, you have to get off the bus, and stop driving because Clallam County needs to run the busses on roads - and you'll have neither, because they don't keep a place to put cattle or dried elk meat. And somebody has to say how much those numbers or worth. Do you want to haggle over all your service bills? Actually, you can negotiate a lot of things - but it's a full-time job.

Credit cards are just numbers without the paper, and they provide short-term, high-interest loans, without application to a bank. That's all. Get 'em paid off on time, and no interest. Do NOT use those numbers unless you HAVE them! It's just a way not to carry paper in your pocket - as money was originally a way not to carry a cow in your pocket. 

Now here's a real - as the Makah call it - Rumor to Rumor moment. I was in a business, and a couple of old guys were angry because their pensions were being messed with. Something about how "specialty pulp" was involved. They mentioned the Florida logging company - the same one ripping the limbs off the Olympic Peninsula forests - was changing pensions. Some kind of trouble with the market. 

NO, I didn't ask. They'd have shut up. Resource-rip workers are like football players; they think the entire society needs to revolve around them, regardless of those damaged or left behind. It's only when their own lives are going to pieces because of what they did that we have to listen to their whining and blaming. And THIS environmentalist isn't going to ever let them get away with it again. Suck it up boys; if you're out of a job and your town goes ghost in the future - IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT.

This sounds an awful lot like the corporate idea of "We're done with you, now starve," is in action here. I don't have details. This isn't a tabloid or junk science site, distracting from real problems; I don't claim to be an expert. But - the first damages to the communities for throwing away the real future of their forests may be happening even now.