Coast Chronicles: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Published 8:38 am Monday, June 27, 2022

Ugly minority rule

Let’s start with the ugly — women are chattel again. This is where we now find ourselves in the U.S. of A. Max Boot, Washington Post columnist, émigré from the Soviet Union, and rightest-conservative who had “the scales fall from his eyes” when Trump announced his candidacy for president, puts it this way, “Alexander Hamilton warned that giving small states equal weight in the scale of power with large states violated the precepts of justice and common-sense. He argued that such a system contradicts ‘the fundamental maxim of republican government, which requires that the sense of the majority should prevail.’ Hamilton’s nightmare has become the reality of 21st-century America.”

Boot continues, “We are living under minoritarian tyranny, with smaller states imposing their views on the larger through their disproportionate sway in the Senate and the electoral college — and therefore on the Supreme Court. Twenty-one states with fewer total people than California have 42 Senate seats. This undemocratic, unjust system has produced the new Supreme Court rulings on gun control and abortion.”

Yep, six justices have turned their right-wing grievances into law, throwing us back to concerns only “deeply rooted” in the constitution, when, by the way, Blacks were slaves, only White men could vote, and “arms” were muskets and flintlock pistols. Dissenting Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan called out this ruling’s dishonesty, writing about that “deeply rooted” notion. “Either the [court’s] majority does not really believe in its own reasoning. Or if it does, all rights that have no history stretching back to the mid-19th century are insecure” (tinyurl.com/yp7pbu9z).

Majority values

Post-Uvalde, a poll shows that 65% of Americans want stricter gun controls; only 28% are opposed. On abortion 54% of Americans want to preserve Roe v. Wade; only 28% want to overturn it. Fifty-eight percent want abortion to be legal in most or all cases. Yet we have a Supreme Court demanding fealty to views that were popular in the 1950s. America thinks of itself as exceptional — and we certainly are. Exceptionally backward.

I’m not sure how our nation will survive this. There are so many threads to discuss in how this happened. There are so many wicked or misguided players, from Twitchy Mitch, who took it upon himself to cross our Constitution and deny President Obama his Supreme Court nominee; to Clarence Thomas, who opposes affirmative action though it got him into Yale. (His own constitutional stance on abortion could lead logically to rolling back the legality of his interracial marriage to Big Lie supporter Ginni.) Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who should have stepped down earlier.

The bad

Yet, here we are. I’m near sick to death of the con, the lying, the power-grubbing criminality of so many in the GOP. I’m tired of fighting for our democracy, for our environment, fighting for one individual one vote, fighting against the chicanery of gerrymandering, the “Stop the Steal” dishonesty and the notion that the insurrection was just a peaceful tourist visit. And now we women have this indignity to fight on top of everything else: that we do not have control over our own bodies.

I’m privileged and past child-bearing age. I know Black and poor women in Red States will be the ones who pay for this inhumane folly, not me and my friends. But I also know what’s required. We must pick up the same old banner many of us have carried for decades — remember when there was no concept for “sexual harassment;” remember when we had to fight for equal pay (still ongoing!); remember when women had maybe three viable career choices: teacher, secretary, or nurse?

We must pick up this banner and fight on. I’m just not sure I have the energy. I’m furious and exhausted. As Michelle Goldberg said in a recent article, “Where is feminism when we need it most? This is a fearful, hopeless and even nihilistic time.” But we must find a way to move forward from under the shadow of this backlash. There’s another long fight ahead.

The very good

Locally, we have much to be thankful for. Though the democratic frame shifts around us, on the Peninsula, the fabric of our community is intact. Without a doubt, one of our most amazing local treasures is the Water Music Society. After a two-year covid hiatus — they’re back!

The Water Music Festival Society has been bringing the highest level of music entertainment to the Peninsula since 1984 (watermusicfestival.com). They’ve created not only Music in the Gardens, Jazz and Oysters, the Water Music Festival and the Christmas Concert, but the organization also provides generous funding to our local school music programs. The board is a top-notch group of volunteers creating professional quality events.

Just coming off of a highly lauded and successful Oysterville Spring Garden Tour, this board of — ahem! — skilled and determined women have rallied post-Covid and lined up another year of amazing music. Nancy Allen, the organizer and creative force behind Music in the Gardens, is working quietly behind the scenes for the upcoming event on July 9.

New board member Steve Kovach (OK, there is one amazing guy board member!) visited all the gardens and came away with a lively view of what he saw. “This year there’s another line-up of awesome gardens!” As he writes, there’s a range of delights from bird sanctuaries, to parklike rhody displays, to “nine acres of agricultural wonder with 75,000 daffodils lining the grand entrance and a herd of goats” as a finale. Add to that fountains, statuary, a letterset press, a ceramic ‘riverbed,’ a hayride and cranberries and you have a day not-to-be-missed. (This doesn’t even mention the range of music to be found, this year to include some veritable Hawai’ian meles.) How Nancy continues to find these amazing gardens every year is remarkable. And this range shows not only the breadth of beauty that is the Peninsula, but the human ingenuity and floral possibilities in our environment. (For tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5452946)

The best

Jazz and Oysters, this year at Nahcotta’s Port of Peninsula, is coming up Aug. 13. As J&O organizer Diana Thompson writes, “The day-long event will feature great jazz as well as oysters grilled to perfection, an array of tasty foods, and beverages including beer and wine. Doors open at 11:30 a.m., with the Ilwaco High School Jazz Band at noon followed by the great sounds of the Ranger and the Re-Arrangers, the Ellen Whyte Ensemble at 3:00 and the Mel Brown B3 Quartet at 5:00 p.m. Bring chairs or a blanket, the kids, dogs (on leashes) and enjoy a wonderful day of music and food!”

The main event — Water Music Festival — takes place in mid-October and musicians will include both new talent and great returnees. Chinook School auditorium is the venue this year which supports the community renovation project there and serves to cover the Peninsula from top to bottom, north to south. Stay tuned for details.

Just a few additional notes about where the money goes. As if bringing us top quality music at reasonable prices wasn’t enough, the Water Music Society gives substantial financial help to our school music programs. In 2017 $5,000 went to the Ilwaco Music Boosters for drum major workshops and other programs. In 2018, $10,00 benefited Long Beach and Ocean Park school assemblies, and senior Center performances; as well as an Ilwaco trip to Orlando for music competitions. In 2019, $8,000 supported school music endeavors and instrument purchases in Ilwaco, Naselle, Ocean Park, and Long Beach. Recently, $7,000 sent Ilwaco High students back to Orlando’s music competition.

Despite national political ugliness throwing us back into the dark ages, we’re blessed to live in a community that supports health and well-being. Man (and woman!) can’t live by bread alone. Thank goodness we have groups providing us with art, music, and adult beverages at events that bring us together to enjoy the finer things in life.