Neary-Sighted

Happy New Year! Here's some interesting reading for those of you who have time this weekend to peruse it all:

- Over the years, many of you have asked me why the owners of The Lakewood Journal closed the paper. It's important for our own self-esteem to note that the act was not the fault of the paper or the city. I'm not sure I can even blame the paper's owners, though you have to admit, this latest closure by that company sounds a little familiar. This P-I story about the company closing the King County paper includes perspectives from Cliff Rowe, one of the most respected journalism educators around.

It's a tough time for print newspapers, and the King County Journal has been on life support for years. Here's another version of the story in the the trade press.

- A historic church in Tacoma is about to be torn down. How sad. Have you seen any of the articles about a recent study showing the economic power of historic preservation? Lakewood is fortunate and wise to have a couple of active historical societies and an official city landmarks board.

- Some council members and other folks have suggested we cut the city budget by paying employees less than what other cities pay their employees. Turns out a character in the comic strip Dilbert shares their plan for trimming the city budget.
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Just a brief note: An alert reader has shared a link to a story in The Seattle Times about the hearing regarding safety at Western State. There is other info than what is presented in the link I have below from the Spokane paper.
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I hope your electricity is up - we're still waiting on Tacoma Power. If you saw the nearby house on Meadow Road with the two trees leaning on it - and there are many such scenes throughout town - you see what they are up against. I really admire the crews out there, whether they work for power companies or for telecoms like my employer Comcast or for Qwest or anyone else. And they've been at this for days.

It's been a long time since the Neary family was without electricity for four nights. My son, 14, can't remember such a time. So Cindy and I did our best to make it a bit of an adventure. I hope you also have some nice blackout memories.

My favorite memory will be from Saturday night. After 25 or so years of trying, Cindy has persuaded me to try learning some classic dance steps. Saturday, after I cobbled together a gourmet dinner of spaghetti and pancakes, we practiced dancing. We've struggled to come up with music to practice to, given that my CD collection is based on rock n' roll. So Saturday night, I ransacked my daughter's CD colection. I grabbed one of her Sinatra albums. And then as Cindy and I danced in the candlelight, I finally understood Sinatra. Inches away from Cindy, looking into her eyes, I could understand what Sinatra's music was about. And the message and the meaning are powerful. What a guy. What music.

Meanwhile, our 14-year-old son, deprived of TV and video games, was reading a British sci fi comedy book, and frequently laughing out loud.

I hope you had moments like this - or do in the next blackout. Now that I've had a day to reflect, I also think it's funny how a guy raised on The Beatles found Sinatra by way of my teen-age daughter and a power outage. Sometimes we get unhappy because 'this or that' seems to be going out of fashion, but I suppose this experience is one bit of proof that quality will find a way to endure.
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Part of my day job involves reading newspapers from around the state. I was floored when I read an article in the Spokesman-Review of Spokane about what it's like to work at Eastern State Hospital and Western State Hospital. Check out this info from the story:

"Despite safety plans, violence-prevention training and other efforts, DSHS says, worker injuries at both Eastern State Hospital at Medical Lake and Western State Hospital ... have risen since 2000 ... The numbers are particularly stark at Western, which went from 153 attacks in 2000 to last year's 275."

"Western State Hospital alone accounts for nearly a quarter of the worker's compensation premiums for the entire staff of DSHS, the state's largest agency. Worker absences due to assaults are twice as long as they were six years ago."

I have volunteered more than a decade at the pioneer fort museum on the grounds of the hospital. I've met many patients, family members and staff. Part of the problem is that often the mentally ill do not give off the same cues as you or I would give off if we were about to attack someone. It's hard to tell if someone is going to attack. That's not the fault of the staff.

Frankly, more than almost any group I know of, the people who work at Western State are doing God's work. I don't claim to know the sources or cures of the overall problem, but I do know those people deserve better than this situation.

I don't know if the Legislature is the answer. The article suggests that some lawmakers are interested in the question. On Monday, the Lakewood City Council heard a report on various issues of interest to Lakewood that may come up during the coming legislative session. Even if it was not the center of so much help and healing, WSH is a huge employer in Lakewood. This subject needs to be added to the list.

Oh, and while it may seem like a digression, I do have to ask ...

... Could anyone in state government tell me how putting an open-door prison on the grounds of Western State would help the situation?
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The latest print issue of Governing magazine has a great article about the reduction in local news. It's a thorough review of a nationwide problem. While the article has some some references to the typical things you'd expect politicans to say about so-called negative and critical reporting, it's clear from the story that even critical reporting is an endangered species nationwide.

I think back to when I started in journalism; I spent entire days sitting in courtrooms studying and writing about how the criminal justice system worked. I can't tell you how many examples of both good and bad justice that I just literally stumbled across. You'd be unlikely to find such a job now. Newspaper readership is dying; in the 90's, the publishers insisted that reader focus groups showed that the only thing people cared about were puppies, proms and proposed parking lots. So something like a pure courts beat is rare these days indeed.

I've said before that your best bet to learn more about this subject is a book called 'The Vanishing Newspaper,' but I don't believe I've posted this a link with a critical reading and review of this valuable book. It takes time to read, but by the end of it all, you'll have a good sense of the state of journalism today.
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About 20 Tillicum residents who attended last night's neighborhood association meeting came up with what, in retrospect, is probably the wisest perspective about human services funding that has been expressed during this entire week. By anyone.

I attended the Tillicum neighborhood association meeting last night.

(Here's quick background you can skip if you know what a neighborhood association is: the city has officially designated neighborhood associations in several of the six police patrol areas within Lakewood. Typically, the neighbors gather to discuss crime issues within the neighborhood, organize block watches, hear reports from their neighborhood police officer, etc... Frankly, you are often lucky to get 10 people to most of these. But Tillicum has the strongest neighborhood association by far and so the group often gets involved in issues outside of crime. They can afford to do so now more than ever - Tillicum has now become one of the safest places to be in Lakewood, according to the stats!)

The president of the association has been pretty outspoken as a critic of the Oasis House funding. But the audience members looked past his agenda, and mine, and reached a good bottom line. They decided that it was too late to do anything this year. They ignored a proposed motion to ask the city to rescind the funding for Oasis. But they have asked the city to provide public notice of the list of groups that get public services funding next year, so people can ask questions about any and all of the groups. The neighborhood association will also invite human services groups that get funding to make presentations to the association, if they so desire.

This is a great outcome. It satisfies my desire and deep belief that we need to do less criticizing after the fact, and more looking ahead. And their request should satisfy the concerns of those who want, rightfully, to be able to ask tough questions of groups that get public funding.

During the debate over Initiative and Referendum, there were those who said that the council was in a better and wiser place to make decisions than "the people." Last night's meeting proved this wrong. In less than an hour, a diverse group of citizens managed to ask good questions, cut to the heart of the issue and look ahead to a better way. They are models for the council.

(**It would be a better ending as a piece of writing to close there, but I need to share one bit of housekeeping. The human services funding in this city has *never* been a secret. The list of agencies that receives public funding has always been printed in city materials before a formal and advertised public hearing, and then before public votes. But frankly, nobody showed up for the hearings except groups seeking money. Nobody seemed to care in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 that Oasis House or anyone else got money. But because a political group went looking for issues, they have raised the public profile of human services funding. And now the city's most robust neighborhood association is engaged and wants to know more. This is a marvelous opportunity for human services groups to educate the community about what they do. I can guarantee that if someone from Oasis or another group visits the Tillicum association, they will be treated with respect.

How funny that even in politics, after the rain, there's often a rainbow)
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Hey, one good thing about getting caught up in a spirited debate is that people invite you to come talk to them. I thought I'd share an email exchange in the spirit of furthering discussion about the topic below. David's email certainly represents one way people could easily interpret the newspaper story.

----Original Message Follows----

Subject: "Dabbling in hate"
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 12:27:19 EST

Lakewood City Councilman Walter Neary describes those critical of a council funding proposal for gays and lesbians as "dabbling in hate" (TNT, 12/6/06, B8).
To my knowledge those opposing the use of tax payers money for the Oasis Center for Youth did so on the basis of the agency's avowed purpose as described on it's website (oasisyouthcenter.org), as well as it's exclusivity (straight and family members not allowed).
No character assassinations were made.
No Council motives impugned.
But Councilman Walter Neary labels critics as 'hateful'.

Tax payers have every right to say how they'd like their money spent.
But to do so and be labeled is libel.
An apology is expected from Councilman Walter Neary and an admonishment from fellow council members is as well - both to this database and in person at our Tillicum/Woodbrook Neighborhood Association meeting this Thursday, December 7, 6:30 PM at the Community Center in Tillicum, just south of the Elementary School on Washington Ave.

David Anderson
TWNA President

My comments -

Hi David,

I won't apologize for something I don't believe I said. The article is a summary of a very complex discussion. What I said, I thought, is that those people who were raising the twin issues of the gay support group AND illegal immigration were trying to raise political support by dabbling in hate.
That's a pretty clearly reference to the politician(s) involved. I don't believe I referred to you. If I got all riled up and upset on behalf of my daughter, which did happen, and chose words that could be interpreted as a personal insult to any member of the public, I absolutely apologize for that.

I don't claim to know what is deep in someone's heart. Only God knows that.
But that said, I do reserve the right to attribute political motives and manipulation. People should know when they are being manipulated. People deserve to hear the truth from their lawmakers.

One is always welcome to disagree with me on whether my description is, in fact, the case and the truth; this being a democracy, I would expect someone to disagree with me.

Among other things, someone who thinks this was not manipulation will have to explain to me why this funding suddenly became an issue after three or four years of years of support for this group.

It's almost as if an election year is coming up.

I'm not really big on being unilaterally summoned to a neighborhood association meeting when I don't believe the neighborhood association had taken a position on the subject. But out of respect to the many hours you have given the city and community, I will interpret your letter as an invitation and be glad to attend unless something goes haywire in my workplace. If that happens, I will give you a call and come the next month.
These sorts of discussions are best had face-to-face, anyway. My assumption is that when passions are heated, the chairman would observe Robert's Rules and hand the meeting over to someone else when he/she wants to participate actively in a discussion; but how the meeting is conducted is certainly up to the association.

Best,

Walter
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One thing you can always say about life is that it's full of surprises. For example, just a year ago, I don't think it would have occurred to any of us that:

- The fact that Lakewood is doing something as basic as building a police station is becoming political.
- The city, God bless it, found a way to write a traffic ticket to every citizen regardless of whether or not they drive or even whether or not they are alive. My dad died in 2000, and I check the mail every day for his ticket.
- The fact that my daughter is gay would come up at a City Council meeting and would make the paper.

But there you go. It's important not to get distracted. It's important to focus on the big picture. A couple months ago, I picked up Mary Chaney's book and was disappointed at first. I wanted to know what it was like to be in her position and lesbian. She kept the contents of the book to the public and political stuff. But you know, that's OK. That's her right. At the end of the day, she chose to write about campaigns and the public spotlight. And at the end of the day, JoAnna's status or my status or anyone's status does not matter to public policy in Lakewood.

There are bigger questions.

The real issue is if it's OK to make gay people political in Lakewood. The real issue is if it's OK to make people you happen to dislike political. Gays were not the only target Monday. When I commented that it was all about hate, it's because there were two different groups being targeted. There was also an effort to limit funding for groups that serve illegal immigrants, including children. That subject did not get as much attention at the hearing or come up in the story probably because it did not receive as much public testimony (and condoms were not involved). But there was also an effort to make social services groups promise to check whether someone is an illegal immigrant before serving them. That would cripple groups that counsel kids to stay out of gangs, as just one example.

In both cases, we have Lakewood Cares trying to rally its political troops by calling upon hate - or, at the very least, a lack of understanding of someone different. And that's just wrong - just as it would have been wrong to single out Korean-Americans, African-Americans, Jews, Catholics or people of Polish descent (I happen to fit the latter two). If you want to ask whether the city should fund social services programs, you need to ask the question of all programs, not just those that serve people you happen to personally dislike. If the city is going to have a social services program, it needs to serve all citizens.

The frustration is that there's a good question here. When you have limited resources - and are trusted with tax dollars - can the city of Lakewood continue to channel the amount of money that it has to social services programs? That's a good question. But singling out any group is just wrong. Instead of raising the good question, the effort to rally people who personally dislike gays and illegal immigrants appeals to prejudice and misinformation. It's a brilliant tactical way to get the attention of the paper and voters. The folks at Lakewood Cares are geniuses at collecting political power. But they do so at the price of honor.

Pandering to misinformation and hate is always the wrong thing to do.

For those of you who like primary sources, here's Pad Finnigan's original email, and then a letter from a citizen.
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If you can call up this link, you will see a lot of interesting subtleties in this story. I originally posted the full link. However, the length of this link was causing problems in my blog so you I had to cut the link into two pieces. You'll have to thus paste it into your browser. Many apologies!! It's worth the trouble.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/

and then paste after that

2006/12/01/patrick_says_many_in_media_missed_key_dynamic_of_his_campaign/

Notice the reaction to his speech.

So maybe that's not surprising. I wouldn't expect newspaper people to applaud a call for optimism. But when he said that newsroom budget cuts affected the quality of the reporting, that room should have stood up and cheered. It didn't. Why? Because the industry is involved in a conspiracy to claim that you can still continue to suck profits from a paper, reduce the quality of the journalism, and still serve the First Amendment.

Enough. If you want to read more about the decline of journalism under business pressures, be sure to check out a book I have previous recommended, The Vanishing Newspaper.
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