Another Green Monday

The heat was on in Spokane over the weekend and two local events in Brownes Addition, Elkfest and ArtFest , reaped the benefits of Mother Nature’s cooperation.  And of course it didn’t hurt that each of the well-attended events offered a variety of quality entertainment and activities. But there was something about this year’s festivities that seemed more robust.  Maybe it was people’s outpouring sense of excitement that they didn’t have to spend money to travel to experience a scene they can usually only see in Seattle, Portland or San Francisco.  Whatever the case, it reaffirmed our belief that anything worth fighting for is worth fighting for.  Buried somewhere underneath a coating of skepticism, apathy and hesitation Spokane possess the ability to create community, yes, we’re talking about the “C” word .  And it’s worth talking about because community is what you make of it.  Hopefully this weekend, if nothing else, showed that people in Spokane yearn for a vibrant community, and not just in a marketing sort of way, but in a genuine way.  A way that is sustainable so as it keeps people around, and keeps people wanting to work towards improving it.  This summer there will be three races for open Spokane City Council seats -  there is no better time than now to demonstrate what sort of community we envision.  Next year in Brownes, we don’t want to hear people say, “I wish Spokane was like this every weekend.”  Here are some stories you might have missed last week.

“We need leaders who want to invest in cleaning up our river because it’s good for the health of our community.” So said Spokane Riverkeeper and local attorney Rick Eichstaedt in an op-ed that ran in the Spokesman on Saturday.  Rick, who was just recently named Spokane Riverkeeper, is fast at it in his attempt to raise awareness for river protection and the importance of a healthy, clean Spokane River.  Read Rick’s piece in the Spokesman HERE.

This is your brain on Mother Earth. Most everyone would agree that the way we’re living now is much more destructive to the Earth than the way generations before us lived.  And worse on our conscious is the fact that we hear about it daily. But what are psychologists saying?  Peter Kahn, a University of Washington developmental psychologist, says our dysfunctional environmental relations are “one of the central psychological problems of our times.”  But the onslaught of bad news might not be a bad thing on our psyche.  An emotional connection to nature is normal and healthy, and in doing so will help further environmental awareness and action.  Read more of this theory in The Oregonian HERE.

Butts everywhere. A recent article in The New York Times took a long hard look at butts, and in the end, we were left feeling a little dirty.  Of course they were talking about cigarette butts, but it doesn’t matter, because the end result was still the same.  We can attest to the comments made at the beginning of the article which alluded to the fact that a lot of smokers just aren’t aware that cigarette butts are littering - these could be the cleanest greenest folks on the planet, but when it comes to that trip to flavor country, there is little else on the mind.  Because we’ve seen it with our own eyes - people who are otherwise conscious stewards are so broken into a smoking routine that they dont’ even realize they are discarding not only waste, but toxic waste.  Read more of the fascinating article HERE.