Beware of Utopia

My two cents worth, regarding packing Spokane like a can of sardines. I was born and raised in Spokane. I am a baby boomer and remember when the “Spokane Population” sign, when entering Spokane down Sunset Highway, said 100,000. I was employed by Washington state, Department of Corrections, for 34 years.

I direct you to ethologist John Calhoun’s “1960’s rat UTOPIA experiments.” The overcrowding experiments gave the rats everything they needed, except space. The result was a population boom, followed by such severe psychological disruption that the animals died off to extinction. The term “Behavioral Sink” was also coined as “a collapse in behavior which can result from overcrowding.” A very realistic “metaphor for the trajectory of the human race.”

I have lived a good life. I was raised by the best generation ever. We had both parents, stay-at-home mom, plenty of aunts, uncles and cousins. Always a neighborhood filled with kids to play with. Hamburgers were a treat. No one was overweight or sedentary. We sat at the kitchen table for dinner and actually conversed with each other, spanning generation gaps. Grandparents lived two blocks away from us.

This “day and night” comparison of growing up in Spokane, what it is now, and deteriorating at a rapid pace, is daunting. I am dismayed and saddened what our children and grandchildren will endure as human UTOPIA kicks into overdrive. Oh, don’t get me started on global warming!

Nancy Mitchell

Spokane