The high priest of Washington

This time last year, Gov. Inslee and his wife implored Washingtonians to “rethink” plans to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, even birthdays. “It doesn’t matter what you’re doing,” she said, “these gatherings in your homes are dangerous.” Just a few days later — “to save lives,” remember? — he again unilaterally restricted access to your business and threatened your congregation with criminal penalties if you dared go caroling.

According to official data, even with two-thirds of the state’s population vaccinated against the virus, the 7-day average of new COVID cases is higher now than it was then. And yet the governor has decamped to Europe to discuss not the urgency of the moment as regards the pandemic, but the specter of anthropogenic climate change and the coming mobilization of state power that will be required to avert our extinction. By the governor’s own apocryphal admission — see his June 29 op-ed in The Seattle Times — “we can run, but we cannot hide” from “the beast.” Perhaps our champion of science has been reading the Book of Revelation.

He certainly hasn’t been reading our state’s constitution. That would occasion an inconvenient reminder that his “just powers” are derived “from the consent of the governed.” For nearly two years we have endured a “state of emergency” and misrule that has made a mockery of our rights and way of life. How much longer are we going to humor this serpent-tongued high priest?

Connor Dinnison

Spokane