The Arlington Times • The Marysville Globe
I
Haunted by lingering effects
t seems that when some processes get started there’s no stopping them. It’s not that they‘re unstoppable. Rather, we don’t muster up the gumption to pull their plugs. Crab traps for instance: not crab-rings or the fold-up kind, but rigid traps that lure crabs in to the bait but don’t let them out again. When a Mission Bar crab trap loses its buoy it becomes an unstoppable fishing machine. First comers are lured in by the scent of bait, which they devour. But they can’t get out so they die to become food for the next wave. In an endless cycle, the scent of death attracts still more crabs that crawl in through one-way openings to join the cannibalistic process of feeding and dying. The process continues until the trap’s frame and web corrodes, leaving a rust-stained mound of shells marking the demise of hundreds of crabs. All it takes is a frayed line or loose knot to trigger another of these ongoing disasters. While lost crab traps do dirty work out of sight, dozens of out-ofcontrol processes take place in plain
FOOD FROM PAGE 4 grown as close as possible to Washington. To accomplish this, a team consisting of food service staff, city and county agricultural departments, processors, farmers, parents, students and the WSU extension has been formed to develop a plan that will utilize a $100,000 grant given to the district from the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians for the Farm to School program. The team’s vision is to utilize the funds in a way that will create a
FUTURE FROM PAGE 4 ready to learn about the opportunities available to you. Your behavior was respectful, professional and courteous. We are very proud of you and very proud of the partnership between the district, Marysville Rotary, and the Tulalip Tribes and that we could make this opportunity possible”.
Steps to Success Steps to Success is a pathway for students to follow that leads to readiness for success in college, career and citizenship. These steps, which support the district’s goals around student achievement, are the foundation for preparing our students for success
May 9, 2012
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sight. Take the neighbor who planted a hedgerow of cute little Douglas fir starts. Or cattle herds that doom overgrazed acreages to channeled erosion. Or parents choosing not to discipline increasingly disobedient children. Hard to stop things once they take hold. Another is the Big Engine. As America celebrates the last days of its horsepower binge, it feeds an unstoppable process of excess consumption. This lingering kissoff to the era of cheap gas has no end in sight. Even with gas topping four bucks per gallon, old guzzlers remain kings of the road while new V-10 pickups sell like hotcakes. Like crab traps, big engines will continue to consume resources for the 250k or so miles it takes to wear them out. There are ways to cut back on out-of-control processes. Try looking ahead: looking ahead by tying
tighter knots and using stronger line. Looking ahead by choosing landscape plants that don’t grow up to haunt us. Or parents looking ahead by figuring out what it takes to raise children before they have them. And looking ahead to how purchases of energy gobblers affect the world around us. Compared with what’s driven elsewhere, it seems that superpowered pickups and SUVs are a uniquely American final fling. Maybe American drivers’ romance with internal combustion needs this final dance with their mechanical mistresses. Could be that heavy metal drivers feel that if this really is the last dance, then they don’t want to have it with some wimpy 4-banger econo-box. Gather ye horsepower while ye may because new mpg standards will soon have us all driving pokey gas-misers. It’s natural to cling to excessive old behaviors. Take space exploration for instance. Once we orbited Earth we voided the old saying, the sky’s the limit. There’s a whole universe to be explored out there so we happily voyaged into space’s fiscal black hole, funding one megabuck
project after the other. When one went wrong, another was designed to find out why. How much could be discovered? As much as the best brains and deepest pockets could find. Meanwhile, needy people on planet Earth ooohed and aaahed at the rockets’ red glare. These grandiose projects take the nature of national art-forms. Like pyramids or renaissance cathedrals. Someday, someone will analyze history’s Great Projects to figure out why people start huge things that take on lives of their own. Maybe steering our attention toward dazzling, mind-blowing, excessive extravaganzas keeps our collective mind off troubles at home. This was done during the Great Depression by building dams. That unstoppable process began in the 1930’s when the Army Corps of Engineers and Department of the Interior went head-to-head to see which could dam the most rivers. It started as justifiable make-work projects to solve unemployment but once society was back to work the process kept right on for fortysome years with no kill-switch or sunset-clause.
Nothing slowed the bizarre competition between the Corps and Interior until they’d turned prime rivers into lakes and run smack into environmental disasters of their own making. To get permits, both the Corps and Interior lied and twisted congressional arms, Interior boldly built Grand Coulee twohundred feet taller than their permit specified. While Grand Coulee is a very nice dam and very useful, it also stands as a monument to programs that lacked controls. Consider crab traps, petroleum consumption, trains, wars, space exploration, medical services and Seattle’s new tunnel. We could do better — personally and as a society but change comes slowly if a nation is coached daily into resisting change. History shows that focus on short term profits and gratification undermines the economy. Worse, it diverts the public’s mind from issues that, if tended, would strengthen our prospects, personally and as a nation.
sustainable program that provides students with food grown and produced locally, as well as provide education regarding the close ties that we all have to farmland for our health and well-being. To make the program sustainable, we want to look at the interconnectivity between farms and homes. Food does not come from plastic bags and milk from containers, but from the hard work of farmers working to coax the rich soil we have into growing vegetables and grasses. The more we understand this as consumers, the more likely we will be able to teach this to our children. In turn, hopefully they
will work to eat well and support farmland continuity so their children will have good food to eat as well. Several of the schools in Arlington, such as Eagle Creek, have school gardens in which the students work, providing them with the joy of seeing the results of planted seeds and the reward of eating food that each had a hand in growing. To grow well, plants need rich soil. In order to assist in that area, the food service program is also working with the city of Arlington to reduce the waste taken to the land fill by implementing a com-
posting program. The program was established in the kitchens of each school several months ago by kitchen staff putting all compostable material into “Slim Jims.” These narrow green containers are filled with food items, tray liners, and anything else that a worm can eat. The material is then picked up and taken to a composting facility on a weekly basis. This effort seems to be making a difference as each kitchen fills at least one 64 gallon composting container a week. Because this is going so well, discussion regarding the expansion of the program to the students is
underway. As a result, less waste is going into the landfill and is being turned into a useable form that could potentially be used to grow fresh vegetables in someone’s garden or farm. Who knows? With our continued efforts to expand local purchases as much as possible, vegetables grown with the compost generated from school kitchens and cafeterias just might be served on your child’s plate at school next fall!
OPINION
BOB GRAEF
now and in the future.
Community Partnership This event would not have happened without broad community support from so many. Opportunity Expo 2012 was provided to our students through a partnership between the Marysville School District, Marysville Rotary and the Tulalip Tribes. Thank you, Marysville for coming together to support our students — our future. Dr. Larry Nyland is the Superintendent of the Marysville School District and can be reached at360653-0800 or via email at superintendents_office@ msvl.k12.wa.us
RELAY FROM PAGE 4 its unbreakable team of can-do leaders led by Mo Olason and husband, Todd, Jessica Henkel, Kristin Banfield, Erica Deschaine, Angela McCloskey, Jennifer Holocker and many others. With a team of this caliber, they stand a strong chance of meeting their goal, but they need your help.
Join or Form a Team While Relay For Life is only a little more than three weeks away, you still have time to get involved by forming a team, donating or volunteering to help with the event. Every dollar raised is celebrated and vital because it might be the one that brings the breakthrough in
research that we are all hoping for. ■ Enjoy the fun-filled activities ahead. ■ Honor lives of those we know diagnosed with cancer who succumbed after waging a valiant battle. The city of Marysville city government team, the City Slickers, is one of more than four dozen teams currently seeking donations. Joining our Relay team is easy, whether you simply want to donate, walk the track, or both: ■ Go online to www. relayforlife.org/marysvillewa. ■ Scroll down to “Top Teams” and click on “View all.” ■ Find the “City Slickers” Team, and click on “Join Team.” ■ Or contact Team Captain Doug Buell at 360-
Comments may be addressed to robertgraef@comcast.net.
Ed Aylesworth is the Food Services Director for the Arlington Public Schools. He can be reached at 360-618-6213.
363-8086 or dbuell@marysvillewa.gov. You will find several other teams on the Relay For Life website who are also recruiting members or seeking contributions — you might even find a friend or neighbor you didn’t know was active. No matter who you are, there’s a place for you at Relay. Each dollar raised will help save lives, creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays.
Paint the Town Purple As part of the build up to Relay For Life, I am proclaiming May 18-20 “Relay For Life Paint the Town Purple Weekend.” Relay For Life organizers will be decking out downtown in purple décor, partnering with participating businesses, and raising contribu-
tions through a variety of activities that includes Bark For Life at Asbery Field on Saturday, May 19 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. See the Relay For Life website for more details. Participate in Relay For Life this year to celebrate cancer survivorship, remember loved ones lost to the disease, honor caregivers and join Marysville and Tulalip’s fight against cancer. Last year, 35,237 people in Washington state were diagnosed with cancer, and 11,593 did not survive. This is how I choose to remember them and to acknowledge their struggles to get well, stay well, find cures and fight back.
Mayor Jon Nehring can be reached at mayor@marysvillewa.gov or 360-363-8091.