Broken Democracy

Over the past two years I have been involved in trying to tighten regulations on a certain form of placer mining here in Washington State.  Currently, miners can take a machine called a suction dredge (pictured above) and suck up stream beds, spewing out the sediment which includes residual toxic materials such as zinc, copper, mercury, downstream.  Many of the miners mine areas which are designated critical habitat for fish species listed endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  And the miners do this for a few flakes of gold which they claim they do as a hobby (but many of them admit they are actually supplementing their income...let's just say the story changes from hobby to income depending on the argument they are making).

In order to change the regulations, which are promulgated and "enforced" by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), we need to change the current laws which the legislature, in the1990s, wrote in broad language requiring WDFW to "go light" on mining regulation.

Working with a broad coalition of groups, we proposed several modest changes (modest in comparison with what is happening in our neighboring states, including Idaho): a study to determine the effects and cumulative impacts of this form of mining, a license fee for the miners (since they pay absolutely nothing now), and a moratorium on allowing the miners to mine with suction dredges in streams that are listed as critical habitat for Endangered Species Act listed fish species in Washington State.  This is the second year we have introduced legislation.  Last year our bill went no where.

From what we understand there are about 1, 500 miners in Washington State.  The current population of Washington State is 7, 062,000 (over 7 million people).  Those 7 million people pay over 200 million dollars every year in restoration projects for salmon, steelhead, and Bull trout (the three main species listed under the Endangered Species Act).  And those 7 million people expect their state legislators to work for the majority of the people, not for a loud, bullying minority of folks whose selfish desire to destroy streams for small flakes of gold.

This past legislative session, we managed to get a hearing in front of the Washington State House of Representatives Agriculture and Natural Resource Committee for our modest bill.  The miners who are very internet savvy, knew about the hearing instantly, and between Facebook and their web sites, alerted their members.  While we have talked to thousands of people about this issue, and believe a large majority of Washingtonians agree with us, the miners outnumbered our supporters in the hearing room.  On top of it, only one Democratic Member of the House stayed for the hearing, while the minority (the Republicans) all stayed and asked softball questions to the miners.

The miners intimidate.  The bully people through the Internet.  The carry guns when they are mining and both Federal and State enforcement officers have told us they are nervous and scared of running into the miners when they are out in the field.  The miners refuse to comply with Federal laws requiring them to notify the US Forest Service when they are mining on our Federal land.  And we have watched videos where the miners admit they don't pay taxes on the gold they collect off of our Federal lands.  They are a small minority who control the majority.

Clearly, democracy is broken.  In today's Seattle Times there was this article which implies that the only way to bring about the change a majority of people may want is to circumvent elected officials.  People wonder why conservationists sue and sane gun law advocates use the initiative process, it's because loud and intimidating minorities "own" our democracy.

We have tried to work with the system we have and have gotten nowhere.  Meanwhile, streams and rivers in Washington continue to be torn up by miners.   It's been over a decade since salmon, steelhead, and Bull trout were listed as endangered or threatened.  The recoveries have been slow if non-existent because everyone is scared to take the steps necessary.  Tightening the regulations on suction dredge mining is small step.  It is low hanging fruit in terms of helping fish survive.  It's what the majority of people in Washington State want, it's what we have committed billions of dollars toward solving.  So, it may be time to figure out how to leave the broken democracy and find a way to give fish a chance.

Once Again, It's About Manufacturing!

Today, Boeing, once a local company here in the Pacific Northwest, announced that is was going to build a second line of "Dreamliner" planes in South Carolina rather than in Washington. Of course, as these things go, South Carolina gave Boeing huge tax incentives and other lures to get them to their state, including very management conducive anti-union laws.

Boeing's Dreamliner has been plagued with problems. It hasn't even had one test flight, which has been delayed now for over a year. Management, in an attempt to appease it's international customers, parsed out various components of the plane to dozens of different countries, and guess what, the parts don't fit!

As this is written, talk show hosts and call in "experts" are blaming Washington state's governor and the Machinist's union for failing to give up their right to strike, as a reason for Boeing beginning to decamp from Washington. It's extremely simplistic to do that.

In an age where union strength is all but gone, we have forgotten what we, each of us, whether white collar or blue collar, owe to unions. 5 day work week, holidays off, paid medical insurance, disability insurance, unemployment benefits, minimum wages, 8 hour work day, over time pay...giving up the right to strike essentially makes a union useless.

Rather, this is about global markets, stock incentives for management, squeezing every dime out of labor, and fickle governments bending over backwards for manufacturing jobs that normally, these days, are sent overseas.

It really is time that this country wake up and realize if we continue to lose these jobs we will dig ourselves deeper into this economic hole. Plus, keeping manufacturing jobs is sustainable. Isn't it better to buy and sell goods closer to home than waste so much carbon having them shipped all over the globe?

There has been a recent discussion in my neighborhood about a bike path that would cut through a vibrant industrial area. The local businesses are concerned about the safety, of bikes zipping through their driveways. And some of the complaints from bike advocates is that the businesses use some of the land for employee parking, so they resent the cars on what they think should be "their bike path." What gets lost in this polarized discussion is the need to keep these light industrial jobs within the city, that those employees probably have to drive to their jobs since they may not make enough to live in the chi-chi condos that are edging closer and closer to the industrial area. And that real estate development with the attendant ritzy boutiques is simply not sustainable (I walked into one boutique today advertising itself as selling basic "goods," where an Oxford cloth shirt was retailing for $180! Yikes!).

If we want to revive this economy we need to pay attention to manufacturing.

Public Disclosure and Initiatives

No one has ever denied that democracy is messy. But what really makes democracy works is information and to use the in-vogue word, transparency. In small towns in New England, decisions are still made with town meetings. Stand up and be counted. The extremely popular television show, Gilmore Girls, had a field day with the town meetings, yet everyone attended and every one talked.

Here in Washington State we are processing a wrenching debate over whether the names of people who signed petitions to challenge laws enacted by the State Legislature (known as referendums) or petitions to create laws (initiatives) can be made public. The Secretary of State said "yes," those names should be public and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed. The US Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the release until it can have a hearing, meaning the vote will be long over.

The contentious part of this is that the names sought were attached to a petition to essentially rescind the domestic partnership law passes by the state legislature. And the groups trying to prevent the release are, they claim, afraid that they will be harassed and hounded by gay activists. Indeed, they only point to California where the release of contribution records to the initiative to ban gay marriage resulted in a community theatre director being "hounded out of a job" because he gave money in what was perceived to be an anti-gay measure.

Whether concerns over being hounded are valid or not, it seems that our democracy operates much better when we are willing to be open about our beliefs. Rather than hiding behind legalistic interpretations of regulations, standing up and being counted is a vibrant part of our debate. It frequently inspires a much more open dialogue as well as healthy resolutions.

Anti-disclosure advocates maintain a petition signature is like a vote, it should be kept secret (these days your vote really isn't secret, trust me). But a petition isn't a vote. It's an attempt to convince fellow citizens that we either need a new law or the laws we have are not good. It's your stand up and be counted moment.

And for once we have to trust that the rest of us will not act inappropriately once we hear your side.