Snarkiness is an interesting word…

Words I didn’t know existed, but descriptive. I see it as a symptom and reflection of the nature of our community in this day and age. In the stock market there is an indicator called the VIX that reflects fear and greed in the market….a measure of emotion that drives a vast financial mechanism.

I mentioned at the council meeting (Feb. 25) that in the last 10 years or so I have seen a growing “meanness” in the back rooms of this community based on greed and the craving for power.

I have been observing and participating in this community for 30 years, and I believe it is appropriate that the word “snarky” emerge at this time. It reflects and is an indicator of the current, true nature of this community. I dub thee: The Snarky Index.

What we observed at the council meeting was not democracy. It was gang warfare. Your street gang against mine.

Organized by city officials through email and phone trees to put on what the news media (which I have worked in most of my 40 year of working life) calls a “Dog and Pony Show” for the folks at home and to present a facade of legitimacy for a vote that was decided well in advance (4 to 3).

In this method of government, public good and comment are irrelevant.

We parade our nonprofit organizations’ board members and directors forward for a two-minute shot at a comment (some of the anointed get more time).

The aged, infirmed, our tiered and huddled masses are employed strategically for “the tug on the heart string” effect and “experts” are oozing out of the woodwork. And you know what… it’s true and we need these things as a community (most anyway).

But, the insipid nature of this is that it becomes a strategic tool in gang warfare – driving wedges between people and groups with partial and inaccurate information in many cases.

It is a smoke screen to keep us distracted away from the real issues and questions our leaders do not want us asking:

Who does this really benefit? Is this to pay for mismanagement or bad management mistakes? Who is accountable and how? Where is the real accounting and cost of what the public will fund for 30 years before you have a hearing?

Why weren’t the million-dollar projects on the table for public viewing in this economy?

What about the previous public survey that rated the downtown remodel low priority (not the infrastructure repair), etc, etc.

Or is it to make sure those in our community who really know something or have cost-effective ideas are not allowed to be considered in the greater scheme of things. This is why we spend enormous amounts of money on “outside” consultants. We can buy whatever result we want and they go away in the end.

In the end, this is Bainbridge Island and who we are and what it costs to be this way.

“You measure the true value of a community not by what it is but by what it might have been.”

David Henry

Bainbridge Island