It’s Been Good - the last Loop essay

 Steven Allen, who has kept the Loop going all these years, bless his heart, has announced that this is the last issue of the Loop that he will be publishing. Turns out he has a life, and paid employment.

Steven has let it be known that if someone wants to take on publishing the Loop, they should speak up. Does anyone have a dream of publishing an alternative island newspaper? Contact Steven Allen, editor@vashonloop.com

The Loop began as the Ticket, and was started by Hamish Todd, with a lot of help from Rex Morris and several other people. The Ticket was political, and funny. When Hamish injured his ankle, someone asked him if he had fallen off his soapbox.

In 2002, I was working at the then True Value hardware store. One day Rex Morris came in and asked if I would like to write a column for the Ticket, with an illustration by my cartoonist husband, Rick.

In July of 2002, I wrote the first Spiritual Smart Aleck column. It was titled, “Grandma’s Diary,” and was accompanied by a drawing Rick did of me asleep on a couch with a baby snoozing on top of me (that baby is now 19 and starting college in a couple of weeks).

My intention at first was to write a humorous column, a la Erma Bombeck, about home, and the kids, etc. You know.

Life hammered that sort of wholesomeness out of me fast. While I have written of spiritual topics, and humor, I wrote a
bout dialysis when Rick’s kidneys failed. I wrote about grief after Rick died. I ranted a lot after the 2016 election.

A little rage, a little religion, a little humor, and a few true stories, like the one about the night Rick and his friends went deer hunting on a golf course in Marin. In a Volkswagen beetle. With a spear made from a lead pipe.

They got one, too.

The uppity yuppie who wanted to know where the “secret ferry” was – the one only we islanders knew about – because he did not think he should have to wait in line for a regular ferry. So a nice woman at Sound Food said, why, yes, of course, and gave him directions for getting to Manzanita Beach.

Around 2004 the Ticket changed hands. Marie Blichfeldt and Troy Kindred took over and renamed the paper the Loop.

Most other contributors and I kept writing for the paper, and for a few years Rick kept drawing the illustrations for my column as well as drawing his comic strip, Offshore.

A little historical review: after 9/11, George W. Bush went after Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was allegedly hiding. In 2003 we went to war with Iraq, because of non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Children who were in elementary school when those military actions began have grown up to fight, and die, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By 2007, the housing bubble popped, and the economy crashed. So many homes were lost, as well as jobs.

In 2008, Obama was elected, and he and his Democratic Congress did the best they could to clean up the financial mess Bush et al had left. They passed the Affordable Care Act, which we hoped would lead to healthcare for all. Alas, so far, we, as a country, have been too stupid to take care of our greatest resource, our people.

The racism and white supremacy that had been festering covertly became overt. All the racist worms crawled out of the woodwork, blaming Obama for the Bush administration’s Great Recession. Not the first or last time Republicans would ignore facts and manufacture bull poop.

Which somehow led to Donald Trump becoming president in 2016. Because pocket gophers, nine-banded armadillos, and kudzu have electoral votes.

Now here we are, with a “Republican Party” that is trying to overthrow the American government and institute a pure white fascist regime. I do not know if they will make Trump their puppet dictator. It is his dream job, but we all know that he is a murderously clueless loose cannon.

Then there is that covid pandemic, now well into its second year, and the homicidal weather that is attacking all over the world.

There will be so much to write about, but this is the last Spiritual Smart Aleck column for this version of the Loop. Will it rise again? We’ll see.

 I shall post my writing on my blog in future. Google “Spiritual Smart Aleck,” to find a link to my blog.

All in all, writing the column has been a great ride. Thank you for reading. Thank you for coming up to me in the grocery stores and at Granny’s to thank me for writing the column. That kept me going.

Peace.

Amen.