The Snoqualmie Valley has developed a reputation for, and I’ll admit it, an expectation of calm, quiet, even bucolic serenity. Most of the time, it’s a well-deserved reputation.
Foggy mornings, double rainbows over Mount Si, truly wild animals to watch and shops that you can enter and go straight to whatever item you need are the building blocks of that environment.
So are the baristas who have your drink ready when you come in the door because they saw you park your car, the shop people who tell you where in town you can find that thingamajig they just don’t carry and the librarians who dream up special programs — Zombie Peeps, anyone? — to bring the community to them, and together.
Special events like the weekend’s Blues Walk also help to remind us all how creative Valley-dwellers can be, and how generous, volunteering their evening to sell tickets, check wristbands, stop traffic for pedestrians and answer dozens, maybe hundreds, of questions about what’s where, and when, and how you can get there from here.
Now, unfortunately, for the “but.” Sometimes, the Mayberry image slips a little. No, it’s hardly the worst thing you could say about a place, but yes, it does matter, to me, and I think to everyone who chose to live here — something we’re finding out is actually a privilege as housing prices go up.
Especially during election season, these slips and slides have a magnified effect; they erode our foundation.
Most of the year we get “hot tips” on new rumors to chase every week or so, but during election season, they pour into our office almost daily. Since we’re in the political arena here, I’ll try to be polite: The most positive thing I can say about these tips is that they are almost entirely unfounded, and were made with questionable motives.
Meanwhile, almost all of the area candidates for office seem to be playing fair, for which I commend them. They shake hands with their opponents at meetings, allow each other to finish their sentences and generally seem to treat each other with respect whenever they’re in public.
A lot of candidate supporters and opponents have also been above board, and I appreciate that integrity even more. Their letters to the editor clearly state the reasons they support certain candidates, without getting into personal attacks on opponents.
They keep the conversation where it belongs, on the issues that will affect the Valley in the near and far future. They also, not coincidentally, make my job easier by leaving out rumors and unverifiable “facts.”
That of course, is all in public. I wish it were the same in private.
I have great respect for anyone willing to put in the work to run for office, let alone serve the public in one — provided they actually want to serve the public — but I’m starting to feel like I’m in the minority there.
Courtesy is an acceptable substitute, though, and I’m willing to settle for that — from candidates to voters and vice versa.
So, voters and candidates, your assignment for the next two months is to treat each other, no matter how heated the debate, with the same courtesy you’d give to someone you are introduced to for the very first time.
Ambush public accusations via social media or even the local newspaper don’t look like courtesy.
Whispered critiques, or comments from the peanut gallery during candidate speeches don’t sound like courtesy.
It’s not complicated. Courtesy is the simple acknowledgment that the person standing in front of you is, in fact, a person.
You’ll know it when you see it. This is the Valley, after all.
