Twinzies--I am the prototypical and perfect Cascader: I have a house, drive a car and wear clothes none of which I could afford without assistance or at least borrowing big time. In short, I live beyond my means. A woman with a street urchin budget should look like it, but of course, when I am not too arrogant to be honest--I admit I am elated my family doesn’t mind subsidizing this old bat on the homeplace. I love wearing new duds, living in a “painted lady” with a new deck, etc. Cascade, a city with a limited budget in the same situation, but lacking flush, generous relatives, bleeds its taxpayers and defers maintenance. Like a private home owner ignoring maintenance at his own peril, the city has in the last 7-10 years quit maintaining alleys, abolished the sidewalk committee, is marginally maintaining the streets, reserved nothing to do Hwy 136, and has shot its wad on a new gazebo, a dog park, Cougar blue pool roof, parking there and other amenities. In conjunction with the state, the city has fixed the Monroe St. Bridge, which serves two businesses, and resurfaced the corner by Casey’s, which serves two more. Rather than fixing streets, alleys and sidewalks or prioritizing the library and doing a bang-up job of it, the City and Park Board accepted some ground in Oak Hill Mike Beck wants to pawn for favors from the city, and has endorsed a group fundraising for five or six new pickleball courts there. There is a class of Cascade folks who go to Ft. Myers (Guilty, as charged!) and Mesa every winter and wants to come home to the amenities communities with a lot of half-million dollar 2nd homes have. They refuse to acknowledge that this is a place with a lot of houses and people worth barely $100,000 (Guilty as charged!) and deluxe pickleball courts and dog parks are out of line. Maybe even a morally questionable. Adding 2 or 3 courts in the community park, though feasible and ersatz, not showy and brand-spanking like Oak Hill is the right thing to do. I will be donating a sum of money I can barely afford contingent on the organizers doing the right thing.

Deciding in the Age of Ambivalence

We are living in the Age of Ambivalence. I admire City Administrator Lisa Kotter—I even gave her a going-away present—though I’m both sad and glad she’s going. During Hometown Days I trekked down to Riverview Park one afternoon to clap for Bob Green and other Cascaders receiving Valor Quilts. But as I told Bob--“This doesn’t mean I don’t abhor war, despise the off-the-books secret military budget (Could that be why the U.S is so in debt?), and especially the bastards who profit from it.” I went because I like and respect these guys and I don’t believe you can have a country without a military, (Look at Ukraine.) In spite of the fact that militaries are mostly misused--consider the Israeli military’s support of land-grabbing Jewish settlers, and Major General Smedley Darlington Butler’s analysis of the U. S. military: I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. Capitalism, with its well-recognized capacity to play into the hands of the greediest, has little redeeming social value and has created the inequality that is currently destroying democracy here, in Germany and democracies around the world. However, the most vexing dichotomy the current Age of Ambivalence is whether to donate to the pickleball fundraiser. Especially now that we know Mike Beck turned over to the city a storm sewer line in Oak Hill is broken, and it will cost us $30 or $40,000 to fix. Beck is donating some rocky ground he can’t do anything else with to build new pickleball courts on. This was a problem from the get-go. It is: 1) NOT centrally located giving all citizens equal access, as city parks should 2) NOT environmentally-conscious because players will have to drive 3) NOT socially-conscious to solicit donated funds and use them to build an amenity in the newest, highest property value neighborhood in the city. So what do you do? I have been agonizing for weeks over this one because I play frequently and feel obligated. So, I will be giving the pickleball people a promissory note for far more than I can afford to donate, contingent on them NOT accepting ground from Mike Beck. They’ll need it if they do the right thing.