Lost during the shutdown

Unfasten your seatbelts and chuck the beta blockers: The debt crisis has been drop-kicked to another time. At the 11th hour of the 16th day — to the slack-jawed relief of an incredulous world — lawmakers in the U.S Senate and House exhibited the courage of their inertia and declared, “Let’s postpone this battle, shall we?”

So ends another day in the life of the globe’s oldest constitutional democracy.

Keep the faith, ye disillusioned Northwesterners. There is hope. In the 20th century, the federal government contoured the American West, from Hanford to the Bremerton Naval Shipyard to the Grand Coulee Dam. And yet individuals at a remove from the federal government have made the biggest impression on the Northwest’s cultural and economic landscape. Mother Joseph and the Sisters of Providence. Bill Boeing and Bill Gates. Arthur and Mary Denny with the University of Washington. Emma Yule, Everett’s first school principal.

The best leadership is organic and self-effacing, flowing from causes greater than self. For Patrick Goldsworthy, the cause was to conserve the Northwest’s natural treasures, a battle thrown into relief during the postwar boom. Goldsworthy, the Irish-born son of a Berkeley math professor, moved to Seattle in 1952 to teach biochemistry at the UW. A year later, he founded the Northwest chapter of the Sierra Club, with Polly and John Dyer. His passion fixed on places dear to Snohomish County residents, such as the Glacier Peak Wilderness (which he helped establish and saved from an open-pit copper mine) and North Cascades National Park (for which he shares paternity.)

In an interview, he distilled his philosophy. “I began to realize that you can’t get involved in everything, though there are a lot of things that need involvement,” Goldsworthy said. “I developed the philosophy that the way to do this is to specialize in something, specialize. So I decided fairly early when I came to Seattle…the Cascades just fascinated me.”

With Everett’s Phil and Laura Zalesky, Goldsworthy founded the North Cascades Conservation Council in 1957 and began the arduous push to establish a national park. Goldsworthy understood the value of public relations. When Kennecott Copper schemed to put an open-pit mine in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, it was Goldsworthy who magoozled a full-page ad in The New York Times, declaring that the hole would be large enough to be visible from the moon (you’d need a telescope, but that was an excusable sin of omission.)

Except for an inspired tribute by the Seattlepi.com’s Joel Connelly, the news that Patrick Goldsworthy died in Seattle on Oct. 6 at age 94, was lost in the sturm und nonsense of the shutdown. All the while, Goldsworthy’s legacy, his footprints, eclipse anything the other Washington has done in a long, long time.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Thursday, March 28

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Initiative promoter Tim Eyman takes a selfie photo before the start of a session of Thurston County Superior Court, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021, in Olympia, Wash. Eyman, who ran initiative campaigns across Washington for decades, will no longer be allowed to have any financial control over political committees, under a ruling from Superior Court Judge James Dixon Wednesday that blasted Eyman for using donor's contributions to line his own pocket. Eyman was also told to pay more than $2.5 million in penalties. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Editorial: Initiative fee increase protects process, taxpayers

Bumped up to $156 from $5, the increase may discourage attempts to game the initiative process.

Protecting forests and prevent another landslide like Oso

Thank you for the powerful and heartbreaking article about the Oso landslide… Continue reading

Boeing’s downfall started when engineers demoted

Boeing used to be run by engineers who made money to build… Continue reading

Learn swimming safety to protect kids at beach, pool

Don’t forget to dive into water safety before hitting the pool or… Continue reading

Comment: Why shootings have decreased but gun deaths haven’t

High-capacity magazines and ‘Glock switches’ that allow automatic fire have increased lethality.

Washington state senators and representatives along with Governor Inslee and FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez break ground at the Swift Orange Line on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Community Transit making most of Link’s arrival

The Lynnwood light rail station will allow the transit agency to improve routes and frequency of buses.

An image of Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin is reflected in a storefront window during the State of the City Address on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at thee Everett Mall in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Editorial: State of city address makes case for Everett’s future

Mayor Franklin outlines challenges and responses as the city approaches significant decisions.

FILE - The massive mudslide that killed 43 people in the community of Oso, Wash., is viewed from the air on March 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Editorial: Mapping landslide risks honors those lost in Oso

Efforts continue in the state to map areas prone to landslides and prevent losses of life and property.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Wednesday, March 27

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Burke: ‘Why not write about Biden, for once?’ Don’t mind if I do.

They asked; I’ll oblige. Let’s consider what the president has accomplished since the 2020 election.

Comment: Catherine missed chance to dispel shame of cancer

She wasn’t obligated to do so, but she might have used her diagnosis to educate a sympathetic public.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.