Here’s a not-so-gentle reminder for Snohomish County Councilman John Koster: Visitors from outside the area can’t vote in elections here, but they can – and will – vote with their feet.
As far as tourism goes, it doesn’t take much for a place to get a bad reputation.
Big money can be pumped into boosting a destination’s desirability, only to have that region be branded as hateful or intolerant by the words or decisions of a few.
Koster voted against a proposal to spend $5,500 of county hotel tax revenue to promote a concert by the Seattle Men’s Chorus at the Everett Civic Auditorium. The gay men’s group has performed its delightful holiday show in Everett for several years, and has previously received support from the tax fund intended to advance tourism.
In an e-mail to The Herald, Koster wrote that the show “will have minimal impact in generating overnight stays.” He also wrote that “I think many would find this an offensive and poor use of taxpayer dollars.”
The County Council ended up voting 4-1 to approve $55,399 in tourism projects, including funds for the men’s chorus. Even so, I think Koster’s comments tarnished the image of an area hoping to attract visitors.
Consider the lesson of Arizona.
In 1987, then-Gov. Evan Mecham cancelled a paid Martin Luther King Jr. holiday for Arizona state employees, in part because of legal issues over the holiday’s creation. Mecham’s comments about King not deserving a holiday fanned the fire.
Conventions planned for Arizona were cancelled. Singer Stevie Wonder pushed a boycott of the state. In 1991, the year before Arizona voters approved the King holiday, the National Football League decided to move the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix to Pasadena, Calif.
It’s certainly Koster’s right to vote his conscience and to air his views. Doing so, he may have sent a message he didn’t intend.
To me, this is less a gay issue than an issue of artistic freedom and openness. We aren’t run by the Taliban. We don’t want our government telling us what art is suitable for us to enjoy.
By Koster’s logic, it would be wrong for the works of gay playwright Tennessee Williams to be performed in public schools. That’s absurd.
In an e-mail to the Herald last week, Everett’s Tina Paulsen said of Koster: “Let me remind him that my tax dollars are very often spent on governmental agendas of which I disapprove. … There’s just no room for such narrow-mindedness in the new Everett that we want to build.”
Paulsen, 58, grew up in South Carolina during the struggle for civil rights. “I see red flags very quickly when someone is telling me that another group is not OK,” she said.
She and her husband, Richard, sell real estate through John L. Scott in Everett. In her business, as in tourism, an area’s image is important.
“Everett has a history as a scrappy, working city. Now it wants to grow up,” Paulsen said Friday.
“The arts bring in the crowds, and the crowds bring in the money,” she said. “The artistic crowd is very open to new ideas and all kinds of diversity. We don’t want to turn them away or turn them off.”
With Everett’s new downtown plan pushing a future of urban life in high-rise condos, residents will expect many entertainment options. That doesn’t mean anyone has to buy a ticket to anything.
Koster also needs a reminder that Snohomish County taxpayers aren’t all cut from the same cloth.
Thomas Munyon, of Marysville, has sung with the Seattle Men’s Chorus. Munyon, 54, is also a member of the Northwest Savoyards musical group. He isn’t as active with the men’s chorus as he once was, but he’s been involved with the group for eight years.
“There are people who want everybody else to apologize for being the way they were born. But somebody has to learn to be a bigot, and they’re the ones who should apologize for their bigotry – not us,” said Munyon, who’s lived in Marysville five years, and before that lived eight years in Lynnwood.
Several years ago, the Seattle Men’s Chorus was the object of a protest over a concert in Wenatchee. “There was so much about it in the paper there, it caused a total sell-out,” Munyon said. “It was free publicity.”
The first year the men’s chorus performed in Everett, he said, “some members felt a little bit wary. But the community was very supportive. The thing about art, it’s what ties communities together.”
I’d hate for Snohomish County to be known far and wide as a hateful, narrow-minded place.
And you bet, there are things I’d prefer my taxes didn’t pay for – beginning with John Koster’s salary.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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