Town Crier III – First Column

My first Town Crier Column has appears in the Daily News:

TOWN CRIER III: Help make 2008 the ‘Year of the People’
By Scotty Anderson
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I host a local weekly talk radio show called The PES. Looking back to the year 2002 when I hosted my first show, the community has never been as divided as it is now.

I was looking over the summaries of some of my old radio shows and the subjects included the proposal for a national ID card, gun control and gun rights, gay rights, racial profiling, crime, the city of Pullman budget woes, Pullman Transit, zero tolerance rules, President George W. Bush, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Enron, and the United Nations. I prefer to talk about local political issues, but there were no long-lasting hot-button issues.

That is until Wal-Mart, big-box stores, water rights, and the corridor development made the front pages of this very newspaper. Those issues have driven a wedge between families, friends, neighbors and cities. The battle lines have been drawn and for the past couple of years, those topics have dominated a large part of my radio show.

I believe everything that could be said about the Wal-Mart issue already has been argued – nothing new is being brought forth. It is time to stop the constant bickering.

A new year has just been thrust upon us. This is our chance to start a new focus on the people of the Palouse. Let’s make 2008 the “Year of the People of the Palouse.”

Allow me, if you will, to take you back one week into the past. I was driving to Pullman from Renton, Wash., after spending Christmas with my family. I exited I-90 at Tinkham Road. I was driving up a roadway that was narrow and covered with snow.

There was a four-wheel drive pickup truck in front of me. There was a small passenger car in front of the pickup truck. We were making our way up the hill into the woods. The farther we went, the deeper the snow got.

Soon the car was starting to get stuck. The driver of the car got out and walked back to the pickup truck driver and me. I noted he was wearing a grey sweatshirt with the symbol of the Oregon Ducks. He told us he was getting stuck and he would have to reverse his course.

The reality of the situation was that we would have to back all the way out to the main road. There was no place to turn around because of the amount of snow on the sides of the road. We didn’t argue with the man from the car. We didn’t get mad at him. We did what we had to do to help him get out of there.

As we were backing out, my vehicle got stuck in deep snow. Even in four-wheel drive, I was not getting enough traction to get out of the snow. Without asking any questions, without worrying about what university I was from, without being asked, the people from the car and the pickup truck came to my aid.

They got a shovel and started to dig my truck out of the snow. Once we got enough of the snow dug out, several people got into the back of my truck to add weight to the rear axle.

Three other people who were snowshoeing came to my aid, also, without being asked. The people on the snow shoes pushed from the front of the truck. One of them was wearing a purple Husky hat. Again, it didn’t matter to him that I am a Coug.

I got unstuck and continued to back down the narrow snow covered road. That was the true idea of neighbor helping neighbor. Cougar-Husky-Duck at that time we were neighbors, not competitors.

I am sharing this story about my experience on the snowy road to hopefully give incentive for you to find as many chances as possible to help out your fellow Palouse residents. With your dedication to this principle, we can make 2008 the Year of the People of the Palouse!

With the last couple words I have been granted to write in this column, I would like to ask the readers to keep track with me: T minus 148.

Scotty Anderson is a computer programmer who enjoys serving the community through various community-oriented service jobs. You can reach Scotty at crier@cityofpullman.com.