Spring/Summer 2000 One Year Later

Spring/Summer 2000 - One Year Later

Introduction
by Shane Powell

It was summer 1999, and what should have been a season of sunshine and sleepy afternoons instead became for Bellingham a season of darkness and despair.

Billowing plumes of black smoke stretched miles high, leaving a city to mourn the loss of three young lives, a precious creek and a feeling of safety, once taken for granted.

Each quarter, the Planet attempts to embrace local issues with broader implications. Though the topic this quarter was an obvious choice, the task itself became more challenging than any of us ever imagined.

We spent the first two weeks of this quarter not only discussing the details of last year’s pipeline explosion, but also trying to come to grips with the magnitude of the project we were taking on. The reality of our task hit us during our third meeting ...

I asked one of our staff writers to read the essay by Liam Wood entitled “Time Capsule,” (which appears in Amy Codispoti’s story “The Flyfisherman,”) aloud. We listened closely as she read Liam’s words: “I value many things, life being the first and foremost,” he wrote. We listened to things he loved: flyfishing, snowboarding … beauty and honesty. And the things he disliked: the rape and pillage of our wilderness areas, garbage left in rivers. And his dreams: “Ten years from now, I want to be kayaking a beautiful river with a beautiful woman.”

When she finished reading, I looked up to find many of the room’s faces full of tears. Surely, each one of us could relate in some solid way to Liam’s words. Especially because Liam may very well have written for the Planet this year. Liam could have shared this class, his friendship and passion with all of us.

And in more ways than one, Liam did write for us. His essay read aloud invited each of us to suddenly take a piece of last year’s pipeline tragedy a little deeper into ourselves and, in turn, into the stories we wrote for this magazine. Additionally, we published a beautiful essay written by Liam himself, entitled “Rocky Ford.” Although each of the Planet’s staff writers set out to write a unique story, we were all bound by a common theme — a theme which has become the subject of the largest and likely the most significant issue of the Planet magazine ever.

But if you read closely, you’ll see that our theme is not simply tragedy and loss. Indeed these are heavy elements of this issue, but in these themes are powerful glimpses of hope. Hope for change. Hope for new perspective.

The Chinese use the same symbol for “tragedy” as they do “opportunity.” This issue of the Planet has set out to show that indeed the two words are interchangeable.

Whether opportunity means helping to reform pipeline safety laws or simply taking a closer look at life’s fragility and the need to care for our common community, it is there. As we recognize the anniversary of Olympic’s disaster, we encourage our readers to help transform last year’s tragedy into this year’s opportunity.

We owe it to Stephen. We owe it to Wade. We owe it to Liam. We owe it to their families. All of whom this magazine is respectfully dedicated to.

Spring/Summer 2000 - One Year Later

Introduction by Shane Powell

Introduction
by Shane Powell