Cleaning Up the River

After a two weeks of listening to peak oil presentations from Matthew Simmons, Roger Bezdek and James Howard Kunstler, today’s “River Clean-Up” at Highbridge Park was a welcome reprieve from the forecasted doom and gloom on the horizon. Thank god for community events.

Seeing the 500 + citizens from Spokane turn out on a gorgeous fall day to pick up trash along the Spokane River was incredible. Families, young people, and retired couples all joined in to help clean up our most sacred asset—our river. The chanted prayers by native Spokanes and the welcome statements from Senator Cantwell and Councilman Hession all contributed to the truly dignified act of picking up garbage. If the dollar crashes on Monday and the price of natural gas doubles, at least I will feel blessed by the beauty of the people I am surrounded by and the community of which I am a part.

Watching my 4-year old daughter joyfully look for empty beer bottles and plastic bags, I was reminded of a saying that I came across a few weeks ago on the “Friends of the Falls” website (www.friendsofthefalls.org) from the late Peter Campbell. Campbell was a member of the Spokane Tribe and the former director of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. A number of years ago, I had the privilege of working with Campbell on my architectural thesis. He had an amazingly calm presence about him and was one of those few individuals that always manages to say something profoundly beautiful. Campbell used to frequent the banks of the Spokane River and when asked why, his response was simply; “When you talk to non-tribal people there is something they’re looking for—security and a place where they can belong. What they seek exists here.”