Page 11 - FDCC Flyer Spring 2022

Officer Reports
Craig A. Marvinney
Standing atop windswept Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, I channeled the Who, for indeed, I could
Some of us remember a Billboard top forty hit “The Bluest Skies You’ll Ever See are in Seattle.” So true. But more so, as you’ll see further in this issue of the Flyer, there are a great many fun things in this “Sapphire on the Sound” city. Our Federation’s Annual Meeting here, on which our chair, Heidi Goebel and our Program Chair, Amy Miletich have worked so hard, should take you places you may not otherwise be able to enjoy but for this meeting!
Add a few days to your meeting trip. Experience more of our Pacific Northwest.
Some ask, “what about the problems Seattle saw in 2020, with CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), and defunded police?”
As I write this, a major national newspaper proclaims how Seattle stepped back to normalcy from that 2020 Summer ‘abyss.’ It quells fears arising from that odd summer for this midwesterner.
2021’s elections pushed city council back towards the middle
and replaced the prosecutor with one who enforces the law with
a replenishing and appreciated police department. With its
new, more centrist mayor, Bruce Harrell, Seattle reopened parks
and sidewalks to safety and
assures visitors are welcome. This summer, just as fear of the British burning down the White House
in Washington, DC is unfounded, so too is anxiety over Washington State’s Seattle CHAZ experience two years ago.
Add a few days to your meeting trip. Experience more of our Pacific Northwest. From another National Park, Mount Rainier lets us see again for miles and miles. View Mt. Adams halfway across the state, see into the maw of Mt. St. Helens’ still smoking volcanic crater just to the right of distant Mt. Hood across the Columbia River in Oregon. Take your children to Mt. St. Helens and stand across from the volcano itself, learning from park rangers how the volcano blew. Or ferry across Puget Sound to the US Navy’s mothballed fleet in Bremerton. Or hike the Olympics.
Come to Seattle. Go beyond. Experience magnificence. Feel your heart beat. Be breathtaken!
Craig Marvinney is an FDCC Defense Counsel Member and its Secretary Treasurer. Contact him
at: camarvinney@gmail.com
see for miles and miles. North, across the Strait of
San Juan de Fuca is Vancouver Island and Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. I almost could make out the Empress, Canadian Pacific’s western-most grand hotel. Sweeping to the Northeast, this Olympic Mountain ridge affords
a view of the San Juan Islands and other incredibly beautiful isles
of the Pacific Northwest. With binoculars, one could see orcas and seals in the sea and on the nearby rocks.
Further, Vancouver comes into view, with Stanley Park almost close enough to touch. Snowcapped Mount Baker of the Cascade Range stands just to the right, catching the orange hues of the Pacific sunset. Then, Seattle and its Space Needle with Mount Rainier’s majesty beyond, its rounded peak seemingly a sentinel along with Baker over Puget Sound and all it has to offer. All these places are easily in reach. Indian reservations, the Pacific’s shore, the great Hoh Rainforest ... breathtaking it was!
An Ohioan most of my life, I’ve been fortunate to visit Seattle and the Pacific Northwest several times; on business, with my family, seeing friends, and even pass through
for an FDCC meeting. Seattle’s spectacular beauty never ceases to amaze.
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