I am committed mind, body and soul (as anyone who knows me can painfully attest to!) to linking the early 21st Century emerging technology of high-speed broadband in all of its forms - - ISDN, ‘wi-fi’, co-axial cable, DSL, and true high-speed fiber-optics connections - - to both Kitsap County and regional/ world-wide solutions to our social and environmental dilemnas, namely fossil-fuel burning private vehicle use to move workers long-distance from their home communities to distant job places.

The resultant ‘perfect storm’ of long exhaust-choked lines of cars and buses utilizing bridges and ferries, waiting to move folks to work in seemingly endless, unproductive tied-up hours of peoples time, away from home and children, and community, all the while placing untenable burden on our natural and built environment spells disaster. The existing form of political dialog and action in the form of more-and-more impervious paved roadbeds and expensive tax-payer borne transportation ‘solutions’ like toll-booth’ed bridges and ferries, let alone multi-billion dollar proposals for expanded highways, without questioning the underlying assumptions of the necessity of having all our commuters physically travel to work, points out the near-bankruptcy of true leadership in both the transportation and environmental arenas.

At least, helping employers to identify so-called ‘knowledge workers’ and being able to harness technology for part-time work from home or remote office is something we can do! politically, saving the environment its largest growing component of pollution - - fossil-fuel emissions - - at the same time investing in the social fabric of families and communities. Poulsbo and Kitsap can be a leader in demonstrating the use of high-technology to solve some of these intractable problems.

We can work together to achieve a better future for our community and world, for ourselves and our children

 

Special Report