Friends, I was struck by something I heard Chris Hayes say on a recent podcast, in the middle of a conversation about the tumult in the country today and how we might turn a corner. He said:
And then finally I think about how do we create shared public life, civics based institutions. The thing that I think of, as a New Yorker, always is the subway, which is right now a total disaster. But the subway is a little like … The subway in New York is a little like the NHS in England, which is that it really is used by everyone. It is a public thing that people commute to their Wall Street jobs in, and they commute to their nursing jobs in, and their teaching jobs in, and their janitorial jobs in, and homeless people use it, and it is a genuine shared public entity of which we have so few in American life.
Not many cities in America have a public transit system used by people from all walks of life. But Seattle kinda does. And the main reason I keep this blog running is that I really want to keep it that way. Because “shared public entities” are at a premium right now. They can give us empathy, help us get over our fears, and help create a shared understanding. Transit in particular gets us out of our steel boxes and into the public realm. And I love it, even if it frustrates me sometimes. I love riding it to work, or with my kids or home late at night. And I want everyone to have the opportunity to use it. I want it to be better.
We’re lucky to live in a city with such a diverse media ecosystem that can cover the transit system. But even in Seattle, the landscape for journalism is changing radically. We need your support more than ever.
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This is (hopefully) the last time I’ll bug you in 2018. So go ahead and make a donation before you head out on that holiday weekend. And thanks.
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