Serving Queen Anne & Magnolia Since 1919 www.QueenAnneNews.com
AUGUST 27, 2025
Keeping Cool Under a Giant Sculpture
S
eattle Center visitors enjoyed plenty of shade under the Olympic Iliad sculpture during one of our recent 90 degree late August days. The massive 45 x 60
It's a Different Time, But It's the Same Old Story Mary Lou Sanelli Falling Awake
I
t is hard to explain to people today, when it seems like everyone in the city—everyone everywhere—has visited, or wants to visit Italy, that our neighbors once targeted my family because we are Italian. We had only lived in rural Connecticut a few weeks. Once my father saved enough money to leave our city apartment behind, off we moved to the countryside where people had larger houses but, I soon came to realize, smaller tolerance for people unlike themselves. While it seemed the neighborhood was calm, like a river without waves, I came to learn of strong currents swirling below the surface. Just weeks after we moved in, someone painted “WOPS GO HOME!” on the side of my father’s station wagon. I think the way in which I perceived myself changed the moment I saw those words.
VOL. 106, NO. 35
My mother said it had to be one of the neighbor kids. I remember her saying something like, “kids do terrible things.” But I did not believe it was a kid, not on your life. I was only six, but I’d already begun to notice grownup things, like how a certain man in the neighborhood shook his head whenever our family drove by. I couldn’t have put words to my feelings then, but now I can: I could detect this man’s contempt for all of the European struggles he never had to face and for all the Europeans he suddenly had to. Without his consent. Maybe all kids can sense how the social rules around them are clear and inviolate. Maybe I identified with being different right from the beginning because I was trying to figure out why my family was different, why I was different. Whatever the reasons, my interest in whatever it meant to be “different,” whatever that is, began because of those spiteful, spray-painted words. And it has persisted throughout my life. My father has said that imagining the “American dream” was the only thing that got him through the Second World War. Except he
did not carry the streets-pavedin-gold illusion. He defined the “dream” as living in a peaceful country. I’ll never forget the look that came over him when he saw the slur splattered on his car, as if part of his dream had been snuffed out like one of his cigars, as if he’d finally witnessed something he’d been afraid of all along. It was a different time, of course, when lots of us still believed that the government always did the right thing, and so my father might have pretended to agree with my mother’s plead to call the police, but he never did. Instead, he got out the hose and a scrub brush. And now I wonder: Do we all see what we want to see, or can handle seeing, and sweep the rest under, scrub it away, so we can tell ourselves everything is fine, because “fine” is what we so desperately want? That night, I heard my father cry. I had never imagined it possible for him to cry. My mother cried too, but I was used to that.
SANELLI, 4 PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
SEATTLE, WA PERMIT 1271
foot 125,000 pound painted steel behemoth was installed in 1984, funded by private citizens and local corporations. Lower Queen Anne residents refer to this monumental
agglomeration as "the pasta tube." The creator, Alexander Liberman, was not only a well known
KEEPING COOL, 5
Seattle Voters Renew Landmark Democracy Voucher Program By Spencer Olson
E
arlier this month the King County Elections Canvassing Board officially certified the results of Seattle’s August 5 primary election, confirming a decisive 59% victory for Proposition 1, the measure to renew funding for the city’s pioneering Democracy Voucher Program. With certification complete, Seattle has reaffirmed its national leadership in advancing a more inclusive, accountable democracy. Since voters first approved the program in 2015, Democracy Vouchers have proven to reduce the influence of big money in politics while expanding participation among everyday people. “Seattle voters sent a powerful message: our democracy works best when everyone has a voice, not just the wealthy few,” said Cindy Black, co-manager of the Yes on Prop 1 Seattle campaign. “By renewing the Democracy Voucher Program, voters ensured this tool will continue empowering renters, working families, young people, and communities too often left out of politics.” Over nearly a decade, Democracy Vouchers have: • Brought more people into the process: More than 105,000 Seattle residents have used vouchers to support candidates, many for the first time.
• Diversified who can run and win: Candidates from all walks of life, not just those with wealthy networks, have successfully run competitive campaigns. • Transformed campaigning: Instead of dialing for dollars from a handful of wealthy donors, candidates now knock on doors and connect directly with everyday residents. “Seattle is showing the nation what’s possible,” said Mauricio Ayon, co-manager of the Yes on Prop 1 Seattle campaign. “At a time when democracy is under attack nationally, our city is standing firm: elections should be powered by people, not wealthy donors.” The victory for Prop 1 also comes as momentum grows beyond Seattle. Earlier this year, legislation was introduced in Olympia to expand public financing to state legislative races, modeled after Seattle’s success. Seattle’s leadership has inspired others across the country as well: in 2022, Oakland voters passed their own “Democracy Dollars” program with overwhelming support, and cities and states nationwide are now exploring similar reforms. For more information visit www.yesonprop1seattle.org.