A pink glow seeps in. Out my front window, the whole sky beckons, mother-of-pearl roses, blues and whites. Horizontal brush strokes of clouds splash the sky in gray, blue and pink. The moon sets. Across Lake Washington and over Puget Sound and into the Olympic Mountains, I see Mt. Constance, stretching in her pink pajamas.
Mark Nassutti
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Juliet’s Balcony
Mietta placed her white patent leather shoes carefully on each rock step as she climbed, wary of crumbling mortar ravaged by weather and weeds. She held the pleats of her white Sunday dress off to each side with her hands so she could see better, looking up occasionally to watch for low branches on [...]
Back to Trieste
My father reads. A look at the massive bookcase in the living room that doubles as his office reveals an inquisitive mind with a focus on history and philosophy with a slight nod to literature and the arts. On the dark, elaborately carved floor-to-ceiling wall-unit, books line up, sometimes double-stacked, in sections about war, revolution, [...]
King County Executive Sets a Good Example
This column was published in the Kirkland Reporter on Tuesday, September 1, 2009.
King County Executive Kurt Triplett wants action. We should back him.
Triplett sees a wall of muddy water coming, so he wants to raise 42 miles of levees rather than wait for famous FEMA to come to the rescue when two Seattle area cities [...]
Pull the Plug 2.0
Published in the Kirkland Reporter op-ed section, July 21, 2009
Last fall, a dear friend’s aunt died of Alzheimer’s. The event prompted many conversations about end of life care, both for her aunt and for ourselves. I have a living will, but I concluded I needed to go further.
Thanks to a voter initiative approved last fall, [...]
The New Tyranny
I voted for hope. What I’m getting is a new kind of tyranny, the tyranny of fiscal irresponsibility, burdensome taxation and claustrophobic government bureaucracy.
This recession started at the household level. Millions of us made bets on illusory home appreciation data, aided and abetted by grow-at-any-cost bankers. Mine is one of those households, and I am [...]
To Get Better, Fire the Worst
The Nation’s Report Card arrived last week. I felt disgusted. Our K-12 education system, the most important industry in America, hasn’t improved despite 40 years of reform.
We need a game-changer.
And here it is: Our public schools will soon lay off thousands of teachers statewide. The usual practice is to lay off the newest first, based [...]
Broken Promises
This is the latest draft of the first chapter of my second book. Copyright 2009, by Mark Nassutti.
Trieste, my father’s birthplace, crumbles slowly into the Adriatic Sea. An imperial relic born of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s need for access to the sea, it sags beneath the steep limestone and dolomite escarpments that define the edges of [...]
Muddy Shoes
Published in the Kirkland Reporter, op-ed section, 3/7/09
My shoes got muddy last week. Spit-shined, black dress shoes. Walking through Golden Gate National Cemetery near San Francisco, 161 acres overlooking the bay, waves of white marble markers riding the contours of the terrain.
139,037 graves.
I’m no redneck patriot. I’m not a veteran. My nearest relative with military [...]
Madness lies in ignoring facts
Published in the Kirkland Reporter, 2/24/2009.
We the people. The ink used to write those words, along with the rest of our Constitution, were penned onto paper made from hemp.
For 150 years of our nation’s history, hemp provided a low-cost, environmentally friendly and renewable resource used to produce paper, rope, clothing, sails and many other products.
On [...]