Preserving Trust

The KP has always attracted people who chose a different path. That diversity of experience has made this place stronger, not weaker.”

I am told that August is the month of dreams — a time when the fruits of our labor begin to ripen, of new beginnings, of pursuing bold ambitions. Each day in August is supposed to bring us closer to our dreams. We are to embrace the new beginnings. Embrace this season with an open heart ready to receive. Embrace hope.

Here goes.

One of my favorite questions to ask whenever meeting someone new to the Key Peninsula is what brought them here. Everyone has an origin story, and most I’ve heard include an element of dumb luck: “We would never have known about this place if it wasn’t for missing the turn to Shelton before eventually running out of road at Devil’s Head.”

You will hear stories of pioneering families who came to settle here in the 19th century, and the generations that followed and chose to stick around to raise their children here too. You’ll hear of retiring university professors, scientists, and airline pilots who arrived by word of mouth. There are veterans, doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, mechanics, and people from trades you've never heard of.  You’ll learn about families who only summer on the KP and have been doing so for decades. You’ll hear of families drawn to cheaper rent who wound up stuck after their commuter car died. Boom or bust, and everything in between, the Key Peninsula has it all.

Mostly you’ll find yourself listening to all the reasons living here is better than anywhere else, and why leaving sounds like a bad idea despite the conveniences in urban environments. You’ll hear stories from people born and raised here, who graduated from high school and went off to college or military service or distant jobs, only to fight their way back when the time came to settle down and make homes of their own.

We still share many of the same societal issues plaguing our country. Our politics are deeply polarized — by design nowadays, it seems. Many people have told me they are reconsidering their own political persuasion but are fearful of saying anything that might get them banished from their tribe.

There is division locally about the future of our fire district as it seeks to upgrade facilities and replace engines while navigating the demands and desires of residents concerned about the face of a future Key Center: the current HQ and Olson residence on KP Highway, and the Calahan property at the crossroads with Olson Drive NW. Will we pay for a new station? Will we create a new community space? Will we allow more businesses in, and what will that look like?

We will soon face the same questions with the Key Center library.

Gretchen Caserotti, the Pierce County Library System executive director, told the KP Community Council June 11 that “libraries of the future” will be less focused on reading while providing other opportunities and resources for learning. There are already fewer staff to help people with computer issues or provide access to resources traditionally performed by social workers. The libraries of the future will have fewer, if any, books on the shelves as digital reading already dominates the market, except for children’s books.

The library system owns the roughly 50-year-old building in Key Center, including the space rented to local health care providers. The current site lacks the space and amenities needed for the future, Caserotti said. Where would a new branch go? Another site in Key Center? North to Wauna? Would we even get one on the KP? Some of our programs have already been cancelled and local staff sent to distant libraries once or twice a week.

There are strong feelings on the peninsula about what we need, what we want, and what we can afford. Yet beneath those debates, something more important endures. Strangers still stop when someone is stranded on the road. Volunteers still organize food drives, clean beaches and roadsides, and raise money for a family in need. Community events still fill parks, the library, the KP Civic Center, and the Longbranch Improvement Club. Even when we disagree, we know that sooner or later we’ll meet again at the grocery store, the post office, or the new farmers market in Key Center.

Perhaps that is our quiet strength. Change is inevitable, but community is a choice we make every day. It lives in our willingness to see each other first as neighbors instead of opponents. If we can hold on to that, the Key Peninsula will continue to be more than simply a beautiful place to live. It will remain the kind of place people spend years trying to find — and once they do, don’t want to leave.

We do not have to agree on every issue, or abandon our convictions, to recognize each other’s humanity. Living in a small community teaches us that today’s political adversary may be tomorrow’s volunteer firefighter, Little League coach, food bank helper, or the neighbor who pulls your car out of a ditch. There is more to people than the labels we assign them. The KP has always attracted people who chose a different path. That diversity of experience has made this place stronger, not weaker.

If we can recover the habit of talking with one another instead of about one another, of waving before judging, of finding common ground before drawing battle lines, we will save something as valuable as our forests and shorelines. We will preserve the trust that has always made the Key Peninsula feel like home.