West Seattle, Washington
17 Saturday
Remember the Inauguration Day windstorm? (Here’s a refresher.) The things that make WS so beautiful also make us vulnerable. Send at least one delegate from your family or business to Saturday’s event; you’ll still be done in time for afternoon fun.
… to this: “Thou shalt not blaze through a four-way stop without giving all due respect to everyone else at/in the intersection.”
Lots of WS worries lately – from Westwood vandalism to Gatewood burglaries to break-ins further north. If you have neighborhood crime concerns, you are invited to voice them tonight at the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting, 7 pm @ the SW Precinct. On a related subject, a WSB reader e-mailed us asking for help with a hit-and-run that crunched his car; click ahead to read his note:Read More
A new comment on our original item about the Saturday night WS Bridge suicide is worth home-page exposure. As we wrote in the original item — we all need to talk more about preventing suicide, which kills more people in our area each year than murder. And to the point raised in this case, King County’s website points out that LGBT youth are at especially high risk. Here’s the comment in full (late afternoon update, we have removed the name at the request of someone who voiced confidentiality concerns, until and unless we hear otherwise):
(posted by “The Gay Curmudgeon”)
The young man was a volunteer at Lambert House, “a center for Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning youth and their allies”If only we were more accepting of our youth, if only we could do more
to tell them we care, if only we could do more to protect them from
diseases like HIV, if only…FROM: Ken Shulman, Lambert House Executive Director
TO: Lambert House VolunteersDear Lambert House Volunteers:
I am deeply saddened to tell you that [name deleted for now by WSB], a long-time Lambert House youth, committed suicide on Saturday night by jumping off of the West Seattle Bridge. [name], who was 21, first came to Lambert House when he was 15. He considered Lambert House to be very important to him and for other LGBTQ youth.
[name] gave an HIV-prevention education presentation to the Lambert
House Boys Group two weeks ago based on his personal experience becoming infected with HIV. It was [name]’s hope that he could educate other gay males to avoid becoming infected. On his physician’s advice, [name] started HIV anti-retroviral medication last Saturday. He reported having immediate side-effects including a rash and severe nightmares.On Saturday, June 30, at 4:00 p.m. at Lambert House, [name]’s friends,
including Lambert House graduates, current youth, and others, will hold
an all-ages memorial celebration of [name]’s life. Any Lambert House
youth and anyone who knew [name] is welcome to attend.I cannot express how saddened I am by this loss.
-Ken
~The Gay Curmudgeon
As Rhonda reminds us at Beach Drive Blog, part of the money you spend at Tully’s today goes toward the J.P. Patches statue that will help raise money for Children’s Hospital. (Two Tully’s in WS: Alki and Morgan Junction.)
We’ve noted before that WS is awash in authors. Here are updates on two:
–Eilis Flynn notes that her latest book, Festival of Stars, is partly set in WS.
–Clay Eals has gotten a lot of press for his Steve Goodman biography, Facing the Music. This Saturday, 1 pm @ the outdoor courtyard of the Log House Museum, he tops the bill for what the museum calls a “combination music/reading event.” (P.S. One of Eals’ other credits: editing the definitive WS history book — through its 1987 publication — West Side Story.)
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