Islands. Not bringing it up, Trident doesn’t enter the conversation. Instead, we are told that Port Townsend was called in its youth, the “ City of Destiny.” I wonder what it will be. VIII Tuesday, the third and final day of my investigation, I again drive the twenty miles south to Kitsap County, and eat breakfast in a greasy spoon in Silverdale. On one side of me, a table of military folk mull over their fate. “ I shouldn’t have left California,” says one. Facing me, a middle-aged mobile home assembler tells me that “ things are on the move here. They’re bringing in another big Naval squadron, 2500 by the end of the year.” He’s pleased to have work in this otherwise moribund economy. I pass a billboard declaring boldly “ He’d Rather Fly For The Navy” on my way into Bremerton, and stop in a couple of places to get a fix on the local economy. At the CETA office, only four job seekers are waiting, and on the wall are posted hiring notices for many jobs at the local Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, for boilermakers, insulators, electronics mechanics, nuclear engineering technicians, etc., all at WG8 or better, a starting pay of $9.97 an hour. I’m told that though Kitsap County has around 8% unemployment, the lowest in Washington State, “ Bremerton has no bright lights, it ’s not booming.” Downtown, after visiting the Naval Employment Office, which is swarming with young men looking for those Shipyard jobs, I chance into the Armed Services YMCA. In the foyer is a picture of people rowing across a South Seas lagoon, under the message, “ True religion has made civilization possible.” Outside, the streets are grimy, tired, filled with clipjoints, video arcades, a Domestic Military Scale Model store and "Most o f the people here are churchgoing, but being Christian for them is too easy. There's no costinvolved. Nonviolence is at the core o f their belief, but they won't recognize that." Dan Stevenson innumerable taverns. The Anchor — “ Famous All Over The World” — is burned out. Across the street, by the Bremerton-Seattle ferry slip, I find the person I’m looking for. Dan Stevenson is preparing his day’s business in the tiny Harbor Hut, where he sells burgers and fast food. The previous April, Dan had resigned a promising, high paying position at the Shipyard, the largest employer in Bremerton. Acts of courage are usually prompted by extreme circumstances, but for his friends and family Naval employment was the “ status quo” and they considered the resignation ridiculous rather than courageous. For Dan and his wife Donna, whose father is a high official at the Shipyard who had helped Dan get the job, it was more of an act of faith. For months they had been working through the “ conflict between the nonviolent gospel of Jesus Christ and working in Defense.” Before he quit, he often joined the • all night vigils on the Post Office steps, led by fellow Catholics from the Jonah House who had come to Bremerton to protest Trident and engage with the workers. “These guys I worked with would come walking by at one or two in the morning, so drunk they wouldn’t recognize me. I’d go to work directly from the Post Office. I was always talking about it at work, how I didn’t feel right.” Later, Dan admits that he had doubts, “ not doubts about leaving but doubts about the timing. See my wife was pregnant and I lost all health benefits. It probably would have been easier if I had waited a few more months.” Though he was successful in contesting his unemployment claim, “ because there was a conflict and I was sincere,” the first few months in the community “were pure hell.” People he’d known and worked with ostracized them, though “ family never did that.” Now the same people are “ playing good Christians by accepting us . . . we were brainwashed and now things are over.” Dan still feels it was a wise decision. “ It puts our lives back in our control. I never wanted to do that job, and with all those things torn away and uprooted, you’re able to look at your life and decide what you want to do in life. It polarized the community and gave them something to discuss. Before there was no question. Now there’s a question. There’s no answers, but there are questions. It’s kind of neat.” Dan strongly feels that the principal force behind the peace movement should be the church, “ not just a couple of bishops but from the church itself, because it ’s against everything that’s in the Bible, if you believe in violence to that degree. Most of the people here are churchgoing, but being Christian for them is too easy. It doesn’t make any demands, there’s no cost involved. Nonviolence is at the core of their belief, but they won’t recognize that. That’s why we want to get into counsel-ministry, to see what we can to to bring that about. It’s got to come from within.” Dan and Donna are soon moving to Portland to take up their studies at Marylhurst College. “ The hope we share together,” he tells me as he opens for the day, “ and I think a lot of other people in the church share too, is that in the end, all things will work out.” IX Port Orchard, Kitsap county seat, lies across Sinclair inlet from Bremerton, and I take the Retsil, a foot ferry, for the 15 minute excursion. The ride takes one much of the length of the naval shipyard, which harbors dozens of military craft of all sizes and a handful of Polaris subs. The USS Michigan, is expected in early Apr,iI for outfitting. The Retsil is primary transportation for the hundreds of shipyard workers who commute between the sister communities, and now, just off shift, they mostly sit alone, looking exhausted. Six block up the hill, I quickly find myself in Kitsap Commissioner John Horsley’s office, a seat he’s held since 1976. A youngish Democrat, he was born and raised on a strawberry farm near Silverdale, very near Bangor, attended Harvard (“ to sort of balance out the brains” ), and was in the Peace Corps in Peru. His wall sports photos of himself with Congressman Floyd Hicks, with whom he served as Administrative Assistant, Ronald Reagan and Scoop Jackson, who leads the delegation which has so successfully brought home those military plums. “ Our delegation always worked as a team. We’ve been very successful. Used all our clout.” In 1973, when the Navy announced the creation of the Bangor Base, he claims the Washington delegation was surprised. “ It was not sought after. The Navy did some for late night dining University Bar & Grill 4553 Un iversity Way N.E. Seattle, Washington SERVING CONTINENTAL CUISINE UNTIL 1 AM WINES BY THE GLASS 632-3275 ESPRESSO 7902 EAST GREENLAKE DRIVE N. 522-5553 Madame & Company * Collectable Fashions Travel through fashion’s dazzling eras . . . Choose from the ever-changing wardrobes . . . Enjoy our fascinating finery 117 Yesler Way Pioneer Square (206) 621-1728 8 Clinton St. Quarterly 5181st Ave. N. #21 285-2398
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz