Inlander 06/04/2020

Celebrating

the class of

twenty twenty The Year You’ll Never Forget

Now more than ever.

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2 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

INSIDE VOL. 27, NO. 34 | COVER ILLUSTRATION: ALI BLACKWOOD

COMMENT 5 8 NEWS COVER STORY 10

CULTURE 29 31 FILM I SAW YOU 33

GREEN ZONE 34 ADVICE GODDESS 36 BULLETIN BOARD 37

EDITOR’S NOTE

I

’m a total sucker for graduations. You get to bear witness to delirious young people at a pivotal moment in their lives — standing at a precipice in the warm glow of their accomplishment, proud, passionate, ready to jump into the terrifying unknown of whatever comes next. How wonderful is that! And yet because of the coronavirus pandemic, this deserving class of 2020 won’t enjoy the usual hoopla.

But fear not: The Inlander has dedicated this week’s issue to them.

There’s a keepsake poster inside, and the cover section is packed with plenty of wit and wisdom. Not from me, thank god, but from graduating students, from educators and administrators, and from bestselling author Jess Walter (beginning on page 10). Among my favorite lines:  “Do stupid stuff!! Challenge ideas that everyone else accepts. Fight for the absurd. Take on the unwinnable battle.”  “I pulled myself together enough to get a full ride to my dream college. No virus can take that away from me, and it can’t take it away from anyone else in the class of 2020.”  “I encourage you to form your identity not by what the world thinks of you, or the success you achieve, but by the values and principles by which you live, by the ways you love and treat others, and by your commitments to serve worthy things that are bigger than yourselves.”  “We generations of greedy, short-sighted ‘adults’ who threw a big seventy-year party, ate all the food, drank all the beer, used all the resources, blew your inheritance, pissed on the carpet and passed out on the floor.

Sorry. Our bad.”  “We graduated, apparently. No parties. No ‘Pomp and Circumstance.’

We got an abrupt invitation, delivered without ceremony: Welcome to the real world. Congratulations, I guess?”

Yes, indeed, let’s say it loud for all of them to hear: Congratulations, class of 2020!

— JACOB H. FRIES, Editor

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JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 3

We are ALL one community.

We ALL continue to unite and find oodness in standin to ether.

4 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

COMMENT STAFF DIRECTORY PHONE: 509-325-0634 Ted S. McGregor Jr. (tedm@inlander.com) PUBLISHER

J. Jeremy McGregor (x224) GENERAL MANAGER

IF LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS WANTED TO MAKE CHANGES TO REDUCE POLICE BRUTALITY, WHAT SHOULD THAT LOOK LIKE?

EDITORIAL

BENO WOLF: Police officers should be held to a higher standard than the general public — not protected by the system. All officers using excessive force should be convicted and all officers who witness excessive force should be required to report it or be fired.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Normally, we ask our question of the week of people we randomly encounter on the street. But with the coronavirus pandemic, we instead asked our followers on social media to share their thoughts.

DALE DAMRON: Wrong question. The police brutality you are talking about is only possible with the absolution of those behaviors by the social group that is in power. You may as well ask about how to address housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and access to health care while you are at it.

This is a larger cultural question.

LUCAS McINTYRE: Let’s start with cops drawing their weapons as a last resort, not a preemptive measure to make them seem threatening. Leading with, “I consider you a lethal threat and I am willing to respond accordingly” is not how you de-escalate a situation.

TORI BAILEY: 1. Truly use de-escalation techniques. 2. Let the ombudsmen have the full access he needs to do his job. 3.

Good cops need to stop protecting the bad ones. The guild should make sure due process is carried out but not go all out to keep officers who shouldn’t be on the street.

KRIS MARTIN: “If?” Who do the police work for? This shouldn’t even be an option the public gives them at this point. Zero tolerance policy for brutality plus independent, community oversight committees for a start. Quit allowing them to set the rules, they are public servants, not our judge, jury and executioners.

SARA VAN VALER: It looks like outreach and improving public opinion. It looks like holding any and all officers involved in excessive force having consequences… not paid leave but criminal consequences. Law enforcement is essential to the greater good but they must be held accountable. Officers need to be role models. ... Be respectful to be respected. Be accountable to hold others accountable. It looks like deescalation training. It looks like mental health training. It looks like community involvement. It looks like oversight and transparency. n

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Fred Rogers’ words, memefied, often circulate in times of tragedy.

Finding the Helpers We must rely on each other in times of crisis, and the class of 2020 seems up to the task

BY AILEEN KEOWN VAUX

T

his year’s graduation season is clearly different than any we’ve encountered in recent history. Typically, I’d be out with the rest of Eastern Washington University’s staff and faculty, high-fiving and celebrating the senior class of 2020 as they walk through the pillars near Showalter Hall, signifying their transition from college students to people about to embark on adventures great and small.

My work as a career counselor at EWU has significantly changed the way I perceive how humans operate. Many of the seniors graduating into this new, techno-facilitated world spent

time in our Career Center asking tough existential questions: What do I want to do with my life; what are my core values; how can I be both happy and supported in my future endeavors? Without fail, though, the vast majority of students I serve, when asked, “what is most important to them in their professional lives,” say that they want to help other people. And they declare this sentiment

with the radical assurance that they are saying something unique and qualifying about themselves. Some want to help others as occupational therapists; others want to be teachers, inspired by the people who helped them in high school. Others want to go into social work and advocate for foster children. Some want to work in recreational therapy for the Special Olympics.

It is easy to believe that human nature is selfish and without critical thought. A quick scroll through your news feed often feels like an assault on, and argument against, the human capacity for empathy. But my students consistently challenge that belief that we are hard-wired to help only ourselves.

A quick scroll through your news feed often feels like an assault on, and argument against, the human capacity for empathy.

In an interview with the Television Academy Foundation in 2013, Fred Rogers relayed a story about how his mother invited him to look for the helpers during any kind of catastrophe, because “if you look for the helpers, then you know there’s hope.”

He worried that the media didn’t adequately highlight the helpers when doing news stories about disasters. His words, memefied, often circulate in times of tragedy. I’ve been thinking about them myself as, one by one, countries around the world respond to the COVID-19 crisis, with mixed results. One of the features of this moment in quarantine is that we are separated from each other — making it challenging to “look for the helpers” in real life because most of our information now is mediated by the screens that filter and shape the narrative of this disaster. My response is to remember my students — and what they have taught me about being helpers. Even if you can’t leave the house, or are quarantined by yourself, it is entirely possible that the helpers you are supposed to look for are right in front of you. And their acts of kindness and grace, precisely because they are so ubiquitous, will never make the nightly news.

Since March, I’ve witnessed many of these unsung helpers contribute to the goodwill of their communities. People who have given shelter to those who desperately need it. Neighbors bartering baked goods for paper products. Friends who check in with others via Zoom, text, or calls to ensure that those isolating alone feel connected to the outside world.

When Washington state was about to go into lockdown, I needed to get the internet for my apartment so that I could telework. I stood in the store, nervously keeping my distance from others, watching the employees behind the counter stay calm as they helped person after person get the technology that would enable working, learning, and staying connected as we rolled toward an uncertain, social horizon. Some customers were agitated, taking it out on the representatives. The person who helped me, though, took it all in stride, even offering his private work phone number to ensure that if I had any trouble connecting the equipment at home, I wouldn’t have to navigate the corporate switchboard. A small act that I didn’t report to KREM news, but helped nonetheless in a fraught time.

Likely, you have also witnessed similar small acts of kindness.

And even likelier, given what I know about how people operate now, you have provided kindness to others. When broader systems fail, when governmental infrastructure doesn’t support us in the way in which we expect it to, then it will be up to each one of us to find the helper within and apply a countervailing force to balance the world for good. Even though I can’t officially, in real life, say goodbye to the class of 2020, I have no doubt they are about to embark into the world, committed now more than ever to that which they said out loud in my office, becoming the helpers that Mr. Rogers wanted us to witness. n Aileen Keown Vaux is an essayist and poet whose chapbook Consolation Prize was published by Scablands Books in 2018.

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JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 7

POLICE REFORM

NIGHT AND DAY How a George Floyd protest in downtown Spokane became something else entirely

STORY BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL • PHOTOS BY YOUNG KWAK

T

housands of people gathered in downtown Spokane Sunday afternoon to protest the police killing of George Floyd, a black Minnesota man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. They gathered to express their anger at yet another unjust killing of an unarmed black man at the hands of police. They gathered to call out injustices against minorities in Spokane. They gathered to share their fears that they or their children could be next. They gathered to say, “This needs to stop.”

Many of the people surrounding the speakers near the Red Wagon in Riverfront Park were black men and women with their own stories of being unjustly targeted, harassed, pulled over, or followed due to the color of their skin. Many were Native Americans who, like African Americans in Spokane, are disproportionately contacted by police, jailed and killed in officer-involved shootings.

Mothers of children of color held signs saying, “My son could be next.” Some Latinx attendees held another, “Tu lucha es mi lucha.” Your fight is my fight.

Speakers like Jermaine Williams took turns leading call-and-repeat chants with the crowd: “Black lives matter.” Black lives matter.

“You are me.” You are me.

“When they kill you, they kill me.” When they kill you, they kill me.

8 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

The protesters in Spokane and more than 100 other cities across the country weren’t just there to share righteous anger at the killing of 46-year-old Floyd, who died while being arrested on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill.

His death is just the latest injustice in a seemingly endless history of them.

Floyd told officers, “I can’t breathe.” So did Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black father in New York, who was choked by police and died in 2014, when officers suspected he might be selling single cigarettes out of packs illegally. Just months later that year, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy playing with a BB gun at a park, was shot by officers within two seconds of their arrival.

The protest was for them, too.

It was for 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead by white men while jogging in February. It was for Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was lynched in 1955 after a white woman said he whistled at her. It was also for Otto Zehm, a developmentally disabled white man who was killed by Spokane Police officers in 2006. And for Jerome Alford, a black man killed during a confrontation with Spokane Police a year after that. And for the people of color who’ve experienced disproportionate use of force at the hands of officers and deputies.

“We are here to say no more,” Devon Wilson, the Spokane NAACP Criminal Justice Committee chair, told the crowd near the Red Wagon. “No more. Never again.”

The thousands then turned and marched to the Spokane County Courthouse, where they peacefully confronted a line of officers in tactical riot gear, who were reportedly there to protect the historic courthouse, officials said the next day.

Between scattered shouts of “His name was George Floyd” and “F--- the police,” others chanted, “There is no riot here, why are you in riot gear?”

For hours, the crowd pushed in closer, as two police lines retreated back into the courtyard of the Public Safety Building, the air tense, but with both protesters and police trying to keep their sides calm.

One young man of color went up to each officer along the line, stood in front of them and said to each, “Eye to eye, I wanna let you know I love you and I appreciate you. Thank you for your service. Please don’t kill my people.”

But the moment the overall tension finally eased came when officers listened to the pleas of people of color — who asked them repeatedly to acknowledge why the protest was happening — and took a knee. While the gesture was short-lived, several officers did take a knee for a moment, and the shift in mood near the courtyard was immediate, with many protesters leaving the area to go home soon after.

“Thank you! That’s all we wanted!” one person shouted before turning to go.

But the day of peaceful protest and show of restraint by police who’d been screamed at and had some water bottles lobbed their way soon turned into a frenzied night of tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs downtown as a small group of looters and vandals prompted the city to say every protester remaining after 5 pm was participating in a “riot.”

CHAOTIC NIGHT

It started with a small group of marchers who headed back downtown after the courthouse event was mostly over.

Or maybe it started when a small group of people broke into the Nike store and people looted the retailer before scattering, faced with screams to stop from protesters trying to keep the peace.

Or maybe it started when police launched tear gas

Sunday’s protest started with a rally in Riverfront Park (facing page); demonstrators then marched over the Monroe Street Bridge to continue protesting in front of the Spokane County Courthouse. Afterward, some protesters and other agitators returned to the downtown core. Mayhem and some looting would follow. at a small group of people standing in Riverfront Park a while later, holding their hands above their heads in the warm evening sun as they shouted at the officers from hundreds of feet away.

Ask Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, or Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, and it was out-oftown antifascist agitators who started the looting and rioting and forced officials to announce that anyone remaining downtown after about 5 pm was rioting.

With announcements made over loudspeakers that people needed to leave downtown, anyone remaining was warned they could face tear gas and other “less lethal” crowd-control measures, Meidl says.

But a small group of about 100 people who remained near the west end of Riverfront Park around 6 pm couldn’t hear what police were announcing over the loudspeaker across the street. As a police helicopter hovered over the scene, drowning out the speaker, people repeatedly shouted, “We can’t hear you!” About 30 seconds later, tear gas canisters were shot across the street and the crowd ran away, letting the gas clear before slowly returning.

As was seen in other cities across America over the weekend, the crowds of protesters who remained downtown into the night were agitated when police started firing tear gas at them.

“We’re allowed to peacefully protest,” they said, as they kept returning to stand in the road and on the grass near the ice ribbon across from the downtown mall.

“Hands up, don’t shoot!” they said after several more volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets came bouncing down Spokane Falls Boulevard.

Meidl says there were clear agitators setting up with milk to use to ease the pain of tear gas from very early on in the day. Indeed, some young protesters came prepared with spray bottles of a mixture of milk and milk of magnesia. But other young protesters showed up with milk later in the night once tear gas was already deployed, offering first aid and water bottles, walking around to each person to ask, “Are you OK?” While the standoff at the edge of the park continued, another large group of protesters remained near

the STA Plaza at Howard and Riverside. As traffic continued to flow down Riverside, officers lined up across the crosswalk on the other side of the street and announced that people needed to leave the area. Just before 8 pm, a text alert had gone out to people in the area letting them know Mayor Nadine Woodward had issued a curfew for the downtown core in effect through 5 am Monday, June 1. Anyone remaining, the officers continued to announce, was rioting and should leave.

Officers fired tear gas canisters and flash-bangs as cars were still rolling down the street. The crowd scattered, running down different blocks before regrouping a block further up on Howard and Sprague. As more tear gas pushed the crowd back, a few agitators broke windows in an empty storefront and at Garland Resale Boutique, and later at Wells Fargo. In both instances, those breaking the windows were quickly told to stop and chased down by other protesters who were trying to keep things peaceful.

The crowds continued to get smaller as the night wore on, but a few straggling small groups were still checking in with each other with warnings to “stay safe” just after 10 pm, as militant, armed groups of men who were not with police officers took it upon themselves to break the curfew and patrol the streets.

But for all the broken glass and vandalism by the group that was separate from the actual George Floyd protest, by Monday morning, the downtown core was clean. Crowds from the earlier protest came to clean up the damage to the city they were protesting to hold accountable and make better.

As city leaders recapped what happened and spoke of plans should more protests happen, Spokane City Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson echoed the true message of the protest and rally Sunday afternoon: the systemic and generational mistreatment of people of color needs to end.

“My grandparents, my parents and I have seen rallies and protests all my life. And nothing is different,” Wilkerson says. “So I’m challenging everybody, what will tomorrow bring? Don’t loot. Don’t destroy property, but please, keep protesting.” n samanthaw@inlander.com

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 9

10 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

FACING PAGE: Shadle Park High School counselor Stephanie Filippini, right, and her 6-year-old daughter, Chloe, greet seniors as they arrive to pick up their caps and gowns on May 8 during a drive-up event. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Rewriting the Stolen

Ending

The Inland Northwest — and the Inlander — is fighting to give closure for the class of 2020

BY DANIEL WALTERS

Graduation

is not the end of the world. But it is, make no mistake, the end of a world.

On its surface, graduation is about achievement and celebration, about, oh, all the places students will go. But the reality is that, underneath the cliches, graduation is about loss. It’s a funeral with a different dress code.

You toss your cap in the air and by the time it lands four years of your life — your cross country personal records, your elaborate Sadie Hawkins date proposal, the high note in your Les Mis solo, your class-president campaign rap — are flushed away into irrelevance.

No matter how sincere the promises you leave with your yearbook signatures, many of the friendships you spent more than a decade building will effectively end that moment you grab your diploma.

“This could probably be the last time that we’re all going to be together,” says Elijah Woodward, a graduating senior at Lakeland High School in Rathdrum. “Most people are going to be shipping off in the military or going to colleges across the state.

We all started this together. We just want to end it together.”

That’s the power not only of graduation ceremonies, but of other last-semester rituals like senior prom, senior breakfasts, senior trips and senior all-nighters. They’re the climaxes that make the ending of their story feel meaningful, instead of just tragic.

Not this year. This year, the pomp became a victim of the circumstance. COVID closed down the students’ schools and stole the students’ closure. But in the months since, teachers, administrators, parents, and business leaders have been scrambling for ways to craft a meaningful ending for the class of 2020.

If they can’t replace graduation, the thinking goes, then they can at least memorialize it.

N

early every high school across the nation is facing the same dilemma. Hundreds of school administrators convene on Zoom calls, brainstorming ways to somehow pull off graduation ceremonies in states where large gatherings are still banned.

Spokane Public Schools had an idea: Use Joe Albi, the district’s sprawling soon-to-be-demolished football stadium as their graduation venue. You want social distancing? How about an outdoor stadium that seats nearly 30,000? But Gov. Jay Inslee’s office nixed the proposal, arguing that it still posed too much of a risk to have that many people gathering.

Instead, they drew up a new plan. They’d effectively hold

hundreds of micro-ceremonies for every student, scheduling a moment where students could drive up near an outdoor stage at a high school, hop out, walk across the stage, snag their diploma and then drive off. At the end of it, a videographer would edit the whole thing together into a seamless graduation video.

“We want to honor the kids as best we can,” says Ferris High School Principal Ken Schutz.

But he knows it’s inadequate — that you can’t artificially simulate those final few hours surrounding a normal graduation, when all cliques and pretensions fall away and classmates who’d never be caught dead hanging out find themselves drawn together by the approaching conclusion.

“They want to be together so bad,” Schutz says.

Some parents have reacted to that loss by pushing back. In Rathdrum, parents — including Michelle Woodward, Elijah’s mom — have been contacting the Panhandle Health District, calling the state board of education and writing letters to Idaho Gov. Brad Little — all calling for a relatively traditional graduation ceremony. If an amusement park like Silverwood could open, she says, why couldn’t they hold the kids’ graduation outside, socially distant, but together?

And when the letters and phone calls didn’t work, they held a small protest outside of the school, holding signs like “Brad hates grads.” Elijah picks out a sign with the phrase “Today’s grads are tomorrow’s voters.”

In one sense, with all the deaths, unemployment and shuttered businesses, it’s easy to brush off complaints about losing prom and graduation ceremonies. But I can empathize. When I graduated from North Central High School, way back in 2004, the loss of that community — a place where I mattered, where I had purpose — felt like the amputation of part of my identity. I marched across my graduation stage and right into a slough of adult-sized depression.

At age 18, time moves differently. Your emotions — joy, love, grief — are more vibrant, more powerful, more real. It’s why, amid all the COVID-related suffering, so many people care about a few thousand high schoolers.

J

oel Barbour, the owner of the Great PNW clothing brand, is walking to his truck when he’s hit by the weight of what this year’s graduates are losing.

“It was wrenching my heart,” Barbour says. “They are really missing out on a huge piece of life.” ...continued on next page

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 11

Graduation Issue “REWRITING THE STOLEN ENDING,” CONTINUED...

During his own senior year, he remembers nearly getting jailed after breaking onto school grounds and then dumping a truck — wheels removed, spray-painted in Mt. Spokane colors — in the high school courtyard.

So he leapt at the chance to celebrate the 5,000 local seniors who didn’t get a traditional graduation. He designed a Spokane class of 2020 brand with a logo and a blue-and-green color scheme and put it on T-shirts, key chain, water bottles and enamel camp mugs that he’s selling at spokane2020.com. Part of the revenue will go to a fund at Spokane Teachers Credit Union, and this year’s seniors will be able to vote on which local nonprofit the fund will help.

It’s all part of the effort of a larger campaign by the advertising firm Desautel Hege. Michelle Hege, the firm’s CEO — who recalls wearing a metallic pink dress to her Lewis and Clark High School prom back in the ’80s — set up a weekly call with local school administrators and business leaders to launch a city-wide campaign.

There are plans to paint a skywalk, to hang school flags on Post Street, to convert utility boxes at parks into artwork applauding the class of 2020.

In June, the Riverfront Park’s Pavilion — and businesses across Downtown Spokane — will light up with the blue and green of Barbour’s logo. TV spots will air featuring local celebrities.

“I would imagine everywhere across the country, communities are doing the same thing,” Hege says. “Our vision is that, wherever our seniors and our families are going around town, they’re seeing their community celebrating them.”

Some gestures are relatively small. At Lakeland High School, other parents have launched an “adopt a senior” page — choosing a senior and giving them gift baskets, flowers, any kind of gesture to show they care.

“Our parents have kind of stepped up and they’ve done all

they can for us,” Elijah says.

Other efforts are on a larger scale, literally. Rogers High School art teacher Tom Pettoello spray-painted the school’s logo on the football field and then scrawled the name of every single Rogers 2020 graduate on the turf. He’s done the same thing at other schools across the country.

“Our vision is that, wherever our seniors and our families are going around town, they’re seeing their community celebrating them.”

The Inlander recruited Pettoello to paint a giant “Hats Off To You, class of 2020” logo in the Clock Tower meadow in Riverfront Park. In the middle of this issue, you’ll find a two-page poster of that logo, inviting our readers to post it in their windows. We’ve made posters in the past when we were all rooting for the Seahawks and the Zags. We’re just cheering for a different sort of team today.

Sixteen years ago, I processed my own graduation angst by typing out big heartfelt individualized essays for all my best friends and secret crushes, handing them printed-out copies to

Graduation is a special accomplishment ... and so are You.

l e s

CongratS

s a t to our graduating class of 2020 and to all h e t r Th o graduating high school students joining us in the fall. . w e s l a s w s a h e h t 12 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020 Community Colleges of Spokane does not discriminate on the basis of race,color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation or age in its programs, activities or employment. Marketing and Public Relations.

Play where the big winners play.

stick in their yearbook.

In a way, this Inlander issue is an echo of that. We’ve handed the mic over to local students and educators to speak to this year’s crop of graduates about the present in a way that will define the future.

The class of 2020’s ending got erased. Together, we’re writing a new one.

REGULAR

Admissions opens Session begins

T

he simple fact is, graduation ceremonies themselves are boring. They’re not the climax of the movie — they’re the interminable scrawl of end credits.

Nobody remembers graduation ceremonies where nothing goes wrong. It’s only the unexpected divergences — unapproved profanity in a valedictorian speech, a crowd-surfing blow-up doll, a standing ovation for the senior who let loose a llama in the gymnasium — that leave a legacy.

Traditions and rituals are comforting, in part, because they’re cliches, because they’re dull. They’re soft assurances that everything is normal. This year, that’s impossible. But while seniors are missing out on the tradition, they’re getting an experience almost no other class has been able to relate to.

Well, almost no one. Schutz, the Ferris principal, remembers graduating from high school 40 years ago in Tekoa, Washington. He remembers the last month of school being canceled. He remembers everyone wearing masks. He remembers the volcanic ash from Mt. St. Helens that fell from the heavens and blanketed the town in gray.

Forget the yearbook. His graduation was part of the history books.

The class of 2020 is blessed with the same curse. Every graduation represents the end of a world. But this time, at least, everybody else is acting like it.

“This is a class who will be remembered always: The seniors who graduated during a pandemic,” Hege says. “And who didn’t have graduation.” n

June 2020

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JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 13

Graduation Issue

Beck’s Call Whitworth’s president says the skills the pandemic gave you will help you change the world for good

BY BECK TAYLOR, President of Whitworth University

T

o the coronavirus class of 2020: Congratulations on your achievements.

Obtaining a degree is a worthy accomplishment under any circumstances. But you completed your studies under the most challenging conditions. Senior years were disrupted, trips canceled, events postponed, goodbyes lost, and celebrations missed. You endured far too many Zoom meetings and online lectures. But you prevailed, and you are forever changed as a result of this experience.

As you reflect upon your significant accomplishments and the challenges of the past three months, I encourage you to remember these three important lessons: First, adaptability and perseverance are learned

character virtues that have served you well recently, and practicing these behaviors will continue to influence your lives in the future. Too often, we humans are bound by what we know, fenced-in by the things that are familiar. We know how to thrive in a world that makes sense to us.

I promise this pandemic won’t be the last majorleague curveball you will face in life. And even if you could shelter from the storms on the horizon, your ability to creatively explore new realities, to grow in unfamiliar settings, and to weather the most difficult challenges — the ones that offer no immediate answers — will not only set you apart, but will also make the world better in the process.

Second, you are not in control — at least not as much as you’d like to think. Many of us fall into the trap of thinking that we control our own destinies. Sure, your choices, hard work, and abilities can significantly shape who you are and your place in the world. But all that can be lost in an instant. Talented people get downsized in recessions.

Illness derails months of planning.

Doors that opened to exciting opportunities slam shut without warning. So what do we hang on to? I encourage you to form your identity not by what the world thinks of you, or the success you achieve, but by the values and principles by which you live, by the ways you love and treat others, and by your commitments to serve worthy things that are bigger than yourselves. No one, and no circumstance, can take those standards from you.

Finally, relationships matter. Presence matters. We’ve

Another Fairy Tale, Ending The Freeman High School students who witnessed a school shooting as sophomores are once again being forced to grow up too fast

S

enior year milestones are supposed to be fairy-tale moments: a montage of beautiful prom dresses, state track meets and senior-ditch-day lake trips, all climaxing with the weird gowns, stiff hats and long speeches at graduation.

For the class of 2020, these milestones are just fairy tales.

Part of growing up is realizing that life isn’t always a fairy tale. If you are a senior right now, you know what this realization feels like, and it feels remarkably similar to disappointment. I spent my last day at Freeman High School hugging my friends, dancing around the multipurpose room for a make-shift Sadie Hawkins dance, and sharing tears while Thomas Rhett’s country ballad, “Remember You Young” played in the background.

I was optimistic. We would be back in a few weeks, I told my friends. We would get another goodbye — a real goodbye. This wasn’t the end for the class of 2020.

I was wrong.

That random Monday in March was my last day. I watched TV newscasters squash the senior year cliches I’d dreamed about with two words: “Canceled Indefinitely.”

14 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

BY MEGAN RUBRIGHT, Freeman High School senior From then on, our messages of hope would be texted instead of spoken. Laughter would be shared over video calls instead of being accompanied by hugs. Our fairy tale would only be experienced over a distance.

I thought we’d get at least a month of in-person school, half of a spring sports season, a real prom, a normal graduation ceremony. I watched these dreams get canceled one by one, Technicolor expectations fading to gray disappointment.

We graduated, apparently. No parties. No “Pomp and Circumstance.”

We got an abrupt invitation, delivered without ceremony: Welcome to the real world.

Congratulations, I guess?

Graduation was supposed to be a formal goodbye.

We planned to sit in chairs, listening to speeches about our future, watching slideshows of the memories made in high school. It is a ceremony of closure, granting us a goodbye to high school and a hello to the new life ahead of us.

The ceremony softens the scary moment seniors will face after they accept the diploma and cross the stage into a new chapter; many of us fear the transition from dependence on parents and teachers to navigating the harsh real world alone.

My graduating class at Freeman knows too well what it’s like to be forced to grow up too fast.

We witnessed a school shooting as sophomores. Our shelter had been shattered. The harsh world that adults tried desperately to hide from us as children was suddenly blinding us. The students all shared tears, shared anger, shared a loss of innocence that our families never experienced and couldn’t fully relate to.

Our minds frantically processed the pain propelling us into adulthood.

Though we experienced grief, fear, confusion and undeniable pain, we also shared newfound strength and mindfulness we didn’t know we possessed as 15 and

been reminded of these truths during our social and physical distancing. Maybe Facebook and texting were enough before we were abruptly sent to our rooms, but now, how wholly insufficient electronic interactions are in sustaining us as humans. That’s a lesson I’m glad to take from this season of isolation. I encourage you to be more intentional, to form and sustain human bonds once we are allowed to escape into the world again. To truly know and to be known — these are the basic elements of flourishing.

Once again, congratulations. I’m cheering for you. You have my trust and admiration. I can’t wait to see how you will impact the world for the better. n

Celebrating all the amazing graduates of 2020

CREDIT UNION

16-year-olds. We got through by relying on each other’s strengths. A unique beauty emerged as we encouraged and helped heal one another.

We answered this trial with resilience. Shared resilience is powerful. It creates abundant hope. And hope can be contagious, too.

Now seniors around the world need that resilience more than ever. Seniors share this moment of grief for a closure that feels necessary.

While the class of 2020 doesn’t get a goodbye to their four-year chapter, and we wish for nothing more than to be with one another, we look for the beauty in new types of shared moments. We accept five-hour video calls.

We accept a prom and a senior parade where we never leave our cars. We choose to accept this challenge and make the most of it.

Even though we grieve a loss of iconic moments, we eagerly anticipate the moment when we can hug and laugh together as a class again. That, too, is a moment worthy of fairy tales. n

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JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 15

u t l a a r t i g o n n o s C

2020

GRADUATES

The world is waiting for the good that you will inspire congratulations

congratulations

Lewis & Clark High School

Lewis & Clark High School

jake hallesy

Jake, We are so proud of all your accomplishments in school and on the track! We can’t wait to see what the future holds at Pomona and to see you run for the Sagehens!

Love, Mom, Dad & Julia

16 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

lauryn summer tippets

You did it!

So proud of you!

Excited to see what comes next!

Love your cheering sectionDad,Mom, Kathryn, Will, Merryn, Aubryn

congratulations

congratulations

grace david sposito kaplicky

Ferris High School To my amazing son… you are my heart!

Congratulations on four fantastic years: straight-A student (AP classes), debate champ, Thesperados, cross country, band, WOW! Thank you for always working hard in school, despite your objections to the structure. I love you - can’t wait to see what the next chapter holds.

Mom

Ferris High School You sparkle and shine from the inside out and we love you so much!

Enjoy every minute of your next adventure at California Baptist University. We’re SO very proud of you!

XO, Mom & Dad

congratulations

congratulations

congratulations

congratulations

Lewis & Clark High School

Ferris High School

Shadle High School

danielle jacqueline trenton mackenzie hill santerno stefanoff roshetko

Shadle Park High School To my amazing young lady: You have been a juggler, gymnast, actress, model, girl scout, 4-H er, horse back rider, dancer, cheerleader and good at it all! Your future will be full of many new accomplishments because it’s what you do! So proud to see you move on to EWU seeking a degree in Special Education, you inspire me every day!

Much love from your proud Mama

Dear Jacqueline,

Trenton,

Mac,

We’ve loved sharing (and hearing) your growth throughout the years.

We’re so proud of you and can’t wait to see where your knowledge and talent takes you.

Blessed, honored to be your parents. So proud of your academics, athletics, service, and character. God has great plans for you. We will be watching your life unfold with pride!

We are so incredibly proud of you. Commit to the Lord in whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

Proverbs 16:13

Love, Dad, Mom, Annabelle & Grandma

Love, Mom & Dad

Love, Mom, Nick, Mackade, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncles & MJ

congratulations

congratulations

congratulations

congratulations

congratulations

Rogers High School

Lewis & Clark High School

Ferris High School

Ferris High School

Ferris High School

Proud doesn’t even begin to cover it. You are amazing beyond words. Keep being your authentic self, showing kindness to others and following your compass to do what’s right. Go light the world darling Gracie.

I am so very proud of you Love!

Congratulations on your music scholarship to Whitworth! You will make a fine addition to Chamber with your cello! Love you so very much!

Congratulations on your accomplishments Dylan! We are so proud of your hard work and love for your friends, family and community!

Wishing you a future so bright you have to wear shades!

Love, M, D, K & S

abigail catelin chase kashork

“Know your worth, then add taxes” You are valuable beyond measure.

We are so proud of you and your hard work, you are amazing!

We love you forever and always, Mom, Dad and Lizzy

Spokane Falls Community College Catelin, We are so proud of you and everything you’ve accomplished! We can’t wait to see everything that comes next for you!

Love, Mom, Dad, Jack, and Jane

grace meredithboucher

dylan ava kerst pearson

The Father

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 17

Graduation Issue

Laura Read served as Spokane’s poet laureate from 2015 to 2017.

Curtain Call

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Whether or not the class of 2020 is ready for the next act, the show must go on

BY LAURA READ, writing and literature teacher at Spokane Falls Community College

M

y son Matthew is graduating from Lewis and Clark High School this year. When he was born, we thought it was cool he would be in the class of 2020. When he was born, he slept all the time, for almost the whole first month of his life. I remember wondering, what lurks in there? When he finally woke up, he didn’t want to go back to sleep. One night, when he was about 6 months old, I just gave up on trying and set him down in a pile of laundry I was about to fold, and he put a pair of underwear on his head and laughed uproariously.

He loved to put things on his head. Like a Tupperware bowl that he’d wear running around the house

when he was a little older, singing, “I’m a TV show, I’m a TV show.” My husband and I and our other son, Ben, would sit quietly on the couch and watch the program.

When Matthew was 7, I said, “It is time” like Rafiki from The Lion King and took him to audition for Spokane Children’s Theatre’s A Christmas Story. We watched the other children do “cold reads” for Ralphie and Randy.

Matthew leaned over to me and said, “I don’t think I want to do this, Mom.” And then when he saw my face, “I’ll do it next time.” But when they called his name, I pushed him forward. He looked back at me in shock but read what they gave him to read and landed the part of School Child #3.

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I think I should mention that this was uncharacteristic of me. Having been raised by a mother who wanted me to read the book Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, and having told my mother that I was going to write a book called Feel the Fear and Don’t Do It, ordinarily I would have just told Matthew that that was fine and we would come back when he was ready. But sometimes it’s good to do something out of character.

Since then, Matthew has played many different characters, culminating in one of his dream parts: Shrek.

Shrek closed on March 7, 10 days before everything else closed. We went to all three shows. My parents, who have always felt the fear and done it anyway, came from Portland to see him. Ben flew home from college for the weekend. My sister-in-law Linda, whose husband died suddenly when Matthew was in eighth grade, came from Missouri. When Matthew sang “Who I’d Be,” everyone in our family cried, except for me. I held my breath like I was waiting for him to land the jump. He landed it every time.

And then the world changed.

All the things we thought were going to happen next didn’t happen: our spring break trip to New York, the spring musical, prom, graduation, deciding on a college and knowing that decision would mean you really would be going there in the fall. And in the New York we did not visit, we all know what happened. And all around the house where we stayed inside, we felt the fear and did nothing, which this time was exactly right.

Time passed. We read the news on our individual phones. Matthew and Ben played NBA2K and read books and watched TikToks and played basketball on the hoop in front of our house. Our feelings were everywhere like dots on a George Seurat painting, but we did not say them. People kept dying, which felt both remote and close. LC brought us a sign that says “Class of 2020” to put in our yard. Matthew’s extraordinary drama teachers, Suzanne Maguire and Greg Pschirrer, brought him a T-shirt for the spring show they weren’t performing. LC is arranging a diploma walk and a virtual graduation.

Matthew committed to Marquette, and we took the requisite picture of him in his Marquette sweatshirt and posted it to social media. We have done what we can. We have felt the grief of our own small loss in the context of the larger one, which we have also tried to take in.

Through all of this, I have worried that without the regular rites of passage, or acts of “closure,” Matthew would miss out on something that he needed to take the next step. So the other night, I asked him if he was ready to go to college. He said, “No, not now, but I will be when it’s time.” The confidence in his voice took my breath away. Sometimes you know what’s inside someone before they do, but sometimes they know it first. That’s called graduation. n

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JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 19

ART BY TOM PETTOELLO • PHOTO BY BIG ED RICHARDSON

20 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 21

Graduation Issue

TIPPING OUR CAP

Jess Walter’s next novel is due out in October.

A Steaming Pile of 2020

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Sorry, graduates, we meant to have the world cleaned up by now

BY JESS WALTER

To the class of 2020 —

First off, an apology.

From all of us: the liberals and conservatives, the libertarians and socialists, the bakers, brokers and tattoo artists, the boomers, Xers and millennials, the selfrighteous and self-deluded and the just plain selfish, we generations of greedy, short-sighted “adults” who threw a big seventy-year party, ate all the food, drank all the beer, used all the resources, blew your inheritance, pissed on the carpet and passed out on the floor.

Sorry. Our bad.

We meant to have the world cleaned up by now, by the day of your high school and college graduations. But, well, there was this economic crisis and then we overslept and we lost our way and, um … the dog ate our regulatory agencies. (And have you seen the other side? They are so freaking partisan! It really is their fault; they should clean it all up.)

Point being: we knew the world was a mess and instead of getting together and cleaning it all up, we argued and dithered and made it all worse. We elected a divisive clown as president. We got drunk and gave all the money to billionaires. We took Democracy out for a joyride and dented it up pretty good, and now it runs like crap.

The climate, school shootings, racism, politics — everything got worse in the last four years, and then this deadly pandemic arrived, and did we band together behind a singular science-driven national plan to fight it?

Nope.

We put on an American flag diaper and grabbed our assault rifle and marched to protest medical professionals

22 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

having the absolute nerve to try to save our lives.

Oops. Sorry about that.

Traditionally, your commencement speaker would now pivot to the uplifting part of the speech in which he or she tells you to TAKE HEART because YOUR GENERATION WILL BE THE ONE TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS! YOU … WILL HEAL … AMERICA! Oh, that would be just like us, wouldn’t it? Screw everything up and then expect you to fix it. (Hey, my 401K still looks good, all things considered. And you know how much equity I have in this house? You deal with the rising oceans, I’ll be at the golf course, because, you know, it’s open now.)

That’s why I’m not going to call on you brilliant, beautiful graduates to clean up this steaming pile of 2020.

Because it’s not your responsibility.

Not yet.

It will be, soon enough, but for now, the last thing you need is that kind of pressure.

Instead, I’ll just ask one thing of you and then you can go back to making fun of me on your phone. (I know that’s what you’re doing.)

The one thing is this: Vote.

Have your say. Prove the experts wrong. We greedy old ignorant screw-ups are two to three times more likely to vote than you are. The quickest way for you to take the keys away from us before we crash into anything else is to flex that demographic muscle of yours, the one the political parties have cynically bet you won’t use.

Nationwide, seven million of you are graduating from high school and college this year. If just half of you voted

When the coronavirus cut short the senior year of students across the nation, Rogers High School art teacher Tom Pettoello found a way to use his skills to honor the class of 2020.

First, the athletic director at East Valley High School called him with an idea: Paint the logo of the school on the football field — but then paint the names of every graduating student below it. Think of it as DANIEL WALTERS PHOTO the biggest and coolest graduation ceremony brochure ever. Soon, he was being asked to paint fields around the country.

“I had no idea it would get as big as it did,” he says. “We’re going on to California to do logos.

Seattle. Minnesota. New York.”

Last month, the Inlander recruited Pettoello to spray-paint a logo, drawn by the Inlander’s graphic design team, in the Clock Tower Meadow in Riverfront Park. We created a poster out of that logo and reprinted it in the middle of this issue.

Let’s hang them in our windows to commemorate this year’s graduating class. (DANIEL WALTERS)

this November, you could change the course of history.

The other thing I’d ask is that you give us one more chance to get our shit together.

I can’t promise we’ll do it, of course. I mean, you know us. We talk a good game, then somebody posts something funny on Facebook and the next thing you know a year has passed.

But maybe we’ve learned our lesson. Because as stupid as we’ve been, we really do love you, and maybe that’s what will finally get us to clean up our act. Maybe we’ll find the vacuum cleaner and take all this carbon out to the recycling bin and return some expectation of fairness and justice to our economic and political systems.

And you? What should you do? Other than vote?

Chill.

Relax.

Take a walk. Hang a hammock in the park. Skip rocks at the river. When it’s safe, dance. Fall in love. See the world if you get the chance. I’m sorry for the shortage of jobs — I hope it will be temporary.

Go to college or grad school when you can. On-line and, when it’s possible, in person. Read and learn and have great conversations, not because school might lead to a lucrative career, but for the sake of learning, for your soul. Fall in love (again.) Go on a long bike ride. Learn to catch a Frisbee between your legs. Shoot some hoops.

Learn an instrument. Write a song. Record it on your phone and send it to me. Dance some more. Fall in love (a third time.)

You know. Live.

And then, this fall, vote, and check back with us.

Hopefully, we’ll have done a little better by then.

Really, Class of 2020, we could not be prouder of you.

I hope, one day soon, you’ll be able to say the same about us. n Jess Walter is the author of eight books and a proud graduate of East Valley High School and Eastern Washington University. His newest novel, The Cold Millions, comes out in October.

All Good Things...

Life’s happiest moments are just moments — but that’s why they’re worth relishing

T

o those who have not yet graduated high school, I ask you to read the following letter about cherishing the joyful moments in life.

These four years at school may seem insignificant and inconsequential. But as a graduating senior I assure you that high school will not only prepare you academically, it will teach you that life inevitably passes by — you must savor every moment of happiness you come across.

Every life has periods of pure joy and genuine happiness. The sources of that joy may vary, the feeling may be brief or long-lasting — but the experience of bliss is universal.

When I think about the joy I got from high school, I think about school plays and musicals, the dances and student government. I think about performing stand-up at the school talent shows, those lunchtime conversations with friends that made my stomach hurt from laughing

BY CARSON BENZINGER, senior at Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy so hard. All of these are memories that will make me miss my time in high school.

However, these moments, no matter how much you cherish them and how permanent they feel, will come to an end.

Always. Good things come to an end.

This, however, is not a message of discouragement and sorrow to those listening, but instead a letter to those who feel that their lives are slipping away, that the good times are fading into the abyss of the past.

Lying On This Floor Together The pandemic has given the class of 2020 one final educational course

BY TARA ROBERTS, journalism advisor at University of Idaho

M

y 8-year-old son has learned how to beam notes from the tablet he’s supposed to be using for virtual school to a speaker in the living room.

“Mom. Mom,” the electronic voice drones, startling me. “I want some potato chips.”

Later, accompanied by wild giggles from down the hall: “Apocalypse. Apocalypse. Apocalypse.”

I’m not sure where he learned to spell that word, but I’m guessing it wasn’t second grade. In the bizarro world wrought by the pandemic, though, I’ll take it. Look at my kid expanding his vocabulary to better creep me out!

As a parent and educator, I’ve seen the unexpected things young people are experiencing and discovering in this strange time. With the power granted to me by the Inlander, I want to encourage the class of 2020 to recognize what you’ve learned.

You’ve learned to adapt. My students are young journalists at the University of Idaho’s student newspaper, magazine and radio station. They’ve been thrown into a circumstance where the wisest minds are as clueless as they are, and they’ve amazed me with their work ethic and devotion to their readers.

Every student has had the opportunity for a new sort of education. That Zoom expertise might come in handy in whatever job market rises from the ashes, but so will the ability to create among chaos and scrape something

together when you’ve got little to work with.

This is an uncertain time, as you know from the commercials reminding everyone of that while they try to sell SUVs. But all times are uncertain. Much of adult life is winging it — and you’ve got some expertise in that now.

You’ve learned your limits. On Day One, I was going to make the most out of quarantine. I was going to learn Spanish! And do yoga every day! And disconnect from my phone!

By Day Six, I was deleting Duolingo and redownloading Twitter while lying blob-like on the couch at 2 am. Understanding the capacities of our minds, bodies and souls is a good thing, and all are pressed in this unprecedented time. I’ve found relief in my garden and long novels about dragons. Maybe you’ve found solace in baking bread or running or 12-hour Animal Crossing marathons.

Whatever you’ve done to slow down, hang on to that. You’ll need it when the world changes again.

You’ve learned to mourn.

A few weeks into quarantine, my 11-year-old tossed his half-finished math worksheet on the table. He was exhausted, missing his friends, his school, his freedom.

“I’m just going to lay on the floor and whimper quietly,” he declared. I told him that was a good idea, and

Yes, these moments are temporary, yes, they will only live on as memories, but, ultimately, that’s the best part.

By accepting that these moments are momentary, it allows you to truly experience them. If our lives were neverending moments of joy, our existence wouldn’t have meaning.

Instead, encountering these temporary times of happiness and seeing them pass is what keeps humans truly alive. As Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman writes: “You have to cherish things in a different way when you know the clock is ticking, you are under pressure.”

In other words, ecstasy, by its very nature, is fleeting.

So cherish every second of it.

Go to those dances, dress up for spirit week, and attend those football games. When you’re leaving that high school in a cap and gown wondering where the time went, you’ll be glad that you did. n

I might just join him.

Everyone has lost something in the pandemic. This is not a game of comparisons; it’s OK to feel sad whether you’ve lost a loved one, a job or internship, a vacation or your graduation ceremony.

But while you’re lying on the metaphorical floor, look at who’s willing to flop down beside you: your family, your friends, your teachers, your neighbors. The people who help you get through a pandemic will be there for whatever comes next, frightening or beautiful.

Maybe, though, you don’t know what you’ve learned.

You’ve been reading along patiently, thinking, “That’s nice, but that’s not me.”

That’s fine.

My great-uncle Bud, a brilliant man whose formal education stopped in the third grade, used to say something along the lines of, “If you don’t learn something new every day, you’re a damned fool.”

He was right — but in the haze of hard times, some lessons can be tough to see. They’re worth looking for, though.

Weird as it is, 2020 is not (to use my son’s favorite new word) an apocalypse, a time of utter destruction.

There will be an “after,” and you have the chance to make that time better for you, your community and the world. That’s what education is for.

So I’ll send you with this idea: Take a moment to consider these past weeks. Think about what you’ve witnessed in yourself and the people you love. Ask yourself how you can take those lessons and remember them, honor them, put them into action. And when the future becomes the present, reflect on the results. I hope you’re amazed at what you learn. n

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 23

Graduation Issue

We Did It The pandemic can’t take away what the class of 2020 earned

BY LINDSAY TROMBLY, senior at the University of Idaho

W

ho knew it would end like this? Whether you’re a senior graduating high school or a senior graduating from college, I know this isn’t what you expected your last few months of school to be.

It wasn’t at all what I expected.

I remember a few months ago, it felt like the whole world changed when we were told to social distance ourselves from loved ones and to wear a mask in public for protection. It felt like the world was over when students were

told to leave campus and finish classes online through Zoom.

The last few months of college are supposed to be a time of celebration to enjoy the little things we are given before it’s taken away in the blink of an eye. It can be attending a sports game as a student, studying in the library or even as simple as playing games with your group of friends.

When this big change happened, I was angry. I’m a first-generation college student graduating from a four-year institution. How could a virus take away the moment meant to celebrate that?

This promise of a ceremony helped us stay motivated to finish the school year strong, but it was taken away. I felt like I’d been denied a right, an experience guaranteed to graduates before me and after me.

But then I remembered something very important: We did it.

Even though we’re graduating with different degrees in different fields — in art and chemistry and history — we have something in common. We did it.

We completed what seemed to be the impossible. We persevered, through Zoom classes and online finals.

We did it. COVID-19 could take away our graduation, but it didn’t take away that accomplishment. So be proud. Be proud of yourself for getting that degree you worked so hard at obtaining during your time in school.

And now, as we look for a job in an impossible job market, think to yourself, what did you do when times were difficult for you in school? When you needed to pass the class that demanded countless hours of study?

When you were late for class? You still showed up.

When being involved seemed like too much — you did it anyways.

We did it. COVID-19 could take away our graduation, but it didn’t take away that accomplishment.

You have obtained this degree for a reason. You’re more of a hard worker than you give yourself credit for.

You’ll find a job. It may take time, but I know you can do it. And just think, you are now bound to a hardworking class of 2020 who didn’t let even a pandemic stand in the way of a diploma.

You did it.

No one can take that away from you. n

Dare to Be Stupid It’s still worth listening to the little voice inside you that tells you to do dumb stuff

T

here are many voices going on inside my head at any given point.

But there are two distinct voices that seem to consistently compete. Both voices have grown equal in strength, and both have value and a place. However, knowing what is needed and when it is needed, that is what keeps me up at night. I’m thinking about ideas — ideas that will lead to actions that will speak to who I am and what I stand for.

The one voice that I often feel like I am expected to speak to is that of the adult, concerned with safety and security, responsible for those around me. This is the voice that tells me to consider my options, take my time, think through the consequences. This voice is one acquired through experience and fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of pain. Fear of embarrassment. Fear that I am not strong enough to live with the cost of foolishness that following my heart often leads to. With this voice, I am seeking to protect, which is sometimes needed. But I understand protection comes at a cost as well. That cost is growth.

The voice, however, that is closest to my heart and spirit is, well, that of foolishness. Of blind playful rebellion that seeks to challenge the status quo.

24 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

BY BOBBI KONSHUK, teacher at the Community School This is the one I am reminded of most by my students. This is the voice that keeps me growing, keeps me questioning, and, honestly, keeps me sane.

This is the voice I would like to offer you as we part ways.

Do stupid stuff!!

Challenge ideas that everyone else accepts. Fight for the absurd. Take on the unwinnable battle.

This is how you will reach stability, through painful lessons, humiliating gaffes, and the unexpected turns.

This is how you will keep growing. Stay vulnerable — fight to stay alive — fully feel the sadness that comes with life and fully embrace the joys of life with absolute abandon.

There will be very intelligent people who seem to

know the answers. Watch out for those guys. Listen and be aware of people who have experience, who have knowledge, who have something to lose. However, hold all of this in the light of who you are and what you know.

We need you. The person sitting next to you needs you. Nope, you are not perfect. You are not always going to make the right decisions. You will say the wrong thing.

And that is OK — no, better than OK. That is progress.

People do not gain strength and stability by being perfect, making all the best decisions. We gain strength and stability through challenge and the expectation that there will be disruption.

Be that disruption. Be the one who asks the questions. Be the one who is not satisfied with “Well, that is how we have always done it.” Be our transformation.

As you age you will become more cautious, sober in your judgments — but that will be hard-earned awareness. You will learn who to listen to. You will learn who to trust. You will learn who you are. But this takes time.

Give yourself that time and grace for transformation. Do not take “their” word for anything. Go out and experience life. Make lots of mistakes. Challenge our dragons and our heroes. That is what we need. n

Sweat, Toil and Tears

What a long strange trip it’s been, but we’re back!

Bask in the sweatiness and the sadness of your accomplishments

BY SOPHIA CATHERINE MAGGIO, senior at Gonzaga University

O

f course, I was excited by the prospect of walking across the stage this spring.

I imagined that my friends and I would titter and joke in the stands, reminiscing and likely crying as we watched our peers rise, shake hands, and smile.

Finally, my name would be called and I’d rise to shake the hand of our university’s president — it would be the best handshake of my life — while smiling toward the general direction of my mom’s camera.

In that moment, I assumed, I would be in a state of emotional disarray: jittery, deeply grateful, sad, sweaty, accomplished.

A degreed woman.

Even in lieu of a graduation ceremony, I still feel these things. As I drink my third cup of coffee and make the daily decision to “keep on keepin’ on,” a jitteriness pulses through my bones and my soul. When I try to explain this restless energy to others, they say they feel the same thing.

Perhaps this is one of the strangely beautiful outcomes of our situation: the rediscovered ability to relate to others on an energetic level, to empathize with feelings that defy words.

As I drink my coffee and write thank-you cards for my professors and mentors, I feel immensely grateful, nostalgic, and sometimes, frustratingly wordless. It can be so difficult to capture and sculpt the letters for people I’ve known since kindergarten, to form the meaningful words of appreciation and love I’ve learned from others. This is made even more difficult, of course, by the realization that these cards will not be accompanied with hugs.

This is when I begin to feel sadness.

Some nights, I am overwhelmed with sadness for the suffering that has either been initiated or unveiled by the pandemic.

I am sad for my fellow graduates, for our favorite businesses, for the quarantined extroverts, for the losses we are all experiencing: lost jobs, loved ones, sports seasons, semesters. Sadness often visits at night, when I’m less distracted.

Fear tends to hit 10 times harder after 9 pm.

But as my dad used to say back when I was scared about the 2012 Mayan apocalypse: It’s

wedonthaveone.com always better in the morning.

Morning brings the brightness of renewed potential. But that comes with nervousness that I may not use it fully or productively. And with nervousness comes sweat.

I expected a lot of sweating at graduation — a Mother’s Day spent sweltering in thick robes. But sweat, that endearingly awkward product of emotional discomfort, is itself something to cherish.

Sweatiness is a symbol of completion, of accomplishment. Our culture tends to focus too much on the visual of accomplishment — the photo snapped by Mom and Dad — when accomplishment is just as much about the emotions — the mixed feelings, the jitters, the sweat, that we hide underneath our caps and gowns.

I still want us to have that moment and walk across “that” stage: the one with the university president, the diploma, and other degreed people in plush robes and warlock hats that would probably scare a small child.

But without the pressure of an audience or handshake, we can still feel the jitters, the gratitude, the sweatiness and the sadness of this graduation season. We can reflect on our own accomplishments and those of others, without feeling obligated to feel or be a certain way.

... the mixed feelings, the jitters, the sweat, that we hide underneath our caps and gowns.

Pandemic or no-pandemic, we are entering into an unprecedented time: one of hesitant adulthood, tinges of loneliness and self-doubt, and moments of hope and restoration as new friendships and networks emerge.

Degreed, yes; “done,” no. There is still so much to know, to un-know, to relearn, to hear, to feel deeply. This is a time to feel deeply, especially when expectations for emotional clarity are lowered. So allow yourself to feel the jitters, to sink into the depths of despair; but, when you’re able, attempt that sweaty ascent to the heights.

I’m not entirely sure what’s up there, but it may be better than the best handshake of your life. n

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JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 25

Graduation Issue

Mourning What Wasn’t This year’s seniors have lost memories they’ve never had

BY SUMMER BALL, senior at North Central High School

H

ow does one grieve when they have never experienced what they have lost?

The world is constantly moving; therefore, we are constantly in motion. Even now when life seems to be in a standstill, the world is turning round and round. The class of 2020 everywhere has been robbed of precious and unforgettable moments.

Those who felt ready to conquer the world are now feeling uncertain. We’re trying to hold onto the memories that we made during our years in high school, clinging to the things we will never get to do again as seniors; walking the halls, eating lunch in a crowded cafeteria with all our best friends and laughing with our favorite teachers.

Most importantly, we’re saying goodbye to the place we went five days a week, seven hours a day for four years, and to once-in-a-lifetime events like prom and graduation. With so many coming-of-age moments lost, the senior class of 2020 is left with regrets, unfulfilled dreams, and an empty glass of what-happens-now.

With so much uncertainty in the present times, it is hard to imagine the next steps we are to take. For some seniors, they had their perfect plan, they knew what they wanted and how to make it happen. For others they

were following the path of life, walking the line as it was drawn. Now that the balance has been upset, and the 12 years of hard work and sacrifice all leading up to these last couple months leave many feeling empty.

I think the biggest challenge is waking up trying to have a plan but at the end of the day asking yourself, “What now?”

It has been a long journey, full of ups and downs, break-ups, and losses. Now, here we are, almost at the finish line, unsure of what’s on the other side. We’re scared to finally cross the threshold. But whether we’re ready or not, here we come.

This virus has shaken the world, but the world will heal. The class of 2020 will keep going forward, because

Now, here we are, almost at the finish line, unsure of what’s on the other side. We’re scared to finally cross the threshold. there is nowhere left to go.

Our time as high schoolers has ended. The time has come to pass the baton to the next class.

We paved the road for them in high school, now it is time for us to pave the road to our next destination.

We’re saying “see you later” to our friends as we part

#SpokaneClassof2020

Spokane2020.com

SO. VERY. PROUD.

26 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

ways and begin our lives’ next chapter.

Life keeps going whether you are ready for it or not.

We cannot go back and change the past. What is done is done, all we can do is hold on the memories that were made, and the things we were able to do.

It has been to hell and back but now it is time to say “I made it,” and not just for yourself, but for those who doubted you and for those lost along the way.

Right now, the only advice I can offer is to learn to adapt, expect the unexpected, and live without regret. Life is an ocean and you are a drop creating ripples. Find the beauty in the unruly waves, the poetry in the constant chaos.

Let us not allow these setbacks to keep us from what we have all been working towards these past 13 years. May we all reach heights we never thought we could. And let us all welcome the next chapter of our lives with open arms. n

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JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 27

Graduation Issue

Unprecedented Spring, Inconceivable Future This is the challenge that your teachers have trained you to face

C

lass of 2020: I want to share a few thoughts with you on your unique graduation.

For a number of years, when educators have talked about preparing you for your future, a common refrain in our conversations was that you need to be ready for jobs, careers, and activities that we haven’t even conceived of yet. We wanted to give you resiliency skills that could transfer to many different jobs.

This was a mighty task for any number of reasons.

It’s difficult for us as adults to imagine the unimaginable.

I do not know what opportunity or growth will come of this truly unprecedented experience. Certainly, I do not fully know what it has taken from any person. But what I do know is that this spring is one of those inconceivable futures that we’ve been trying to prepare you for.

In addition to all the other changes to life, work, and travel, the final events of senior year of high school have lived in limbo, been completely canceled, or altered almost unrecognizably. I have spoken to many seniors in the past several weeks and I can feel their anxiety, frustration, sorrow. You have lost many of the fun and important moments that mark this rite of passage.

The transition you are making from high school to

Grace Notes Put the pity party on hold and help save the city you’re graduating in

BY GRACE RODRIGUEZ, senior at On-Track Academy

I

was born two days after 9/11, in a country that has been at war for the entire duration of my life. I’ve grown up in the era of the normalization, not just of mass shootings, but of school shootings, where people my age are being gunned down in their classrooms.

I, like most of my fellow classmates, was raised in a city that has an abundance of homeless people walking the streets. We hung out in wooded areas, where under trees and in the brush we’d find crack pipes. We read news articles about bodies washing up onto the banks of our river, about dozens of unsolved murders.

Every city has things to be worked on, to be im-

28 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

BY KIRSTEN POMERANTZ, English teacher at Lake City High School college, from childhood to adulthood, is one in which the transition period has been stretched out and has become far more disorienting than these transitions usually are.

This disruption of normal life, disruption of the scripts for what comes next, breaks complacency.

However, I am certain that the COVID-19 global pandemic has given something to you as well. This is a very bold statement, I know, but hear me out.

Social complacency is much like consistency, of which Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” I would never, ever have wished this opportunity for personal growth on you, for it is similar to other shifts in life that

you shouldn’t have to face for many, many years. But now that you are here, welcome to the start of navigating adult life.

The adults all around you are trying quite hard to find our way through to the other side of this uncertainty.

You are seeing the ways that society itself shifts and recovers from dramatic events. You have probably seen some of the ways we get in our own way. You’ve seen how we get in each other’s way. You’ve seen how we’ve revived old rivalries and repeated misunderstandings instead of seeking out a common humanity.

Just like I don’t know exactly what COVID-19 has taken away from your graduation, I can never fully know what it might give to any of you. You’ll have to learn how to be resilient, to cultivate the skills necessary to thrive in this time of uncertainty and change. Thinking about the very imperfect adult world you are entering, it is your unique gifts that make me certain that, just by being who you are, you are making this world a better place.

You are so deeply loved and passionately admired, graduates of the class of 2020. It has been an honor and a privilege to have taught your peers and I look forward to the unique mark you will each make on this world! n

proved. But the thing about Spokane is: Spokane loves Spokane, and I do too. Despite its flaws, Spokane is the community that raised me. It’s the city where all of our class of 2020 will be ending our high school careers and moving on to make decisions that will determine the rest of our lives.

Not even a month after ringing in the new year, COVID-19 arrived in the United States. In March all 50 states had reported cases — and come March 13, every public school in the state of Washington had been shut down.

For the class of 2020, it crushed our dreams of dancing at movie-worthy prom nights in non-returnable $300 dresses. It brought the realization that we may not even walk in front of our loved ones when we graduate.

Personally, I held onto hope. But as days turned into weeks, and weeks rolled into months, my hope dwindled away. I was lucky enough to be able to attend three different proms throughout high school.

But I cannot help but feel upset that I’ll never be able to look back at photos of my senior prom, that I’ll

never get to hear my family scream and cheer for me as I become the first grandchild to walk across the stage for a high school diploma.

I’ve spent 72 percent of my life working towards a moment I now will never get. As painful as that is, I’m not throwing a pity party for myself.

Despite the lack of ceremonies, I still did it! I almost dropped out my sophomore year, but I pulled myself together enough to get a full ride to my dream college.

No virus can take that away from me, and it can’t take it away from anyone else in the class of 2020.

WE DID IT. We did it in an up-and-coming community, one that made this achievement possible for us.

The wasted dress, the canceled prom night, the missing graduation celebration are significant.

But we have bigger fish to fry. People are still dying and local businesses are being forced to shut their doors for good. Lives and livelihoods are being eradicated, and that should be the focus.

Many of us are about ready to leave a community that needs our help and our love.

So I encourage anyone graduating in the class of 2020, to shop local and to look into other ways to help the community that has helped us get to this point — the point in which our roads split off into two, and we face some of the biggest decisions we’ll ever make.

We have our whole lives and futures ahead of us.

Let’s take care of our community, so when this is all over we have one to come back to. n

THE ROAD BACK

DOWN, BUT NOT OUT

The Art Spirit Gallery’s Blair Williams.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Our region’s visual arts organizations postpone, pivot and persevere

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

T

he Art Spirit Gallery’s Blair Williams was alone in the gallery a week into Idaho’s stay-home orders, doing what many were doing: figuring out what had just happened to the business. The state.

The whole world.

The gallery appeared normal, its walls covered with glorious landscapes by Kathy Gale and Gordon Wilson from the latest exhibition. Normal, except there were no people around on what would otherwise be a bustling spring day in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

“I couldn’t help but look around and see all this beautiful art and think, ‘There are people missing out on this, missing out on enjoying this,’” Williams says.

Instead of focusing on what the gallery couldn’t do, she looked at what they could, piloting a loan program with select clients, allowing them to “live” with borrowed artwork for a few weeks.

Around 40 percent of the work sold, Williams says.

However, April revenue was down around 70 percent,

she says. In May, it was down around 60 percent, and they didn’t get the federal loan they applied for.

“As any small business, I have to ask myself, ‘How deep am I willing to go into this business?’” Williams says.

L

ike many industries impacted by COVID-19, arts organizations got walloped. Not considered essential, mostly event-based, already operating on a shoestring, or all three. Some have not yet reopened, nor will they.

Others, however, were able to pivot, and although their future isn’t guaranteed, they’re moving forward.

Some even experienced an upside to being down, but not out.

Coeur d’Alene’s Arts and Culture Alliance Executive Director Ali Shute is used to working from home. And they’d recently concluded a major fundraiser, but event planning was a challenge.

“As creative leaders in the community, I felt that the A&C had the responsibility to show by example, adapting with innovative ideas to keep our programs going and the arts in the forefront,” Shute says.

So they Zoomed their monthly community arts meeting and filmed ArtWalk for remote delivery.

“It was fun to learn that there is more than THE ROAD BACK the old way of doing things,” Shute says.

The Inlander is checking in In Sandpoint, the on local businesses and how Pend Oreille Arts Counthey’re evolving in a world with cil pushed back their coronavirus. Follow along at lone ArtWalk to July 10 Inlander.com/recovery. to comply with Idaho guidelines, says Arts Coordinator Claire Christy. Their popular 48th annual Arts & Crafts Fair will go on as planned, Aug. 8-9. ...continued on next page

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 29

CULTURE | THE ROAD BACK

“DOWN, BUT NOT OUT,” CONTINUED...

Their pivot involved Kaleidoscope in-class art lessons for area students in grades three through six.

With schools closed, POAC assembled 800 kits for home distribution and are expanding the program to an online format so students anywhere can access it, Christy says.

Although the city of Moscow Arts Department’s Third Street Gallery remains closed until August, public art projects moved forward, including vinylwrapped traffic signal boxes, says Arts Program Manager Megan Cherry. ArtWalk and the Plein Air Paint Out are still on the calendar for September.

I

n Washington, La Resistance Gallery and New Moon Gallery — two of many who might qualify to reopen under Phase 3 — utilized social media and Zoom to stay connected and will participate in Spokane’s second Art on the Go Art Show June 6.

(Find details at Facebook: Art on the Go Art Show.)

Meanwhile, they’re debating when and how to reopen safely.

One of the region’s largest arts organizations, the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, shuttered the museum, funneling efforts into free, online resources to stay engaged with the public. These include webinars, virtual tours, behind-the-scenes videos, readaloud stories for kid, and the just-completed online version of ArtFest, according to Carol Summers, who is in charge of the MAC’s marketing and advertising.

They also used the time to update their archives database used by educators, journalists and others.

Spokane Arts sprang into action quickly, canceling some things — all their in-person events — postponing others to 2021, transitioning things like the Chase Gallery exhibitions online, and developing new programs to support the arts.

They launched a crowdfunding campaign to provide no-strings-attached $500 grants to artists impacted by the pandemic, seeding it with $25,000 from the estate of an arts supporters’ donation, Executive Director Melissa Huggins says.

That’s in addition to $42,000 of regularly scheduled Phase 1 SAGA grants, which caused some recipients to burst into tears. “That’s how much even a modest grant can mean to a cultural group or arts organization,” Huggins says.

Phase 2 will be a rolling application process for faster disbursement, and overall they’ve shifted more money from their three-year granting period into 2020 to address what they anticipate are higher needs.

“Spokane Arts has a unique, dual role in the community: We’re the only local arts agency tasked with promoting and supporting the entire arts and culture community, in addition to the work we create that’s unique to us, and we take that responsibility really seriously,” Huggins says.

They’ve continued to collect data about the impact to the creative sector and advocate for the arts on the local, state and even federal level to underscore the many ways the arts are, indeed, essential.

Moscow’s Megan Cherry addresses that another way: “The arts have been essential to human experience for millennia, and while uncertainty does seem to rule the present moment, artists and arts organizations excel at adapting to evolving needs,” she says.

“I’m constantly in awe of how effectively creative people and arts organizations act in service to others.

They’re quick to synthesize lived experience and to reflect the human condition. These are challenging times, to say the least, but the arts are always here to help us find our way.” n

30 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

The Podcast Pandemic Problem

P

BY DANIEL WALTERS

rint storytelling is my career, but audio storytelling may be my first love. I grew up huddling with my family around the radio, listening to Adventures in Odyssey, Focus on the Family’s often surprisingly great evangelical kids’ radio drama.

So podcasts were a natural fit. I’ve swapped out the moral lessons of an elderly Christian ice cream shop owner for the wonky ramblings of nebbishy New Yorkers. I’m the sort of person who sits in the driveway and downloads a new episode so I’ll have something to listen to during my 15-second walk through my front door.

Theoretically, a pandemic should have been a boon for podcasts — all this time with nothing to do but eat, drink, and consume entertainment. That’s not what happened. Instead, podcast listener numbers, particularly in late March and early April, fell. My listening habits fell off, too.

Podcasts are unlike almost every other form of storytelling. We watch movies in air-conditioned theaters.

THE BUZZ BIN We binge TV series swaddled in blankets on the couch.

We read novels over macchiatos in coffee shops.

But podcasts are different. Podcasts don’t demand your attention — they share your attention. They’re meant to be consumed on the move. They convert menial commutes into intellectual romps, tedious workouts into edifying excursions into fascinating areas of knowledge. It’s why podcasts are a leading indicator of my own physical health — if my backlog has been growing, I know my arms are getting scrawnier and my gut’s getting tubbier.

But the pandemic killed the commute. The pandemic killed the gym.

On top of all that, the pandemic largely killed one of nonfiction podcasts’ best assets: The diversity of topics.

Nearly every news-oriented podcast was suddenly dedicated to one thing. Scrolling through three months of titles like “COVIDious B.I.G.” wasn’t something I looked forward to.

Without movies opening or celebrity galas or sporting events being held, culture podcasts didn’t have much to talk about, either.

But now, that’s changed. Even before last weekend, it was like the podcasting world began to wake up from its COVID coma. There were all sorts of dramas to discuss and debate — New York Times food columnist Alison Roman’s feud with supermodel cookbook author Chrissy Teigen! Trump’s war on Twitter!

And then, a video showing a Minnesota police officer killing a man is released — and protests erupt across the country. It’s the sort of cultural chasm that podcasts are made to explore. And so as the economy begins to open back up, my ears have stayed glued to my Bluetooth. n

CONSPIRACY ROCK It might be difficult to articulate how popular the Scorpions’ ballad “Wind of Change,” inspired by political revolutions in Berlin and the Soviet Union, was when it came out nearly 30 years ago. With its whistling hook and soaring chorus, it became an unofficial anthem of postCold War Europe, one of the best-selling singles ever and a staple of classic-rock radio. But what if a shadowy organization designed it to be that way? A new podcast, also titled Wind of Change, floats the notion that the CIA masterminded the song to rally citizens against communism, and host Patrick Radden Keefe dogs operatives past and present to dish the dirt. All eight episodes are available now on Spotify. (NATHAN WEINBENDER) GOING VIRAL With the Spokane Pride Parade and Rainbow Festival postponed until October, that does not mean the annual June festivities will be totally on hold. OutSpokane is working to provide a space for the LGBTQ+ community to express their voices online via Spokane Virtual Pride, running June 8-13 on OutSpokane’s Facebook and YouTube pages. OutSpokane Vice President Steven Herevia says the main goal is creating an online experience for people to celebrate their pride and identity in a fun and safe space. There will be music, art, an interfaith service and more. “We’ve been able to expand our reach a little further which is kind of awesome,” Herevia says. Visit spokanevirtualpride.org for details. (LIZZIE OSWALT)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST Some noteworthy new music hits online and in stores June 5. To wit: RUN THE JEWELS, Run The Jewels 4. Killer Mike and El-P might be just the voices we need to hear this election year.

SARAH JAROSZ, World On The Ground. The folk killer explores small-town Texas life on her latest.

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER, Sideways to New Italy. The Aussie band’s 2018 album is a favorite, can’t wait to hear the new one. (DAN NAILEN) Release dates based on latest information available at press time.

River’s Edge

STREAMING

MAXED OUT We dig through the film library of HBO’s new streaming platform and find some overlooked gems

BY NATHAN WEINBENDER

B

ecause we all have a little extra sitting-around time on our hands, streaming platforms have become a major part of our daily routines. And there’s a new kid in town — well, only sort of new: HBO Max, which launched last week with a huge catalog of content from the granddaddy of paid cable channels.

As far as its film library goes, HBO Max currently offers some 1,600 titles, and it’s a surprisingly eclectic mix.

We scoured its inventory and uncovered some hidden gems and overlooked classics that you can watch right now — crime thrillers, horror movies, quirky comedies and even some greats from the ’30s and ’40s.

AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003)

A mixed-media collage about Harvey Pekar (played by a never-better Paul Giamatti), whose stories of daily inconveniences and middle-aged ennui inspired a series of underground graphic novels illustrated by counterculture icon Robert Crumb. This ingenious, inventive film intersperses its narrative with animated interstitials and fourth-wall-breaking appearances from the real Pekar and his friends commenting on their big-screen avatars.

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS (1987)

Louis Malle was one of the finest filmmakers to emerge from the French New Wave, and arguably his greatest

achievement was this semi-autobiographical drama set in a French boarding school during WWII. It centers on an unlikely friendship between two little boys, one of whom is secretly Jewish, and hinges on a single but irreparable gesture that changes their futures.

BOUND (1996)

The first film from Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Bound is a twisty, diabolical thriller that takes elements of classic noir and imbues them with frank sexuality and unabashed queerness. The plot involves Jennifer Tilly as a gangster’s moll and Gina Gershon as her ex-con neighbor, and once they’re drawn to each other and begin an affair, they scheme to steal mob money and skip town.

BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945)

In David Lean’s observant, surprisingly modern romantic drama, an unhappy housewife strikes up a conversation with a handsome stranger (Trevor Howard) in a railway cafe. Though he’s also married, they continue meeting up, and what follows is a touching two-character morality play about a pure relationship suffused with the inevitability of heartbreak.

DEFENDING YOUR LIFE (1991)

A fantastical, humanist comedy that would make a per-

fect gateway into the genius of Albert Brooks, starring as a recently deceased ad exec who finds himself in a resorttype purgatory. It’s here where he’s forced to justify his earthly indiscretions to a tribunal of otherworldly judges, all while falling in love with fellow resident Meryl Streep.

DOLORES CLAIBORNE (1995)

One of the best big-screen adaptations of a Stephen King novel, the story of a reporter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) returning to the hometown where her estranged mother (Kathy Bates) awaits trial for murder. Though not a horror film in the most traditional sense, its spirits and specters are the scars of abuse and the consequences of emotional regression.

EVE’S BAYOU (1997)

Both a sweaty Southern Gothic and a rumination on the end of adolescence, Kasi Lemmons’ assured debut mixes memory, myth and voodoo amidst the Louisiana backwaters of the 1960s. Jurnee Smollett-Bell stars as a young girl who discovers her beloved father (Samuel L. Jackson) is having multiple affairs, awakening her to the confusing, menacing nature of the adult world.

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1970)

A grittier, grimier answer to 1967’s Bonnie & Clyde, this true-crime docudrama about duplicitous, murderous lovebirds drummed up controversy at the time for its unvarnished, unblinking violence, shot in stark black and white. Directed by Leonard Kastle, who replaced a fired Martin Scorsese and never made another film, its raw power hasn’t diminished. ...continued on next page

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 31

Sta Saf y e Hav & e Fun !

FILM | STREAMING “MAXED OUT,” CONTINUED...

THE LADY VANISHES (1938)

Lest you think Alfred Hitchcock didn’t hit his stride until the 1950s, HBO Max has several of his best pre-WWII films (see also: The Lodger and The 39 Steps). My favorite of the bunch is this Agatha Christie-esque whodunit set aboard a speeding train, where an old woman goes missing. Darkly funny and paced like a screwball comedy, and with a genuinely surprising conclusion.

ONLY YESTERDAY (1991)

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One of the best movies from Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli went mostly unseen in America until recently. Directed by the late, great Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies), this is a delicate, pastoral meditation on memory, as a woman reflects on the small, intimate moments from her childhood that shaped her personality.

RIVER’S EDGE (1986)

Inspired by true events, this haunting drama begins with a teenager killing his girlfriend and leaving her body on a riverbank, which becomes a pilgrimage site for his slack-jawed friends (including Keanu Reeves, Crispin Glover and Ione Skye). Avoiding exploitation and moralizing, director Tim Hunter makes a powerful commentary on a society that desensitizes itself to violence.

SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (1964)

A self-proclaimed clairvoyant (Kim Stanley, nominated for an Oscar) hatches a plot with her perpetually nervous brother (Richard Attenborough) to kidnap the child of a wealthy family, use their “psychic gifts” to aid in the kid’s discovery, then revel in the media exposure. This weird little British thriller was out of print for years, and it’s worth getting caught up in.

DRINK SPECIALS

S E Z I PR THE STATION AGENT (2003)

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This unusual character study (pictured above) stars Peter Dinklage as a railroad enthusiast who inherits an abandoned train station in rural New Jersey and becomes unexpectedly involved with the weird locals. The film won top awards at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and helped launch the careers of Dinklage and a scene-stealing Bobby Cannavale.

inlander.com/PartyonthePatio An email for food lovers

TROUBLE IN MIND (1985)

Alan Rudolph’s neo-noir melodrama was shot in the grungier parts of Seattle, where reformed criminal Kris Kristofferson rekindles his romance with cafe owner Genevieve Bujold. A singular film that boasts an inspired supporting cast, including Keith Carradine as a pompadoured crook and an out-of-drag Divine as a mob boss, and a style that melds ’30s expressionism and ’80s Day-Glo.

WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE (1994)

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32 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

Two years before revitalizing the slasher genre with the hypermeta Scream, horror maestro Wes Craven returned to his Nightmare on Elm Street franchise with a quirky, self-referential freakout in which the creators of Freddy Krueger are menaced by the fedorasporting ghoul in real life. It might be too meta for its own good, but it’s catnip for horror geeks. n

CUT US OFF AT WAKE UP CALL To the cute blonde in the big black SUV who cut my boyfriend and I off at Wake Up Call on N. Division — thanks for noticing and buying our drinks!! We weren’t really upset and it wasn’t necessary, but that was super nice of you — we’ll keep an eye out for you so maybe we can repay the favor : ) TO AVISTA My Father worked for W.W.P. And I cannot tell you how proud I am of you for carrying on his legacy... you are an important chain in Spokane’s life... you’re AMAZING... Thank you.

PLEASE DON’T HURT OUR TOWN We are Children of the Sun... remember that always .

I SAW YOU NOT A MISTAKE Thank you for reaching out, making the connection, and not allowing me to sabotage this. I appreciate your patience and persistence. I second guessed my intuition, which I know to be infallible. That is the source of my mixed messages, and I apologize. My illness caused me to become emotionally dormant for awhile, all in the interest of healing. My encounter with you woke me out of my stupor, out of myself, caused me to feel and care and wonder about someone else again, a much needed change in perspective. You are wise and kind and good; this connection is deep and intense, and I look forward to moving forward with you.

Life is good. Thanks again.

CHEERS PINES DUTCH BROS I LOVE my Dutch Bros crew on Pines! I swear I would not have survived working from home and quarantine if not for them! Their line is always long and they cheerfully work through it so quickly!

They have been the only normal in life for the last two months and I am so grateful for all they do!

THANK YOU FOR THE BREAKFAST I was in the drive thru at Taco Bell in Rathdrum shortly after 9 am on Friday. The girl in the Chevy Cavalier in front of me bought my breakfast because her order took long to prepare. I just wanted to say “thank you” and I hope the universe does something awesome for you in return for being such a sweet and considerate human.

SOUND OFF

JEERS

OBLIVIOUS DRIVER I would like to say a very sarcastic thank you to the lady who completely obliterated my Tahoe on Wednesday the 27th. I was traveling south on Sullivan, in the left lane, green light for me, and you decide to come tearing into the intersection. You were in the right lane coming off of I-90, and not only did you not yield to oncoming traffic, you didn’t get into the lane nearest you, like you’re supposed to.

You decide to punch it and go directly into the left lane. I couldn’t turn right, obviously, and had I swerved left, I would have driven onto the concrete median, which you ended up pushing me onto anyhow, nearly sending me into oncoming traffic. I had no out. Not sure how one doesn’t see a full size SUV, at 4 pm, on a cloud free day, and my DRLs which are LEDs, were on. Thanks a million for destroying my once very reliable, dependable, means of transportation. Just trying to get home after a long day at work. In the future, try and not be in such a hurry to get to Walmart, and obey the rules of the road!

HE DIED FOR YOUR SINS To the downtown protestors, made mostly of white females, who ignored social distancing to make a national tragedy all about themselves, congratulations. But when you use a black man’s death 2,000 miles away as an excuse to create a spectacle of yourself you trivialize the entitlement and objectification that’s rooted in what happened. Stopping traffic in downtown Spokane on a beautiful Sunday afternoon was without sacrifice and accomplished nothing. Maybe instead, next time help someone capable of actual change win the Washington primary.

NEWS FUELS THE FIRE Jeers to all the local news outlets for going on and on about the protests gone awry 5-31-20. You held brand new TV hostage for hours. Not everyone has the net or cable. Plus you are all just repeating the same stuff over and over.

“

as they open, why not forego the fast food lines and dine in at your favorite open restaurant? Naturally, the fast food places also have the option of opening their facilities under the same guidelines as the non-fast food places, but they’ve decided not to do

in by staying at home and do their part. BUT WHERE IS THEIR SKIN IN THE GAME??????

COVID EXPOSURE To the punks who broke into my car for a buck in change, I wanted to let you know you may have been

“Your scapegoat is gone, your golden child is a bronzed fraud and the only person who thought we were family is DEAD.

As an added bonus you are just giving the peeps bragging rights. Yeah we made the news. When I called a station to complain she said “think of it like a wild fire we’re providing up to the minute coverage.” No you’re providing more fuel for the social fire. Whatever happened to “details at eleven”? That’s what used to happen. The news people would come on for 10 minutes maybe then go back to the program then provide all the details at 11 pm. All you media seem to do is stoke anger and fear.

Knock it off quit providing ner do wells with their 2 hours plus of fame. VZ WHITE TRASH To the white female protester who screamed at me about my “white privilege.” I certainly did not get off my couch and drive downtown to show support for YOUR white ass.

OPPOSITES DO NOT ATTRACT Oh, so you are going to rip out beds painstakingly tended to because “you’re a grass guy?” must not listen to climate scientists. Oh, so you’re going to have multiple people over every week during lockdown? Loudly.

Flaunting it. You must not listen to health scientists. Oh, but people want to come over! Heaven forbid you tell them no, we should survive this stupid virus! Or stagger gatherings for every two weeks. Ridiculous and selfish.

SUPPORT LOCAL DINE IN RESTAURANTS Dear Sheeple of Spokane, many of the fast food restaurants have been doing quite well financially since the “stay at home” order several months ago. The traditional dine in restaurants haven’t fared so well. Now

1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3.

Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”

so because of the larger profit margin from serving only by the drive through. They can then save money by not having to abide by the cleaning standards inside. So, rather than wait in line outside in back of a bunch of other cars for food that will be cold by the time you get it home, why not just say “no” and go to a nice restaurant where you can sit down at a clean table and have a warm meal? Just say no to drive through fast food.

TOO PC TO ASK THE HARD QUESTIONS Just read the most recent Inlander. One submission in the comments section on “Snitches”. The City of Spokane (STATE) has demanded that we ALL sacrifice for the greater good. That in a International crisis is understandable. However WHAT is the City sacrificing? Their employees are getting paid to work at home — the ones that can with full pay and benefits. They have not made an effort to even address the fact that the forced unemployment of most the rest of us means they are being paid by people out of work —forced out of work. NO landlord can kick out renters. But the rent is accruing — how is THAT going to be paid when this is over as SOMEDAY? So you’re going to have all these evicted people out on the streets for rent they can’t pay back. I talked to my business insurance company today about the fact I didn’t even net the amount of monthly premium that is due ALL last month. Tough! They (just like the City) aren’t budging an inch! I can tell you when renewal comes up it won’t be with them — IF I survive! Which bring me to property taxes and other fees to the City! So the City wants “Everyone” to pitch

”

exposed to COVID as I tested positive. All for a buck in change!

DEAR FAMILY I don’t miss you. I don’t miss the awful holiday dinners because I don’t miss knowing that before I arrived and after I left, y’all would be making fun of me behind my back. I don’t miss any of the non holiday family gatherings because I don’t miss being silenced mid-sentence so you can have the attention back. I don’t miss the times you came to my shows because I don’t miss having to twist your arm to get you to acknowledge me, only to have the thing I am proud of be another thing you mock me for (nor do I miss the disruptive attention seeking antics at said shows). I don’t miss the “pOsItIvE MeMoRiEs” you insist we have because I don’t miss being gaslit about abuse being a fun time for all involved. Keep my dead name out of your horrible mouths. Your scapegoat is gone, your golden child is a bronzed fraud and the only person who thought we were family is DEAD. I don’t miss you, I don’t love any of you and I hope you choke on the vapor you selected instead of a complete family. n

THIS WEEK'S ANSWERS S A M E D A Y

O N A R O P E

T O Y B O A T

C D S O O H T H I E S A L N O D O L S

U S B E M G I R T I T H O O S K P E A D T O E N

S A B L E D O O B I E

L O B E R O A B Y K B T R U B A E R I N E R N G S O D L E S I E S B S S G U R H Y M B U M P I T S Y

D R O N E S O N

R E H A B

E M A I L E D

W S A P R A U E N D O S

G R O B B R E V U E O Y E G A S R E T E P A Y S I T E M C E D E

NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.

Our journalism makes a difference, and so can you.

Learn more at Inlander.com/Insider JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 33

SPORTS

Cannabidiol FC Women’s soccer is leading the way in normalizing CBD for pro athletes

BY WILL MAUPIN

T

he National Women’s Soccer League is bringing sports back, and it’s bringing CBD with them.

Last week, the NWSL announced it had finalized plans to begin competition on June 27, putting it on pace to be America’s first top-flight league back in action. The league’s nine teams will gather in Utah and play a monthlong tournament, without fans in attendance, rather than their traditional season. The facilities the teams will share belong to Utah Royals FC, which earlier this year entered into a sponsorship agreement with Mendi, a CBD company based out of Portland.

Mendi’s connection to women’s soccer runs a lot deeper than that, though. One of the company’s founders is Rachael Rapinoe, whose twin sister Megan finds time to be involved in the business when she’s not doing things like leading the United States to World Cup wins or raking in various “of the year” honors.

The company also sponsors the North Carolina

BE AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g., RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052). State law does not preempt federal law; possessing, using, distributing and selling marijuana remains illegal under federal law. In Washington state, consuming marijuana in public, driving while under the influence of marijuana and transporting marijuana across state lines are all illegal. Marijuana has intoxicating effects; there may be health risks associated with its consumption, and it may be habit-forming. It can also impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Keep out of reach of children. For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at www.liq.wa.gov.

34 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

Mendi founder Rachael Rapinoe (right) and her soccer superstar twin sister Megan.

Courage, the two-time defending NWSL champions.

But the Portland-based CBD company doesn’t sponsor Portland’s team, the Thorns. They’re sponsored by a different Portland-based CBD company, Social CBD. You’ll see that brand’s name across the chest of the team’s warm-up gear during practices, before games and all over social media.

Leagues across America have been slowly opening up to CBD, and cannabis in general, but it’s the NWSL that is leading the way.

Sports should be an obvious fit for CBD, and not just as a marketing tool. CBD’s pain and inflammation relieving qualities make it a great tool for athletes who are recovering from injury or warding off post-workout

MENDI PHOTO

soreness. They also make great partners in the push to normalize cannabis.

In April, the Courage held a giveaway on social media. Along with usual prizes like an autographed jersey and tickets to a game, the lucky winner also took home a haul of CBD. Yep, professional sports teams are now comfortable handing out cannabis products. Then there’s the Thorns, who, before coronavirus, were planning to trot onto the pitch in front of their 20,000-plus fans, while happily wearing a CBD brand on their clothes.

Those fans won’t be in the stadium any time soon, but when the NWSL returns to the airwaves later this month, plenty of people will be seeing CBD in a space they never have before. n

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My wonderful stepmom died last year, and my dad was debilitated by grief. I got him to go to a support group, which really seemed to help. He’s been dating a woman he met there, and they’ve gotten serious. My brother says my dad wants to marry this woman. He’s happy for our dad, but I’m disgusted. It’s just wrong that he’s with another woman so soon. My dad loved my stepmother and was a great husband, but he’s now looking like a fraud because he’s moved on so quickly. —Distraught Daughter

It’s not like your dad wore dark glasses to the funeral so he could cruise the pretty ladies in attendance without getting caught.

There are many misconceptions about how a person’s “supposed” to feel after their loved one dies, and we tend to go all grief police on someone we think isn’t grieving enough or for long enough.

I suspect these harsh views are a byproduct of one of the possible functions of grief. Evolutionary psychologist Bo Winegard and his colleagues point out that grief stops us from getting on with our lives after a loved one dies. This is costly, impinging on our survival, or at least keeping us from mating and passing on our genes. But because of this, grief can be a sort of tear-drenched, listless, gloom-shrouded character witness.

Sure, we could tell people we’ve got great character. But that’s just blah, blah, blah, with nothing to back it up. However, because grief is costly — emotionally, physically, and in forcing us to put our lives on pause — it’s seen as a more reliable signal than claims we make about ourselves. The Winegard team believes grief likely functions as a form of social advertising: evidence the grieving person is a “loyal, trustworthy,” committed partner who forms deep attachments.

This might be why so many people eventually went so vicious on comedian Patton Oswalt. His wife died suddenly, and he was devastated, and he got a flood of sympathy from his fans. Eighteen months later, he remarried, and the public turned on him — with ugly tweets like: “80,000 died from the flu last year and fat man Patton never mentioned it. Faker than his ‘grief’ for his dead ex wife.”

My journalist friend, Leslie Gray Streeter, 49, gets really angry about these attacks on a surviving spouse: “It’s always shocking how strangers would rather you be embalmed in their memory than happy.” She writes “you” because she, unfortunately, has experience in this area, chronicled in “Black Widow,” her “sad-funny” memoir about suddenly losing her husband five years into their marriage. She tweets about the social media-shaming of Oswalt, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and other widowed celebs: “It’s not your business when celebrities you don’t know remarry after being widowed. No it’s not. I’m serious. Stop it. Not your business. ... Leave people alone.”

This is advice we should apply beyond the celebrisphere. Research by psychologist Camille Wortman debunks many common myths about how grief “should” work: for example, the incorrect expectations “that depression is inevitable following loss; that distress is necessary, and failure to experience it is indicative of pathology.” And then there’s the myth you might be clinging to: the notion that real love leads to grief that is endlessly debilitating.

It is — for a very small percentage of people. But grief researcher George Bonanno suspects we’re prone to believe unending grief is the norm in part because much of what’s written about grief is by grief therapists. They are “apt to see only those bereaved people” who are unable to recover without professional help. However, Bonanno explains, for most grieving people, resilience — the ability to recover (and sometimes to recover relatively quickly) and get on with life — is the norm. Bonanno urges us not to assume that this means they had “either superficial or conflicted relationships with the persons they lost.”

Bonanno explains that bereaved people who find peace seem to put their loss into some sort of perspective. He gives the example of a woman who married her high school sweetheart and had two children and a full life with him. Her world shattered when her husband died abruptly, but she “found meaning and vigor and even joy in the idea she was going to make it.”

Consider whether the message you want to send to your dad is, “Hey! Your life was supposed to stop when my stepmom’s did,” effectively punishing him for healthy coping. Wortman writes: “The major coping task faced by the bereaved is to reconcile themselves to a situation that cannot be changed and find a way to carry on with their own lives.” As Patton Oswalt explained about why he remarried 18 months after losing his wife: “It just felt like worlds were connecting and everything was okay again.” n ©2020, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. • Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)

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Inlander.com/GetListed Deadline is one week prior to publication

Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, NMLS# 1025894.

These materials are not from, or approved by, HUD or FHA. Subject to Credit Approval.

MOOMR.1219.23

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THE ART OF SOAP MAKING

BUYING Estate Contents / Household Goods See abesdiscount.com or 509-939-9996

WEEKEND CLASS

Available at more than 1,000 locations throughout the Inland Northwest.

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FRI 6-8 SAT 11 TO NOON

JULY 17 & 18

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DOWN 1. Even faster than overnight 49 50 2. Like some soap 3. Plaything whose name is 52 famously hard to say five times fast 55 56 4. Thumb drive port, for short 5. Expensive dark fur 60 6. Plumbing woe 7. Spherical shape 63 8. “Whew!”

9. Talks monotonously 10. It’s a sobering process 11. Worked on some screenwriting? 18. Give off 22. Pack animals 12. Newspaper headline of 24. Moxie 12/8/1941 25. Comb challenges 13. Place to get pampered 26. ____ Pieces

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62. Thingamajig 63. Twin Mary-Kate or Ashley 64. Wee 65. Relinquish

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33. Bread for burritos?

34. Hairstyles 35. 2000 Sisqo hit 38. Some IRA investments 41. Gazillions 42. Eldest Stark son on “Game of Thrones” 46. “Tell me more!”

47. Big Apple stage honors 48. Vaudeville show 49. 1998 Faith Hill hit 51. John of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” 52. One-on-one Olympics event 53. Director Van Sant 54. Out of active mil. service 55. Provider of green energy?

57. 1987 Ice-T debut album whose title applies to 17-, 25-, 35- and 49-Across 60. Recognize silently 61. Baby ____

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ACROSS 1. President’s annual delivery to Cong.

5. Undesirable roommate 9. Barrymore and Carey 14. “Cien ____ de Soledad” (Gabriel García Márquez novel) 15. Designed to minimize drag 16. Update to reflect new routes 17. 1958 Buddy Holly hit 19. Catherine of “Schitt’s Creek” 20. Tarzan creator’s monogram 21. “The fierce urgency of now” speaker, familiarly 22. ____ B’rith 23. Early role for Neil Patrick 25. 1986 Madonna hit 29. In different places 30. Boxing brothers Max and Buddy of the 1930s 31. Abolish 32. Legendary source of large footprints

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GREENCASTLESOAP.COM 466-7223 | 203 N. STONE | SPOKANE

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THIS W ANSWE EEK’S I SAW RS ON YOUS

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33. Rock’s ____ Brothers 37 36. Obsessed with 37. Earl ____ tea 42 43 44 45 38. Guest’s bed 39. “What was I 48 thinking?!”

40. Protects 51 43. Had thirds, maybe 44. Agog 53 54 45. “Heck if I know” 48. Climbed 57 58 59 50. Sudden rush 51. Like roads with 61 62 many potholes 53. Spots for dumbbells 64 65 55. ____-Caps (concession RHYMES PAYS 27. Card game with suits of four candy) different colors 56. Verizon acquisition of 2015 28. Harris and Helms 57. Slugging stat 30. Dots on some Hindu women’s 58. Simple shelter foreheads 59. Insta upload

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 37

COEUR D ’ ALENE

cda4.fun for more events, things to do & places to stay.

All Smiles at Silverwood

Have a safe summer at the Northwest’s largest theme park

S

ilverwood Theme Park puts the safety of its guests first, and this year is no different. In addition to ensuring attractions and amazing rides like Timber Terror and the log flume are pristinely maintained, Silverwood has revamped the guest experience to adjust for social distancing and other new health guidelines designed to keep guests safe from coronavirus.

“In the last month we have worked tirelessly to develop a plan and strategy that will reduce the risk associated with catching the virus while visiting,” says Jordan Carter, director of marketing. “This includes creating an online reservation system for tickets, a park-wide cashless operation, and an enhanced sanitization and safety program that goes above and beyond any of the state and local recommendations.”

In order to keep the number of guests to the required minimum, the park has created reservation-only tickets for anyone NOT using their season pass. And they’re offering big incentives for online ordering.

Get up to $20 off your ticket for one-day or two-day reservation tickets, which can only be used on the dates you specify.

RESERVE YOUR TICKETS ONLINE! SILVERWOODTHEMEPARK.COM 38 INLANDER JUNE 4, 2020

Not sure about dates? Try the flex ticket — $10 savings if ordered online — which allows guests a little wiggle room in choosing dates. Make a weekend of it with their three-day ticket options (standard and flex tickets available) and consider camping out at their convenient RV Park

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

with 123 full hookups and 41 tent spots.

Silverwood is going cashless to limit person-to-person transactions. Buy a cashless card while purchasing your tickets or at select locations throughout the park and use it on food, games, whatever.

When you’re done for the day, easily transfer the balance back to your credit card account.

The park’s enhanced sanitization and safety program is also comprehensive.

Employees will be monitored daily to ensure they’re healthy to work. They have undergone new safety training and will be wearing masks, which will also be available free-of-charge to any guest who would like to wear one.

Sanitation stations have been set up throughout the park for guest use and although it may extend the wait time for rides just a little, employees will be wiping down high-touch areas in between ride cycles.

Guests will notice more spacing in the ride queues — the ride lines may look longer but they’re not! — and in gathering areas, such as food venues to promote good airflow between guests.

Enclosed spaces got an overhaul, too.

Silverwood upgraded their ventilation system to hospital-grade HEPA filtration, the best there is.

In an open letter to Silverwood Theme Park guests, owner Gary Norton says they have done their best to follow health guidelines and minimize risks for guests seeking the fun and family time that Silverwood has provided for over 30 years.

“We believe it is your right to assess the risks involved, take your own precautions, and come to your own conclusion as to whether to participate in social activities during these trying times,” says Norton. Visit silverwoodthemepark.com for more info.

C O E U R

D ’A L E N E

Upcoming Events Kootenai County Farmers Market WEDNESDAYS

Downtown Coeur d’Alene’s charming farmers market resumes on Wednesdays from 4-7 pm, all summer long. Stop in this week for some plant starts, flowers, honey, veggies, and artisan-made crafts. 4-7 pm; downtown Coeur d’Alene, Fifth and Sherman.

Breakfast & Backswings JUNE 14-15

The Coeur d’Alene Resort’s deluxe Live Well Retreats are back. The first offering of the summer is the Breakfast & Backswings retreat, featuring a golf clinic on their famed course, vinyasa yoga class, a spa service, breakfast and a luxurious overnight stay. Packages start at $175 per person. Go to cdaresort.com/play/spa/livewell_retreats for details.

Brewfest JULY 11

Yes We’re

OPEN

D OW N T OW N COEUR D’ALENE

Live music, lake views and dozens of craft brews.

It doesn’t get much better than downtown Coeur d’Alene’s Brewfest. Save the date and start your training. 1-7 pm; McEuen Park, 420 E. Front St.

Car d’Lane JULY 17-18

Coeur d’Alene’s beloved classic car weekend has been moved to July this year. Watch the classic cruise on Friday night, or peak under the hood of these one-of-a-kind classics on Saturday. Look for more details on cda4.fun.

For more events, things to do & places to stay, go to cda4.fun COEUR D’ALENE

JUNE 4, 2020 INLANDER 39

Play where the big winners play.

Tribal Homelands Guided Hike CONSERVATION CORPS NATURE TRAIL FRIDAY, JUNE 19 TH | 9 AM - 1 PM $30 PER PERSON Lunch and $10 Extra Play Cash included.

INDIAN CLIFFS NATURE TRAIL MONDAY, JUNE 22 ND | 9 AM - 1 PM $35 PER PERSON Lunch and $10 Extra Play Cash included.

Win $1,000 Cash!

SATURDAYS IN JUNE | 7 PM – 9 PM

Lifeways Workshop “Make Your Own”

Want to win $1,000 cash? No prob-llama. Join us Saturdays in June for our $64,000 No Drama Llama Giveaway.

Get one entry into the giveaway for every 500 points earned on your favorite video gaming machines with your Coeur Rewards card. Earn entries starting June 1ST.

BEADED POUCH SATURDAY, JUNE 27 TH | 10 AM - 3 PM $80 PER PERSON

Every Saturday in June, 16 lucky winners will walk away with $1,000 cash!

Lunch included.

BONE, BEAD & SHELL NECKLACE SUNDAY, JUNE 28 TH | 10 AM - 12 PM $30 PER PERSON

See cdacasino.com for promotional rules.

Lunch included.

Tickets available at cdacasino.com or at the Casino Box Office.

ENTERTAINMENT SERIES

TLC THURSDAY, AUGUST 13 TH 7 PM | $55 & UP

WFC Mixed Martial Arts

Bill Engvall

Super Diamond

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 RD 7 PM | $40 & UP

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20TH 7 PM | $40 & UP

THE NEIL DIAMOND TRIBUTE BAND

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH 7 PM | $10 & UP

Purchase tickets at cdacasino.com, the Casino Box Office, or any TicketsWest outlet. Tickets are also available on the CDA Casino App. Must be age 18 or older to attend concerts. Call 1 800-523-2464 for more details.

W E LC O M E H O M E .

HOTEL

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CASINO

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DINING

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SPA

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CHAMPIONSHIP

GOLF

3 7 9 1 4 S O U T H N U K WA LQ W • W O R L E Y, I D A H O 8 3 8 76 • 1 8 0 0 - 5 2 3 - 2 4 6 4 • C D A C A S I N O . C O M