Last week Sunday, I went to Seattle to find locations for a future photoshoot. I was confident I’d feel right at home walking around the streets of the busy city, but I found out pretty quickly Seattle was not quite the same as I had remembered.
Sure, I had anticipated some changes, after all I visited the city only twice within the last year. Many things have happened in just a year: COVID-19 struck the world, police brutality was causing people to riot, and more people were driven to homelessness.
It was jarring seeing such a contrast from what I remembered of Seattle. I always enjoyed visiting Pike’s Place as it would always be busy and the shops would be filled with lively people. Last week, there was nowhere near the same number of people, and there were several buildings that had wooden boards covering broken windows.
Perhaps it was the grey weather Washington state often has, but there was something about how the streets looked that made me think of something I saw from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. If you just threw in some barrels with fire and some more trash around the streets, it would have looked just like The Sanctuary from the two part episode “Past Tense.”
“Past Tense” follows the main cast of Star Trek DS9 as they find themselves stuck in an anomaly which throws them into the past to the y ear 2024, shortly before the fictional “Bell Riots” would occur. The riot was written to portray the societal issues of homelessness and poverty along with the general public’s response to these issues, In the episode, “The Sanctuary” was a danced off area from the city that contained almost anyone that was “incapable of supporting themselves. ” Namely homeless people and others with mental disabilities.
Although the streets of Seattle have not yet reached that point, I couldn’t help but see small parallels between Star Trek DS9’s “The Sanctuary” and the Seattle I witnessed. The aftermath of the riots was apparent on the buildings and homeless people were scattered across the city. I feel like I’m over-exaggerating how run down this part of Seattle was, but at the same time the city is NOT the same as it was just a year ago.
I pondered a bit more and I realized what really disturbed me about my visit: it wasn’t how similar Seattle and The Sanctuary looked, it was how they both got to that point.
Later in the episode’s narrative, it is revealed The Sanctuary is a byproduct of society trying to solve the problem of homeless people making the city look dirtier and less desirable for business. With no real solution (or any real effort to look for one), they created a section of the city where they can simply cast aside “undesirable” people. The people in The Sanctuary actually need help, but the government’s solution was essentially to make a glorified ghetto and give it a pretty name. Those who were fortunate enough to be in a position where they could avoid living in The Sanctuary were aware of how inhumane it was to keep people there. However, they avoided talking about it, gleefully ignorant of how bad it actually was in there.
Seeing the state Seattle was in made me realize I was just as ignorant as those fortunate people were in “Past Tense.” I never have made a lot of attempts to keep apprised of current events. When I did, I would only know the surface level of the issue at hand. Being there first hand in Seattle really opened my eyes to how little I keep informed.
When I got back home, I was ashamed because Seattle had felt like an alien place. Forgetting what happened to Seattle and only being reminded whenever I visited… it did not sit well with me.
Sure, one can’t be expected to be up to date with all the news in the world. My problem, however, is I barely even keep up with local news. If I can barely keep up with that, how can I keep up with the rest of the country, let alone the world? It was a humbling reminder that my scope is so limited.
I don’t think it is acceptable to be like this though. I expect better of myself. Who am I to expect better of society when I am just as bad?
Hello everyone, it’s been a while. I apologize for the tardiness of my post.
The last two weeks has been a learning experience for myself. I’m trying to enforce new habits and it’s been difficult. I’m thankful, however, that I have friends who are holding me accountable. I just hope to make them proud.
Regarding pictures, I took a few while I was in Seattle. Most of the pictures were taken on my DSLR and I haven’t edited them yet. So for now, I can only share the pictures I took on my phone.
