I was born September 17, 1973 in a Washington DC hospital.  I was raised in Bethesda, Maryland a suburb 20 minutes outside of DC.  My extended family during my childhood was based in Massachusetts in the Boston area.  I have an older sister, a younger brother, and many delightful aunts, uncles, and cousins.  

I moved to Port Townsend, Washington, a picturesque small town on a small peninsula on the much larger Olympic Peninsula in 1995.  So as of this moment, I’ve been on the west coast for almost 24 years- but not merely the west coast, Port Townsend- which is culturally perhaps one of the most liberal vortex of a community in Washington State, perhaps the entire west coast.

In recent years, I’ve been reflecting on how Port Townsend has changed me.  I’ve realized that I sought out a place like Port Townsend intentionally when I graduated from the University of Maryland in 1995 with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Ideology and Utopia studies.  In fact, I believe I was searching for Utopia.

If you had known me during college, you would have found me an insufferable philosophical idealist.  I was largely dedicated to searching for the Truth and the meaning of life.  My freshman year I began as a mechanical engineering major but my first semester introduction to philosophy course with Professor Raymond Martin convinced me the study of philosophy was infinitely more meaningful to me, so I switched majors.  I’ve never looked back.

When I left college, I let go of any inclination I had to try to change the world, to try and make the world a utopia.  I was inspired by life, but I was not interested in shaping anyone’s life but my own.  I came to Port Townsend to be a philosopher artist and to work whatever jobs could provide a little money to survive.  I believed the world was an unjust maelstrom of oppression and suffering, but I felt no need to do anything beyond making my life a beautiful happy adventure.  I also believed that in making your life happy, you do impact the world around you- like ripples in a pond as has been said by others before me. 

Now, 24 years later, I consider myself an Activist.  In fact, truth be told (and why not tell the truth?), I consider myself a global revolutionary.  I still believe our first obligation as human beings is to nurture our own individual path to happiness, but my happiness is now nurtured by striving to help the world take significant steps forward to eliminating oppression, to in fact, reaching to create Utopia here on earth- today.  In fact, I find myself once again an idealistic dreamer.

My ambition to help change the world was ignited by the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement which gave me a taste of the passion many of my fellow humans have for global transformation to elimate oppression and to make this earth a place where all people can thrive.  My journey lead me to eventually run for public office- which I did in 2013 when I ran for Hospital Commissioner.  I ran on a platform that locally elected officials need to become a new type of leader and champion for large scale change, to fight for things like universal healthcare, because our state and federal political infrastructure is deeply corrupted and controlled by the influence of money.  Such a platform could only work at that time in a place like Jefferson County Washington, which it did.  I took office January 1, 2014.  

Now having served 5 years of my first term (now 7 years and into my second term!), I can honestly say, I experienced violent communication, acts of intimidation, and argumentative tactics as an elected official the likes of which I have not seen for years.  In fact, I’ve realized, the last time in my life I experienced the type of absurdly aggressive behaviors I experienced as a board member were in elementary school and within my family experience growing up.  

Port Townsend is not a violent place.  In fact, I think Port Townsend is probably a vortex of nonviolent communication, compassion, and friendliness.  Sure people argue and disagree here, but it is nothing like the East Coast.  In retrospect, my childhood years on the East Coast, outside DC and vacationing in the Boston area, was an experience that taught me how to argue and fight for what I wanted.  I was raised around people who all believed they were the beacons of truth and power and I learned how to survive amongst their never ending wars.  In retrospect, I left the East Coast to get away from such violence.

I joined the Jefferson Healthcare hospital board with a serene non-violent attitude towards pushing for change.  I joined ready to ask questions and engage in dialogue. 

2014

On January 1, 2014 I assumed my office.

I attended about 4 board meetings until I realized something needed to change to make the endeavor of serving on this board of commissioners a worthwhile use of my time.  I felt frustrated by the manner in which the meetings were run and the lack of a detailed record of the meetings discussions.  Even after only a handful of meetings I could tell that some members of the commission had a habit of misstating what was said or decided at previous board meetings.  This senseless inconsistency meant we had to waste time arguing over clear facts and agreements already settled- which I had no interest or time for.  I also noticed that although they claimed to follow Robert’s Rules of Order, they did not actually follow it correctly.  The meetings were run very whimsically and the people in the room did not know how to handle a person who wanted to discuss things they did not want to discuss- so they resorted to tactics like talking over me or trying to cut off my time.  After ruminating on this problem for a while a solution emerged in my mind:  The meetings needed to be audio recorded.

An audio recording of the meetings would allow me to maximize the use of my time in the board meetings.  With a recording I would know what I and anyone else said during the meetings would be documented accurately.  With an audio recording, I would be able to show the people who elected me what I was doing in office thanks to their votes.  If I didn’t accomplish anything while in office, at least I would have a clear record of my efforts and the things done by others in response to those efforts.

On March 19, 2014 I took my seat at in the Vic Dirksen Auditorium for my 5th Jefferson Healthcare Hospital Commission Meeting.  I then took out my audio recorder and informed all present I was audio recording the meeting today, in line with the email announcement I had sent them all before the meeting.  On Jan 15, 2021 the conflict arising from that moment was starting to approach getting ready to be almost in the process of possibly having some level of appropriate adjudication.

Update March 4, 2022

In 2016 a legal opinion was obtained by Jefferson Healthcare administration that directly addressed the major issues involved in the recording conflict discussed ad nauseum on this site.

In 2021 the legal opinion above was given to the full board of commissioners of Jefferson Healthcare for the first time.  The legal opinion had been shared with at least one commissioner before 2021, but it is unknown how many or exactly when.  The full board including Matt Ready was not informed of this legal opinion existence nor given access to it despite repeated requests between 2016 and 2021 for written legal answers to the issues related to this recording conflict.

After reviewing the 2021 legal opinion, the full board discussed the recording issue regarding what to do if a commissioner records a meeting on a personal device, crafted sensible policy based on the written expert legal opinion, and then voted to move on from the matter.

It is my personal hope that all parties responsible for withholding the 2016 legal opinion from the full board will exercise better judgement in the future.  If the 2016 legal opinion had been promptly shared with the full board of commissioner in 2016, all major issues related to this conflict would have been avoided and every one of these posts on this website (as well as an enormous amount of political philosophical art on my other social media feeds) would never have been created between 2016 and 2021 as part of Matt Ready’s public process of attempting to resolve this issue.  Looking back, i suppose this art is the only measure of positive outcomes from this multiyear conflict- besides the actual problem resolved and questions answered.

In any case, I am personally exhausted by this topic and look forward to discussing other more interesting and meaningful topics related to the health of our community and the welfare of our world in general.