Diminishing Silver City

First published as a column by Quest Lakes in the Mason Valley News in June of 2019.

Silver City has begun the process of creating a community plan. The public meetings on the topic are held at the Silver City School House and hosted by the town board. During the first meeting, town advisory board members explained that they expected the process to take anywhere from 6 months to one year. The purpose of the planning process is to “collectively decide what can and should happen to our community: how it should grow and change; and what it should offer 10, 15, even 20 years into the future.” The hope is to create a plan that is “inclusive and reflects the comprehensive values of the entire community” and meets the needs of the community.

A number of longtime denizens of Silver City attended the first meeting this month, as well as several who are newer to the community. Corrado De Gasperis, Executive Chairman & CEO of Comstock Mining Inc. (CMI), and Zach Spencer, Director of External Relations for Comstock Mining Inc, also attended. De Gasperis, who has fought the residents of Silver City for nearly a decade over CMI’s goal of bringing open pit mining to the town, noted that Silver City is unlike any other community in Lyon County. He said, the “people here care more about the community than themselves.” He went on to admit, “I think the quality of the community has diminished in part because of me.”

Nevertheless, he persists. One of the company’s latest press releases crowed, “We look forward to advancing the community planning process with Silver City and Lyon County and advancing the exploration, development and permitting of our properties for their highest and best uses.” As we head into yet another planning process that CMI will attempt to co-opt, a recap of the last decade with our uninvited corporate guests is in order.

When De Gasperis first descended upon us, Lyon County had recently updated its county-wide plans for land use, which reaffirmed earlier decisions and plans the County had made about Silver City in the 1970s and 1980s. In short, Silver City was understood to be a residential community, one not suitable for heavy industrial operations, particularly because parts of the area includes Superfund sites where toxic materials from historical mining should not be disturbed. It was also recognized that Silver City is located within a nationally designated historic landmark (the Comstock) and that locals wish to preserve the community’s history, and do not want to see it bulldozed.

As DeGasperis has discovered over the years, my Silver City neighbors are people who are interested in preserving the history of the town, and securing a vibrant future for the community. They have the skills, talents and energy to make both possible. This is a community that gets positive things done by working together, intelligently, and strategically. I believe it was Cashion Callaway who made the astute observation some years ago that Silver City “is a community built on the values of knowing and caring for neighbors and for pitching in when need arises. We care for our kids, for our elders and for all others who can use a hand. Neighbor to neighbor, we stand by our community. Always.”

However, for nearly a decade now, the town has been under seige by Comstock Mining Inc and its wide-ranging influence over officials and groups. If the corporation succeeds, there will be a large scale open pit mine operation very close to Silver City homes. The town will be reduced to an "appendage to an industrial operation." A number of Silver City's longtime homeowners have already moved, or are planning to move, due to CMI's plans. The fact that since the 1970's Silver City residents had repeated assurances through Lyon County Master Plans and land use planning decisions that Silver City is a residential rather than a heavy industrial area matters not the least to officials who enjoy the influence of CMI (i.e., employment for friends and family, donations to political campaigns, financial gifts, donations to pet projects, etc.). Citizens of Silver City have been set upon by super-wealthy individuals behind CMI who are influencing our officials, and the town will be transformed for the worse if they succeed.

Pit mining in and adjacent to Silver City would be catastrophic for obvious reasons: destruction of parts of the historic landmark, continual noise, dust, distrubance of toxic Superfund sites, nightime light pollution, drastic reduction of home values, reduction of road safety, destruction and re-routing of existing roads, etc.

My hope is that the focus of the newest community plan in Silver City, and the 2020 plan for Lyon County, is on wealth creation rather than wealth extraction by outside interests. Wealth creation is a term that takes into account the long term impacts on the health and well-being of locals. Allowing mining and other corporate interests to influence changes in land use policies is a recipe for environmental and economic disaster for Lyon County.

The Silver City Community Garden is a Bloomin' Joy!

by Renate Victor and Catherine Bachand for the Silver Citizen, August 2019 issue

The tomatoes are ripening slowly but are picking up speed, the rainbow chard bed is full of tall, glistening leaves. The blackberry bush has now quadrupled (at least) its original size, loaded with not-yet-ripe berries that we hope soon to harvest before the birds eat them all. The garden abundance includes: garlic, onions, carrots, beets, golden raspberries, squash, potatoes, romaine, spinach, kale, an occasional Armenian cucumber, asparagus, jalapenos, peas, shallots, basil, oregano, marjoram, sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, lemon balm, cilantro, parsley, roses, hollyhocks, dianthus, morning glories, rhubarb, irises. and a peach tree. All lovingly tended by the faithful garden group. Susan, Lila, Catherine and Diane water throughout the week and we all meet on Sunday mornings to garden and gab.

Community gardeners top row left to right: Susan Stornetta, Molly Allendar, Renata Victor, Catherine Bachand. Bottom row left to right: Noel Chounet, Lila Crandall and Emmy Lou the dog

The Garden isn't the only abundance in town; fruit trees everywhere seem to be weighted with plums, peaches, and just recently, Apricots! Catherine B and Meg and Eric O's trees offered a windfall of apricots which were picked and pitted, canned and 'jammed'at the Schoolhouse. Eric's apricots have an interesting history; Eric brought the seeds, a special variety (Japanese apricots, I heard) with him from his home and had carried them through life until they were planted by their new home in Silver City. An impromptu event was created by Catherine, Meg, Diane and Noel, that soon evolved to a production crew of many town-folk who wandered in the open door or heard through word of mouth. Eric, Gabe, Shaun, Diane and even our Suzie Post Person sat around the table pitting apricots that filled large stainless steel bowls to overflowing. Conversation and laughter made the task enjoyable. What a community! We look for any reason to celebrate and usually easily find one.

New York Playwright David Cote Comes to Silver City in Aug/Sept

Silver City, Nevada – Last year during a local gathering, some of Silver City’s long time denizens noted that there hadn’t been any theatre productions in town for some time. Past community projects to create musicals such as Old Plumbottom, with direction from local professionals Will and Sheree Rose, were enormously popular. Now that Silver City has a permanent outdoor stage, the Silver Pavilion, locals suggested that the town should make theater a regular part of its public programming. In a timely coincidence, not long afteward I received an application to the Resident Artist Program in Silver City from NYC playwright, opera librettist and theatre critic David Cote.

Cote’s play Otherland was a finalist in the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference. His opera libretti include Blind Injustice, which is on stage now at the Cincinnati Opera; Three Way (Nashville Opera and BAM); The Scarlet Ibis (Chicago Opera Theater and Prototype); and the one-act Fade which had a world premiere in London. He's written companion books for several hit Broadway musicals, including Wicked. His reporting and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Guardian, the Observer, Theater News Online, American Theatre, and Opera News. He was previously the longest serving theater editor and chief drama critic of Time Out New York.

Silver City Workshops: After learning more about Cote’s work, and sending him background material on the community of Silver City, I asked what he’d think of working with the community on a one act play about the town’s current struggle to survive the ongoing onslaught by Comstock Mining Inc. He’ll bring the idea to the community during two workshops at the Silver City School House on Friday Aug. 23 and Friday Aug. 30 from 6:30pm-8:30pm. Locals can can decide then if they’d like to work on that group project, or something else, such as a libretto that they could add music to later.

Carson City Talk: You can learn more about David's creative process during a free, public talk at the Brick in Carson City on Thursday August 22 from 5pm-6:30 that also includes Chicago-based sculptor Nicole Beck. The artists talks are part of a summer series funded and sponsored by Carson City’s Deparment of Arts and Culture. The Brick, or community development building, is located at 108 E. Proctor Street.

Radio: Cote will also be interviewed this month by Silver City’s Joe McCarthy for a piece in Nevada Capital News and KNVC.

History’s Blueprint for a White Ethnostate

Published in Mason Valley News as a column by Quest Lakes July 22, 2019. Eleven days after this column was written, on Aug. 3, 2019, an armed white supremacist entered a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas and killed 23 people and injured 23 others. He targeted Latino shoppers, and before the shooting posted an anti-immigrant screed praising President Trump's border wall plan.

White nationalism is on the rise in the U.S., and leaders within the movement purposely obfuscate what they would need to do to achieve their ultimate goal of creating a white ethnostate where white “supremacy” is codified. They usually will admit, however, that they want policies that will end all non-white immigration. They sometimes also admit that they would like to criminalize miscegenation.

Nazi history includes a blueprint for how a society might go about trying to create a white ethnostate.

Under the 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, Jews in Germany were forbidden from working in civil service or government-regulated professions such as medicine and education. Leaving Germany was difficult, partly because Jews were required to turn over 90% of their wealth as a tax if if they tried to emigrate to another country. Even if they were able to leave, by 1938 there were few countries that would take Jewish emigrants at all.

In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were enacted at a special meeting convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party in Germany. The Nuremberg Laws consisted of two laws. One was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which criminalized marriage between Jews and Germans and forbade employment of German women under 45 in Jewish households. The second was the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of “German blood” could be Reich citizens. People who were Black, Romani, or Jewish were classified as state subjects without any citizenship rights.

A 1935 Gestapo report noted that the Nazi party would set in motion a solution to the "Jewish problem.” A government sponsored propaganda campaign resulted in a renewed wave of vandalism, assaults and boycotts against Jews by their Nazi neighbors.

By 1941, the Nazis started mass murders of Jews across Europe. By 1942, all Roma were ordered to be sent to concentration camps.

Today in the U.S., white nationalists aim to roll back the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. In addition to the more commonly known white nationalist groups such as the KKK and neo-Nazis, “white identitarian” groups like the American Identity Movement, Patriot Front, and American Freedom Party are recruiting followers. Their public rhetoric claims their aim is “pride" in their white European ancestry, but their internal messaging calls for an ethnic “cleansing” of non-whites from America. There’s only one way to create a white ethnostate in a pluralistic society. The Nazis knew what that goal required. Today’s white nationalists know what it requires.

Audio of "dapper" white nationalist Richard Spencer saying what he really thinks: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/11/4/20947833/richard-spencer-white-nationalism-audio-milo-alt-right

Recommended reading: Yale History Professor Timothy Snyder's book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century