The Editor:
The proposed “Golf Cart Zone” on Birch Bay Drive has the potential to cause serious safety hazards; I hope that the county council is astute enough to vote it down.
Birch Bay Drive, especially between Birch Point and Harborview, is not strictly a tourist zone, it is an important arterial road between home and work, school and shopping, for people who live in Birch Bay Village, Bay Ridge, and other homes on and off Birch Bay Drive.
All of Birch Bay Drive is a “no passing” zone and in many places the shoulder is too narrow to fully accommodate a golf cart; the interaction of commuter traffic and golf carts would be inevitable resulting in vehicular traffic being held up, or would force drivers to cross a double solid line into oncoming traffic in order to pass.
If a golf cart overtakes a pedestrian or bicycle rider, they would be forced further into the traffic lane leading to more dangerous interaction with vehicular traffic.
Even without golf carts, this road is already quite dangerous for pedestrians and bikers, especially children; and with the new Birch Bay Beach Park, the chamber is already gearing up to attract many more visitors to the area. It makes no sense to add to the congestion hazards by introducing golf carts into the mix.
Linda Cain
Blaine
The Editor:
Thank you for keeping the Blaine and surrounding communities informed of what is happening with the Healthy Youth Coalition. Your articles and photographs published in The Northern Light keep our hard work visible and as a community we can be aware of what has been accomplished since January 2018.
Please continue to follow our progress as we strive to provide opportunities for teens.
Jesse Creydt, Healthy Youth Coalition
Blaine
The Editor:
For the past 13 years, local three- and four-year olds in our community have had the opportunity to share in learning with Miss Michelle at Grace Lutheran Preschool. Recently she announced her desire to spend more time with her family.
It’s hard to believe that some of her past students are now teenagers, while others have just completed their first sessions of ABCs and sign language in her classroom. Parents have cherished, over the years, the arts and crafts projects made by little hands and carefully preserved them. Both parents and students will remember some of the rhyming songs for many years to come. Preschool is truly the stuff of which special memories are made!
In recognition of Miss Michelle and to thank her for the years of wonderful times shared together, past and current students and their families are invited to attend our church service on Sunday, May 27 at 10:30 a.m. Following the service, we will hold a reception in the fellowship hall. Please feel free to bring a card and include a message that includes a note about a special preschool memory.
If you would like more information about this event please call 360/332-6589.
We hope you will join us.
Larry Van Wanseele, director
Grace Lutheran Preschool
The Editor:
I have been perplexed by former President Obama’s goal to “fundamentally change” the United States of America. During the most recent presidential campaign, Mrs. Obama, talking about Republicans, suggested that when they go low, we go high. She must have vertical dyslexia.
The biased media continue to demonize our president, degrade his family, his employees, and those who are pro-Trump. Are they so involved in hating, they will try anything to destroy the President? If a person only listens to, watches or reads liberal media, they must be disgusted by now.
Behavior toward our president, our country, and its citizens is by many, demonstrated with protest and hate speech. Political correctness has become a movement of resistance to free speech, press, and religion, among others, and encourages victimization and division. Modeling and encouraging behaviors such as compassion, honesty, love, tolerance, appreciation for difference of opinion, and embracing our freedoms makes America the great nation that it is. Do I think President Trump always displays appropriate behaviors? No. He was elected because of his policies. He is a pragmatist – an outsider – not a politician. His objective is to get things done, not necessarily to address a political agenda.
In America, we have the privilege of being able to vote for the candidate of our choice. The one we pick may not always win. If we feel our elected politicians are doing a good job for our country, we have the ability to re-elect them. If we feel they do not, we can vote them out.
Susan Werner
Blaine
The Editor:
There is a saying, “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.” Numbers manipulated in certain ways tell stories different from reality. The stock market goes up and, “We are doing great economically, trust us.” In reality, it means great profits, but for many Americans, it means the loss of jobs due to buy-outs, higher housing costs, less health care, an extra job to make ends meet, financial insecurity and hunger.
Protecting the capital flow of the few means that while employment figures are up, the quality of jobs and living wages are down or stagnant. The number of housing starts are up, but the affordability is down resulting in a part of our homeless situation.
How does one cope when some interpreters of figures have a specific agenda in mind while being blind or willfully ignoring the reality of the national economic condition?
After 9/11, we were told that a certain amount of disinformation would protect our national security. We are now apparently so used to disinformation from all sources that truly false news is accepted as fact and some “news” is is actual trivia yet over focused on, while consequential news is ignored or devalued.
It takes energy and thought to work through information, but our national, social, and indeed even personal survival depends on citizens looking at the figures and acting on reality.
Donna Starr
Blaine
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