The Editor:
On behalf of the Blaine Winter Ride Ski Bus Program, we would like to sincerely thank Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District 2 for its generous support of our school ski bus program.
The winter ride program gives middle and high school students the opportunity to travel to Mt. Baker for four Saturdays each March to learn skiing and snowboarding while building confidence, healthy habits and lifelong outdoor recreation skills.
With rising transportation and fuel costs, school programs like this can become difficult to sustain. The support from parks and recreation helps keep this opportunity accessible for local students and ensures more youth can experience the physical, social and emotional benefits of outdoor recreation.
We are grateful for the district’s continued investment in the well-being of students and families in our community.
Jodi Greene, Blaine School District winter ride ski bus coordinator
Blaine
The Editor:
The nicest thing happened to us last week that reminded us there are still thoughtful people around. Five from our office went to lunch at Paso Del Norte, and when it was time to pay the check, we were told that another couple had paid for us. What a nice surprise. Thank you!
Sandie Miller, Whatcom Law Group
Blaine
The Editor:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
– Theodore Rosevelt’s “Citizenship in a Republic” speech, April 23, 1910, in Paris
Ray Pelletti
Blaine
(Editor’s note: This letter is in response to an article titled “Whatcom County candidates file for August primary” published in the May 14 issue of The Northern Light. The article stated Pelletti ran unsuccessfully for state representative in 2024. Pelletti filed to run for Washington’s Second Congressional District in the Aug. 4 primary and later withdrew his candidacy.)
The Editor:
Thank you Kari Mar for your unbiased article that provided facts both supporting the city and questioning it. We’ve needed such a perspective in our newspaper. Be a voice for the community, and not one only hawking city agenda.
Thank you Richard May for giving us the word “innocuous.” The appropriate word to have used though was pernicious. It is not harmless but toxic how the city has silenced residents, lacked vision and ignored process, code, environmental concerns and the hearing examiner.
Thank you Glen Pentland for your letter calling the city on its desperation. Blaine needs dependability in development, not desperation. As opposed to de-annexation of east Blaine, perhaps the city should have unincorporated. Be what we are — not a city but small town America.
Finally, I challenge Mr. Jansen as a sign of good faith with project approval, to build that beautiful clubhouse as pictured — first.
Ray Leone
Blaine
The Editor:
Gerrymandering is the intentional manipulation of electoral district boundaries to benefit one party over another. The conservative U.S. Supreme Court has manipulated the 1965 Voting Rights Act so that states may now create voting blocks that will include sufficient white voters to nullify the impact on elections by Black Americans and other minorities. However, there is one group that gerrymandering has no effect on and that’s women. They come in every color, race, religion, national background and they are everywhere.
Solution? Frightened Republicans are proposing that a voter’s last name must match their birth certificate. That would prevent as many as 70% of married women from voting if they changed their last name.
Wake up women, especially MAGA women. You’re about to lose your right to vote to an extremist patriarch national political party driven by Project 2025.
Farewell to Democracy and the Constitution.
What won’t they do to get elected?
Ron Snyder
Blaine
