Letters to the editor, Feb. 11, 2009

Vibrant living, exciting events
I admit that I tend to read the news online and I want to applaud the Sequim Gazette on adding more content to the home page. But most of all, I really like seeing the photos of kids’ activities and events up front and center.
The Sequim School District has almost 3,000 students enrolled. The sports courts and fields of Sequim are filled to capacity and beyond with young people living out their early lives in this town. Sequim’s kids are engaged in healthy and positive activities, growing in their talents, hobbies, respective faiths and contributing so much to make Sequim a great place to live. 
For instance, last night was “Math Night” at Greywolf Elementary School. There were hundreds of people including students, parents and teachers crammed into the gym to play math games and celebrate learning. The PTA served the best chocolate sundaes — great photo opportunities were everywhere.
I really hope that the Sequim Gazette will continue to give more coverage to the amazing youth of this community. Kids make great news any day of the week.
I know that I would be far more likely to purchase a weekly paper focusing more on the positive stories about vibrant living and exciting, upcoming events. Way to go, Sequim Gazette. Keep it up!
Laura MacMurchie
Sequim

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Restore the sanity
We enjoyed all the letters to the editor in the Feb. 4, 2009, edition of the Sequim Gazette  and would like to say a big “thank you” to all the writers.
Each one of them expressed our feelings far better than we would be able to.
An extra special thanks to Woody Wixon for sending in the best letter pertaining to our lifetime that either of us has ever read.
Both of us were born in the 1920s and grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This was a time so different from any since then that people born after 1945 can’t imagine what it was like.
Jobs for ordinary people, what few there were, usually paid $30 a month with no fringe benefits or job security and no medical benefits. People used home remedies and went to the doctor only for life-threatening emergencies.
Everyone was very naive about the times and we didn’t know we were poor because no one ever told us. We didn’t lock our houses or cars because most people were honest and respected other peoples’ property. Everything was made in American and everyone was patriotic and proud to be American.
The American cars looked like cars and you could look at one coming down the street and tell what make, year and model it was. Men tried to look like men and had the pride to dress neat and keep themselves physically fit. Girls and women tried to make themselves as pretty as they could in looks and dress and you could tell them from the boys when you met them on the street.
This was a time when we could go to a movie without seeing a lot of graphic sex and violence and listening to a barrage of obscene words. Even after television was first introduced, we had good family-friendly programs.
Starting with the decade of the 1960s, all that changed.
All we can hope is that sanity will come back to our society soon, before we completely collapse into a third-world nation.
Sid and Evelyn Olsen
Sequim