Letters to the editor, June 17, 2009

Limit your letters
The Sequim Gazette welcomes Letters to the Editor as one of the most cherished exercises of freedom of the press.
The letters have grown livelier throughout this year. However, they also have grown longer.
In the interest of presenting as many points of view as possible, we ask that starting July 1 writers limit their letters to 250 words or less.
Longer letters will be subject to editing to shorten them.

Lights on,
but nobody home
When we moved to the beautiful community of Gardiner years ago, we assumed we had great emergency services because we had the firehouse right down the street.
Imagine our shock when we found out that our volunteer fire department was in desperate need of volunteers and that to provide even limited response to medical emergency calls, the local fire department has had to contract with Port Ludlow or Quilcene.
The residents of Gardiner often have to wait 30 minutes or more for help in an emergency.
Something has to be done. The first hour of an medical emergency is called the “golden hour.” We must have consistent, closer, faster response times if we hope to survive our emergency. The truth be told, we are no spring chickens out here in this community and the efforts to sign up more volunteers is not an option.
There will be a meeting at the Gardiner Community Center on June 17 and June 25 at 7 p.m. to discuss the options. Please plan to attend and let’s work together to get the ball rolling to ensure Gardiner residents will have full-time, professional staff assuring our level of safety.
Unfortunately, here in Gardiner, we have found ourselves in a very scary position at our fire station where “the lights are on, but nobody is home.”
Wendell and Cindy Paulson
Gardiner

A challenge to
local newspapers
In order to change the perception of many people within our community and to enhance the exposure of our students’ successes in our school district, I believe it is time to change the way our local newspapers place information on the front pages of their editions. It is time to ask them to commit to establishing a priority of placing education successes in front of their readers.
Examples: Monday-Saturday June 1-5/6 editions: Peninsula Daily News —
Police capture dog, Twilight, County funds stolen, 18 file for public positions, East meets west (bridge testing), Layoff notices, Hood Canal bridge opens, Clallam worker placed on leave, Business as usual on bridge. June 2: Sequim Gazette — Marunde moving on.
All of the above are important to our community but what if the focus of education successes were placed as important if not more than some of this. 
What about a headline “SHS junior wins national science award”? It was a great article in the Sequim Gazette about Marley Ireland and it was in the lower corner of the front page but why is it not a headline?
(The week of June 1) alone the Sequim students reached incredible heights of achievement — Monday, a joint choir concert with PAHS that was outstanding; Wednesday, a three-hour scholarship night where $2.4 million was given out to 104 of our graduates; or a senior assembly on Friday that honored incredible successes and provided outstanding music by our senior jazz band and choir, plus a rousing fundraiser and country dinner at SCC for our swing choir.
What about the two seniors who have
received full-ride, four-year scholarships to Yale and to Notre Dame? For the first time, our middle school ran student-led conferences for their parents, on Wednesday (each student must put together a comprehensive portfolio of his/her work and present it). Our elementaries also held several student honoring activities during this week.
Yes, this week was a stronger showing because of graduation, seniors and end-of-the-year activities but could not one of them have been a headline?
I do know that the district is asked to send in weekly information about our students, but do either of our papers have a reporter who seeks out information? How can we change the way headlines are chosen to occasionally have student success a higher priority than negative acts of society?
I challenge the papers of our community to use student success stories of Port Angeles and Sequim as a headline at least a couple of times in the months to come.
Readers, what do you think?
Beverly Horan
Sequim school board

Generosity at its best
People and their generosity — of time, effort and money — are the stunning examples of what make this country so great. So many times when life is chugging along and we are focused on the details of everyday living, we forget about the people who put their lives on the line just for us.
I’m referring to our “first responders” — law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel. When one of them is killed in the line of duty, we are forced to sit up and take notice.
Sadly, last year we lost three such individuals in our state: Nelson Ng, Ellensburg Police Department; Anne Jackson, Skagit County Sheriff’s Office; and Kristine Fairbanks, National Forest Service Law Enforcement Division.
One of your own law enforcement officers, Kristine Fairbanks who grew up in Port Angeles, lost her life in the line of duty last September. Officer Fairbanks did not come to you from a vacuum. She came from a family; she had a family of her own; she had co-workers; she had friends. And they all suffer grief from her death. She left a vacancy in the lives of many people. And that is where this story about generosity comes into play.
Enter Teri Price of Port Angeles, the wife of a retired Washington State Patrol officer. She decided to do something for all the families of officers who lost their lives in the line of duty by raising money running the Boston Marathon (with Michele D’Hemecourt) in Kristine Fairbanks’ memory. And she donated this money to the Washington Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors. WOW!
These donated funds go directly to helping Washington state surviving family members of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty attend national and local peer and professional support events such as National Police Week in Washington, D.C., special retreats, as well as Kids Camp and Outward Bound for the officers’ children. These programs are designed to help the families and co-workers deal with the traumas of law enforcement death. They mean the difference between being a poorly-functioning victim and being a true survivor.
This last month alone we sent 23 family members (17 whose loss was in 2008) to National Police Week.
So to all of you who contributed to Teri Price’s fabulous Boston Marathon fundraising efforts, I say, “Thank you from all of us in the community of law enforcement survivors!”
For a list of those who so generously donated to this wonderful pledge drive, please go to the Web site www.krisfairbanks.org.
Note: May 15 is National Law Enforcement Day. Flags of the United States of America are flown at half staff on that day to honor all the law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty. Next year, and every year, please fly your U.S. flags at half staff on that day in honor of one of your (and my) own.
Eugene Secor
Surviving father
President, Washington Chapter
Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS)
Greenbank

Shameful legislation
Rarely do I bother a legislator over a personal gripe ? but it regards those converter coupons “that had an expiration date.” I sent this off to our legislators:
What a dumb legislation! Why? In my own case, perhaps I was job hunting in another state. Perhaps I was sick. Whatever!
I finally pull those babies out and find they came with an expiration date, on the card only, not shown on the letterhead they are attached to.
Now I cannot use them or apply for new ones. This is not fair. When we switched to color TVs, our black and whites still worked until we bought a new color TV. Under this mandated transition, many people have been eliminated from receiving TV signals, which sometimes even includes news and information.
I suspect this federal mandate is going to disenfranchise a lot of lower-income people or people that simply could not even negotiate the method needed to obtain these coupons. The rich have their Tivo, cable and dish systems. The rest of the rabbit-ear population is screwed.
Please add the issue that some higher quality boxes such as the Zenith or RCA DTABOOB1 were not available when I checked on them. Poorer quality ones like Apex were available.
Why have federal laws about the expiration issues of prepaid store cards then issue an expiring one yourself?
For shame!
Herb Senft
Sequim

Ploys and artifices
This responds to Roy Wilson’s June 10 letter. As I expressed in my letter that same day, Wilson is the person with his ideas tied to emotions, not me. His assertion that he draws conclusions from facts is laughable.
Wilson apparently fancies himself a skilled debater because he’s inclined to use one of the oldest tricks in that book — when you can’t deal with a subject, change the subject. Another ploy he likes to use is — answer a question with a question of your own. And, if all those fail, then — just muddy the waters.
He uses all of these artifices in his June 10 letter but never answers any of the questions I posed in my June 3 letter — zero, nada. Instead, he dwells on some tired old Democrat talking points like: Blame Reagan, blame Bush I, blame Bush II, blame anyone but a Democrat.
What he didn’t say was that Reagan and Bush I had Democrat Congresses that promised to cut spending with tax cuts, but guess what? They didn’t. He neglects to tell you that the only reason for Clinton’s balanced budget was a Republican Congress and the Contract with America.
Admittedly, 9/11/2001 had something to do with Bush II’s budget escalations, as did the Republican Congress falsely believing they had to act like Democrats to be re-elected.
By the way, Roy, “we” didn’t elect this government, you did. Also, congratulations to Douglas Wolf for a great letter.
Don Boensel
Sequim