Letters to the editor, Sept. 23, 2009

Media lackeys
I assume the letter by Kristen Lahner in the Sept. 16 Gazette was about Saturday’s (Sept. 12) Tea Party and wonder why the Gazette would ignore its letters policy and print a letter written after the noon Friday deadline.
I was at the Sequim Tea Party she describes and her description is without merit. Most of the signs were informative, thoughtful and creative. The people were polite, considerate, lawful, peaceful and friendly.
I didn’t see any signs or hear any comments regarding God and saw no “hatefulness on people’s faces.”
The people were there because they are very well-informed on current issues, love their country and see it being transformed for the worse. If some of the signs were a little abrasive, it’s because of the deep passion and understanding people have for the issues.
Kristen says “thoughtful dialog on all issues is crucial in a democracy ?” and I agree.  But “meaningful and thoughtful” dialog does not exist in Washington, D.C. 
Conservatives and others who respectfully disagree with the radical liberal policies being implemented by the president and Democrat party leadership are routinely vilified by them and their supporters. Democrat party leadership, the president and their lackeys in the mainstream media have called dissenters liars, Nazis, brown shirts, terrorists, bitter-clingers, racists and worse. Kristen called us an angry mob, ill-informed, absolute liars and destructive haters.
Words like those  are the last refuge of scoundrels who can’t debate with facts, reason or logic.
Really now, who is hateful?
Peter Heisel
Sequim

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Gazette has accepted a letters received after deadline
providing it had space for them. The deadline primarily is a tool to ensure sufficient space for each week’s letters.

Cut flowers, not cops
The one thing we have working effectively is our Sequim Police Department. Even with the past manpower reductions and other cost-saving methods, the Sequim Police Department has stepped up to still maintain as best it can.
I feel we are teetering on a fine line. Please do not further reduce our Sequim police manpower base. Supplemental overtime would be a financial catastrophe.
Much as I like our $25,000 flowers throughout downtown, I would rather see this and other types of noncrucial expense discontinue during this time or recession rather than to reduce the manpower base of our police department.
Paul Shager
Sequim
Editor’s note: The above letter was sent to Laura DuBois, Sequim’s mayor, and copied to the Sequim Gazette.


Better than a bailout
As a fellow SunLand resident, I share Mr. Warren’s concerns over the difficulties experienced by the SunLand Golf Association (Sequim Gazette, 9/16/09). However, in today’s bailout-weary environment, I think it may be time to take a new approach in helping organizations which are no longer economically viable.
The following are my suggestions as submitted to the golf association’s feedback forum:
■ First, make it a nine-hole course. Cutting back to nine holes would effectively slash the maintenance costs by 50 percent right off the bat.
■ Second, make three of the closed holes green parks. This would require only basic mowing and maintenance. Volunteer groups could be formed to build some benches, etc., and the areas would certainly become more “people-friendly.”
■ Third, build meandering walking/bike trails down the remaining six holes and plant native trees throughout these areas. Although my suggestion no doubt needs “tweaking,” I feel it will offer the following benefits —
■ The golf course can remain open (although smaller).
■ SunLand residents will receive immediate benefits from their support.
■ Property values will remain high (or even increase).
■ Residents no longer will have to walk in the street to get exercise.
■ The wooded trails will provide a tranquil environment for the neighborhood.
■ The green parks will be a great place for those with children to play.
■ Extensive common areas will help bring the community together as we meet and relax on the trails and in the parks.
Michael Gawley
Sequim

The importance of my vote

A pickpocket may steal my money but that is pelf compared to the value of my vote.
A vote is sacred, it is a part of me which I alone must have the right to control, ’else we have tyranny.
The value of every vote must be equal for every citizen regardless of where they may live and vote. The Electoral College cannot and never has given that result.
This must not be allowed to continue.
Presently, when votes for president are submitted to the local authority, they are counted and then sent to each state capital. The candidate with the most votes, regardless of whether it may be a plurality, will be credited with all the votes, in most states.
Thus, all the votes, regardless for whom they are cast, will receive all the assigned electoral votes. These votes are then sent to the president of the United State Senate, who collects all the electoral votes according to each  state to determine which candidate has the most electoral votes even though they may not be a plurality of the so-called popular vote.
Rather than turning the votes cast into electoral votes, it would be a simple procedure to just send all the votes directly to the Senate, separated, of course, by those for each candidate, and let each state do the same.
Thus the true value of each vote will be maintained and the results will be a more honest election.
Clint Jones
Sequim

Enough of Stoner

What a mess these Sequim City Council members have caused by their recent selection for city manager.
The final paperwork has not been signed after receiving additional information on him that could create possible
problems later while in office for both employee and city.
He has openly lied and not told the members things that could sway their current choice. Therefore, do not spend another minute, say goodbye to Mr. Stoner and select the right person to fill the position.
Carol Jordan
Sequim
Editor’s note: See story on Page A-1.

No hatred here

This is in regard to the “Why the anger?” letter that was printed in the Letters to the Editor in the Sequim Gazette of Sept. 16. 
In my opinion, the letter is insulting, totally preposterous nonsense and a totally inaccurate portrayal of the people who were involved in the demonstration. I do not understand why the Sequim Gazette bothered to print it.
I saw absolutely no “hatred on people’s faces that day” to quote the letter — but I did see quite a few U.S. flags, friendly, courteous people many of whom were dressed in red, white and blue, many carrying home-made signs that reflected a variety of concerns, smiling and waving.
I was one of them.
In talking to some of the people in the demonstration, I discovered that they were from no single organization or source, had heard about the demonstration from a variety of sources, that all of them were patriotic but concerned, and that many of them had served the country in some capacity in the past.
They were not “ill-informed people spread(ing) absolute lies,” to quote the letter again — but obviously very thoughtful and very well-informed. And, they were very well received by people in many of the cars that were driving by. 
C.V. Tondreau
Sequim