Kudos to amazing Shipley Center

I just read the Shipley Newsletter and found 12 different exercise classes, 14 trips and tours, seven different game groups, six educational classes, five art groups, five sharing/support groups, and the best and healthiest Cafe in town!

Thanks to all who make these fun and important activities happen! We are very fortunate to have such a vibrant Center open to all!

Barb Paschal

Sequim

Support local theaters

We are blessed with opportunities to see live theater in our area. Sequim has Olympic Theatre Arts (OTA) and Ghostlight Productions, both of which are very good. “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and “Calendar Girls” at OTA and “Anastasia” and “9 to 5” about to close with superlative reviews at Ghostlight Productions are examples this year.

But not far from here in Port Townsend there are also two other venues — Key City Public Theatre and Saltfire Theatre — that produced “All in the Timing” and “The Taming of the Shrew,” which I saw recently, both outstanding.

Also consider going to the Jewel Box Theatre in Poulsbo and the Bremerton Community Theatre, a little further away.

You don’t have to go to Seattle to see professionally produced theater. Support your regional live theaters instead.

Roger Briggs

Sequim

A worthy cause

27 years ago my husband and I retired to Sequim. We were blessed to meet and make many new, wonderful friends and many are with me to this day.

Part of the cycle of life is that we all lose many treasured friends. Alzheimer’s disease has been the contributing factor in many of those deaths.

It is such a cruel disease as, in many cases, we lose the “person” before they lose their lives. A 2023 county-by-county study reported that there are 2,500 people living with Alzheimer’s in Clallam County.

Of course, this does not include all the people affected by each patient’s disease, such as the care takers, family and friends. Nationally, one in three seniors dies from Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

The yearly Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the world’s largest event whose purpose is to raise awareness and funds to support research and community outreach.

With the recent approval of new drugs we are now entering an era where treatment is becoming possible. It is now more important than ever to provide communities with information on access to the services and programs that are available; as well as support caregivers and patients through their journey.

I am joining participants of all ages in the fight against this disease at this year’s Walk on September 23, in Sequim at Carrie Blake Park. Learn more and join the Walk and/or donate to this worthy cause at: act.alz.org/nop.

I invite you to join my team or, better yet, grab some friends and start your own team.

Marsha Carr

Sequim

Fill in the blank

It’s amazing what one can learn if she reads a book.

Here, fill in the blanks (answers below):

“If leaders were unable to reform 1)____, reform had to seem impossible. If 2)_______ believed that all leaders and all media lied, then they would learn to dismiss 3)_____ models for themselves.”

The above quote in Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom,” an example of how he methodically lays down an historical foundation of facts about the invasion of Ukraine by Putin, has many connections to our own country.

“Russia’s 4)___-___ policies and invasion of Ukraine were a “new cold war” 5)____ spread by fascists and 6)_____-____ politicians on RT (Russian Television).”

In 2014, from Polish, Austrian, Hungarian, German fascists and Neo-Nazis, to Ron Paul’s contradictory Libertarianism, to Stephen Cohen, leftist writer for The Nation, the onslaught of disinformation about and justifications for invading Ukraine took on fantasies as stunning and heinous as Koschei the Immortal.

The Ukrainian people have persevered to be a free country during this last decade, as they have for the last century, against the opportunistic terror of Russia. People accursedly point the finger at them, yelling they have fascists, Neo-Nazi’s living in their country!

Yet, that “them, they and their” could easily be interchanged to mean 7) ___ ______ _______. Sinister, cunning people live everywhere.

We can’t stare blankly at this horrible atrocity but must continue to help Ukraine win.

Answers:

1) Russia, 2) Russians, 3) Western. (These days we could easily insert America, Americans, Western. )

4) anti-gay 5) meme 6) right-wing 7) the United States

Gayle Brauner

Port Angeles

Consider the environmental equity with EVs

With those of us that have internal combustion engines in our cars ultimately paying for the carbon credits that the refineries have to purchase, I wonder if we can look at environmental equity for a minute.

Electric vehicles (EVs) have a larger environmental impact to build compared to gas or diesel powered vehicles. Should there be a carbon credit purchased instead of government incentives to buy an EV?

You say in the long run, EVs have a smaller environmental footprint. Well, it varies depending on how your electricity is produced. Here in the Northwest, we have greener electricity. But if you charge your EV at night or when the wind isn’t blowing, you are using more hydro, coal or nuclear produced electricity.

Should you have to buy a carbon credit to charge your EV when “green power” is at a lull?

Fast charges on your EV shorten battery life, bringing the environmental impacts between gas and electric powered cars closer to each other. Should fast charges be required to purchase carbon credits?

These are all discussions we need to have to produce equitable environmental impacts. It is not as clear cut as “EV good, gas bad.”

Mark A. White

Port Angeles