Kudos to community
Thank you to everyone who supported the 2024 Music in the Park series and Music Where You Bark Day event. Rain, shine, windy, hot or cold, you joined us to enjoy the live music and camaraderie that Sequim is famous for.
We hope to see you for the upcoming Music in the Park Concerts at Carrie Blake Park in 2025!
Susan Sorensen
KSQM Public Relations
Sequim
The many faces of Kamala
It’s time to play another fun game of “but then,” featuring our favorite would-be President Kamala Harris.
Let’s remember that September 2019 town hall event where she said, “There is no question that I’m in favor of banning fracking” (washingtonexaminer.com, Sept. 4, 2019) but then, in August 2020, claimed that she “would not” (Reuters, Aug. 29, 2020) ban fracking thereby “frack-turing ” her own position.
Then, in June 2020, she wanted to defund the police (cnn.com, July 26, 2024) calling for a re-direction of resources from police departments and re-imagining public safety, but then, in August 2024, her spokesman “walked it back”(cnn.com August 2024) on her behalf. Perhaps the appropriate footwear for “walking back” may be flip-flops.
Not to mention her unbridled support for electric vehicle mandates which would require two thirds of all cars and trucks to be electric by 2032 (alliancetimes.com, Sept. 11, 2024) but then, in August 2024, she announced that she is now opposed to such mandates (allsides.com, Aug. 27, 2024).
No longer needing to “walk back” her ideas, she can now “drive ‘em back” and driving a gas-powered vehicle if she wishes.
Lastly, don’t forget her shifting stance on gun “buy back” programs whereby she said “It’s mandatory,” but then said “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away. So, stop with the continuous lying about this stuff” (nraila.org, Sept. 16, 2024). Looks like she simultaneously shot down her own position while shooting herself in the foot.
You gotta’ admire the thoroughness and thoughtfulness Kamala brings to bear when developing her positions.
She looks at both sides of a question, evaluates both viewpoints, and then speaks out of both sides of her mouth.
Dick Pilling
Port Angeles
Choose freedom
American women have a choice to make this Presidential election year — whether to protect our rights and expand them more for all women, or to unleash the terror of persecution and subjugation onto women who choose self-determination.
Choices: Ensuring easy access to affordable, quality abortion health care. Or demanding punishment, like imprisonment, of sexually active women, whether married, partnered, single with (or without) cats, or innocent, vulnerable children, who are faced with terminating an unwanted, or non-viable pregnancy (“Trump Says States Could Prosecute Women for Abortions Under His Watch,” motherjones.com, April 30, 2024).
Living a cheerful, secure life. Or a vote cast, which, I think, will unleash disparaging harassment, rape, incest, domestic violence, sex trafficking — cruel attempts to possess and abuse the mind and body of any woman or girl at whim by brutish men.
Honoring women’s personal goals, supporting her private path, no matter her race, beliefs, age, social status. Or clobbering any woman who won’t assume subservient behavior, required by religious fundamentalists and ultraconservative ideologues who insist that every woman bears a farcical demeanor of radiant acquiescence.
The naked truth is millions of women stand by the racism and double-dealings of Trump, spotlighting their cooperation with menace. Your race doesn’t make you special, but rather the qualities of being a decent human do.
This year, choosing Kamala Harris as our next President will preserve our voting rights, our democratic principles, and strengthen opportunities for all women and girls to succeed, be safe, to bask in freedom.
Gayle Brauner
Port Angeles
