Save the farm

I just wrote out a check to the North Olympic Land Trust to help preserve forever the Historic Ward Farm that has been in continuous production since 1858. Think about that, folks: 1858. That is three years before the first shot was fired in the Civil War.

According to a story in the Sequim Gazette, William Ward was 12, aboard an English windjammer when he jumped ship in Port Townsend and later acquired the piece of land that stretched along the west bank of the Dungeness River. Ward dug his first well on the farm that same year and it is still pumping even in the midst of a terrible drought like we had last year. Just sample the carrots or Swiss chard that Nash Huber and his partners grow on the farm now. They are sweet and delectable!

They also grow, kale, beets, cabbage, oats and wheat. A few days ago, a thrashing machine rolled through a lush stand of quinoa, one of the most nutritious grains in existence.

I admit I am biased. I grew up on this farm and remember helping my dad milk our 100 cows twice daily back in the 1950s.

Nothing is more precious than our farmland, 70 percent of it lost to the real estate market. The North Olympic Land Trust has spearheaded the grassroots movement to preserve farmland in Clallam County.

As those bumper stickers say, “No Farms, No Food!” Contribute what you can to save the Historic Ward Farm!

Tim Wheeler

Sequim

Election more than a personality contest

I believe the media in their presentation of the presidential candidates is doing us a great disservice. There has been so much discussion of personality and we can be left thinking that the election is a popularity contest akin to choosing Homecoming royalty.

Let’s be sure that we are looking at the bigger picture. There are enormous issues at stake here, the future of our planet being at the top of my list.

I want to know that the new president will support climate change agreements, sign renewable energy standards, make sure that vulnerable members of our society, including the elderly and immigrants, are fairly treated and that our relations with other countries bring the world family closer to agreements that support peaceful solutions and not into a new version of nationalism.

There are things about Hillary Clinton that I question, but I will vote for her. The stakes are just too high.

Carol von Borstel

Sequim

System has been corrupted

Lost in the “basket of deplorables” remark by Hillary Clinton was her stated preface that it would be “grossly generalistic.” It was.

Those who profess to wear “pejorative labels” as a badge of honor while disparaging minorities lends credence to the basket.

So, too, does demonizing those who gave voice to the masses and helped educate women during their reproductive years irrespective of the aggregate of evangelicals whose credo is that life begins at conception and ends at birth only to rise again at draft age.

What gets short shrift, however, are riders or poison pills often inserted in bills which stagnates progress resulting in filibusters and the obstructionism we have endured throughout the Obama Presidency.

For example: HR 2577 mixes the Confederate flag with Planned Parenthood and the Zika virus.

This is anathema to democracy and the elected servants sworn to represent us, not lobbyists, political action committees and special interests. All were given carte blanche by a Supreme Court that gave rise to Citizens United and all but crippled dissent.

Yes, the system is rigged, but worse, it has been corrupted.

Roger Huntman

Sequim

Where we lost our way

Some readers, especially those on the left, will find this to be a harsh letter.

I have been around for a long time, I don’t claim to be your eldest reader but I’m up there — in that time I’ve made many observations and a few conclusions — my latest conclusion is this.

The vast, vast majority of United States citizens are God-respecting, hard-working, country- and family-oriented individuals that for some reason have been snookered into believing that the collective minorities of the United States population deserve special rights.

The reason for this is the hegemony of the liberal ideology shoved down our throats by national and state governments.

We have been informed that God is no longer welcome in the national discourse, that the founders of this great country were nothing but white, racist slave owners not worthy of our esteem and that the new motto of the United States is based upon global multiculturalism.

Not too many years ago the outright thuggery that has been occurring in Charlotte, N.C., would not have been tolerated for 10 minutes, I can remember seeing signs stating “Looters will be shot” in front of store fronts damaged by natural disaster (in those days, rioting was not permitted).

It is time for the majority to take our American culture back from those who would change it into a Third World swamp.

There are devices in existence for demonstrating protest, they are the town hall, the ballot box, the press and petition.

Not included is shutting down city streets and burning and looting businesses.

There is nothing in the First Amendment of the Constitution that permits this behavior.

Outright violence should be put down forcefully as soon as it occurs and those engaging in it incarcerated.

Ethan Harris

Sequim