Makin’ a list

Dear Editor

Here is my Holiday card to my community.

This past year has held many challenges for me but like most of us I want to say thank you for these blessings which have given me more courage to keep moving forward with hope.

So on this holiday season I am thankful for the sunlight which suddenly appears after days of rain and gray skies.

For my kind neighbors who surprise me with chocolate chip cookies and peanut brittle, butterscotch drops.

Cards in my mailbox stamped with Santa Claus faces, candy canes and the pines and cedars all scenting my rooms.

My faithful old dog rising in the morning, wagging her tail still here, still here after all these years.

The music in the woods, the Hanukkah candles, the Christmas trees and bright lights at night on porches.

These delights in December remind me to keep looking up at the skies and never to give up hope for more peace in our world, beginning right here in Port Townsend, a place where each of us can change the inner landscape by our daily actions.

For the beauty of the Salish Sea and the sacred spaces each of us find to embrace the wonder all around us.

I say thank you!

Nan Toby Tyrrell

Burgled

Dear Editor:

As you may have already heard through the grapevine, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center’s museum building (on shore next to the Canteen) was broken into overnight on December 11. When the first PTMSC staff people arrived at Fort Worden the next morning, they found that an intruder or intruders broke in through a back window and stole a number of valuable items including two microscopes, computers, and a recently donated underwater drone. In the process of removing these items (and presumably looking for cash), they damaged and defaced a number of exhibits and educational spaces, leaving a huge mess.

Needless to say, we are all feeling shaken and disturbed by this crime. The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is a place that is dedicated to curiosity, learning, wonder, and exploration; it is not a place where we expect to be targeted for robbery and destruction.

The Fort Worden State Park Rangers, Dave Bowen and Jheison Chinchilla, have been very helpful and they encourage everyone to keep their eyes out for any information and to contact their office if you know anything at 360-228-5764. The Port Townsend Police have been assisting State Park Rangers with the case. We were very impressed with the care, concern and professionalism shown by all the responding authorities and are deeply grateful for their help and assistance.

Many thanks to everyone who helped clean-up and make the exhibits presentable again.

We appreciate all the support from the community and know that we will overcome this set-back.

Diane Quinn, Executive Director

Home

Dear Editor,

I thought it interesting that the article on the PT USPS looking for workers (Dec. 6th) mentioned neither housing prices in Port Townsend nor the average salary for a postal carrier. The average house price in Jefferson County was, last I saw, $611,000 (this paper, October 18, 2023), and the average salary for a postal carrier, from what I can find online, seems to be in the $40,000-$54,000 range. A mortgage on a $611,000 house (with a 20% downpayment of over $120,000!) comes out to about $50,000 a year - a postal carrier's entire salary.

I grew up in Port Townsend. If I wanted to move back to my hometown with my family and be a postal carrier, where would I live? Would I be expected to work 3 or 4 full-time postal carrier jobs simultaneously? Plus somehow come up with $120,000 for a down payment?

This is the price of not having the political will to provide affordable housing - the working people we rely on to run society can't stay (or move in), and society begins to fray at the edges.

Thanks!

Kristian Brevik

Hearth and home

Dear Editor:

As I look forward to spending time with family and friends over the holidays I'm reminded of the beautiful surroundings I grew up in. It makes me sad to think that my grandkids might not have the same environment if we are unable to stop the rising temperatures of our world.

If there was ever a time to work together, now is it. Let's stop global warming.

Sincerely,

Mark Norelius

Bellevue

Recipe for democracy

Dear Editor:

I agree with the Leader editorial last week that portrayed various hammers hanging over our heads and the vacuous screed of the Republican congresswoman's witless attack on Penn President, Liz MacGill.

A more complete picture will also recall the (expletive) show played out in congress earlier this summer by Democrats Wasserman-Shultz and Plaskett in the congressional censorship hearings during testimony offered by RFK Jr. and journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger.

A more complete picture might also suggest a possible fix:

The problem is not one of political party but one of institutional power! Our government is run by a uniparty, an established institution that succeeds in maximizing benefit for itself regardless of the cost to the rest of us or our future! And we no longer have access to this government to any significant degree other than the fact that we pay for it! No news there!

A couple of examples of this; some 60-70% of the US (and global) population is calling for an immediate halt to the horror in Gaza but only 5% of Congress reflects this! In addition, we see almost daily in the news, our leaders repeatedly toying with the lunacy of nuclear engagement! Do either of these sentiments accurately portray the needs or wishes of the general citizenry?

Any fix to our problems will require exploration of some alternative form of government, a strong democracy dedicated to its citizenry.   

What sort of government would guarantee such dedication? One which is itself composed of the very citizenry it seeks to benefit, a Direct Democracy!

If you believe a direct democracy would be unworkable, ask yourself how our present representative government has worked, and then consider an observation attributed to Jean-Jacques Rousseau that electing  someone to represent oneself is tantamount to selling oneself into bondage!

In order to save ourselves, we have to govern ourselves! Imagine what such a government would look like!

It would require personal and individual overhaul for all of us starting with attention to how we relate and communicate. We would be forced to communicate and deliberate among ourselves constantly to come to an understanding of what works for sustained coexistence. If it were to work properly, it would require unimagined attention to truth and awareness and the flexibility to change with new information. It would demand real goods from our truth-tellers and information sources rather than the nonsense we currently are fed. And it would require elimination of the golden trough that feeds our present governmental dystopia and constant vigilance to insure this remains fact!

What could possibly be more exciting!

Norm Norton

Disappointed

Dear Editor:

Following Mayor Faber’s actions at the City Council meeting on December 11 regarding the Golf Park lease, I sent an email to Mr. Faber the next day to notify him that I was changing attorneys to represent my family.  In a subsequent phone call, Mr. Faber proceeded to lay out the excuse that, even though he received the Council packet on Friday afternoon, he was unable to read the staff recommendation for the golf park lease until just before the meeting on Monday, citing “a fire hose of information coming at him” that he had to deal with. It was astounding and revealing to hear that he had not made the time to thoroughly review such a critical proposal affecting our city. Mr. Faber is an attorney. Is that how he represents his clients?  As a former mayor of this City, it is unconscionable that the mayor of our community would show up to a city council meeting not being fully prepared. As a result of his negligence, he led a circus of an exchange on the council floor asking the Friends to renegotiate lease terms on the spot during the meeting. He could have made a courtesy call in the afternoon and I’m sure the Friends would have met to work out acceptable language. His approach was arrogant and challenging so I must question his leadership and his fitness to represent the city as our mayor.

While I am not a board member of the Friends of Port Townsend Golf Park, I fully support their mission and know many of the committed individuals who have worked hard to come up with a win/win solution with the city. As a result of not doing his homework and firing off last-minute objections to the wording in the lease, Mr. Faber created distrust and almost sabotaged the deal. Negotiating lease terms with the Friends at the last minute, after staff had worked diligently to address all the Council’s concerns from the previous meeting, in front of the public in the meeting is beyond the limits of fair play and decorum. As Mayor, he has the duty to work with city staff to resolve his issues ahead of time. Mayor Faber single-handedly nearly destroyed 3 months of hard work and trust that was developed between the Friends and city staff. That the Friends are still in the game says a lot about how important this precious public property is to the community.

Respect is earned. Mr. Faber lost mine and he lost a client.

Former Mayor, Brent Shirley

For shame

Editor:

I served two terms on City Council. We addressed many issues critical to our community and solved many problems. We all worked hard to support staff and respond respectfully to citizens. In retrospect, I believe the most important thing we ever did was to listen to one and all. Mayor Faber and our city council have decided that the citizens who come before them have 30 minutes of Council’s time per meeting, even on controversial issues. I was shocked and dismayed that the Mayor did not allow the Friends group to make a presentation on their thoughtful Golf Park proposal and lease or to answer follow-up questions or concerns from council members. More shocking was the Mayor holding his comments until after the public comment period and at the end of other council members discussion and then changing the term of the lease from potential future development of “affordable” housing to market rate housing. This was a blatant misuse of his position and public process. Shameful.

Sheila Westerman

Wrong way

Dear Editor:

I will start by saying that I was in favor of the round-about by Penny Saver. I knew it was spearheaded by the State since that intersection is on Highway 20. But, I have had two scary events the first times I drove around it.

One was in the evening at dusk and with some rain, I couldn’t tell exactly where to drive. The light colored brick and the concrete colors melded together and there is no curb to guide.

Another time, I thought since Water Street and Sims are both part of Highway 20, that this part of the road would have the right-of-way. But, a truck coming from Washington Street on my left took it and nearly got me. When I checked it out later, I still couldn’t tell if anyone has the right-of-way.

I would love to see a printed overhead map of the intersection showing who has what.

Sally  Robbins

Excellence/error

Dear Editor:

Thank you, Kirk, for the well-written article about our Woman of Excellence award recipient, Zhaleh Almaee. 

Please note an error on our end, not the Leader's: Her nomination listed her last name as Weinblatt, but she is best known by her maiden name, Almaee.

We appreciate the work you do, recognizing amazing women here in Jefferson County.

Katherine DeForest Evans

Chimacum

End is near

Dear Editor:

The past two weeks I was fortunate enough to witness water safety classes for 2nd graders at the pool. For the first time since the pandemic these lessons will be provided again for Salish Coast students from 3rd grade to pre-school. While written into the lease with the YMCA (the Mountain View campus is owned by the PT School District) it's taken a huge lift by Principal Lisa, Y-staff, teachers and volunteers to get this up and running again.

It was pure joy (with the exception of the change room portion, that was largely pure noise). On day one for most kids, there was uncontainable excitement. Some kids could string a handful of strokes together. The overzealousness of many, however, was immediately apparent as they entered the water, their smiling faces were semi-submerged, tending more towards the sinking end of swimming (please note qualified lifeguards/swim instructors were present at all times). For a handful of others there was understandable trepidation, having not been to the pool before, preferring to sit on the edge or hold onto the wall. But little by little, what a difference those six sessions made to the confidence and safety of those kids. One moment stands out - a fleeting minute when the water skills, team rescue drills and cannonballing paused.

Instead the kids were quietly floating on their backs enjoying the bliss of accomplishment, independence and weightlessness - what a rich few hours of learning.

However, our 60-year old pool is at the end of its life-span and any day we could have no public pool at all. Please don’t wait for it to fail before our county comes together to build a new pool. Action and investment is needed now to serve our kids, community, and importantly, to extend these classes to all county schools districts.

Kate Chadwick

Only constant

Dear Editor:

What an excellent editorial in the December 13 issue of The Leader. In my twenty years here in Port Townsend I have never read such a beautiful piece of writing in the Leader. You are right that the world is changing. A new world is getting born and like all births, there will be pain and joy. You have lifted our vision from this "Liberal corner of our Liberal state" to peak into what is happening in the wider world. Thank you.

Mercedita del Valle