Letters to the Editor

The Editor:
As we sit upon our aching bones, should we as homo sapiens be in pain? Let’s take stock of what really is happening. Practically everything that we consume has been manipulated by our mad scientists.
Do you really pay attention to what you purchase? Do you notice how blemish free our produce looks? One can hardly find produce that has not been manipulated. Remember when you could pick an apple from a tree that had not been sprayed. If you found a perfect one, you were ecstatic, hoping that there wasn’t a worm inside. All of these sprays for things that the layman cannot comprehend are putting the pain into our body!
Change the subject and let’s visit Asia, as well as our neighboring states from where we get a tremendous amount of help gathering our food.
How many are exposed to severe poisoning and handle food with unwashed hands? To be more exact, just how many of our medical personnel pay any attention to good ol’ hygiene?
Switch tracks to Vietnam. Pray tell, just how many of our vets are suffering from the agents sprayed in defoliation? Just 10 parts per million can cause a breakdown in our body.
J.P. Tom Thompson
Blaine

The Editor:
I was dismayed to read the account of the April 10 council meeting discussion of the potential sister city relationship between Blaine and Pugwash, Nova Scotia. What to me is an eminently fine idea can’t even muster a second. That is astonishing. And the reasons for it are even more astonishing because it is “controversial.” There are many things in Blaine which are controversial, if one’s definition of the word is that not everyone agrees with them. I cite as examples the boardwalk and the guns outside city hall. I support one and not the other, council supported both.
I am somewhat heartened that council has not closed the door on the sister city proposal and urge each member to give it his or her serious consideration. We are ‘the city of peace,’ we have many different understandings of how to reach the worldwide peace we all desire.
Every little step we can take through building connections with others who share that vision, to providing forums where people of differing viewpoints can discuss their ideas helps in achieving the goal of peace for our world.
For those who argue that this is a private matter, I would suggest that it is not private when men, women and children around the world are injured or killed every day because we seem incapable of finding non-violent ways of resolving our disagreements. Let Blaine assume a leadership role in the struggle for peace.
Twinning with Pugwash, Nova Scotia would be a good start.
Helen Worley
Blaine

The Editor:
This is the time of year as I write checks to my federal and local governments that I really would like elected representatives to understand don’t promise to do everything with my money.
In talking and listening to Craig Mayberry, I think he understands that state government spending is way out of line and he would like the opportunity to prove more and more feel good spending is not the best use of our tax dollars.
Mayberry has the education and leadership skills to make a much needed change in financial decisions in Olympia.
Elinor King
Ferndale
The Editor:
All of us here at Stafholt Good Samaritan Center wish to thank the community of Blaine for such a wonderful turnout to our first community Easter egg hunt. We feel fortunate to be able to give something back to our community and especially the children.
I personally also want to thank Reverend Don Walter for reading the Easter story to the children. Our goal was to bring the (Christian) reason for Easter to kids in a way that they could understand and Reverend Walter was the perfect man for the job.
I also want to thank our administrator, Wayne Weinschenk, for his full support of the program and all of his help, to Laurie Hart, Daphne Butcher, Marsha Hawkins, Jan Fenske and Melissa Young for their dedication to the idea and their help and leadership, and to Claudia Rouse who could not be with us on the day of the program, but who was a great help with the original planning.
Once again, thank you to every daddy, mommy, grandma, grandpa and aunt or uncle who brought all of these children to be with us on April 15. We had a good time and it is our prayer that you all did too.
See you next year!
Ginger Perez, activity director
Stafholt Good Samaritan Center
Blaine

The Editor:
Pugwash is a village in Nova Scotia that is proud to have hosted the first Peace Conference in the ‘50s composed of such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Max Born, Bertrand Russell, etc.
Out of this came the Russell-Einstein manifesto which called for an end to nuclear armament. These scientists knew the full extent of the effects of a nuclear war, which is not just the destruction of the cities the bombs hit but the slow torture of disease and disintegration which could destroy mankind.
The problem seems to be that some members of the Blaine City Council do not think that Blaine should be associated with Pugwash because of the very thing that puts Pugwash on the map. They say it is “political,” and even though sisterhood with Pugwash is only that, the council, with one exception, seems uninterested in getting involved. There seems to be a fear that a peace conference could be held here.
I would be proud to have another link between our community and the idea of peace – in addition to the one that Blaine already has with our wonderful Peace Arch. The uniting of two little towns on opposite sides of the continent who have the same legacy seems to me fitting and proper.
Norma Thomasson
Blaine

The Editor:
It was president Dwight Eisenhower who, in his farewell address to our nation in 1960, gave us warning as to an insidious presence in our midst: the military-industrial complex! I’ll suggest its influence as basis for Blaine City Council’s aversion to a sister city liaison with Pugwash, Nova Scotia. The military industrial complex has become what president Eisenhower warned against, our nation’s socioeconomic base.
It’s completely understandable to me that our city government refuses to endorse an exploration of Pugwash as sister city, the site of world’s preeminent peace foundation, because those on our city council averse to peace have never known peace and, to lend Blaine’s name to that which is totally foreign is scary and was exactly the feeling in chambers during which peace was included as common ground with city of Pugwash.
Indeed, I’ll suggest we’re experiencing what George Orwell’s prescient work 1984 portrayed: war is peace, ignorance is strength, freedom is slavery. War has been keeping the peace to every American younger than me, now 70-plus!
Those of us alive when our U.S.A. was not at war anywhere, have a unique and precious experience remembering and celebrating national peace. How sad it is for me to make this commentary on our present reality.
Blaine city government’s actions are totally understandable in light of this reality: peace is an unknown quantity for them and too scary to endorse as they’ve lived their entire life within a culture of war.
Peace must first be understood as opposite and discrete from war and as benefiting our natural human condition before our city council can honestly support it! However, their culture also included John Lennon’s plea, “Give Peace a Chance!” Did he also provide a warning?
Bob Hendricks
Blaine

Letters Policy
The Northern Light welcomes letters to the editor; however, the opinions expressed are not those of the editor. Letters must include name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters must not exceed 350 words and may be edited or rejected for reasons of legality, length and good taste. Thank-you letters should be limited to 10 names. A fresh viewpoint on matters of general interest to local readers will increase the likelihood of publication. Writers should avoid personal invective. Unsigned letters will not be accepted for publication. Requests for withholding names will be considered on an individual basis. Only one letter per month from an individual correspondent will be published.

Please send your letter to:
225 Marine Drive, Blaine, WA 98230 or fax 360/332-2777.
E-mail:editor@thenorthernlight.com

Letters Policy

The Northern Light welcomes letters to the editor; however, the opinions expressed are not those of the editor. Letters must include name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters must not exceed 350 words and may be edited or rejected for reasons of legality, length and good taste. Thank you letters are limited to five individuals or groups. A fresh viewpoint on matters of general interest to local readers will increase the likelihood of publication. Writers should avoid personal invective. Unsigned letters will not be accepted for publication. Requests for withholding names will be considered on an individual basis. Only one letter per month from an individual correspondent will be published.

Please email letters to letters@thenorthernlight.com