The Editor:
The Blaine Food Bank and our volunteers would like to give a big “Thank You” to both Blaine and Custer post office employees during the USPS’ annual Stamp Out Hunger campaign on Saturday, May 9. Equally important, we would like to thank the generous people in the Blaine, Birch Bay and Custer areas who took the time to select, bag and donate food for this cause. Between both post offices we received a total of 4,670 lbs. of food.
No one individual knows when they will be hungry, when they will have a financial struggle or when they might have an emergency. Hunger is equal opportunity. Being generous to the food bank is also an equal opportunity. So please accept our gratitude.
Jerry Bladies
Blaine Food Bank
The Editor:
District-only voting for Whatcom County Council positions is simply a sham promoted by a simple-minded few, but well organized, malcontents who want to retreat back to a 10th century feudal system. I remember the old days of three county commissioners and believe the lack of a broad-based governing body was detrimental, lacking long-range vision and planning.
These malcontents’ memories are very short, as not too long ago our county council was predominately conservative. That council changed due to the conservatives’ dismal performance. And it will change again, no group is perfect, it is part of our democratic system. Whatcom County is attractive as a united unit. Both urban and rural environments prosper together despite bumps in the ongoing process of inter-relation.
Property taxes from Bellingham and the western county subsidize eastern county rural services and projects. If the concept of district-only is such a wonderful idea, then it logically follows that each district should have its own budget based on revenue from within the district. The feudal lords – er, council members, can then bestow favors as they have funds and see fit, while sparing with the other county lords about issues affecting all of Whatcom County. The real choice is between the 10th and 21st century.
Don Starr
Blaine
The Editor:
Accurately reporting the maximum number of permanent jobs the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) would provide requires three things: reading, arithmetic and honesty. GPT’s official project application states GPT would employ a maximum of, “213 shift workers and 44 other workers.” Surely GPT proponents can read and do arithmetic, so claims that GPT would provide more than 1,000 permanent jobs are blatantly dishonest.
Claims that GPT would have, “0 percent emissions” and that GPT’s taxes would pay for schools “the state can’t afford” are similarly dishonest. This dishonest propaganda is particularly despicable because, if successful, it would swindle our children and us out of our most precious birthright – unpolluted land, clean air and water.
Those who devote their lives to understanding what helps and harms our health and the health of our planet are the true authorities and they deserve to be respected when they say GPT’s coal proposal would be hazardous to our health. 214 Whatcom County doctors say they’re “deeply concerned about the health and safety impacts of this proposal,” and GPT’s pollution would give us “increased risk of death from respiratory and cardiovascular causes, including strokes and lung cancer; increased mortality in infants and young children; increased numbers of heart attacks, especially among the elderly and in people with heart conditions; … increased hospitalization for asthma among children, and increased severity of asthma attacks in children.”
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists say human activities are warming up the earth’s climate; and burning coal is the single worst thing humans do to cook the planet.
I believe it’s a moral obligation, shared by all decent people, to protect and pass on unpolluted land, air and water to future generations. The communities and neighborhoods where we live and where our children play and grow are sanctuaries that we must protect from desecration by GPT.
Our future depends upon whether our elected officials make GPT building permit decisions based upon the truthful evidence of doctors and scientists, or upon dishonest GPT propaganda and campaign contributions. Let’s hope and speak up to assure that the better angels among us prevail and defeat GPT.
Paula Rotundi
Blaine
The Editor:
We, American Legion Post 247, again this next weekend beginning on Friday, May 22 at 5 p.m., will place flags at the veterans’ graves at the Blaine Cemetery, Any who wish to assist are welcome.
If you are aware of any we have missed please contact us at the cemetery or notify the post adjutant at 332-1307 with the section number, plot number, space number and name so we can mark the position sheets.
On Sunday evening, May 24, at 7:30 we have a short candlelight service at the cemetery. On Monday, May 25 at 11 a.m. there will be a joint remembrance at the Veterans Memorial at the corner of 3rd and H streets in Blaine with the local veterans groups: Streets Pike Post 9474 Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion Peace Arch Post 86 and Pluma Sager Wasek Memorial Post 247 American Legion.
Most involved will continue to the care center on C Street and then to the Blaine Cemetery, on to Hillsdale on Blaine Road and finishing at Post 86 on Legion Drive just north of the Birch Bay Lynden Road.
Let’s remember our fallen veterans this Memorial Day.
Bill Irwin
Blaine
The Editor:
Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought the U.S. Post Office’s motto was that they would deliver your mail before the end of the business day, meaning 5 p.m. That’s when their office doors lock; ergo, that’s when our home-delivered mail should also be in the cluster boxes or our individual rural boxes. Am I wrong? Did their scheduling change and I simply didn’t know?
In the past several months, our delivered mail has been arriving way, way late in the day, as in often after 8 p.m. Several times this year, we have received no mail at all. (Not that we really want all the unsolicited advertising or junk mail.) One time my inquiry to the post office was responded with, “We had a truck break down, and had to re-route your mail;” and another time it was, “There is a new driver on that route, so it is taking longer to learn.” Never once has there been an apology for extremely late or totally missing mail, nor has there been the explanation, “We no longer feel obligated to deliver your mail in a timely manner; certainly not before we close our doors at the end of the business day.”
Also please correct me if I am wrong but I thought The Northern Light is published and distributed on Thursdays. For the past month, our copy of your great little newspaper has been arriving in our mail on Fridays. When I go into town, I can find copies of the newspaper on business counters and in restaurants on Thursdays, but evidently there’s been a change in the mailing system; I only hope you’re not paying for Thursday delivery because you’re not getting your money’s worth.
Last question: Is it reasonable, then, to assume that all our mail is actually being delivered a day late?
Jeanne Halsey
Blaine
The Editor:
Dear friends and neighbors, Saturday, May 23 will be the opening day of the Blaine Gardener’s Market. The market will open officially at 10 a.m., close at 2 p.m. and venders can set up as early as 8:30 a.m. This is the earliest in May the market has ever held its opening day, and hopefully the weather we’ve been enjoying will continue to “shine” on the Blaine Gardener’s Market. As in the past, the market is located on the H Street Plaza at Peace Portal Way.
The market will feature local venders and their products, light music and of course the running of the sixth annual International Slug Races.
So saddle up your favorite slug, or use one of our fine racers and come on down to the festivities at your Gardener’s Market. Races begin at noon, and continue until all of the chocolate prizes have been won by children of all ages. Come one, come all to the Blaine Gardener’s Market.
Ron Snyder
Blaine
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here