Jim Follis

Just when you thought that you'd heard the last of something, it has a way of jumping up in front of you. Who'd ever think we might ever hear from that vessel again? She did her job and then retired over the horizon to be with all the other ships that have performed valiantly.

But the poor Kalakala wasn't entitled to boat heaven like the other vessels of burden; she was selected by a very enterprising gentleman to be his anchor (ooh, a poor choice of words) for a development endeavor that would involve condos, retail shops, a wharf and lots and lots of investor dollars.

Did you see the pictures of the Kalakala as she sits today? Oh my goodness, even boats should have some rights. Even if boats were he's, they wouldn't stand for being photographed in that state.

The Kalakala has more rust than hull. If they were ever to remove all the rust, there wouldn't be anything showing above the waterline. The poor Kalakala is sorrier-looking than all our big box stores, new drug stores and new Holiday Inn Express combined.

I guess we're just lucky that Sequim isn't on a waterway of some sort. Someone would no doubt sell their property to Mr. Rodrigues, who holds the mooring lines to the rusted floating hole in the water.



Oh, really?

One of the reasons I love Sequim so much is its diversity. People from all over the country, with experiences from all over the world, live here. But sometimes I wonder about my criteria for what qualifies as acceptable.

During the recent campaign for local offices, I commented that the presidential campaign between John McCain and our current president showed America that an election could be run with some dignity.

But I was brought back to reality by a local skirmish between two candidates. Candidate A accused Candidate B of referring to the president with the racist "N" word. Candidate B said, "Hell yeah, it's not racist; it's a fact of life."



Getting clubbed



at SunLand

SunLand Golf Club is suffering some financial pains and is reaching out for life support. The SunLand Home Owners Association is contemplating levying an assessment to each property owner to help bail out the golf association (a complete separate entity).

Property owners aren't exactly pleased because they are constantly reminded that they are not to set foot on the golf course if they are not golf members. Golf members are not all happy, either, because they already have ponied up a sizable fee to join several years ago. Still others have lifetime memberships that cost them plenty. Now if they live in SunLand, do they get whacked again?

I'm wondering what would happen if a home- owner's association felt sorry for a failing shopping center next to them.

I thought I was saving a lot of money by not golfing but now I realize that I better avoid homeowners' associations if I really want to save money.



Diversion program

Hats off to the new diversion program that's being instituted on a trial basis. With the growing costs of adjudication and incarceration, new attempts to address lesser offenses are being explored.

Rather than just running lesser offenses through the system and generating more expenses, the city is planning to siphon first-time offenders involved in low-level crimes into diversion programs.

Naturally, there are more than a few brows that shoot up when anyone begins to tamper with penalties for those who fail to conduct their lives within the laws. I'm firmly in the camp of those who are horrified with the mounting heap of bills that are generated by each incarceration.

However, I'm wondering why we don't introduce the diversion program a whole lot sooner, say, before the crime even gets committed. Teachers, police, coaches, ministers, neighbors can identify future criminals right now, with high percentage accuracy.

Diversion at an early age is cheap, and it

saves lives, too.



Wow

Did you see the picture of the 127-foot luxury fishing boat being constructed in Port Townsend? Lots of one-line thoughts come to mind:

• Holy mackerel! And here I am, worrying about paying my property taxes?

• What national debt?

• Why does his wife allow him to buy that boat to go fishing and I can't even get enough allowance from Wife Nancy to buy a fishing license?



Jim Follis is a retired school administrator, has published two books and currently writes three newspaper columns. Eating, drinking and making merry are his professed hobbies. Traveling, trekking and observing people follow not far behind.