Letters to the editor, June 10, 2009

Limit your letters
The Sequim Gazette welcomes Letters to
the Editor as one of the most cherished exercises of freedom of the press.
The letters have grown livelier throughout this year. However, they also have grown longer.
In the interest of presenting as many points of view as possible, we ask that starting July 1 writers limit their letters to 250 words or less.
Longer letters will be subject to editing to shorten them.

Disheartened protector
I live in the midst of a wildlife sanctuary at Diamond Point, but you would not know it. A pair of bald eagles live in a tree in my backyard.
They have a 4-week-old eaglet. Previously, only an eaglet born in 2006 lived. That was when my house stood empty and my neigh-
bors’ house was half its present size.
In 2007, the pair had two eaglets which mysteriously died one day, the single day I was gone in May 2007.
In late spring 2007, my neighbors finally got their building permit. The renovations dragged on over a year, until sometime in the summer of 2008. The house is now much larger than it was before.
The eagles did not produce any babies in 2008.
In 2009, the eagles produced a baby in early May. Virtually the same day, my neighbors started construction on a significant yard renovation. A bulldozer/tractor shoved and scooped dirt off and on for over three weeks. The yard currently has mounds of dirt and stacks of masonry.
I complained at city, county and state levels. Apparently no one has the power to order a halt to the construction activity.
Meanwhile, small planes have been cruising by the tree, apparently to take a look. I never before saw small planes buzzing by the nest tree.
I am disheartened. These neighbors are the very ones who went all the way to Olympia in December to appeal for a ban on the feeding of deer and other wildlife. Although the bill died, (state Rep. Kevin) Van De Wege intends to pursue it.
When I moved here in early 2007, there were dozens of deer here. Now, less than a handful come to my house. Will these eagles face a similar outcome?
Lisbeth Bellet
Sequim

That better place
Much has been said about death and dying, death with dignity, assisted suicide ? but I’d prefer to think that Linda Fleming made her own decision, based on her medical prognosis and consultations, and her beliefs.
She self-medicated a prescribed dosage sufficient to stop the pain. It was the ultimate cure. I applaud her and wish her well in wherever that better place is that she perceived it to be.
Tom LaMure
Sequim

Dad’s dignified death

Speaking of Death with Dignity, as a somewhat independent cuss, when I clean myself, I hate to think of being helpless, subjected to some caretaker. No matter how skilled and loving the attendant, I just can’t imagine such care being comparable to the competency I developed through some 80+ years of practice. While I have survived some pain, including one bout with surgery in the doctor’s office; Novocaine proved ineffective.
I think I’d like to call the last shot. I don’t wish to “wage a courageous battle,” helpless against whatever might eventually claim me.
But, come back to 1934. My brother and I were sent to a YMCA summer camp, Mother was caring for my father, assisted by Miss Quinn, while he succumbed to cancer. With her biology degree from Mount Holyoke and several years with the New York State Department of Health, Mother was deemed competent to administer his morphine. (The Patries were “pillars” of St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Castleton on Hudson, N.Y.; she taught the ladies Sunday school class and also authored a history of Castleton on Hudson).
Her diary and very detailed expense account would remain sealed until after her death many years later. On that particular August day, according to her diary, “? Everett hugged me this morning. I was amazed by his strength ? I gave him enough to make him comfortable.” And later: “Everett died this afternoon.” And, while her expense account showed daily entries of 35 cents (!) for morphine, on this last day, the cost was 70 cents.
I strongly doubt that G. Everett Patrie’s passing would have been a “Death with Dignity” without my mother’s loving help.
Milton I. Patrie
Sequim

Appreciate fundraiser for veterans
I was so moved when a student from my first teaching class, from 53 years ago, made arrangements for my friend and I to attend the first Lloyd Strand Veterans Relief Fund.
Susan Strand worked hard to organize this fund and dedicated herself to raise funds to help the veterans of Sequim. We attended this first raffle and auction. There were so many volunteers, young and old. We have always felt we were patriotic. We display the flag with great pride. We love our country and appreciate those who have served. However, being with these people who care so much for our veterans, gave us a real appreciation of their service. We  will always attend a ceremony that is  set aside to recognize those that have served. Attending this ceremony has changed our lives.
It is our hope that others will become acquainted and support the Lloyd Strand Veterans Relief Fund. Your time and effort is needed and will be so appreciated. We thank Susan for including us in this special event.
Katherine Suter and Theresa McDaniel
Prescott, Ariz.

Stop before it’s too late
Continuing from where I left off last week on my rebuttal to Roy Wilson’s May 27 letter, I’ve already shown sufficient facts to support my allegation that the country is being driven by the Obama administration and Democrat-controlled Congress into socialism through the use of fascist techniques and unconstitutional methods. I’d like to now call upon Wilson to retract his statement that “that is fear-mongering propaganda.”
He should admit that he’s in denial and that what I said is true. That is a very difficult, if not impossible, thing for those with Wilson’s emotional, rather than logical, preferences. I understand that but cannot agree with it. It is rather interesting that in his 80 years, Wilson hasn’t become any wiser than he is. He claims that for “? the facts I see before me, I disagree with them;” on that, at least, he and I agree completely if by “them” he is referring to the “facts.”   In my 75 years, I too have had faith in America and its institutions, but not any more. In the past six months, I’ve seen a plethora of Chicago-style political corruption that embodies:
1. Pay-to-play methods used in the Illinois senatorial selection;
2. Nationalization of Chrysler and General Motors as a payback to the UAW unions;
3. Pending bankruptcy of California, where the Democrat-controlled Legislature for years has refused to curtail spending and illegal immigration;
4. Budgets in other states, like Washington, spiraling out of control because of Democrat-controlled legislatures denying or defying basic economic principles;
5. Silencing critics by threatening to reinstate the so-called “fairness doctrine” either by outright legislation or by fiat FCC “stealth” decrees;
6. Trying to cram down “card check legislation” denying workers a secret ballot in union elections, thereby paying back unions for their support to Democrats.
Then there is the outright stupidity of moves that have been tried and failed in the U.K., France, Germany, the Soviet Union, China and Japan. Even a columnist in Pravda, the Russian newspaper, recently marveled at the breathtaking speed with which Obama and his sycophants have taken this country down (he used the word “descended”) into Marxism.
Wake up Wilson! You and your friends who caused this nightmare have to work with us to stop it now or it will be too late.
Don Boensel
Sequim

Deeper, deeper debt

Don Boensel and I view politics from different perspectives. He and like-thinkers seem emotionally invested in ideology that prevents them from acknowledging facts that conflict with ideological preconceptions. I try to reach conclusions by analyzing facts and results.
In the current situation, I examined the history of our national debt. There is a graph on the Internet that shows our national debt as a proportion of national income (GDP), from 1940 to 2007. Google “national debt graph” and you can follow it yourself.
In 1946, national debt stood at 117 percent of national income (GDP). From then until 1980, seven presidents, exercising fiscal responsibility, brought it down to 32 percent.
In 1981, Reaganomics took over, applying these principles: 1) cut taxes, 2) increase spending, 3) borrow to pay the difference.
The result? In 12 years of Reagan/Bush, the proportion of national debt doubled to 65 percent. It declined to 57 percent when Clinton had some budget surpluses, then shot up to 75 percent after GWB again cut taxes, increased spending and borrowed more.
In actual dollars, national debt went from about $930 billion when Reagan came in, to over $10 trillion when GWB left, an 11-fold increase. That’s the facts.
The fundamental rule of economics is this: “If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.” Reaganomics violated this rule, and many of us applied it to our personal finances as well. It didn’t work and that failure is the root of our economic problem today.
Douglas Wolf concludes that my “analysis of why the U.S. is in trouble is wrong and (my) assertion that there are no facts in evidence to point out a socialistic administration is in power is willful blindness.”
I just gave you my analysis. If it’s wrong, give us the right one.
Wolf should re-read my posts; he also attributes to me some assertions and arguments that were not in my words.
Republican administrations fostered unrestricted greed. It failed. Obama is trying something different to undo the damage. Predictions of failure and fear of socialism after five months in office are premature. Remember, we elected this government; they need a chance to prove themselves.
There it is. No name calling, no accusations of lying or willful blindness, no ageist digs; just a question about ideological blindness, an expression of opinion, an explanation of a conclusion and a challenge to refute that conclusion with facts, not rhetoric.
Roy F. Wilson
Sequim