Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1004 - 1028 of 1886
A catechism is a set of, typically, religious instruction framed in the form of questions and answers to instruct the young, to win converts, and to testify to the faith. A Trumpian catechism follows. Why do you support President Trump? The president puts America first. He calls for law and order. He is against immigrants, socialists and homosexuals and criticizes protesters who loot and riot. How do you support the president? We follow him on Twitter. We organize, practice and prepare to follow his instructions. We stand down and stand by as...
The Republican Party used to stand for strong American values. The character and morality of their candidates was important to voters. I ask you to compare John McCain to Donald Trump. John McCain was a war hero and an honest man. He understood political compromise as a necessity for functional government. John McCain and Joe Biden were best buddies even though they fought like cats and dogs on the floor of the Senate for their ideals and their constituents. Take a step back and look at the draft-dodger Trump. Which of the seven deadly sins...
Today I was asked to share my feelings about the events in our nation’s capital this past week. As I thought about the behavior of those involved in the movement that led to the insurrection on what has always been a traditionally honorable event in our national election process, four words immediately came to mind: despicable, disgust, disappointment and disgrace. I am extremely disappointed in the behavior of a number of citizens to be so degrading to such an important part of our nation’s Capitol building, to force illegal entry with no res...
I am remembering and reflecting on Christmas, 2020. There is only One whom I care to mention in this letter. He is Immanuel, God with us. I met Him personally, that is I put my full trust in Him as my Savior and Lord at the age of 22. So He is my foundation of truth. His word, the Bible, is my guide book in all aspects of my life; and I find the truth of scripture will let me discern what is true and what is false in our world. I can recommend turning from one’s own way, to Him, not to a religion, but to a relationship, but to a living God, t...
To the editor: For the first time in American history we have not had a peaceful transfer of power after a presidential election. Because on Jan. 6, 2021, a career conman, who, to our lasting shame, happens to be president of the United States, attempted his biggest con – reversing the outcome of an election he lost convincingly. Even with the help of his lap dogs in the administration and Congress, with the endless stream of lies on Fox News, talk radio, and far-right websites, with the power of social media platforms to spread these...
My focus for the 2021 session is simple: how can we help families, schools and businesses recover from this pandemic? It is critical that we support a sustainable economy that allows all members of our community to thrive. The Legislature and our state must prioritize economic development and recovery in rural communities, sustained environmental and economic health, and better access to higher education and family-wage jobs. Here are my top legislative priorities: Jobs – I am working on legislation that will continue to champion key K-12...
Dear Weekly News Readers, If we were allowed to gather, and Weekly News subscribers came together in one room, there would be 135 more of you – and spouses and families – than a year ago. Bless you for taking the subscription drive to heart. Circulation is up 15%. That is truly amazing. Some 120 current subscribers renewed early, partly to beat the new year’s increase to $60 and many to show support for their community newspaper. New and old readers both made donations. Thank you for helping me to pay my taxes. But more than that, y...
I would like to thank Linda Talman for her many, many years of service on the Town’s Planning Commission. She has been a citizen’s watchdog and a voice for keeping La Conner true to our community vision. She is smart, does her homework and tries to mobilize interested people in participating in creating the town we want to live in. Thank you Linda! And may your retirement be joyful and interesting. Joan Cross La Conner...
I applaud you for publishing Jerry Willins’ review of “Caste,” by Isabel Wilkerson, in your Dec. 23 edition. This book is riveting and a literary pleasure, both for the ease of its narrative and for its elegant thought and language. It is also hard to read because of what it reveals, page after page. From slavery to Jim Crow to Obama to Trump, Wilkerson illuminates how we have sustained an artificial construction of society that deems some of us to be favored and some of us to be stigmatized as less worthy based on the shade of our skin, white...
Although I often agree with Mel Damski’s columns, I think we need to rethink our approach to how we prioritize who gets the vaccine first. Yes to medical workers and yes to people clustered in retirement homes, but after that, should we really start with people with the least number of years left to live? Seems to me we should do the math and collectively extend life for as many years as possible. That means middle aged people would be next. Young people are unlikely to die from COVID-19, but 50-year-olds are very vulnerable. If we make 5...
One day as Jesus was preaching in Galilee to the apostles, as recorded in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 10, an unusual event must have taken place. A sparrow must have flown past or rested on the branch of a tree and drawn the attention of Jesus. He said, “Are not two sparrows sold for next to nothing, yet not one falls to the ground without your Father’s consent?” He had spoken about difficult days ahead for the apostles. They would be imprisoned, beaten and betrayed, even by family members, because of their devotion to Jesus. These words must ha...
A year that started normally enough, with kids in school and tourists on the street, suddenly came to a grinding halt in mid-March. The aptly named novel coronavirus blossomed into a pandemic almost overnight, shutting schools, stores, canceling the Tulip Festival and turning spring into one long dark night. The La Conner school district, from teachers and staff at every level, through students and parents, made an instantaneous adjustment to remote learning. Merchants, inn keepers and restauranteurs suddenly were managing in a tourist town...
Covid-19 has us flying by the seat of our pants without an indication of where to land. That is a great headline about a vaccine but when you get down to the real nitty gritty of how and when and where you go about getting vaccinated, it is very hard to get information. I realize that medical workers and people in retirement homes are at the front of the line, and people in my age group and older are supposedly next, but how and where do we sign up? I am trying to get my pal, Father William...
To those who were taken aback by my letter on Joe Biden: His campaign promise to outlaw all semi auto firearms brought forth a surge of 10 million purchases of such weapons in the U.S. in the year 2020 alone. The National Rifle Association has long advocated that any felony crime committed with the use of a firearm shall have 10 years added to their sentence. If that were implemented and made mandatory it would cut the gun violence in half in short order because those criminals would be where they belong, behind bars. It is a common sense answe...
The Christian Christmas story starts with a young traveling couple, Mary heavy with child, Joseph carrying the burden of knowing the baby is not his. Jesus was born on the road, in a barn, homeless. There are over 1,800 homeless in Skagit County this Christmas season. Close to 75% of them are Skagitonians, neighbors, friends and family. The apartment vacancy rate is effectively zero here for low income people. The Skagit County Public Health Department reports that one-fourth of renter households pay more than 50% of their income for housing...
Dear Community, For those of you following the alphabet of “Soul Primer,” which has appeared in this paper every week for the last six months, here is your last letter: Z is for Zen … . I hope you have enjoyed these bits of weekly inspiration. In the spring, when it became clear that COVID-19 would impact us all profoundly, I pondered what I could do to make a difference? My book had just launched, a creation to help each individual – and our world – become a better place, but how to get it out, with bookstores now clo...
Once again, our national election for the president of the United States is in shambles. This has happened a number of times in the history of elections in the U.S. What I do not understand is the complex election rules that currently exist. Since the office of president, members of the house of representatives and senate are all federal government personnel, they should be elected by a set of rules created by the federal government. As it is now each state sets their own rules, which can change with each new state administration. To make...
A number of letters to the editor concerning guns have been published recently. I thought I would add my view. There are currently about 400 million guns in private hands in the United States. Increasingly these are semi-automatic versions of military weapons. These guns are designed specifically to kill people and they are terrifyingly effective. The second amendment is not absolute. Few of our constitutional rights are. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. The U.S. government has limited the type of firearms citizens can own several times,...
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people mentally, as well as physically, across the world, and in our local communities. As a 16-year-old high school student-athlete, I feel the isolation of not being with my peers and the anxiety that comes with not being able to participate in activities that I love. While I understand, rationally, the reason why I am not able to attend school or participate in sports, I wonder about the social/emotional health of our nation’s youth. According to the New York Times, “The proportion of children’s emerg...
As spring dawned, the coronavirus pandemic exploded on the scene. This paper’s first COVID-19 editorial, “Taking flattening the curve seriously,” was dated March 25. Additional editorials on the pandemic have followed. Early on, some saw the massive change wrought in society and postulated the possibility of “a new normal,” a paradigm shift directing us toward a more just and sustainable future. Alas, the resulting disruption to the old normal, the everyday routine of work, school and socializing threw our society in general, and many of u...
This is my first column here since September. I reserve this space for considerations that are reflective and personal. The first person “I” is rarely in an editorial. Musings, by both their title and nature, are personal. I am the person wondering about the night sky, the turn of the seasons, the rain – or lack of it, being a child of a Depression era mother and our unprecedented president, Donald Trump. Here I have shared both my perspective on the press and the experiences of publishing this newspaper. Here is another chapter. You are...
In the flood of disinformation filling the internet this election season, it was easy to miss another rapidly spreading phenomenon: partisan profit-driven websites putting out propaganda masquerading as local news. Across the country, more than 1,000 websites with the look of local journalism are publishing articles, ordered up by political operatives to cast a favorable or unfavorable light on candidates and issues. These websites, like weeds thriving in vacant lots, have grown to fill the void left by the collapse of local newspapers....
Dear Editor, I read a recent letter to the editor requesting responsibility in submitted opinions, reminding us that students, especially, should read civil dialogue. Granted. Yet remaining civil in a time of gross incivility tests the restraint of opinion writers. I feel deep anger toward a president who has shirked all responsibility to curb the rampant catastrophe of illness and deaths due to Covid-19, ignored safety protocols to limit its spread over the past 10 months, relying instead on his Warp-speed vaccine. This president should be...
In his letter of December 9, Dennis Sather speculates what will happen ‘when Joe Biden and his anti-gun cohorts start knocking on doors to confiscate firearms from legal gun owners.’ The last time we heard this hysterical rhetoric was after the elections of 2008 and 2012, only then it was Obama and his cohorts taking the guns away. That hyperventilation amounted to a windfall for the NRA in donations and for sporting goods stores in gun and ammo sales. But: no guns were taken from lawful gun-owners under the Obama administration, and none wil...
I find myself counting down the days at this time of year. Not in anticipation of the end of the pandemic, the New Year, or in the hopes of getting “the perfect gift” driven by consumerism. Though I have lived in this region for almost 20 years, it is not the gray or rain that overwhelms me, but the dark. That third week in December that augurs the Winter Solstice, and thus the darkest day of the year, marks the nadir of my energy, my focus and even my broader perspective on life and the world. I do not clinically suffer from SAD (Seasonal Aff...
