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My big brother, God rest his soul, loved to play bridge, and he was really good at it. He had that kind of mind. So he won a lot. He also cheated. He thought the best players played exceptionally well – and also cheated really well. That is how he justified his own cheating. I think there is probably some small truth to professionals cheating, but I am diametrically opposed to it. My philosophy is that if you cheat to win, you are a loser, regardless of the outcome of the game. And you forfeit the right to consider yourself an honorable...
Those of us who lived through the 1960s and 70s remember the Nixon era, those who did not should read about it. I lived in Frankfurt, Germany at the time, and experienced the sad situation of young American soldiers being sent to Germany and then deployed to Vietnam. Those who survived told us later about those who did not. At the time I participated in demonstrations with American friends who spoke out about the political situation in their homeland. They called out “Nixon Murder” after President Nixon had sent troops to American towns try...
In fairness, I do not know Helen Price-Johnson’s opponent in the upcoming election. I do know Helen. I am a Walla Walla county commissioner and it has been my privilege to work side by side with Helen, for a number of years, in our roles as county commissioners, at the state level working to develop real solutions to issues facing our constituents. What I discovered early on is Helen’s willingness to set party ideology aside in pursuit of policies and legislation that benefits not only our individual counties but, indeed, the entire state. Our...
Sunday the Rotary Club of La Conner did a community service project weeding and cleaning up weeds, blackberry vines and ivy along the Benton Street Stairs. I would like to give a huge shout out to “Touch Up Landscape” owner Thomas Kahn, who happens to be my son, and his amazing partner Kaylie Brown, along with neighbors of the stairs, Bob Raymond and Dorothy Downs, all of whom are not members of Rotary but dedicated members of the La Conner community willing to go the extra mile and help keep La Conner beautiful during this devastating pan...
Call me crazy (or call me meshugganah, as I am writing this on the most solemn Jewish day of the year, Yom Kippur), but the pandemic does have a good side. Believe me, I am devastated as the numbers of dead and dying all around the globe just keep getting higher. I want this to end sooner than later and I am praying on this holy day for an end to this madness. That said, I am seeing some positives. My wife arrived on a flight from Los Angeles yesterday and today she taught her third graders, all...
Encouraging reading is a good idea 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The Weekly News champions “Find Your Freedom to Read During Banned Books Week 2020!” That is the theme of this year’s Banned Books Week, celebrated across the country Sept. 27-Oct. 3. Actually, reading everything is celebrated and book banning is exposed during this annual week organized by the American Library Association in coalition with others. All times are good times to read. There is never a good time or a good reason to publicly ban books – or any mater...
My friend Sherry Chavers encouraged me to reflect on Ruth Bader Ginsberg in this column. The world has changed so much since Ginsberg graduated at the top of her class from Columbia Law School in 1959. No New York City law firm would hire her as a lawyer. Back then women were secretaries, school teachers and librarians. If you are a grandparent, consider your adult life and that of your mother’s. If you have grandparents or were born after 1970, have you learned, and really absorbed, how different your life is from Ginsberg’s generation or her...
The smoke blanketing western Washington from devastating fires here, in California and Oregon has forced residents to remain indoors with widows closed. For those of us who live in proximity to these fires – and grapple with their long-term health impacts – it is hell on earth. Last week in western Washington our air was simply not safe to breathe. This new emergency has been added to the COVID-19 threat. People are stressed and depressed. That is why when the jets were flying over our region doing low-level Field Carrier Landing Pr...
The evening of August 22nd I saw my beloved partner Sam stricken with cardiac arrest. Thankfully, training from years ago spun me into action and I began chest compressions immediately while calling 911. Minutes later help burst through the door from Fire District 13, then La Conner Fire Department and then two paramedics from Mount Vernon. A compliment of ten folks attended to Sam for a harrowing 45 minutes of defibrillation and CPR. Finally his heart began beating! After fighting his way through a hospital-induced hypothermic coma, and...
When the Loren Culp campaign signs first started showing up I was more than a little surprised that the state Republicans could not find a better candidate. Aren’t people aware that Culp does not have anything close to the knowledge or skills to effectively function as governor? Culp seems to have only one key issue, and that’s gun rights. And on that he refused to implement a duly-passed state law, actually overriding a voter initiative. I would remind Culp supporters that it is the governor’s job, pretty much the whole job, to imple...
The audacity of 400 maskless people gathering, cheek to jowl and no social distancing! I was disturbed to learn that 400 Skagit Republicans had the audacity to gather indoors, without masks or social distancing for their annual gala! If these people have no regard for themselves or their families so be it, but to narcissistically take their deadly seed out into the public without any regard is reckless behavior. There were five Republican political candidates in that crowd, thumbing their noses at the law and at the rest of us living in Skagit...
Regarding the letter writer (Mike Morrell, Sept. 16)) who “set the record straight” on the fact that President Obama built the cages at the southern border and used them: His information is correct, with his added note that his information was fact-checked on Snopes.com, including an excerpt. What is curiously omitted from that letter is further information in that same Snopes.com fact-check, elaborating on the purposes for the enclosures under the Obama administration, as compared with the current Trump administration. The following quo...
People who are pro-business wear masks so our COVID-19 case rate is low enough for us to safely open more businesses, open schools to in-person learning, and much more. The Sept. 17 Skagit Valley Herald had another great article by Brendan Stone but it has a misleading title. Stone reports on the local GOP’s choice to ignore public health and safety guidelines for their fundraising event. The headline suggests there are no new COVID-19 cases from the GOP event. With attendees ignoring public health guidelines, I am not surprised that they m...
As we have done for decades, your U.S. Navy conducts critical military readiness activities in the Pacific Northwest, and we are reapplying for authorizations to continue this training and testing for the next seven years, as our current authorizations expire later this year. It is imperative the Navy continues these activities in the Pacific Northwest to prepare our sailors for dangerous or emergency missions throughout the world, to include large-scale conflicts, maritime security operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief...
Friday morning forest fire smoke from as far away as California came to La Conner, merging with Oregon and Washington fire smoke and perhaps dense Pacific Ocean air to make the morning damp, gray and ominous. Warnings on the radio advised staying inside with windows closed and to avoid strenuous activity. That is the opposite promotion of get in your car, come up for the day, walk the boardwalk and shop and dine in La Conner. Neither the smoke nor the warnings kept tourists from town last weekend. Streets and sidewalks were crowded Saturday....
As I write this, my eyes are burning from the smoke of west coast fires, my daughters are planning evacuation routes in the Portland area and COVID-19 is taking a huge toll on our health and psyches. It is hard to imagine the pain of people losing their homes and all they have built up in their lives. The world’s attention is now focused on the COVID-19 pandemic as if it stands alone while climate change has faded to the back burner. But, unfortunately, climate change is still an existential threat that is increasing disease vectors such as C...
Wanting to be more politically active this year, I asked a friend if I could post a local candidate’s sign in his yard. As I was preparing to set it up, my friend pointed to a Trump sign and said, “I would love to post that one, but I am afraid of what might happen if I did.” I received the same reaction from another friend. After seeing the sign for Trump on McLean Road vandalized many times, I can understand their fears. I decided to test the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” in La Conner by placing a large Trump MAGA flag on my classic 1963 Stud...
Dear Kathy Rodenberg: Thanks for your comment on my letter (Sept. 2). It gives me an opportunity to set the record straight for you and other critical readers of the La Conner Weekly News. I believe from our past acquaintance that you are a Democrat and supported President Obama in both his victories. I suspect you believe, as I do, that he is a truly decent man but, Kathy, President Obama built the cages at the southern border and used them. You can check that fact on Snopes or just read this statement that I copied from Snopes.com: “The O...
Sunday, December 7, 1941 was my father’s 18th birthday, “a day which shall live in infamy.” That day my 16-year-old mother threw him a birthday party in the basement of her family home. The next day he registered for the draft and joined the army. Fluent in French, two years later he was secreted into Vichy France to translate between the Allies (those also secreted in) and the Resistance. He received a field commission as First Lieutenant. When he came home from the war he joined the National Guard and served for decades, ultimately attai...
As a 27-year, U.S. Navy retired Master Chief, I am completely disgusted by our so-called president and his statements disparaging the brave veterans who have fallen in service to our country. My father was a 17-year-old sailor who was wounded in World War II in the South Pacific and I have been in harm’s way while on a flight crew and working on the flight decks of aircraft carriers more times than I can remember. I have even had to carry a body bag of a sailor killed in an aircraft carrier and it is not a pleasant task. This fifth grade b...
Three Dark Clouds are hovering over the world today and this coming election should not be glibly decided by party posturing. It is time to wake up your family and friends and point to these three clouds. The First is the coronavirus, COVID-19. This is a worldwide threat to our very human existence and is mutating – indefinitely. The Second is the threat of nuclear annihilation. The U.S. alone has enough warheads to wipe out every country on the planet several times over. The Third is drifting closer and closer to silently cover all of...
We also would like to thank John Leaver and Rick Dole for taking the initiative to plan a one night non-event, and more, in order to help small businesses in La Conner! In addition we also thank Heather Carter the La Conner Chamber director, for her continued effort to support and help the business community by putting the word out through social and other media and planning special events to create more business. We also thank Ramon Hayes, our mayor, for stepping up and taking charge to make La Conner a COVID-19 free town. People got the...
Dear Buz: Thank you for your accurate summary of German history and the success of Adolf Hitler (Letters, Sept. 9). I want to add a couple things that were different then but cannot be an excuse nowadays. There was no TV or computer, only radio and newspapers, which were both controlled by Hitler. Not many cars either, to drive to other places. My mother grew up not far from Auschwitz and did not know that it existed. My father was sent to Russia to fight at age 18. Once Hitler was in complete control, nobody could be against him without...
This one is more than a bit “over the top”, even for this editor (Sept. 9 editorial). Sad that this article has no balance, no civility and no truth. I wasn’t born yesterday, so I have long experience of watching, hearing, discerning truth from error, false from genuine. A close friend recently commented to me: What the left claims the president and others on the right are doing, is instead, exactly what they are doing. I started paying attention to that claim and found it to be true. I have even heard others comment this is happening. There...
I live in an apartment up on the hill, and I am writing to find out if anyone in town would use a community garden space. If so, I am interested in making that happen. I haven’t looked for a spot or started any part of the project, but there is a well-established protocol used all over Seattle to establish these gardens, or P-Patches. It would be a big project, but it is not reinventing the wheel. I realize most folks have a yard, and we are surrounded by farms and amazing farmstands, but there are many reasons why community gardening is a h...
