Boycott Deluxe if S-W wins

I think it was a gross mistake by the city of Sedro-Woolley to even consider putting an industrial plant anywhere near a school. I don’t care how modern and clean it is, it is still an inappropriate use of land around a school or neighborhood.

When you drive around the city of Sedro-Woolley it looks like there is a plethora of industrial property not being used. Couldn’t an alternative site be found and this parcel turned into something that would actually benefit the community and the adjacent high school, like a park or recreation hall?

Why doesn’t the city purchase the property from Deluxe and help them find a more suitable site? It seems that with all the money that Deluxe, the city and the county will spend on legal fees battling this out, there ought to be enough funds to accomplish everyone’s objective in a more mutually agreeable way.

Kudos to our county commissioners for attempting to settle this for the city, it is too bad the city doesn’t listen to its citizens. I’ll bet the citizens of the city would donate money to achieve something a lot more beneficial to everyone than a “tree museum.” Hopefully, the city will use enough sense in their future city planning that a “tree museum” will not be necessary because there will still be actual forests that we can go hiking in anytime we want to visit a “tree museum.”

If Deluxe does go ahead and use this site, I hope the citizens will boycott it and not use it. When your elected representatives don’t listen and go ahead with a plan that is clearly unpopular to the citizenry, then there are still options; if Deluxe will not profit from this venture it will give it up.

Debra Yansen
Mount Vernon


Rossi spins truth on infrastructure

Rossi’s TV spots are outrageous. Unfortunately, his distortions and lies will continue. Let’s not be hoodwinked. (He must think we are awfully stupid.)

He claims Gov. Gregoire signed the biggest gas tax increase in history. He fails to mention that the voters in our state voted for the increase when we rejected I-912!

He goes on to blame the governor for the state’s decaying infrastructure. The hole in his story is that the gas tax hike is specifically earmarked for highway, road, bridge and other state construction/retrofitting. That’s what the voters want. We said so when we defeated I-912.

Incidentally, the deteriorating condition of roads did not begin when Gov. Gregoire was elected. She inherited the problem that was largely ignored when Rossi was in the Legislature. Now she‘s doing something about it.

Rossi’s answer? More privatization of our public resources. If you want to pay a toll to drive on roads that we once owned, but have been auctioned off to foreign corporations, then Rossi is your guy. (Remember when Bush tried to sell six U.S. ports to Dubai? We stopped him!)

Woody Guthrie sang, “This land is your land, this land is my land … this land was made for you and me.” Let’s remind Rossi of that. Let’s do it by re-electing Gov. Gregoire in a landslide.

And let’s tell Rossi to start telling the truth. We’re not stupid.

Rich Austin
Mount Vernon


Fluoridation impinges freedoms

Armed with the knowledge that cavities are caused by bacteria and that preventing them requires brushing and flossing regularly, limiting sweets, and eating good food, an education campaign was started in the ’50s. This education has enabled people all over the world to reduce the rate of cavities in their communities whether they had fluoride or not in the water.

To say there are no studies of fluoride harm is terribly deceitful. I have offered to sit down with Ms. Wilson and show her where official reputable studies can be found, cited and studied, and as of today, no word. With recent advancements in the genetic sciences and technology not before available, studies are coming in from countries across the world of its harm with long-term exposure of fluoride to humans, animals and fish — with more to follow, I am sure.

The belief that fluoride taken internally will only “work” on your teeth has got to strike anyone as illogical. All medications taken internally produce other symptoms in other areas of your body, even a simple aspirin, read your warning labels. But also importantly is the dosage, which is totally ignored in mass fluoridation. It is now available and free to those who want it and makes this issue pointless and the process needlessly expensive to everyone and the environment.

The point is, no one has the right to force this medication on everyone without their consent. It is wrong to disregard the hazards imposed on those individuals who are more susceptible. This program goes against the doctrine our government was founded on.

Last time I checked, Skagit is still in the good old United States of America. Let her Constitution ring loud and clear.

Carole Bossarte
Mount Vernon


Pot raid officers should take bow

Regarding the Skagit Valley Herald article on the “pot bust” in the North Cascade National Park:

It was stated that it was part of a large-scale drug operation and that it was spotted from the air several weeks before the raid, which involved more than 50 officers. The article also said there was no one there when officers arrived.

There is only one feasible way to work this area: leave your car at a parking spot along Highway 20 and cross a walking swinging bridge over Ruby Creek and go onto the East Bank Trail up Ross Lake. It’s possible to come down Ross Lake by boat, but that’s through Canada into the U.S., which seems like an unlikely route to use.

In this day and age — with satellite surveillance available and all the other modern ways that this could have been handled — would you 50-plus officers please stand up and take a bow?

Merv Peterson
Marblemount