Short acts with integrity

I am writing this letter to support the re-election of Bill Short to the Port Commission.

Bill has proven that he is the candidate who can see all sides of an issue and act with integrity. He has shown the Anacortes community that he sincerely cares about the development of our waterfront with an emphasis on what is best for all the citizens. His political style is very approachable and he listens to the concerns of our community without a hidden agenda. He has years of experience with port business and has helped change the port’s image to one the community can respect. I say, let Bill continue his fine work.

Carol Miner

Anacortes

Brevoort an excellent choice

Doris Brevoort will make an excellent at-large representative on the Mount Vernon City Council. Public safety is Doris’s priority; her commitment to fund essential city services has earned the endorsement of the Mount Vernon Professional Firefighters.

Doris is committed to ensuring that all our city’s residents are involved in shaping Mount Vernon’s future by creating a network of Neighborhood Councils. Residents can meet in these groups to work together, express concerns and give feedback to the city government. We need these new opportunities to strengthen our neighborhoods.

Doris Brevoort has a positive vision for revitalizing our struggling downtown. She is an active volunteer on the Design Committee for downtown Mount Vernon’s Main Street program, helping to shape a vibrant future for the heart of our city. Doris supports a strong revitalization plan for healthy downtown businesses.

Economic development is an important part of Doris Brevoort’s vision. She wants to use the 2010 Olympics and Para-Olympics in neighboring British Columbia to promote commerce and increase tourism, which is so essential for our local economy.

I know Doris from her volunteer work on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee of Skagit Transit. She listens thoughtfully to everyone’s ideas and shares her ideas respectfully. Doris Brevoort will be an asset to the Mount Vernon City Council when you vote to put her experience and skills to work for all of us.

Valerie J. Rose

Mount Vernon

Doctor may gain new friends

Based on the responses to Dr. Pirkle’s recent letter, one might think he worked for Fox News or, worse yet, listened to Rush Limbaugh, given the reaction from readers on the left. It’s clear that the simplest way to avoid being accused of being a “hater” by these folks is to simply agree with them. However, that may be about as smart as signing on to Jimmy Carter’s campaign when he ran against Reagan, since, in a recent Gallup poll, 39 percent of Americans said their views had become more conservative in recent years vs. 19 percent who said they had become more liberal. In fact, self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals by nearly 50 percent, so the views of Dr. Pirkle would appear to be rather mainstream and hardly worth disavowing simply because a few people call you names.

And Dr. Pirkle’s views will likely be more widely held in the future, as those who may not have been paying attention up to this point begin to notice the impact of runaway government spending on increased taxes and the expanded government intrusion into private lives that goes hand in hand with Democrat majorities.

Multitrillion-dollar deficits, rising unemployment, abandonment of the war on terror, trash talking America around the world, the demolition of our health care system, taxing the pudding out of citizens to fight nonexistent global warming, government attacks on media and private citizens because they disagree with the State — these are not the policies that are likely to generate increasing support, so Dr. Pirkle may be making a lot of new friends soon.

Carl F. Loeb

Mount Vernon

Inmates running the asylum

I honestly believe that the inmates are running the asylum here in Mount Vernon. First, the city loses $11,998.85 in the Glenn Beck fiasco and you know what the city finance director’s — one Alicia Huschka — suggestion to solve that problem is? To have the employees take “comp time” instead of overtime pay.

Why should they? It wasn’t their idea to award the key to the city to Beck. It was the idea of a man who, by his own admission, acted on his own. It is the idea of a man who thinks that he can act on his own and that the Mount Vernon City Council and the opinions of the people of the city of Mount Vernon are insignificant when it comes to doing what he wants to do.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that called a dictatorship?

Anyway, the man that I described above is our so-called mayor, Bud Norris. You want to recoup the losses? Here is how you do it. Since it was his idea and since, by his own admission, he was acting on his own, make Bud Norris pay it out of his own pocket!

The other reason I believe that the inmates are running the asylum has to do with Winco. Having Winco come to Mount Vernon is a win-win situation, but according to one Mr. Michael Frazier, there will be too much light and too much traffic. I guess he has never driven on College Way near Riverside Drive lately. And too much noise — never mind the truth that Winco will bring both jobs and much-needed money to the city.

Like I said, the inmates are running the asylum.

Brian Hill

Mount Vernon