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Are we becoming just like the big cities? Everyone for only their selves and no consideration for anyone else or their property?

I have two recent incidents and one long standing growl that makes me wonder. The growl is the refusal of the local transit system to give equal service to our oldsters and handicapped citizens. If you live within 3/4 of a mile of a scheduled bus line you can have Dial-a-Ride service seven days a week. Outside of those limited corridors you can have it two assigned days a week for limited hours. And never on weekends. I am 73, live alone and am legally blind, so I choose to no longer drive even though I continue to pass the periodic driving exams. To get around independently I have purchased two expensive recumbent tricycles. I have outfitted one with marginal weather gear.

Thursday, June 12, I needed some office supplies as well as groceries. I chained ET, the electric assist trike, at the Crossroads Square store and took the bus to Mount Vernon for my needed office supplies. When I got back I discovered someone had stolen all my lights. Expensive multi-LED head and tail lights. Apparently kids because they left the mounting brackets, even the easily removable ones. If I had been returning late I could have been killed riding the four miles home on a local feeder road after dark.

But the kids running wild at the corner store are not the only ones lacking guidance or conscience. On Dec. 31 I was hit by a car while crossing Cook Road at Collins Road. I was clearly visible with a big white front end, yellow tail end and waving a red orange flag in the sunlight. I think the senior woman driver was busy talking on a cell phone. She did stop, ask if I was hurt, which I was not but ET was critically wounded. Then she hopped back into her car and took off without even offering to telephone for assistance or giving me her name and address. A hit-and-run driver.

Now that school is out for the summer all drivers must be extra vigilant for kids, bicycles and dogs on and near the roadways. And all pedicycle users must be aware that they are charged with obeying the rules of the road while on the roadway but do have pedestrian rights while crossing roads.

Please, can’t we make ours a caring community by slowing down and getting to know our fellow residents. Such actions may add years to your life and warmth in other’s hearts.



Jim Brown

Sedro-Woolley