Week of April 10, 2024: The economy, child abuse prevention, nukes and incarceration

Editor,

In Friday’s print edition (CDN, April 4, 2024), Ron Judd points out clearly the importance of this year’s elections, and national columnist Megan McCardle reports on the economy as one of the major issues in this fall’s presidential election.  

When looking at the numbers in various polls that show many voters think the Republicans and their candidate Donald Trump will be better for the economy than the Democrats and Joe Biden, I wonder on what basis those respondents are making their choice.

According to The Daily Beast, 10 of the last 11 recessions began under a Republican administration. Six of seven administrations with the highest job creation rates since World War II were Democratic. Six of seven administrations with the lowest job creation rates were Republican. Every Republican president since Richard Nixon has increased the federal budget deficit by anywhere from 33% to 160%, including Donald Trump, who added $8 trillion to the national deficit during his one term.

Yes, there is one party who does better than the other on the economy. But it certainly is not the Republicans and Donald Trump.

Rick Osen

Bellingham

Editor,

As a member of the local Amnesty International group, one of many that sponsored the movie “Gaza” at the Pickford Film Center last Thursday, I was very pleased at the huge turnout. There were lines outside and tickets were sold out. A large group of young people held a “Ceasefire Now” banner on the sidewalk. It was a breathtaking production inside the everyday lives of Palestinians, interviews with taxi drivers and fashion models alike. The cinematography was stunning, as was the insight into tragedy. So many of these people in the refugee camps were forced to live there since the beginning of the genocide against them. My PeaceHealth oncologist is Palestinian, her grandparents having been forced out of their homes in 1948.

There was a lively discussion afterward, led by human rights activist Diane Paul, retired WWU professor Shirley Osterhaus, and a Bellingham man who is Gazan and trying to bring his wife and children here from Egypt. I learned from a neighbor that Patty Murray is deeply connected to Israel, so [I] did a search. It appears she has received over $1 million from AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) in the last decade, which explains why she refuses to support a ceasefire, and will not listen to her Jewish Voice for Peace constituents in Seattle.

I plan to call her office and demand to know how many people have been killed with my tax money. I encourage others to do so as well.  

Dianne Foster

Bellingham

Editor,

Nuclear weapons are a local issue. In the next 30 years, the United States plans to spend $1.7 trillion on modernizing and adding to our nuclear arsenal. In the $900 billion military budget proposed for 2025, a portion of that is for nuclear weapons. We need to transition away from nuclear weapons and this bloated military budget in general. We need to use this money for human needs, mitigating climate change, etc.

In addition, 58 miles from Bellingham as the crow flies is the Jim Creek Naval Radio Station for the Bangor Naval Submarine Base.  It is a prime nuclear target for weapons hundreds of times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. A group of citizens has submitted a resolution to the Bellingham City Council to join 80 other cities and municipalities across the U.S. to bring us “Back from the Brink” of nuclear war.  The council needs to sign on to this resolution.

Cindy Cole

Bellingham

Editor,

During the March 18 Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force meeting, Sheriff Donnell Tanksley announced plans to voluntarily seek accreditation for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) and, separately, the jail. These accreditation processes will evaluate 146 law enforcement operation best practice standards and 173 standards for jail operations. Only 18% of law enforcement agencies are accredited in the state (including Bellingham and Ferndale police departments); WCSO was last accredited 20 years ago. 

Sheriff Tanksley had two options for seeking accreditation and he has decided to pursue the more in-depth process conducted by a third party. It will verify that best practice standards are in place, examine actual examples to check how closely WCSO follows its own policies, and, where needed, provide the necessary steps for achieving accreditation. The results of this evaluation will be made available to the public. 

I applaud Sheriff Tanksley’s decision to select the more robust and independent evaluation process. He is keeping his promise to county residents for more transparency and to hold WCSO more accountable. These types of actions can build trust in the community.

Krystal Rodriguez

Bellingham

Editor,

In 2022, our Sandy Point fire district experienced two devastating coastal floods that destroyed the Sucia Drive fire station and several pieces of equipment. There was $750,000 in damages from 3 feet of salt water and raw sewage. Our ability to respond to emergency calls and conduct essential ongoing training was severely hampered. This will happen again.

To protect and maintain current levels of service, the district needs funding to relocate the fire station out of the flood zone. Our supportive neighbor, Phillips 66, has offered property on Slater Road at no cost, the highest point of elevation in the district. Funding is also needed to hire career firefighters/EMTs. Since our last levy in 2015, emergency calls in our community, primarily for emergency medical services have increased by 103%. In 2017, to reduce the long wait times for ambulance transports, the district began providing our own local ambulance transportation to the hospital. This created further stress on our available personnel.

Volunteerism is dropping precipitously across the nation. Our volunteers are struggling to balance their personal lives with the enormous requirements of today’s fire/EMS services. We have an aging population and an aging district team. Two of our most frequent responders are over 70.

We are asking our neighbors to pass a new levy rate of $1.25 per $1000 of assessed valuation, an increase of 45 cents per $1,000 AV over 2023 rates. I support this fire district levy. I have studied the issues and believe there is no other alternative. I strongly encourage my fellow taxpayers to support this request from our fire district for station relocation and funding our vital fire and EMS services, now and in the future.

Jeanne Caroll

Bellingham

Editor,

Ron Judd (CDN, April 4, 2024) is worried about the future of American democracy, particularly because “the unrepentant insurrectionist, authoritarian-inclined Donald Trump” is the challenger to Biden. To defend democracy, a good place to start would be to tell the truth, which Judd did not. 

President Trump is not an insurrectionist, nor an authoritarian. How about taking an empirical look by comparing the Biden and Trump administrations side by side. Four years ago we didn’t have all this inflation; the southern border was closed to the 10 million [people] who have crossed in the Biden years; there were no wars in Ukraine and Israel. 

The Trump years, though undermined by fake news and the Democrat Party, were not authoritarian.  People’s incomes increased. Sane justices were added to the Supreme Court. Life was more normal and stabilized than it is now.

Rick Hannam

Bellingham

Editor,

ABC Recycling says it is still committed to building the industrial metal shredder at the property it owns on Marine Drive in Bellingham’s Urban Growth Area (UGA). Considering ABC’s violation of their lease agreement at the Port’s waterfront property, we need to hold ABC to the highest standards for the proposed shredder. But there is a cautionary note. Even the state-of-the-art shredder operation in Becker, Minnesota has been cited for environmental issues and has had a catastrophic fire.

The reality is that the engineering and technology exist for industrial metal shredders to devour hundreds of junk cars and spent appliances in less than an hour, but we lag in the best management practices to mitigate all the associated environmental risks. These risks include excruciating noise, fires and explosions. But a major concern is airborne lead particles. Lead is toxic — especially for children.

Now, let’s consider Alderwood Elementary School.

The school is roughly 2,000–3,000 feet downwind from the proposed shredder. If the ABC shredder is built, Alderwood Elementary will gain the distinction of being one of the closest elementary schools to an industrial metal shredder anywhere in the United States.

We need to ask ourselves, is that a distinction we want for a Bellingham Public School? And, if we say this proximity is acceptable, how do we defend that decision to future generations?

Michael Chrzastowski

Bellingham

Editor,

Please note that this guest commentary (CDN, April 7, 2024) was written by a nursing home administrator whose main goal is to make their corporation happy and their investors happier.

I have worked in every skilled nursing home in Whatcom County over 30 years and I can tell you the only thing that makes change for the better are federal mandates.

Please support the mandate to increase staffing! Corporate profits be damned.

Write to Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell today to voice your support for this mandate.

Marian Henderson

Bellingham

Editor,

When the jail sales tax passed, voters entrusted Whatcom County to build an effective, efficient and compassionate community safety system to mitigate decades of under-emphasis and neglect. This month, the county begins collecting taxes to support that proposed system. Almost simultaneously, the county and local jurisdictions will receive separate opioid settlement funds. The county must immediately prioritize transparency for all funds related to these funding streams by defining and tracking outcome measures. 

We are dismayed that the county appears to be moving less-than-efficiently to staff, fund and hire a team dedicated to collecting, evaluating, and publishing data. Spending decisions should be made based on data, not anecdotes or hypotheses. Without staffing to develop robust state-of-the-art metrics, we’ll get more of the same. The public deserves better.

We charge the county with prioritizing the hiring of “data” staff with criminal justice analysis credentials. It is critical that data be rigorously collected from all components of the county’s justice system, including as described in the commissioned 2017 Vera report and SAC Needs Assessment. The data should follow an individual through the entire system and have clear outcome measures focusing on Implementation Plan goals. Data sets should be collected externally through a public-facing, interactive website to build public trust. 

The Riveters Collective Justice System Committee follows Whatcom County’s Justice Project with great interest. We hope to see immediate action by the county because we believe there is no time to waste. Our commitment to this community is to remain actively engaged in this effort.

Suzanne Munson

President, Riveters Collective, Bellingham

Letters to the Editor are published online Wednesdays; a selection is published in print Fridays. Send to letters@cascadiadaily.com by 10 a.m. Tuesdays. Rules: Maximum 250 words, be civil, have a point and make it clearly. Preference is given to letters about local subjects. CDN reserves the right to reject letters or edit for length, clarity, grammar and style, or removal of personal attacks or offensive content. Letters must include an address/phone number to verify the writer's identity (not for publication).