The reality
Dear Editor:
The lack of acceptance of the reality our country is living in right now is almost unbearable. Do you not see the atrocities our country is committing on all scales, from the individual, to the planet? Many people support Democratic Socialism as a remedy, but the dog whistles are deafening here in corporate-funded America. Maybe our taxes could pay for health care, education and mitigating the climate crisis instead of subsidizing corporations and perpetrating endless wars, at home and abroad.
Could we help each other, instead of fighting for the scraps trickled down upon us? But don’t worry, whether you are black, brown, LBGTQ, a woman, and/or poor, just work hard and America will reward you with opportunity and success. As long as you can support that baby you are forced to have, if you live in a red state. As long as you don’t get shot by police, for no reason. As long as you aren’t discriminated against in your job interviews. As long as you don’t acquire a debilitating disease that will destroy your life and your family’s financial security. As long as you survive your crushing student debt. As long as you aren’t murdered in a right-wing terrorist attack. Hopefully, you didn’t come here seeking legal asylum, from a country so corrupt and violent that you would rather risk your children’s lives running, only to be separated in a concentration camp overseen by racists and sociopaths.
The only people who have something approaching freedom in our country are wealthy white people, and corporations, also legally considered people. Sadly, this is all just a side show to the main event. Murder is a crime, unless you kill a journalist from Saudi Arabia, and the criminal organizations — I mean oil companies, defense contractors, agri-corps and media conglomerates bribing our politicians, are literally killing the planet. We’ve been purposefully misled down this path. Where is the justice for these criminal organizations and their puppets? “For a short, beautiful time, before most life on the planet was destroyed, we generated unprecedented amounts of wealth for our shareholders.”
Kyle Northcott, Winthrop
‘No’ to gravel pit
Dear Editor:
The Okanogan County’s proposal to purchase land across from the town of Methow for the purpose of gravel and sand extraction is ill-conceived and will undoubtedly do irreparable harm to the Methow community and the surrounding valley.
The consequences will likely include: degradation and impairment of local water quality and the surrounding aquifer, degradation of nearby residential wells, ambient air exposure to particulate matter silica dust as a result of crushing, loading and hauling sand and gravel, increased heavy equipment exhaust fumes and the noise pollution associated with the extraction/transport process in such close proximity to Methow, increased heavy industrial traffic, unnecessary and premature road wear to state Route 153, loss of natural habitat and the loss of tourism.
This is proposal is a bad idea and will forever change the landscape and the quality of life that has defined the hamlet of Methow and the surrounding valley. The county needs to find a less invasive site.
Edward Gutekanst, Methow
Recommended reading
Dear Editor:
I recommend an article on page 46 of the latest AARP Magazine, titled “Jeff Daniels.” He’s playing Atticus Finch on Broadway finally, with the permission of Harper Lee. My Swiss sister-in-law reads her books in an attempt to understand what’s going on in America, and since even in the Methow we seem to have the problem Lee wrote about so eloquently, I find this helpful.
Eric Burr, Mazama
Remember when?
Dear Editor:
Remember what things were like before the affluenza epidemic struck — way back in the early 1970s and before — when most farm, ranch and scenic country settings were populated by ordinary folk who lived reasonably comfortably in modest and decidedly unpretentious homes and shacks, with chickens in the yards, gardens and potluck gatherings aplenty, and most everyone helping each other out and feeling completely at ease with one another? That was nice, wasn’t it?
Then the affluenza epidemic struck hard, especially in the most scenic and mountainous areas of places like Colorado, Montana, Idaho and even Washington (most of Iowa was spared, for some strange reason), and practically overnight, real estate prices, fueled by speculators (meaning folks with loot) looking to potentially double their money in just a few short years (on unimproved land [for doing absolutely nothing]), skyrocketed, and before you knew it, places like Aspen and the upper Methow valley (where I once lived at the end of the road in Early Winters) became virtual ghost towns as the ordinary folk who gave such places their character, and meaning to life, either sold and moved away or had their places sold out from under them, and instead of a community (remember what those were like?) you began to see a scattering of seldom- or only-occasionally-occupied mini-mansions (in all the best places) dotting a patchwork landscape of increasingly smaller (but increasingly more expensive) slices of subdivided property, with more gates and seriously expensive taste buds, but it was all worth it in the end because those dull and drab ordinary businesses were replaced by real estate offices, trendy shops, overpriced eateries and other clever ways of catering to the wealthy.
This could have been titled, “Selling Your Souls,” but wasn’t.
D. W. Bonny, New Orleans
