Heartening results
Dear Editor:
I found the recent election results in the Methow Valley (and in Seattle) quite heartening. Incumbents, with proven records and clear programs for the future, uniformly won over challengers with vague slogans or misleading campaign literature. It speaks well for our citizens.
The voter turnout countywide was over 47%. This was considerably higher than the pathetic 42% turnout in the last off-year election (in 2017). It would have been even better if at least a majority of countywide voters had taken the simple and responsible step of filling out their ballots and mailing them — postage paid!
I don’t know how to figure out the overall Methow Valley turnout. But I do know that those of us in Okanogan County Fire District 6 have good reason to be particularly proud of our participation. Over 60% of our 3,792 registered voters voted in the District 6 race.
There was also good news about voters in the Seattle City Council races. They showed that Big Money was no guaranty of taking over the city council. There, a big business SuperPAC spent over $2.7 million in an attempt to replace or defeat progressive council members with pro-big business challengers. Amazon alone spent over $1.5 million. No one knows how much “dark money” was also thrown into those campaigns. That is unreported campaign money, kept secret thanks to the Citizens United and related cases.
Seattle voters were smart enough not to be swayed. If anything, some may have voted in part to show their disapproval of this Big Money attempt to take over the city.
Randy Brook, Twisp
Thanks for support
Dear Editor:
The “Southeast Asia: Veterans Perspective” event at the Twisp Valley Grange on Nov. 16 was well attended and community members were very generous in their donations to COPE Lao, the organization in Vientiane, Lao, that is providing rehabilitation services for those Laotian citizens that have been impacted by the Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) left behind by our nine year bombing campaign there.
On behalf of the other presenters and myself, I would like to thank Marcy Stamper for her article concerning the event, Don Ashford’s radio advertisement for announcing it as well, and Blue Star Coffee Roasters. The “Secret War” was one of the most significant events of the 20th century; the advent of automated war, the beginning of a new age in which war would be fought largely by machines. Hopefully, as a result of presentations like ours, the United States will be led to accepting its moral responsibility to aid the Lao people in resolving the UXO contamination of their country by our nine year bombing campaign of Laos.
We are presently working with the UXO Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives to ensure an adequate level of funding to that end. We previously invited Rep. Dan Newhouse to join the caucus, but to date have had no indication that he has taken any interest in this issue. Perhaps he needs to hear from more of his constituents to bring the issue to his attention. Thanks again to all that made the presentation such a success, particularly the Twisp Valley Grange for sponsoring the event.
Don Super, Methow
