Don’t lose Twisp
Dear Editor:
I’m still stuck in exile in Dallas, but you have no idea how close Dallas seems to be to Twisp. I’ve met two different friends here, who have visited Twisp a few times over. Dallas is now one large strip mall with 6.8 million people. Everything has been homogenized, everything has been paved, there are no charming stores and almost no independent restaurants. This place is not a community, and so investors and chain-brands have taken over.
I write to make an out-of-the-box request to preserve Twisp as it is: please stop attacking each other on politics and vaccines and such. Please stop believing your neighbors are appalling, when they do not agree with you. Twisp is already becoming an us vs. them place. You have an opportunity to win and lose elections, without losing community.
If you are divided too deeply, the investors will come, they will prey on your division, not enough of you will come out together on what is important, and they will pave. Consider the next 50 years of battles to keep Twisp. How hard will it be to keep winning the ones that matter? It takes the force of a united community voice to uphold your survival as Twisp.
My dear liberals, what if you lost the Trumpers’ support for these things that really matter, because of the ugly words and tones and scowls (Trumpers in town tell me they don’t put up Trump signs anymore because of broken windows). My dear Trumpers, think about what our town would be without our flaming liberals fighting for the beauty of the land. They seem to do the heavy lifting, but they need you to come out when it counts and help push it across the line.
There is no other Twisp you can go to. Twisp is the last Twisp. Once paved, it will never come back. Everything changes, but you alone determine how we will change, and if we become more of a community or less of one.
Jonathan Bradley
Twisp
Vote in the primary
Dear Editor:
I am writing to encourage every eligible voter to cast their ballot in the Aug. 2 Washington state primary election. It is easy and secure to vote in our state using mail-in ballots, but too few of us cast our ballots in summer Primary Elections.
Some people believe that the primary elections don’t really matter, but nothing could be further from the truth. If you want to be able to vote for your preferred candidate in the general elections, you need to support them by voting in the primary.
Since 2008, our state primary election system has allowed voters to choose from among all the candidates running for office regardless of party affiliation. Only the two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary election will advance to the general election ballot in November. The top two candidates could both be Democrats. They could both be Republicans. They may even have no political preference. All that matters is the number of votes they receive from you, the voters.
If you need to register to vote or to change your voter information in Okanogan County, go online to https://voter.votewa.gov or call the Election Office at (509) 422-7240.
Voting is our constitutional right, but it’s also a privilege that I urge all of us to exercise.
Nancy Aadland
Winthrop
