Editor,
Income inequality plays a role in the Bellingham minimum wage Initiative 1 that qualified for the Nov. 7 ballot (CDN, June 23), and a ballot initiative in Los Angeles to cap hospital executive pay that will be on the ballot in the City of Angels.
The LA ballot initiative caps hospital executive pay at $450,000, the same amount the U.S. president makes. The cap does not apply to medical staff who provide patient care. The measure states that hospital executive pay “is often excessive, unnecessary, and inconsistent with the mission of providing high-quality, affordable medical care for all.”
The California Hospital Association filed suit challenging the measure, but a Los Angeles judge denied the association’s challenge.
When PeaceHealth Vancouver management cut Whatcom County’s outpatient palliative care program, they pegged the closure to lost revenue during the pandemic and also claimed outpatient palliative care was not sustainable. Yet, executives continued to receive sizeable compensation increases throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
University of New Mexico Hospital announced that all executives would take a 5% pay decrease, until June 30, 2024, to improve the organization’s financial picture, so they wouldn’t need to cut patient care. UNMH’s frontline medical providers will not see their pay decreased — only “chiefs, associate chiefs and executive directors.”
Minimum wage workers in Bellingham hope to get a $1 per hour wage increase to help keep a roof over their heads. It’s a very rare minimum wage job that offers health care benefits. These workers could seek a ballot initiative to cap hospital executive pay in Whatcom and Clark counties.
Micki Jackson
Bellingham
Editor,
A recent CDN letter to the editor included a tweet from Greta Thunberg and her citing of a climate scientist. As often happens, both Thunberg’s post and the climate scientist’s quotes were taken out of context. So-called “quotes” out of context are a negatively major issue in today’s polarization as they affect discussions about important issues, second only to outright lies told by some who either hold or run for national offices.
I searched several fact-check sites regarding Thunberg’s tweet and the climate scientist’s, James Anderson (Harvard atmospheric scientist), remarks at a seminar from which this was extracted. (Sites include Snopes, AP, Newsweek, etc.) Basically, Anderson’s comments were about the Arctic ice floes and their disappearance, saying that if projections aren’t abated within the next five years it will be too late to stop the eventual negative effects of climate change. There was no mention of the end of humanity in that time. However, this would not bode well for our species in a few, or less, centuries down the road.
As smart as we consider ourselves, humans are more of a reactive species than a foresightful one. Yes, climate change is a danger, and likely an accelerating one. Yet, the only way to combat it is a comprehensive, across-the-globe, action plan. That’s something the human world was never good at even when we numbered 3 billion back around 1960. We are now 8.5 billion and growing. Do you think we’d still have this climate change disaster facing us if we had a third as many people? It is a dilemma.
Rick Osen
Bellingham
Editor,
Michael Lilliquist’s excellent column on water quality in Lake Whatcom ignored important ways to clean the drinking water source for half of Whatcom County’s population.
The county should limit development and require stricter standards for runoff from new construction. Although development is the primary cause of poor water quality, the county and city continue to allow new construction to occur. Specifically, about 4,600 acres have been developed, and about 3,300 acres are zoned to allow additional development, far more than the 2,400 acres Lilliquist noted are now protected.
For existing homes, the county and city should go beyond voluntary retrofit programs and require property owners in the Lake Whatcom watershed to upgrade their lawns to meet the latest, most protective standards. A useful way to start is to require all properties, at the time of sale or major retrofit, to comply with standards that prohibit runoff from the property. Properties should then be inspected every few years to ensure continuing compliance with clean-water rules.
Although Bellingham and Whatcom County are working to restore water quality, we have a long way to go. Our local governments must ensure clean, safe drinking water for the roughly 100,000 people who rely on Lake Whatcom and a clean environment for the plants and animals in the watershed.
Eric Hirst
Bellingham
Editor,
As a teacher living in the Meridian School District, I know the pressures our schools face. We are asked to do more with less resources and handle bigger challenges with less support. Teachers are no strangers to tough times, but we need a school board that is laser-focused on helping our kids.
That’s why I’m proud to support Riley Sweeney for Meridian School Board. He will advocate for more paraeducators in our classrooms, a critical missing piece. He will stand up for our arts, music and theater programs to keep kids engaged in school and out of trouble. And most importantly, he will fight like heck to keep partisan politics and petty divisiveness as far away from our kids as possible.
As the man responsible for Ferndale’s parks and recreation program, he already knows how to bring people together and create positive experiences for kids and families. As a school board member, I know he will bring that same collaborative energy to solving the challenges we face. He is passionate about ensuring that our schools are places where all families are welcome to learn, grow and thrive.
Please join me in voting for Riley Sweeney for Meridian School Board on Aug. 1 this year.
Fia O’ Faolain
Laurel
Editor,
I am writing in support of our excellent county council member, Kathy Kershner. Without a background of appropriate experience, we would have little evidence as to whether a candidate is appropriately prepared for this challenging position.
Kershner has been a strong conservative voice on the Whatcom County Council for eight years. She does not take that position lightly and works hard to understand all sides of the issues before voting or taking action. She researches each issue at hand to ascertain implications for the future of her constituents. Recognizing nuances others may not see (i.e., within a proposal by other council members), Kershner has often averted actions that could have negative consequences for our families and businesses down the road. She is on many local boards and committees, making important decisions to ensure a safe and healthy community for seniors, people with disabilities and families. She has vocally and instrumentally supported law enforcement and serves on the Washington Association of Counties, coordinating with the other 28 counties in Washington state for better outcomes in Olympia.
I, for one, don’t want anyone on our county council who comes to the job with little or no experience in making hard decisions. From my perspective, it’s not a good place to “learn on the job.” I could not think of a better candidate to continue to represent the families of this county. Please join me in voting for Kershner for Whatcom County Council, District 4.
Patricia Wieland
Ferndale
Editor,
My choice for the location of the new jail would be the 40 acres in Ferndale that Whatcom County already has purchased. My reasoning is because we live in an earthquake zone, and I believe that the new jail should only be a two-story structure. The Ferndale location is plenty large enough that a smaller jail could be built first with additional wings added later as needed. And it’s large enough that an outside exercise yard for inmates could be added that would help reduce confinement stress that currently plagues these folks in the old jail.
Forty acres is also large enough for other kinds of expansion such as mental health and drug-related facilities, although I would also like to see the work release jail converted into an involuntary drug treatment center with the county detox building already close by. In fact, the Ferndale location is so large that you could conceivable move the entire county government and court complex to this location in the future, if needed, as I seem to recall many years ago reading that these buildings also had many structural deficiencies that would eventually cost millions to repair.
And finally, the Ferndale location is right off of the highway, providing plenty of parking without the hassle of dealing with downtown traffic.
Bill Walker
Maple Falls
Editor,
This sentence appeared in CDN’s June 20 issue: “Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Bellingham ranges from $700 to $2,100, according to a June 20 Zillow search.” I have been searching for affordable housing for the last 12 months, and was disappointed that CDN would print this sentence. The figure of $700 is grossly misleading — much too low. I checked Zillow on June 20 and found that Harvard Suites is offering “$750 + 3 beds.”
That means one apartment with three bedrooms at $750 per bedroom. In my searches I have noticed that any figure of $900 or lower applies to renting just one room; if that price is for a whole one-bedroom apartment, the apartment would be untenable (excuse the pun). Any figure under $1,000 for a decent one-bedroom apartment would be an extreme exception that distorts the situation. In Zillow on June 20, a one-bedroom is listed as “$900+” but, in the same ad (upon looking deeper for details) I found that a studio in the same building is going for $1,300. Something is amiss here.
John Holstein
Bellingham
Editor,
People with mobility needs such as walkers, guide dogs, people using wheelchairs or other devices deserve free and unobstructed access on our public sidewalks. Due to exacerbated public safety issues related to homelessness and poverty, many families and individuals are forced to seek shelter on our sidewalks or park oversized RVs and have belongings spewed across the sidewalk. Take Cornwall Avenue for example, I do not believe that a person with a disability using a mobility device would be able to navigate their way to Glass Beach on that sidewalk due to personal belongings, trash and debris cluttered across the sidewalk. These kinds of conditions not only rise to the level of a public health emergency, they create great risk to our city.
That is how come I have been fighting so hard to advance the platform of the proclamation of a local public health emergency related to homelessness. In my opinion, as someone who has experienced homelessness, if we really want to have a bold intervention in the suffering that we are seeing, it is going to take addressing the root causes of the issues. The city could act now to create a safe space for people living in RVs or seeking shelter. The longer we wait, the more risky it is that these issues will impact some of our most vulnerable residents. I’m running a write-in campaign for mayor of Bellingham to provide bold leadership in the crisis our community is facing. Learn more: joelforbham.com.
Joel Johnson
Bellingham
Editor’s Note: CDN has received the following fine letters during the past month from Fairhaven Middle School students.
Letters from Fairhaven Middle School
Editor,
I just finished seventh grade at Fairhaven Middle School. I know there are a lot of budget cuts and teachers being laid off so school will be different next year. But I also know of another change that will affect me and many others who are passionate about learning. We have been told that a program called Future Problem Solvers (FPS) might be cut. The program introduces students to present-day and future problems. Topics we have studied include throw-away society, the robotic workforce, building green and antibiotic resistance. To learn about the topics, we read articles, write summaries, watch videos and do projects. As teams of four, we use a six-step problem-solving process to brainstorm, rank and make powerful inventive solutions for the problems. FPS happens all over the world so there are FPS competitions.
This year, Fairhaven Middle School brought a lot of kids to the FPS state competition. We got to spend two days at Warm Beach camp, and it was a truly amazing experience. Fairhaven sent one team to internationals this year and they placed 10th overall. Last year, my team and I made it to internationals, and we placed 11th. Me and my team have become very close through FPS.
To conclude, I want people in Bellingham to see that FPS is an amazing program that challenges students in a way that normal school sometimes can’t, and it creates brilliant young people who want to make positive change in our world. I think funding for FPS should be a priority in the Bellingham Public School District because our students are our future.
Jonna Gillham
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about the circus because I saw that a couple of days ago and it seemed cool and something I didn’t know was happening until a little while ago and I wonder what would happen at the circus.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying which is the Earth Day movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is how this is a big thing that needs to be talked about and helped more because Earth Day is a day that we can help clean the earth even though every day we should, it’s a day to remind everyone that we need to help our earth because if we don’t it will slowly die.
I feel that doing so could inspire people to help save the earth. If it means something small or big it all has an impact so if we help clean the earth, our earth would be healthier and safer for the new generations to come.
Ella McAllister
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about Ski to Sea. I think it’s really cool how they set this up every year. It shows that they care about our community, and they are putting in the effort to give people something to care about, and work hard for.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — which is the climate movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is how important our climate is. I know that the climate movement is one of the most known, and most “boring” according to some people, but it’s super important. We all need to have a good climate to live in, animals too. We’ve already destroyed so many animals’ environments to the point of extinction. We really need to step in and help our climate. We need to spread the word.
I feel that doing so could inspire people to work harder to help our climate — or even just not do harm. There is a good amount of people who are working really hard, but the people that don’t care about it, and pollute, or litter, or anything else, are just reversing the effort that these people are putting into it. This just isn’t fair — for us, for future generations of people, for animals.
Zephyr Bryant
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had articles about so many important things in our town, I liked that unlike some local news resources, yours provided real things happening in our community that people would really connect to and actually care about. As a person in Bellingham, I think it is really good that you are touching on subjects that I as a citizen care about like, Ski to Sea, the farmers market, Lighthouse Mission, preserving marine life, and local events like celebrating Title IX.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — which is the Fair-Trade Movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is how important it is that people realize and see how other people are affected by this amazing movement and what would be happening if fair trade wasn’t around. I know that fair trade probably does not have as much to do with Bellingham as other social movements that my classmates are doing, but I still think this is a very important social movement. I ensure that there is no child labor used in making the products, the people making the products are getting paid living wages, that all the products are produced sustainably with low greenhouse gas emissions, and that the working conditions are safe and supportive. This movement helps low-income farmers, protects children from child labor and protects all workers from brutal working conditions.
I feel that doing so could inspire people in our community to support fair trade and if they have the resources to pay the extra dollar for the chocolate or bananas that they buy, knowing that buying the item that’s a little more expensive is helping low-income farmers in Mexico or buying fair trade chocolate could be helping some of the 1.56 million children working in cocoa plantations on the Ivory Coast.
Jewel Bryngelson
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had articles about stuff that is happening near us and not just all over the world because it is cool to see stuff in places that we know, and I like how you even let kids write the articles.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I have been studying — which is the climate movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is 17 of the 18 hottest years on earth have all been since the year 2001, and the hottest year was 2016, which was only 7 years ago, and this proves that each year the world keeps getting hotter. Another thing I found was that we are losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice each year.
I feel that learning about this could inspire our community to see what they can do to help and try to stop the world from getting any hotter.
Aubrey Hughes
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about the guy that set a record about the most blood drawn — that is really nice because that blood is used for surgery and other things. He tells us that it helps people live, he also says that doing nice is good because then something nice will happen to you.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — the disability rights movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is that the disability rights movement is about treating people equal and having the right to live when you have a disability — like in one of the TED Talks I watched talked about how people think disabled people can’t do anything and how they aren’t independent when they are — and about how transportation for disabled people is difficult to get around. We need to think about this — how we need to make life for them as easy as ours — they already have a hard life dealing with their disability, they don’t need people making fun of them, transportation issues, and items they need but can’t get pilling up on them. We need to take a stand for equal rights for all people because disability rights are human rights.
I feel that doing so could inspire our community to make it equal for people with disabilities but, like, we are already doing a pretty good job. Like, we are making it easier for people with disabilities in our school with putting ramps by the staircases and we also have an elevator. So I think we are good for now, but I still think we can make it better for disabled people to get around.
Suhana Cheema
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about the Shoestring Circus. I’ve been excited for that all year. I think I prefer your platform over the Bellingham Herald because I don’t really pay attention to the other parts of the world, as a 13-year-old I don’t really have reason to, and I think the localized news is more important.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — which is the anti-nuclear weapons movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is that even though people don’t really feel any imminent threat of nuclear war right now, especially in Bellingham, there is a chance one could start at any moment. The facts are that there are currently 13,000 nuclear bombs being held in arsenals as I’m writing this, and some of them could cause Hiroshima-sized explosions. There are currently nine nuclear weapon-armed states and 32 states that support nuclear weapons. The facts are scary, but they don’t need to be if we as a community step in and sign the ban, eliminating all threat of nuclear bombs and keeping the world safe.
I feel that doing so could inspire our town and the mayor to participate in the “ban the bomb” treaty. If we contribute our seal of approval, it may encourage others to do the same, setting off a line of positive dominoes of safety. Keeping our families and community safe shouldn’t have to be something kids like me have to worry about, but we can make a difference.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter, I hope this will inspire you to spread the word. It’s so important to keep everyone safe.
Everleigh Stiles
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about snowshoeing at Mount Baker, I really like how you all added this information about that because some people do it later in the year in hopes of there being less people. I also like the article about the World Record blood donor, that would be such an honor to donate blood knowing that it would help so many people — I appreciate that Cascadia decided to recognize someone like that, because they are so kind, and they deserve it.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — the 9/11 truth movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is that 9/11 is something that impacted everyone so much, it was one of the darkest days in history. It would be great if 9/11 could get more recognition since, even though it had happened 22 years ago, it is still a nightmare for the people who experienced it first-hand. This is about people creating theories from 9/11 and saying that it wasn’t the truth when they said that it was a terrorist attack, I feel like it should still be talked about since 9/11 wasn’t and isn’t something to take lightly.
I feel that doing so could inspire our community to start learning about it again, to start respecting it more, to give it more recognition. It was a dark day when it happened. It happened too suddenly, many didn’t know how terrible it really was, it didn’t give enough time for people to react, it just happened. I admit that I didn’t really care to learn about it in the beginning but now that I have learned and researched more about it, I realize that turning away from 9/11 wasn’t the best idea. I have more respect for it now and the people that were affected by it, I have empathy for the people who were hurt because of 9/11.
Sherlyn Montalvo
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about the guy who was a record-setting blood donor (Bob Hungerschafer), that just seems like such a cool thing to write about and personally, I think that anyone that donates blood is a good person, because people that just don’t care about others wouldn’t donate blood, but I see blood donors as people who are empathetic and caring. I also think that anyone who donates blood is just a respectable person, I would donate blood but I’m terrified of needles — they really, really scare me — which is why I think Bob Hungerschafer is a really cool and amazing person.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — the Psychiatric Survivors Movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is that it isn’t just focusing on people who have suffered psychiatric abuse, it’s also just to raise awareness for people with mental illnesses. This movement has also been called the (some of these are not used anymore) the mad movement, survivor movement, consumer movement and ex-patient movement. One thing that really hit me from studying this is the fact that a while ago — but still not too long ago — we forced people to do electro-shock therapy, lobotomies, trephination, ice and restraints, insulin coma therapy, metrazol therapy and many more. I think that more awareness needs to come to this topic because a lot of people have PTSD due to some of these horrible things and usually people just don’t understand or simply don’t know of the horrific things that happened in these hospitals.
I feel that doing so could inspire people to look at others with a different perspective because you never know what people are going through or what they have suffered in the past. People need to understand that being kind to everyone could make our world such a better place. There are people who you will never know or understand their stories and criticizing someone before you get to know them or know what their life is like isn’t something that we should just consider as normal. There are people that struggle, mentally and physically, and often times we are too quick to judge someone before we know anything about them.
Elena Dell
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about the person that is the recorded at donating blood and that is a good accomplishment because there are a lot of people who donate blood and there are about 6.8 million people who donate blood and what he did is impressive for one person.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying, which is the organic movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is that the pesticides that companies use kill about 67 million birds in one year and that is a lot of dead birds also that you can help the farmers by buying the organic produce and last 27% of people buy organic food because they are concerned with the environment.
I feel that doing so could inspire people/our community/our mayor/our town to stop buying the foods with pesticides and help the little farmers that don’t have much and don’t put poison in their fields for when the bugs try to eat the plants, they will die.
Andrew Bermudez
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about Ski to Sea. I was the biker on the TEJA team, and it was cool to read about the race.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — the Black Lives Matter movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is that the people that started it put in so much work into the movement and they tried and tried to get it to be a topic that people talked about and then they decided to have a rally and to everyone’s surprise 400 people showed up and after that, the movement took off and that brings us to where we are today. The movement has 26 million supporters and is a movement talked about around the whole world. I think that that is a really powerful thing to find out and it really goes to show the lengths people will go to for something that they believe in. It goes to show that something big can turn out small.
I feel that doing so could inspire our town to organize rallies in support of the movement because that is not something that happens very much, and I feel like if we did more people that have stuff to say about the movement and how you can help it would come out and say it. If we had more rallies I feel like it would make people not feel so alone in a mostly white community. It could also really bring people closer to gather because they would have a topic to agree on.
Ever Rogel
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about people in Ski to Sea and also about the Jr. Ski to Sea. I was in the Jr. Ski to Sea a few years ago, and I think that the whole concept of Ski to Sea is really cool. It’s encouraging people to compete and get outside and do something fun and active. It’s also very fun to watch. I know some kids who were in the Jr. Ski to Sea and I knew some people who were in the actual Ski to Sea.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — the anti-consumerism movement.
A lot of people don’t actually realize that they are overconsuming when they actually are. People can sometimes trick themselves into thinking that they need to buy something or really want to when they don’t actually do. Then, these items will most likely only be used a few times unless they actually wanted or needed the item, but then after a few uses, they will most likely be thrown out or forgotten about. I think anti-consumerism is a great way to combat this, since it’s good for the environment and for yourself. I think that you don’t need to make a huge lifestyle change to do this, but it can just be a small thing. It could be as small as only buying one want a month or something like that. It’s okay to buy something you want every once in a while but it’s not healthy for yourself or for the environment to buy things constantly.
I feel that doing so could inspire our community to try to be more thoughtful about what they’re buying, and really get them to think about if they really need something or if they’ll just forget about it over time. If we spread awareness about the problem of overconsumption, then we could make a huge difference in Bellingham. Even if it’s just a small group of people who make a change, it still matters and it still will help. I want people to realize that they don’t have to completely change their lives to support anti-consumerism. They can just make a small change, but no matter how small a change, it will still help.
Max Naiman
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh-grade teacher at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had articles about so many things going on in our community — from Sea to Ski to farmers markets, to a Lummi Nations carver making a story pole — and you featured a story on a circus happening at Waypoint Park — it shows that you are thoroughly covering the community. There was even an article about some environmental cleanup efforts happening in the waters around Blaine. I am in awe at how you find out all this stuff that is going on.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement project we each have been studying in our class — the fair trade movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is how important the movement is — and how game-changing it can be to kind of be influenced by it — as it focuses on certifying that labor practices around all things produced are equitable and fair. That is, there is no child or slave labor — and that people are getting paid a living wage — in working conditions that are safe and supportive. It also focuses on the environmental aspects and impacts of how the product is brought to bear — from there not being pesticides to there not being habitat destruction. It also is not just about food — but clothes and even cell phones can be fair trade certified — the latter due to the minerals used for the technology — and how they came from child labor in violent conditions.
I feel that doing so could inspire our town to become a fair trade town — as there are towns in Europe with that designation — and so kind of brings a certain mindset and awareness to the things we do on a daily basis, and it gets us thinking more about where things come from. It would be a boost to local businesses and local growers and local producers — and so our economy would be more local. You could also argue it would be better and healthier for us to be using products that are created from healthy working conditions.
Joel Gillman
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had articles about cool things that are going on around Bellingham, from articles about Ski to Sea, as well as the circus that has set up at Waypoint Park. I think that it is really cool to be able to read your newspaper and get the scoop on different things happening around town.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying—which is the slow food movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is all the things that you can get from doing things such as saying goodbye to fast food, and starting to cook your own meals from scratch, from ingredients that you can buy local from places like the co-op or the Farmer’s Market. You can get so much more nutrients and live a healthier, happier life!
I feel that doing so could inspire our community to support this movement more. I think that anyone can benefit from this, no matter who they are. I understand that it can be hard to transition from things like frozen pizzas that are so easy to cook and have a quick meal, but you can benefit so much from cooking your own food, you can also exercise your brain thinking up fun things to cook with the various things in your fridge.
Xavier Tuxill
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about important things in out community we live in and they’re getting recognized. They are really interesting and they did get my attention, and there are so many to read it’s fascinating, like the one where someone was blood donating, and its awesome for him and helping out.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — which is the Black Lives Matter movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is it’s important because we need changes in our community, there is so much racism it needs to change and by getting people to hear me, we can do it. The movement started in 2013 because of Trayvon Martin’s death by someone who didn’t feel bad falling him and have the gun on him; what kind of person would do that but then say an “apology” but saying we didn’t have regrets. This movement has been going on for 10 years now, it’s still going, and there has hardly been change but it’s getting the voices we need to stop racial profiling. In 2020 was one of the biggest breaks for the movement, in 2020 George Floyed’s death happened by multiple police on his neck while he was suffering and having trouble to breathe, after his world there were many protests because of police brutality.
I feel that doing so could inspire people to use their voice and stand up; we need to take matters into our own hands if there’s nothing happening, we have the power to change people’s perspectives, and do what is right for our world.
Darious Solorio
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had articles about so many cool small things that were happening around the community — from junior ski to sea to record blood donors, so many small things I would otherwise never get to hear about, and I love hearing about projects people are doing- and this newspaper shows compassion about our town and the people in more than any other.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — which is the fair trade movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is how easy it is for anyone to contribute to it, just by picking something that has a fairtrade symbol off the shelf, you can change the lives of farmers across the world, on the Ivory coast, in Guatemala and Ecuador. The extra dollar spent on Chocolate, or coffee, or tea, or flowers or whatever it is you buy that is imported, goes straight into the income of a farmer working 12 hours a day to support their family.
I feel that doing so could really change the fair trade movement here, because the fair trade movement is developed very differently around the world, like in Europe, fair trade is so important that even Nestle products are fair trade, such as KitKats. We could make it like that here, where even large-scale corporations are forced to make fair trade products for them to be sold.
Julia Wolgamot
Bellingham
Editor,
As a seventh grader at Fairhaven Middle School, I liked seeing that you had an article about how the Bellingham school board moves to reduce programs and staff. This is interesting to me because it talks about school funds and the struggles that Bellingham school staff have today, this also seems related to budget cuts which are happening right now for my school. For instance, my music teacher is no longer going to be teaching choir here and Fairhaven Middle School next year for my eighth-grade year. She was a good teacher and will be missed because of budget cuts and school funding struggles for electives that are not as “full” or “popular” as others like tech.
The purpose for my letter though is to inform and perhaps inspire your readers in our community about a topic and social movement I’ve been studying — which is the student activism movement.
What I feel would be beneficial to realize about the topic based on my research is that our next generation is either going to make or break this world. It is super important for young activists to realize the problems in the world so they can be fixed, this is also a good opportunity to realize what power they have in their voice when they all speak up together. I think that we should encourage our next generation more to see the problems so they can try to fix them, I believe that when it is used appropriately activism and especially youth activism can make a change for the better and change the perspective that other people see the world.
I feel that doing so could inspire our community’s youth to start taking notice of the world around them and have more awareness at what’s going on in different places in the world. If there is a big crowd of kids screaming for what’s right people will take notice because they will realize that the problems in our world are so big that even kids and young adults are seeing them and trying to make them go away or change for the better.
Bella Everett
Bellingham
Letters to the Editor are published online Wednesdays and a selection is published in print Fridays. Send Letters to the Editor to letters@cascadiadaily.com. Rules: Maximum 250 words, have a point and make it clearly. CDN reserves the right to edit letters for length, clarity, grammar and style, and personal attacks or offensive content. Letters should be submitted with an address/phone number to verify the writer’s identity (not for publication).
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