Reader feedback

Organizers rock

I started adding up the community organizers in Kingston and shocked myself with the numbers. There are many more that I couldn’t remember, I know.

I want to assure each and every one of them that I appreciate them from the bottom of my heart. The responsibilities they assume and the hard work they do to fulfill those responsibilities fill me with awe and respect. Where would we be without these wonderful, giving people? Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Razon Johnson

Kingston

Marine Science Center

It’s worth funding

Is the Poulsbo Marine Science Center worth supporting? I started volunteering there in 1991; now that it’s thankfully reopened, the PMSC continues to be a Poulsbo landmark, learning experience and tourist attraction.

Fund-strapped county schools cannot afford to send all students to the Seattle Aquarium; the PMSC, once the new school programs are operational, will again serve all Kitsap schools, with all grades utilizing the exhibits, classrooms, and new floating lab.

Daily visitors (admission is free!) are numerous; I can’t walk into the center without threading my way through families lined up around the exhibits, as volunteer docents enthusiastically explain the marine animals and their lifestyles. Kids’ eyes light up as they pet a crab or gently touch the tentacles of a sea anemone or the back of a sea star. As one lady told me, “My two grandsons would spend every waking minute here if they could!” Staring into the eye of the giant Pacific octopus, just inches away, has everyone enthralled.

But this isn’t just free family entertainment; it’s a learning experience, a glance at nature’s wonders through windows on the sea, leaving lasting impressions on young minds, creating better stewards of our fragile environment. And it’s Poulsbo’s own, a facility with tremendous potential as new exhibits and programs come on line. No matter where the funding comes from, the center is worth supporting.

Nancy Sefton

Poulsbo

Decision 2008

The Maverick Obama

Enough about McCain, who knew Obama was such a maverick? On May 24, 2007, 14 extremists stood on the floor of the Senate and cast their sacred votes to end funding for the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan. They stood against the president, Republicans, Democrats, and our young people in harm’s way. Mr. Obama was one of those ‘protest voters’. Had he been successful the money would have stopped on the 28th, just four days later. If Obama had his way he would have abandoned our people in a hostile desert, humiliated in defeat.

Obama boasts he was against the war from the beginning. At Saddleback he said that was the hardest decision of his life! But when he spoke against the war he was a no-name state legislator in a liberal district. He was in zero danger of political backlash. His decision to oppose the war was meaningless. Contrast that with his telling vote as a senator against the troop surge. The surge that’s worked. The surge that is responsible for the fact that our troops are coming home. The surge that claimed victory in Anbar. Obama and Biden opposed it. Today he admits the surge worked “beyond expectations.” Wrong, sir! It has succeeded precisely as planned by your colleagues. In the words of Rudy Giuliani, if you want to know how to lead something a little more substantial than a political campaign, “Next time, ask John McCain.”

Adam Reasner

Bremerton

Thanks, Poulsbo!

Fishline expresses gratitude

On behalf of North Kitsap Fishline, I would like to thank all of those in the community who helped with the School Supply Program this year. Because of your generous donations we were able to assist over 250 children who needed supplies and backpacks. I would especially like to thank Curves of Poulsbo, St. Vincent De Paul, Kenneth L. Salon, Seabold Methodist Church, Delta Kappa Gamma, and Tuna Graphics for holding supply drives.

A special thank you to first-grader Audrey Baker who supplied a complete backpack for a Poulsbo first-grader. I also want to thank those who helped pack and distribute the supplies; North Kitsap Blast, Discovery Point Kids, Ryan, Stephanie, Jane, Kelsy, Kathy, Mitzie, and Michael. A smiling thank you to Duffy from Caring Clowns International for entertaining the packers. North Kitsap is a community who cares.

Kathy Smith

Fishline Volunteer School Supply Coordinator