Election ‘08

Support candidates not with stolen sign

Four days ago I bought an Obama-Biden yard sign from the local Democrat headquarters for $5 and planted it on our front yard, not far from the road. Within hours the sign had been taken away by a person unknown.

To the unknown person who did this, please know that I bear you no ill will.

If you are an Obama-Biden supporter, I shall presume that you needed a sign for your front yard but couldn’t afford to buy one. In such case I thank you for joining in our support of the clearly superior candidates for our highest federal offices. The sign has already been replaced for an additional $5, thereby further enriching the Democrats’ campaign efforts.

If you are a McCain-Palin supporter, I must conclude that you acted out of anger and/or fear that your candidates cannot win unless support for Obama-Biden is actively suppressed by the theft of their yard signs. I thank you for this display of weakness and contempt for my right of free speech even as you asserted yours by the criminal act of stealing my yard sign.

If you are a kid, I forgive your childish behavior, but please, grow up, and learn to respect those who may disagree with you!

If you are none of these, why in the h(eck) did you swipe my sign?

IVER MacDOUGALL

NE South Beach Road

Schools

Send the school bus

bill to Gary Tripp

Gary Tripp’s letter to the editor (“Packing the bus: Is that cheating?” Sept. 20) ignores the fact that if a student decides to ride the school bus two weeks from now for the rest of the year, they will have a free ride.

Oh, I have a better idea. Let’s send the bill to Gary Tripp. I’m sure he wouldn’t want anyone cheating the school district out of funds it deserves.

KEVIN HAWKINS

Bainbridge Island

Shoreline

Do our bulkheads really threaten?

In a response (“Bulkheads do threaten,” Letters, Sept. 10) to my letter to the editor, Dr. Deborah Rudnick made a number of hypothetical statements, such as:

•Bulkheads can interrupt inputs of soils from the land to the sea;

•This interruption of fine material inputs can substantively alter nearshore habitat;

•Bulkheads can increase wave-reflective force, increasing erosion of nearby beaches and properties;

•Shoreline armoring can reduce or eliminate upper intertidal habitat.

You also said that “recent research from the University of Washington has shown that armoring can have effects including reducing woody debris and increasing beach surface temperatures which can stress spawning fish and invertebrates.” Subsequently, you provided the documents referenced above. Thank you. I have read them both, and have asked Donald Flora, for his comments. Dr. Flora was formerly employed by the United States Forest Service where he headed watershed studies research, including stream biology, riparian ecology and related subjects.

He ends with a personal comment: “There is a great amount of alarmist writing hereabout, replete with “may” or “can,” followed by some presumably dire nearshore consequence. First, there is little showing that the consequences are in fact dire. And second, after 150 years of shoreline alteration on the island “may” and “can” should either be replaced by reflections of actual experience or be dropped. Bainbridge, because of its industrial past, should be a poster case of direness, yet places like Blakely Harbor are being called “pristine!”

My conclusion after reading the two referenced studies is that they had nothing to do with the question at hand. They referenced data collected over two days in one case and five days in another. One was a master’s thesis for the UW School of Marine Affairs, a program for launching careers in marine policy and management, not scientific research. The studies’ locations were not selected at random, there were no controls, and there was no evidence to suggest that bulkheads or “shore armoring” created the conditions that existed on the beaches where the data were collected. Yet, the authors had no problem drawing conclusions for the entirety of Puget Sound.

Just because something “can” have an effect, doesn’t mean it “does.” That’s what science is for, to find out what effect something does have after we speculate that it can. Speculation (hypothesis) plays a important role in the scientific process. It shouldn’t be used to justify land-use policy.

KEN SETHNEY

South Beach Road

Bainbridge Shoreline Homeowners

Community

We can help our teens unwind a bit

Who on this Island doesn’t know a teen who is stressed to the max? Overwhelming and constant stress is undermining our kids’ access to learning, healthy relationships, positive choices, and enthusiasm for all that is available to them. It contributes to a big disconnect and is often justification for “playing hard” and “letting loose” in ways that aren’t in their long-term best interest. We are offering a positive alternative to help manage the stress.

The Bainbridge Coalition for Youth and Parents (Just Know) opens the 2008-09 season with “I’m Stressin’ Out Here,” a workshop for tweens, teens and their families. As a follow-up to the Seeds of Compassion, Just Know is presenting a workshop with Gina Biegel, a nationally recognized expert in applying proven mindfulness tools to teen stress. The event will be held at Woodward on Saturday, Sept. 27 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and is free for teens 12-18. Refreshments and a resource area/bookstore are also available.

Parents and other adults are welcome and encouraged to attend; suggested donation is $10. Children younger than 12 may find it difficult to sit through this particular event, and we will have a future event focused on elementary-age kids. All are welcome to bring an item of nonperishable food for Help Line. This event has been made possible in part by contributions from HHHS and Once Call for All.

For more information and to pre-register, go to our website www.justknow.org. We hope you will join us.

SUZANNE IVEY

LAILEY JENKINS

Co-chairpersons

Just Know Coalition