Coal terminal violates rights

Last Sunday, The Herald published a guest commentary in support of “business rights” over “Lummi rights.” Let’s take a real look at what that means. The Lummi Nation has been reduced over the course of the 20th century to a small piece of land in northwest Washington. In return for this diminishment, the U.S. government promised them, by signed treaty, to some basic rights forever, including, but not limited to, the right to their way of life. This includes, fortunately enough for anyone remotely concerned for Washington’s environment, the right to fish, and also the right to honor their ancestor’s burial places. Both of these basic rights would be violated to the extreme by the proposed Gateway Terminal at Cherry Point. The coal and shipping companies are only worried about extracting the last few pennies left from their coal investments — the same investments that Goldman Sachs now warns against. The coal market is dying, and good riddance to this blight on the planet. To build Cherry Point now would only be a monument to the sad history of coal mining in the U.S. The Lummi Nation, with their incredible clout under U.S. law, would appear to be in the best position of all to save us from a coal port we don’t need now, and never will.

Mike Shaw

Edmonds