Dianne Saffle comes to class once a week to soak up wisdom and warmth.
For Elizabeth Brannstrom, the draw is the discussion.
"And the fights," she admits.
Charles Henderson likes to hear what ordinary people — "not the experts" — think about the news of the day.
Jo Deardorff sees it as a chance to pick the brains of those enrolled in the South County Senior Center’s Current Issues course. "There’s an accumulation of more than 1,500 years of living in this room," she said.
The class meets 10 a.m. to noon every Wednesday at the center on the Edmonds waterfront. About 30 students attend, under the tutelage of two instructors who’ve seen their own share of news.
Jeannette Wood, 69, spent a decade in the Legislature, six years in the state House and four in the Senate. A Republican, she also served as mayor of Woodway. Her 70-year-old husband, Ross Wood, is also a former Woodway mayor. Their class comes under the umbrella of the Edmonds Community College Creative Retirement Institute.
This is the Woods’ first quarter teaching Current Issues, which has been offered for years.
"We’re delighted to have them," said Farrell Fleming, the new director at the South County Senior Center.
At 61, Fleming has worked with seniors since the 1970s, most recently as development director at the Stanwood Senior Center and, before that, as executive director of the Stillaguamish Senior Center. He’s glad senior centers have expanded beyond being places just for ballroom dancing and bingo.
"The idea that seniors would want to learn something was almost a foreign concept," Fleming said of the philosophy early in his career. "But people inherently want to learn.
"When you think about using it or losing it, that’s true in every aspect of life. It’s certainly true of the mind," Fleming said.
There was plenty of fodder Wednesday for a vigorous mental workout, as there has been since class began in late September.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 "affected everything we’ve done," Jeannette Wood said.
Exams and homework aren’t part of the curriculum, but the group is clearly up on the latest developments. On Wednesday, they covered everything from Pearl Harbor memories to the fate of John Walker, the young Californian who turned up among Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The topic centered on whether our country is sacrificing civil rights as it targets terrorism.
Ross Wood used internment of the Japanese in the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor to spark discussion about detaining people of Middle Eastern ancestry.
"People thought that was a good idea at the time," he said.
"The Japanese civilians didn’t do terrorist acts," said Adele Pickett, who comes to class from Kirkland.
"This isn’t about the Japanese, it’s about Muslim cells in this country," said Gwen Dyason-Wood, a native of Great Britain who lives in Edmonds.
"We had a guy who blew up a building in Oklahoma City. I don’t think he had done anything wrong until maybe he bought the explosives," said Howard Smith, of Edmonds, referring to Timothy McVeigh, executed for the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people.
"We really don’t have a way to stop things before they happen. How do we change the law?" Smith asked.
"Do we want to change the law?" Ross Wood countered.
No one dozed off as arguments were made. No one threw a punch, either.
"Each week it’s like a family reunion," said Margaret Keene, of Edmonds, who’s been in the class for eight years. "Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don’t."
They don’t have to agree. It’s enough to speak their minds.
"They go into class as strangers and end up a group of friends," Fleming said.
With the world’s problems left unsolved, the classmates headed to Red Lobster for lunch.
Contact Julie Muhlstein via e-mail at muhlsteinjulie@
heraldnet.com, write to her at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206, or call 425-339-3460.
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