Most people came to help, not gawk

Quote: “Spectators flooded downtown streets on Friday as a steady stream of gawkers and looky-loos came to see the overflowing river.” (Saturday article, “In soggy Snohomish, crowds gawk, record, reflect.”)

Webster’s third international dictionary defines “gawk” as follows: “to look without intelligent awareness. To gape or stare stupidly.”

For your reporter’s edification, there may have been a few who gawked, but be assured that most of Snohomish’s citizens who came to the river were there out of concern for the farmers, livestock and residents, the damage done to their fields, roads and pastures and the inevitable cost of repair and restoration.

We call that intelligent awareness. And, incidentally, just what is a “looky-loo”?

Bill Bates