Letters to the Editor

Thanks

A Southern goodbye

Crocodile tears filled my eyes as I left some of my dearest friends two Fridays ago at a farewell party. Just short of seven years ago, I began working for the City of Mill Creek as the Community Service Officer at the police department. As fate would have it, my husband has accepted a promising career on the East Coast and I will be beginning a new life in South Carolina.

My very first task assigned at the police department was to host a fundraiser after a tragic accident. I saw a community come forward with the support and care that was amazing. Those great qualities never changed in Mill Creek. They only got stronger and grew larger as our community grew in population and through development.

It has truly been a pleasure working for such a great city and serving such a wonderful community for the past years. Good luck to your families and your businesses as they continue to thrive in best city I’ve ever lived in. You have been my family and my friends. I will miss you all.

As luck (and with a little help from the Internet) would have it, I will now be living in a new Mill Creek. Ironically, I found a subdivision in Lake Wylie, S.C., called “Mill Creek Falls” and had to buy a home there. I guess I just can’t get this town out of my system or my heart.

Michele Pellettieri

Mill Creek

Fircrest

Fircrest gives children a life and a safe haven

Ideally, home is the best place for every child. But what if the home situation isn’t ideal enough?

I remember the fear my parents felt when my baby sister was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and mental retardation. I remember how they met their fear with dedication to the development of whatever capacity she could achieve. I remember their determination to keep her at home and to assure her place in society. To that end, Mother organized other parents of children with similar disabilities. To that end, I became my sister’s caregiver at a very early age, because my mother not only cared for her when I was in school, but also worked to help support the family and did her organizing at night when my father was home. All of our family life was about my little sister. The time came, however, when crisis ruled our family and she could no longer stay at home; and then the day came when there was no longer any safe place for her in the general community; and her needs were growing larger all the time. Then she came to Fircrest. At first, it was hard on all of us, but at Fircrest, she has the support she needs, 24/7. And she is still reaching for her potential. And she has a LIFE!

So many families live similar stories; thank heaven that Fircrest is finally being allowed to offer safe haven and a LIFE to such children.

Saskia Davis

Shoreline

National politics

Bush has some competition

It must be great to know that you are always right. Jack Leicester of Shoreline, in his letter of April 13, claims CO2 does not cause global warming. His proof is his recently published letter in “The Times” stating that fact. George W. Bush has serious competition right here in Shoreline.

Rose M. Laffoon

Shoreline

McCain’s singing out of tune with reality

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain’s recent musical ditty about the joys of bombing Iran was met with laughter in Murrells Inlet, S.C. McCain’s amusing melody about bombing Iran is based on the Beach Boy’s classic “Barbara Ann.”

That a man aspiring to be president or the United States could joke about murdering tens of thousands of innocent Iranians is both disturbing and inexplicable. Of greater concern is that McCain’s impromptu campaign ditty about a murderous bombing raid on Iran wasn’t met with universal U.S. condemnation.

How would we feel if Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khameni broke into tuneful merriment and altered the Rolling Stones classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and injected the word “but if you try sometime you just might find — that you can take out New York.”

John McCain’s obscene attempt at humor demonstrated that the demonization of Iran is now almost complete. I have yet to read of one White House aspirant ever referring to “Operation Ajax” — the August 1953 CIA coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Massadeq. This carnage was courtesy of the Shah — our hand picked puppet dictator. Perhaps John McCain can surprise us and adopt another rock and roll classic to outline our role in the August 1953 Iranian tragedy? I can’t imagine which tune the ever-creative McCain would choose to alter, but it’s a safe bet that “Stairway to Heaven” won’t be one of them.

Jim Sawyer

Edmonds