Editor,

Having family at Whidbey Island, I read the News-Times article: “From service to self-made: Veteran finds strength in crystals, community and change” (Oct. 24 issue). I indeed applaud the efforts — past and present — of Braighan Buckley and “thank her for her service” to our nation. I’m glad she was a success at being a Navy police officer. I wish her the best with the upcoming birth of her child. I had to smile when she said she originally wanted to be stationed in Texas.

I am mindful of the words of a very patriotic American, Ceferino Balbin, who was Secretary-Registrar of the Scottish Rite Masonic Bodies in Tampa, Florida. On August 13, 1917, he announced that he had just been drafted and was arranging to go to the ‘front’ imminently. He had a wife and two children; was a strong believer in the draft-system and did not believe in the ‘exemption’ clause. He said: “If we all expect to derive benefits, we all ought to fight. Of course we can’t all fight at one time, but we all ought to be ready to answer the call, when needed.”

Mr. Balbin added: “I believe it is the duty of every male person, whether citizen or stranger, to become a ‘Soldier of Freedom’”. That should be the current universal policy throughout our nation today.

Most of the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden and Finland) all have mandatory military conscription for males. Just this year (2025), Denmark started conscripting women. I think they are wise.

The whole concept of “war” actually boils down to “survival of the fittest.” Nobody plays by “Queensberry Rules” (as is done in boxing). The “Geneva Convention” (with its supposed formula of preventing torture or inhumane behavior) has been violated so many times since its last revision in 1949; it is a joke. Think of the Army priest from Kansas, Fr. Emil Kapaun, who was a POW in Korea until his death in 1951. It was reported that in the weeks leading up to his death, several servicemen alongside him died daily of “malnutrition, disease, lice, and extreme cold.” In 1979, Iran’s renegade regime seized American hostages. Just within the past couple of years, Hamas took hostages also; sadly some died in captivity. No war is clean.

Let us appreciate all our veterans. Each has sacrificed.

James A. Marples

Texas (with family on Whidbey)

Editor,

Mr. Wilferth is, as ever, grammatically correct, but neither honest with facts nor logically coherent (“Lincoln was not devoted to ending slavery,” Nov. 5).

The aristocratic, slave-holding leaders of the Confederacy knew what Lincoln thought of slavery: “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery isn’t wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember I when I did not so think, and feel.” That’s why they tried to assassinate him before he could take office, and why some states seceded soon after his election. They also knew that he defended runaway slaves in court, and that the Republican Party was then the most anti-slavery of the three parties.

Lincoln did put the Union first, as Mr. Wilferth wrote, as a rock-solid personal belief, and as a tactic: Lincoln knew that he had won without a majority of the vote, that the nation was divided on the issue (and wouldn’t countenance a war over slaves), and that he needed as many states as possible to remain within the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation had to wait until a majority of people on the Union side had come to believe slavery was the cause of the war, and that slavery should go once and for all. I doubt that any MAGA president at the time would have done as much.

Yes, many of us are in “fear of what he (Trump) is capable of doing.” And for good reason. But Mr. Wilferth’s paragraph on Democrats is so bizarre and vague that no response is possible: as usual, all charges, and no specifics.

I ask yet again that Mr. Wilferth explain to us what good things Trump/MAGA is doing or wants to do for us. So far, he’s demolished part of the White House and the entire Rose Garden (because he felt like it); accepted a jet that we will pay a billion dollars to convert and that he will keep; pardoned convicted criminals after receiving bribes to do so (and he doesn’t, by his own admission on 60 Minutes, even know who they all are); allowed the export of the most advanced AI chips the United Arab Emirates, after they bought at least a billion dollars of worthless Trump crypto currency. Once a huckster criminal, always a huckster criminal. I pass over the secret police called ICE, for the moment.

Mr. Wilferth is, sadly, that annoyed pig that refuses to learn how to sing, happy to grunt in the dark and blinding mud.

The absolute least Mr. Wilferth and all the MAGA letter writers could do, since they are grownups, is to stop fulminating, and list all those good things Trump is doing. And demand that Trump release the Epstein files. I doubt the MAGA cult members will do that. I’m sure they know what’s in them but let’s all withhold judgment on that until the files are released.

Do we have some common ground, Mr. Wilferth, in calling for the release for the Epstein files? And to let the chips fall where they may?

John Seyfried

Bayview

Editor,

I learned through a Whidbey News-Times Oct. 31 article, that the owners of a parcel at the corner of DeVries and Green Road in Oak Harbor have been fined $10,000 for their attempt to drain a wetland.

But the $10,000 is not going to Island County. It’s going to the Whidbey Camano Land Trust.

We just learned of a 40% increase across the board for all development permits issued by Island County. Why doesn’t that $10,000 fine go towards the cost to Island County to monitor and resolve this wetland situation? Is that burden then placed upon all the other people applying for a permit, and to taxpayers?

I’ve also learned that some time ago, the county-approved of a water coursing alteration upstream of this wetland, that diverted more water onto this parcel, contributing to the expansion of the wetland. And possibly contributing to the fact that this parcel doesn’t perk for a septic system.

It appears as though errors have occurred by most if not all parties involved.

Tim Verschuyl

Oak Harbor

Editor’s note: The state imposed the fine and agreed to the settlement, not the county.

Editor,

Perry Lovelace of Langley responded to my concerns about our island’s aquifer with reasonable thoughts about an islandwide Public Utilitiy district like that of Jefferson County. There are positive aspects in his proposal, but there still are concerns because we are an island where resources like our aquifer are more limited.

Mr. Lovelace is correct to identify our aquifer as being “single source.” It is limited to our replenishing rainfall. Being an island surrounded by undrinkable seawater that continually infuses itself into our freshwater aquifer, we must have an abundance of rainwater that exceeds the amount we extract for ourselves just to keep the aquifer clean, drinkable and refreshed. Without that “excess,” the whole aquifer can become poisoned like has recently been happening to nearby Pass Lake.

Has no one noticed that Pass Lake has become so polluted that it had to be closed to public access several times in the past few years? We sure don’t want that happening to our aquifer! Overuse by a burgeoning populace will do that.

What’s more, the aquifer’s quality and quantity are governed by flow patterns establish over eons of time that tinkering can disrupt.

The Wagon Wheel Trailer Park’s experience appeared to be a recent case in point. Its well went completely dry when the Navy started major pumping nearly a mile away at their golf course well. It was an apparent effort to drain away pollution from their notorious landfill operation but had disastrous effects elsewhere.

Our island aquifer has different concerns than mainland aquifers. The overlying terrain has variances that affect the aquifer’s quality and quantity. It is gravelly in places and dense in others. It is more protected by hundreds of feet depth in places, while being “artesian vulnerable” in others.

Then too, private wells have rights guaranteed by RCW 90.44.050 that deserve protection. Washington’s water laws historically encouraged private well investments. Should they be ignored and violated?

Al Williams

Oak Harbor