City tagline

A recommendation has come to the Snoqualmie City Council to adopt a tagline to be added to the city’s new logo. This would be used selectively on marketing materials as the city seeks new businesses, residents, and visitors to our evolving city.

The tagline is “Your Place of Discovery.” I have seen articulate, thoughtful, reasoned opposition to the recommendation. Along with other supporters, I would like to share my thoughts in favor of the recommendation.

Everything is about “you,” whoever you are and for whatever reason you were drawn to our city. With improved highway and wayfinding signage, you will now be better able to find this place. You will learn that we are 25 miles from downtown Seattle, near the Falls and not near the Pass.

You will learn that we are in the heart of the Upper Snoqualmie Valley that has so much to offer for everyone.

There are so many things for everyone to discover, especially as we implement a new look and feel and vitality to our historic/railroad district.

If you come for a Day Out With Thomas, you will discover our farmers market as well as new restaurants, baristas, and retail shops near the Northwest Railway Museum’s train station.

If you come to gamble, you will discover the history and artifacts of the Snoqualmie Tribe, headquartered in our downtown.

If you are looking for a home, then you will discover parks, trails and open space everywhere, as well as panoramic views of Mount Si and the Cascade Mountain Range.

If you come for the bicycle safety rodeo or the three-on-three basketball tournament, then you will discover 18 eating establishments in close walking distance at the Ridge Marketplace.

For all that has recently happened and will happen in the near future, this truly is “Your Place of Discovery,” and there is so much more to discover.

Bob Jeans

Snoqualmie

Kudos on editorial

How refreshing to see a print journalist that gets it. Thank you for the article (the Valley Record’s March 26 editorial “pilot project or land grab?”) and for being able to see through the smoke screen to the real issue. Keep up the good work.

Steve Hammond

Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights, Enumclaw

Reasons behind school vote

The voters clearly said “no” for the third time, and the district cannot understand why. People are having problems making ends meet financially. It is also now happening on the Ridge, which will bring more no votes.This election will pop up again unless our school leaders can come up with a way to make things work in their budget. Gee, is that not what we have to do with ours? Have no fear, they will be back for more tax money. There is nothing wrong with a “no” vote if it is the only way you can afford your home and expenses. House values are going down and to move would create losses for home-owners, so if they wish to stay in the Valley, they need to say “no” to tax increases they have control over. Please do not be ashamed to have voted “no,” as the no vote was to help people keep their homes and manage their finances, not a vote against school age students.

Ron Sorenson

Snoqualmie

Inclusive faith

It’s refreshing to see that some of the rhetoric surrounding the Mount Si High School Martin Luther King, Jr., Day assembly has tapered off. However, there is one thing about all of this discussion that still has me troubled. I’ve noticed that many who oppose the Gay-Straight Alliance do so by claiming the word “Christian” to describe themselves, as if being Christian explains the foundation upon which a person stakes their case. It alarms me that so many find the words “gay” and “Christian” to be mutually exclusive.

Since I have many Christian friends who also happen to be gay or lesbian, I ache for them each time I encounter this misconception. I think it is important to point out that not all Christian denominations condemn gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals as do the few churches that have been particularly vocal recently.

Tolt Congregational United Church of Christ in Carnation welcomes and affirms all people, regardless of race, gender, economic status or sexual identity. While the UCC is a progressive Christian church, our denomination dates back to the Mayflower. Eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence were members of UCC predecessor bodies. We were the first mainline church to ordain an African-American (1785), a woman (1853) and an openly gay pastor (1972).

If you have given up on organized religion because your own experiences do not mesh with what you were taught in Sunday School, I invite you to check us out Sundays at 9:45 a.m. for Sunday School and 11 a.m. for worship. We’ve wrestled with those scriptures so often cherry picked by the extremists to further their hatred and intolerance, and have moved beyond them to find a God of amazing grace and an inclusive, deeply spiritual faith awaiting.

Cindy Sattler

Fall City

Listen to Obama

A year ago, I would have let the letter published in the March 19 Valley Record, written by Joe Crecca, go by without comment. Mr. Crecca expounded on the questionable assumption that, if elected, presidential candidate Barack Obama will have his former (now retired) pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as his spiritual advisor. Even as recently as four months ago, I would have just written Crecca off as a closed-minded individual who has obviously let the media brainwash him into making such an irrational statement. But I have been listening closely to the words of Barack Obama. Over and over again, as he criss-crosses our country, reaching out to the American people, Obama is handing us a message of hope that we can change.

I could rail back at your fallacious rant, Mr. Crecca, that the Rev. Wright would surreptitiously be the “spiritual conscience” of America. A part of me still wants to, but I have heard and have to respond to Obama’s call to conscience. I have to change my actions and my words, if I want to participate in defeating the insidious poison of disrespect that pervades our society. So with that motivation, I respectfully ask you to sit and listen to the full 37-minute speech that Barack Obama gave March 18 in Philadelphia. Please listen to Obama’s own words as he clearly states, several times, that he deplores and denounces the outrageous and inflammatory statements made by his former pastor. It is certainly clear to me that Obama would no more have Rev. Wright as his spiritual advisor, any more than he would be likely to let his beloved grandmother make decisions from the Oval Office.

I can only think that you have written such a letter because you feel a hopelessness that is felt by so many in this country. Even as you and others lash out, I still believe there is hope for us all, if we can make this leap of faith. If by chance, I or some other soul is able to convince you of this possibility, and convince the many others who also, seemingly, have given up, then maybe Abraham Lincoln’s long-ago dream will come true at last, that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”

Maura Callahan

Snoqualmie