This letter is in response to Jim Ellis’s opinion letter to the editor June 1 regarding the Snoqualmie Tribe’s plan for developing a 12-pump gas station on their lands.

While I defend your right of free speech, I find your letter both extreme and bigoted. Your use of quotation marks when you write of Native American rights denigrates their very rights. I’m speaking of your use of quotation marks when referring to “tribal lands” or “sacred lands.”

You can substitute the phrase “so called” in place of those quotation marks and have the same bigoted effect. Its use is offensive as would be its use of so-called “women’s rights,” “minority rights,” “LGBTQ rights,” etc.

Freedom of speech in America certainly allows hate-speech to enter our collective discourse on occasion, but it should be called-out whenever it occurs.

As a Valley resident for over 60 years, I for one support the Snoqualmie Tribe. They are such great neighbors and have donated so much to the betterment of this place we both call home.

I call on my fellow Valley residents to voice their support for the tribe, and call out racism wherever and whenever it exists.

John McLean

Snoqualmie