Fireworks freedom gained in Revolutionary War | N. Kitsap Letters to the Editor

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Bet this won’t be published by July 4

What a sad commentary your anti-fireworks for personal use was. It’s just another symptom of how out of touch your editorial writer was about the reality of why we celebrate the Fourth of July.

On June 14, newspapers around the world reported that a British warship, the HMS Ontario, was found on the bottom of Lake Ontario, where it has rested for 226 years with the remains of 30 U.S. prisoners of war, prisoners of war who fought and won in the American Revolutionary War.

In case it has slipped your memory, the American Revolutionary War was fought to get the heavy-handed British royal thugs off the backs of the colonists who were struggling, against all odds, to live where they could be free of tyrannical rule in their religious beliefs and practices.

That’s what the American Revolution was about, editor, freedom. And the remains of 30 Americans rest on the bottom of Lake Ontario as a testament to that, to this day. But for you editor, you seem to want to denigrate people who choose to make a private celebration the appropriate way to remember the Fourth of July with their own fireworks. You would rather they all jam together in some public place for 45 minutes to watch a “public professional” show and then spend two hours trying to get out of a traffic jam complete with the chaos that goes with it.

I suggest that you do a little research, editor, on the history of the American Revolution. If the brave Americans who fought to establish the religious freedoms that we enjoy today had decided it wouldn’t be “safe” to fight the British royal thugs and win freedom, where would all be today?

Freedom to choose personal use fireworks is a freedom that was won in the American Revolutionary War and all Americans should choose to celebrate as they wish.

This campaign to regulate how citizens choose to celebrate the Fourth of July is very anti-American. Given the biased opinion of the North Kitsap Herald editorial, I’m sure this letter won’t appear on the letters to the editor page before the Fourth of July.

John Eastman

Poulsbo

City Hall

Shouldn’t it already be finished?

At the May 21 Poulsbo City Council meeting, an updated report on the progress of the new city hall was given. The gist of it was how to fund the project’s completion.

The city is finding itself faced with increasing costs because of delays (no actual figures are available), and is frantically looking for ways to address the situation.

What I find ironic is that the city is in a financial bind over a building that should have already been built.

Muriel Williams,

Poulsbo

Kitsap Transit

What gives?

(This letter is an open letter to Kitsap Transit.)

On Wednesday the fourth of June, I checked the Web-based schedule for a trip to and from Bainbridge Ferry Terminal commencing and ending in Kingston.

I noted that the No. 90 schedule said specifically that pick up in Kingston was at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and 1st Street. There was no such mention of a similar pick up point for the No. 92 bus. The schedule indicated that the terminus was Kingston Ferry Terminal.

To reassure myself I phoned the helpline for Kitsap Transit. I was told that pick up would be at the Ferry Terminal. As there is a lane reserved for buses and a stop location marked by yellow lines painted on the curb and walkway, this seemed reasonable.

At 10 o’clock the No. 92 bus came down route 104 toward the ferry terminal and turned left on Washington Boulevard proceeding to immediately, without pause, take another left onto 1st Street and depart Kingston. I was left standing at the ferry terminal.

The scheduled departure time of the Kingston/Edmonds ferry is 10:05, the No. 92 bus turned onto 1st Street at 10:01.

While a young and fit person unladen with packages might have sprinted from the bus to the ferry in time for its sailing, this 68-year-old fellow with a bum knee would never have made it.

Is it unreasonable to expect, that since there is a reserved lane, and since there is a sheltered designated spot for the passengers, that the bus should terminate its run at the ferry terminal and not at a distance across traffic to an unprotected location?

Why was I, standing in clear view, and in the obvious place to board the bus, left without transport after having checked via the helpline to make sure I was in the correct place?

As a result of this fiasco, I was forced to return to my vehicle, drive to the Agate Pass park and ride and wait for the No. 90 bus to get to Bainbridge. That morning had I filled the gas tank in my car with $4.25/gallon fuel; hence the cost to me of the unforeseen drive to Agate Pass was approximately $8. Please remit.

In scheduling my trip, I looked at the feasibility of leaving my car in the park and ride at George’s Corner, catching the No. 92 to transfer in Poulsbo to the No. 90 and then returning in the evening via the No. 91 to George’s Corner. That’s fine, except the No. 92 does not stop at George’s Corner it stops, once again at an unsheltered location, Kountry Korner. As it was raining on the morning of June 4, I deemed the walk from the park and ride to Kountry Korner unattractive.

Do the people who devise these routes and schedules ever think about what they are doing, or look to see what the issues are? Are the drivers more concerned with meeting these designated schedules than transporting passengers? Response requested.

Charles B. Mitchell

Hansville

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