Editor:
When I picked up my New Era this week, I was delighted to see Bethlehem Village on the front page. I had the pleasure of being involved with this event and the many loving and devoted people who shared the day (after months of preparation) with some of our children in this community; a community that is interested and active in the lives of all children. I, for one, can’t wait for next year!
I have to say, that I’ve lived many places in my life and Sweet Home is, by far, my favorite. I’ve been here for 10 years and look forward to many more.
See, to me Sweet Home isn’t just some “run-down, welfare-looking town.” It’s where I choose to live and raise my children. It’s a place where others watch after my children when I can’t and I watch after theirs in return, where we keep an eye on the neighbor’s house while they’re on vacation and water the plants for them or take them a meal after a surgery or when they’re grieving over a loss. We do this for each other not out of obligation, but out of love. This is my home and this community is my family.
I take great pride in our schools and their administrators, our churches, our police and emergency services, our city leaders, and yes, our appearance. The beauty of our little town, nestled in the foothills of the Cascades is still quite wonderful to me.
Granted, there are a few vacant shops and store fronts that could use a “shining up,” but if more of us were to shop locally, maybe our store owners could afford to do the “shining.” Paying a little more for something is worth it to me if it helps to support our local businesses whose owners (and their children) are part of our community. We can’t blame Wal-Mart for the demise of local business if we are the ones who choose to shop there.
When I flipped open the front page and saw the latest feature on candidates for our City Council, an ugly feeling came over me. There, asking for my support, was a woman who has insulted my town and the community I love. A woman who speaks without first educating herself about what she is speaking of and then has to apologize later. A woman who has tried to publicly humiliate a current council member for his choice of clothing. A woman who, I’m not convinced, knows the true meaning of community.
In the article, she is quoted as saying “Our city workers have proven they’re very busy, overworked.” Yet, in her letter on April 26, she stated that the number of Public Works employees should be reduced and that she can’t be the “only one to see these employees driving all over town with nothing to do.”
Hmm…guess it depends on which side of her mouth she’s speaking out of. Or, maybe she thinks we’re just an uneducated bunch of yahoos and all we can remember is when the welfare check comes.
On the issue of her “vision” for Sweet Home, I think that she has spent more time picking our little town apart than she has getting to know us. If she had spent more time looking for the good in us, she would certainly have found it and the idea of a 1950s theme is ridiculous (just my opinion). We have a character all our own.
In choosing our City Council, we want members who will represent Sweet Home – not Sisters, not Leavenworth, Wash., but Sweet Home. People who take pride in this community, not someone who is ashamed of it. People who want to enrich and embrace what we have, not tear it down and replace it with something else.
I read something in Proverbs this morning that struck me. “Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.”
Maybe, instead of having to drive the mocker out, we just shouldn’t open the door and let her in.
Laure Fowler
Sweet Home