There’s something significantly special about the mere mention of home at this time of year that strikes an empathetic cord, strums the emotional heart strings and replays the melody of childhood memories. Whether it’s Bing Crosby’s famous rendition of the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O.’s – when the soldiers of World War II learned […]
Letter: Who is the customer?
By David Anderson, Tillicum “Building trust in government” – the concern raised in the last paragraph of Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditiz’s column in the fall “Lakewood Connections” recently delivered to mailboxes throughout the city – is placed here in the first paragraph since the topic of trusting government merits discussion of highest importance given […]
Letter: Trick-or-treating – and the truth – in Tillicum
By David Anderson, Tillicum What character are you going to be for Halloween – monster, vampire, witch, werewolf, ghost, or just a regular creep? How about going as “truth” or “(environmental) justice”? The truth – about how Camp Murray’s gate could have been permitted by City of Lakewood staff to be relocated in such a […]
Letter: Champions of Chaos
By David Anderson, Tillicum From “Occupy Wall Street” to Every Street – even Lakewood’s streets, and those of Tillicum and DuPont; from the rutted-roads of Rwanda to the airy mountainous heights of Afghanistan and its arid desert wastelands, chaos can reign anytime two volatile, combustible ingredients come together – leadership that is AWOL, and values […]
Letter: The Year Lakewood Lost Its Voice
By David Anderson, Tillicum When it is clear that our voice matters not; when our protests fall on deaf ears; when we are led to believe “mounting community opposition” may well have an influence on the outcome but, as it turns out, the resounding vocal and written opposition affects the decision minimally if at all, […]
Letter: “Don’t ask, we’ll tell”
By David Anderson, Tillicum As there are two rails that make a train track, and a two-way street that provides directional choices, so listening and responding would appear to be integral to good communication. Not in Lakewood.
Letter: Terrorist attack foiled at new gate but community destroyed
By David Anderson, Tillicum No, it didn’t happen. But it could. Camp Murray wants a new gate accessed through the residential streets of Tillicum. But Camp Murray is the crucial emergency life-line to the entire State of Washington serving as the home of the Emergency Operations Center. With the news out of the Pentagon September […]
Letter: Camp Murray is AWOL
By David Anderson, Tillicum The Washington Military Department’s “explanation” for moving its gate is absent without leave. With two years and as many attempts to offer something substantive in its supposed authoritative and persuasive document – aka the Environmental Assessment (EA) – Camp Murray provides 268 pages of regurgitated justification for the same singular “Preferred Option”.
Letter: No Strings Attached
By David Anderson, Tillicum Just so you know I’m not always defending our community against all enemies foreign and domestic, I also write for fun. This is one of those. The sights, sounds and smell of the Puyallup Fair are, as they say, “worth the price of admission.” There was a young trapeze artist spinning […]