We can repair damage at the ballot box

To The Eagle:

Surveying the wreckage left in the wake of the bumbling Biden administration (he is at this moment re-creating the fall of Saigon) most of us have concluded that the only way to stop the carnage and start repairs is through the ballot box. In the short run and locally, there's not much we can do about Chinese treachery, terrorism, inflation, illegal immigration, incompetent medical bureaucracy, or disastrous forest management, but there are two problematic areas well within reach of rural and suburban voters: schools and law enforcement. Local folks across the country are scrutinizing their school districts to find maladministration, including bizarre sex education, high dropouts, low literacy, and Critical Race Theory, and they are revamping school boards via the ballot box.

In our failing cities, law enforcement is run by police chiefs who are controlled by the politicians who hire and fire them. In the rest of the countryside, we have sheriffs who are elected, have broader powers, and answer only to the people. Last week the sheriff of Union County, Oregon, published a rousing open letter (easy to find on the internet) challenging Governor Kate Brown's draconian handling of health, education, and business, and asserted the rights of citizens to make decisions for themselves and their children. Our own sheriff has taken to these pages to inform us, precisely and professionally, of new Washington legislation that has effectively tied the hands of law enforcement.

So we can indeed get a handle on some of our problems using the ballot box, if we can repair the incredible damage the Democrat party has done to the mechanics of our voting system -- a subject for debate which has been declared off limits by this newspaper.

Howard Brawn

Puget Island