Letters to the editor for May 24

Rally participants harass neighborhood

I live in the South Capitol neighborhood. I expected to see people walking to the April 19 rally against Gov. Inslee’s stay-at-home order. I did not expect to experience noise, chaos, infiltration and harassment.

The neighborhood started filling up with protestors around 11:30 a.m. and was not emptied of excess traffic until after 4:30 p.m. Our streets were blocked. Engines revved, music blared and horns honked. The noise and lines of traffic were continuous.

While working in my yard, I asked one driver to please stop honking, reminding him this is our neighborhood. His response was to circle my house several times, honking his horn each time he passed by, glaring at me through his car window. It appears he never parked his vehicle to join the rally — just circled our neighborhood creating noise and distress. While he probably stayed on the right side of the law, I was subject to his bullying.

Later, I wanted to take a picture of a tree in my yard. As I pointed the camera upwards, a group of people walked by with protest signs in hand. One woman stopped to comment on my tree. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” she said. I replied, “Yes. And you should not be standing so close to me.”

Finally, I decided to leave to get away from the noise which seemed relentless. I took a drive and returned home two hours later to find nothing had changed. The noise and the traffic were still present and our neighborhood felt under siege.

Melanie Reynolds, Olympia

Bravo for ‘Friday Night Lights’

Hats off to the athletic director at Tumwater High School for instigating “Friday Night Lights” to honor the Class of 2020.

Living very close to Ingersoll Stadium at Olympia High School, we drove up by the church across the street to observe this happening. It was surreal. High school graduation is a milestone and a very important event in a person’s life, and that is not going to happen this year. So to observe kids in their cars and some carrying blankets across the street to sit on the asphalt with their friends was a poignant and emotional 20 minutes. Absent, of course, was the music, the marching band and a crowded stadium. It was an historic few minutes that will be etched in those seniors’ minds forever.

In talking to a good friend about the experience, he reminded me that those kids are strong and resilient, and to put things in perspective, that while this could not be a happy occasion, it is a far better time than the summer of ‘42 or during the Vietnam years when so many seniors went away to another country and never returned.

Thanks to the T-Bird athletic director for his inspiration.

Larry Freshley, Olympia