Letters endorse Seidel, question Gundersen’s past and view Palestinians as indigenous
Support Seidel for Olympia School Board
I am writing in support of Hilary Seidel’s re-election as a friend, colleague, and Olympia School District parent.
In my work as Thurston County Commissioner, Hilary has been thoughtful and responsive whenever I have reached out to her for input on a tough issue. Moreover, I have served with her as a colleague on the Thurston Regional Planning Council, and it is evident that her intelligence, judgment, and compassion for our most vulnerable students is unparalleled.
Finally, as an OSD parent with two teenagers at Capital High School and a wife who teaches elementary school in OSD, my family appreciates the leadership she showed by organizing student listening sessions and preserving funding for the art and music programs my children rely on.
She is supported by our local teachers’ union, for good reason. She served as school board president during the pandemic, and proved herself a leader who knows how to work with the community to make tough decisions.
Please vote for Hilary in November!
Tye Menser, Thurston County Commissioner
Gundersen is hiding her true colors
I am deeply troubled by the candidacy of Rose Chiu Gundersen for Port of Olympia Commission. She is not telling us about her political history.
Here’s what Gundersen said when she testified against House Bill 1515, on expanding the jurisdiction of the human rights commission, on March 22, 2005:
“Obviously I’m Asian, I’m born that way, you can see it, and there is nothing I could ever change, my nationality or my skin color. People of different sexual orientation have proven to come in and out of that lifestyle, so that’s a different thing. As a person of faith, this law tries to protect people of faith and if you add the sexual orientation at some point it’s going to have conflicts where, how could I tell my kid you can’t express your faith about where people stand on sexuality, but they can, because you will get into trouble. At some point this is opening a Pandora’s box. As a business owner, someday I’m going to have to provide bathrooms for people of different sexual orientation because then in providing handicap bathrooms, but this law will open the Pandora’s box to say you have to start providing bathrooms for bisexuals, for transexuals [sic], so it’s opening something you just don’t even think about at this point, and I want you to consider that.”
Gundersen owes us an explanation for her lack of transparency, and she owes us some honest comments about her conservative past — and if she has a conservative present and future.
Shellee Dawn Billings, Olympia
Palestinians are Indigenous people
While I’m appalled at the violence going on in Israel, I’m also dismayed at the one-sided reporting of the conflict. It reminds me of the vilification of the Native American warriors inherent in the cowboy movies of my youth, and seems as flawed.
Before harshly judging the actions of the Palestinians, folks should read the book “Against Our Better Judgment,”which gives a very different account of the creation of Israel than most have heard. If you forcefully take away folks’ land (the process is thoroughly researched and documented in the book), then force them into poverty and lack of options and hope, it’s not surprising that they use “unconventional warfare” to retaliate. They have no other choice against an enemy that is vastly superior militarily.
They also are being slaughtered in this latest conflict, but little is said of those victims (or other victims of Israel’s policies). Instead, it’s portrayed as a battle between “terrorists” and “security forces” or “military.”
The parallel between U.S. and Israeli history is especially ironic as we just celebrated “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” Unfortunately, I’m afraid the Palestinians will also end up in reservations, and history will represent them unjustly for many years, if not forever.
Jeff Loyer, Olympia