We were recently subjected to a pleasant and gratifying experience at the hands of a United States government agency, specifically, the Border Patrol in Anacortes, as we disembarked from a domestic sailing of the WSF arriving from my home island, Shaw Island.

At no point did this vessel pass through international waters or leave the United States of America. At the inspection station a most pleasant officer approached our car and asked my wife and me to state our citizenship. When we obliged we were cheerfully allowed to continue on our way. I am a United States citizen of Hispanic ancestry whose forefathers arrived in what is now the continental U.S. in 1598 with the Oñate Expedition. My wife, also a citizen (though not Hispanic), and I were not at all distraught at the scene, especially knowing that the pro-freedom tenor of the present Federal administration is aggressively looking out for the best interest of our citizenry. The entire episode smacked of much-appreciated police protection.

The Federal legislature rests assured that the United States Border Patrol is doing a good job of trying to rein in overbearing freedom-haters whose sole purpose in life is to bring death and destruction to America. I heartily urge you to write to your Representative and Senators and urge them to continue to support agencies that look out for the best interest of America.

We were pleased with the experience, and particularly overjoyed that such aggressive actions continue to protect our welfare. The approach of the Department of Homeland Security to this matter of “citizenship checks” needs to continue. As for the department deporting illegal aliens, it’s no different than the Sheriff’s department extracting someone who is illegally living on private property. I’m all for foreigners living within our borders, as long as they go through proper channels.

Any person who knows me will bear witness to my good character, civic involvement, and love of country, surpassed only by my dedication to God. To the Border Patrol personnel reading this letter, thank you for a job well done.

As I sit here erasing pencil notations out of the “Beauty and the Beast” scripts, I am reminded of all of the wonderful islanders who work so selflessly for the theater productions at Orcas Center. I dare not try to name all of those faithful souls who worked behind the scenes for our latest show; surely I would forget someone. But I do want to say a huge thank you to all of you who never get your name in the program, never see your face in the newspaper, never get a round of applause or never have someone rush the stage to give you a flower. I often take the job of Stage/Deck Manager, an odd job that takes skill in diplomacy and cat herding. I attend every show, yet I never see a show. As I sat there in the darkened wing the other night, listening to our wonderful actors on stage, I was struck by the enormous effort it took to put those actors out there to entertain everyone. They spent countless months, not hours, months of preparation time to stand there in the spot light and right along with them were people designing costumes, sewing costumes, building sets, painting sets, finding props, and driving the kids to dance class. Once we opened the production there were people just like me who attended every performance dressing actors, applying make-up, combing hair, moving props, holding curtains, manning the spot lights, and keeping the kids safe and happy while they waited for their moments on stage. It took an army of dedicated heroes. And I want to take a moment to say, “Thank you so much, my nameless and faceless comrades. The show would not go on without YOU.”

Beginning with family visits to the Pudget Sound area circa 1955 and many visits to Orcas Island in the 1970s, a recent visit sent alarm bells off about the increasing visibility of invasive weeds. Imagine loading a 40-pound sack of mortar on each shoulder and carry them for a year; next year, load another sack on each shoulder, keep that up until you drop.

That is what your fine trees are bearing with wild Clematis and English Ivy clinging to them. It’s predicted that Mt. Hood National Forest will become an ivy desert in 100 years, all man-caused. You can reverse this loss by participating locally to rescue your island from the clutches of invasive weeds. Ivy also robs trees and shrubs of oxygen by stealing moisture and nutrients before trees can uptake their soil borne food. Become a volunteer because time is not on our side.

Several weeks ago, the County Noxious Weed Control Program mailed about 130 informational letters to residents and property owners in the White Beach Road and Deer Harbor areas on Orcas concerning the necessity of controlling spurge laurel, an escaped evergreen shrub which poses a growing threat to our woodlands. The response to this letter has been remarkable. When the program staff surveyed White Beach Road last week, only a few plants were found in an area that had been heavily infested. Many thanks to all those White Beach Road and Deer Harbor residents for your hard work and quick response in removing this noxious weed. These strong community cooperative efforts will, hopefully, make it possible to keep this plant from becoming as pervasive and difficult to contain as Scotch broom.

Sincerely,

I’ve been troubled by a recent event involving a new deputy. Friends familiar with this incident have urged me to share it with the Sounder. About two weeks ago, a large truck leaked a significant amount of diesel fuel between Eastsound and the landing. The road was wet from earlier rains, so, along with the odor, the oil sheen was quite evident to all those who drove through it.

Moments after the truck arrived at the landing, an employee spotted the problem and alerted a deputy who just happened to be cruising by. The offending vehicle was pointed out, the oil puddles were obvious. The deputy shrugged his shoulders and drove away, towards Eastsound, which is when I came into the picture. I had been following the trail of oil towards the landing when I spotted a deputy backing on to Warm Valley Lane, which is the hot spot to catch speeders. His tire tracks were clear on the the ‘oiled’ road.

He had something more important to do.

Onboard the ferry the leak was contained, and at the landing, oil was sopped up. And, on Orcas, someone got a speeding ticket, probably.

On behalf of myself and the Board of Orcas Center, thanks and congratulations to each and every individual who contributed to the success of “Beauty and the Beast.” We are so proud! What an entertaining, memorable show it was for those of us lucky enough to be in the audience, which totaled over 1,800 for the nine performances. As important to us as the audience’s enjoyment of the show, if not more important, is the quality of the experience this project provided to the 100+ folks who made it happen. We hope participation was an enriching and enjoyable experience for each of the following: a talented and hard-working cast led by principal actors working at a highly-professional level, and supported by a number of wonderful actors, singers and dancers of all ages; a terrific band of musicians; all the behind-the scenes production folks; the parents who chauffeured, organized and supervised the children in the cast; the folks who sewed costumes, built and painted scenery, created props, makeup and hair and performed so many other miracles to make sure the show looked as good and ran as smoothly as it did. Thanks also to the generous sponsors who provided underwriting to cover expenses and provide tickets to families who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend. Congratulations to all, and special thanks to a great artistic leadership team of Deborah Sparks, Martin Lund and Susan Babcock.

I have been part of this community for almost 19 years and most every year we have the same school board meeting as I attended today [April 30]. I didn’t stay until the end and I don’t even know all the details of what was decided. I do know that it is a privilege for me to work with every teacher and staff member at our school. And I do know that what we’ve got set up simply doesn’t work.

I propose that we form the following task forces at a meeting Thursday, May 8, 3:30 p.m. in the school library:

• grants: I know an excellent grant writer. Anyone else know people who might be able to help us pursue grants for our school?

• foundations: we need people with access to and/or interest in pursuing private foundation money.

• lobbying: we need people with contacts in Olympia and/or interest in carrying our message to Olympia.

• research: we need people knowledgeable about or interested in learning about state and federal education policy and researching successful programs across our state.

• outreach: we need to share what we find with other schools.

This will be action oriented work. This is not about “processing” or discussing cuts to our staff and program. This is about pulling together and working to help our school for the long term. Please spread the word and invite people you think will be interested.

I’m tired of talking about cutting people out. Let’s figure out how to keep people in! We have an amazing staff working in a fabulous school.

This is simply what our children deserve.

I hope to see you at the meeting on May 8.

Lyndon Johnson had a saying: Let a Bully in your back yard, he will want on your porch. Let him on your porch, he will want in your house.

The Bully -ICE/Guiliano – is on our porch. His intention of adding road blocks and upping the number of stops, tells us he wants in our house.

Make no mistake, ICE/Gulliano is a Bully.

The Bully says he is only doing his job.

So did Lt. Calley at the My Lai massacre-

“I was ordered to shoot anything that moved.”

And Pol Pot whose job-doers murdered 1 million Cambodians who did not want to be resettled.

And, of course, don’t forget the Nazi final solution. Six million Jews.

Murdered. People just “doing their job.”

The stain this Bully puts on us shows up not just in families destroyed, lives crushed.

It is a stain on our character, as well.

None of us seem willing to stand up to this Bully.

Some lawyers, me among them, believe herding people like cattle into a corral, demanding proof of citizenship, lacks the required geographic relevance, here.

The Fourth Amendment requires probable cause. Since 1971 a citizen may sue a public official individually _ that’s right personally for violation of a person’s constitutional rights.

Imagine what the Bully might do if someone hauled him into Federal Court in Seattle and made him tell it to a Federal Judge.

There are hundreds of cases where citizens have done exactly that. Other Bullies have paid dearly. Not just in dollars but also the embarrassment of Court mandated restraining orders.

But not here.

Years from now, after our long neo-con nightmare is over, when someone asks, “But what did you do?” What are you going to tell them?

Nothing?