La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

A letter last week (Jan. 27 Weekly News) talked about the unfair school funding system.

I do not think taxes of any sort are designed to be fair. They are designed to raise revenue. There are a lot of taxes and fees that we pay as citizens which may not benefit us.

As a person living in Shelter Bay I felt the need to point out I have a lot of representation with the Swinomish Tribe. We elect a board every year made up of hard working volunteers that represent our wants and desires to the Tribal board which also happens to be our landlords.

The service provided by the Swinomish Tribe are exemplary in all aspects. I personally have used the police, fire department, animal control and building codes/permits department. I see police patrolling our subdivision a lot more often than I have ever seen police in La Conner.

Finally while the Tribe was not required, they stepped forward with a hefty donation to help La Conner and I see they are constantly doing things as a good neighbor to help La Conner.

“If I ran the Zoo,” by Mel Damski, was in the same issue.

I do not approve of the political sign mentioned (“Dementia Joe? Heels Up Harris? Lord Help Us All”) as I believe politics is a fun sport and no need to get nasty over it.

I also abhor telling people with a different point of view to leave our country. I do not know what happened in Washington D.C. and I doubt we will ever be told the full story. Of course I can name representatives on both sides of the aisle who have promoted violence against the opposition. It is easy to instigate if it does not affect you.

I, too, wish our politicians would put the country before politics occasionally. I believe that is what Vice President Pence did when forced to make a decision. I hope that is what Biden is trying to do. It is already clear some news outlets and politicians on both sides do not want unity.

Damski does have a horrendous mistake in his column, “Yet nobody had issues with vote counting back then”. The very reason the electoral vote count happens in person in Congress is to take issue with how the electors were appointed and the constitutionality of the vote. (“Trump’s Electoral College Victory Challenged by Democrats,” Reuters 1/16/2017).

The History, Art & Archives website of the U.S. House of Representatives points out we the people vote for the electors, not the actual president. Since 1887, 3 U.S. Code 15 has set the method of objection by members of Congress. Recorded objections happened in 1969 and 2005.

Without the electoral vote a large swath of our country would never be represented by the president.

Michael Hennessey

Shelter Bay