July 25, 2017 Dena Jensen
I encourage people to read this opinion piece in The Western Front by Suzanna Leung, and take a look at the chart of Bellingham City Council Member responses to the idea of changing the name of Pickett Bridge, which is named for a Confederate General who, according to historian Leslie Gordon “was appalled by the notion of freeing slaves and arming black men to fight.”
How is it that six out of seven the Council Members would either not respond or not voice an opinion? To me it is unacceptable! What do you think? Let folks know with your comments and then here is the City Council address to let them know as well: ccmail@cob.org
“Incumbent and 4th Ward Council candidate Pinky Vargas and incumbent and Council at-large candidate Roxanne Murphy were contacted via email twice and three times respectively since July 5. Murphy was also contacted by phone three times and was left two voicemails, while Vargas was called twice. Councilmember April Barker was left two voicemails and three emails. Councilmember Dan Hammill was also emailed once and called twice over a six-day period. The Western Front did not receive a response to our questions from any of these representatives.”
Candidate for Bellingham City Council, Jean Layton was the only person contacted that said they would support a name change of the bridge. We have a lot of work to do for social justice and our community members’ empowerment and safety in Whatcom County!
Also, if you are a member of the Riveters Collective (which is a closed group) on Facebook you can also read and participate in an ongoing discussion of this topic here. (If you are not a member of the Riveters Collective on Facebook here is a link to their Facebook group where you can request to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RivetersCollective/
noisy waters northwest 