Don’t let the tiki torches fool you / Glenn Stewart

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This image links to an August 15, 2017 CBS video,
‘Tiki torch CEO says he’s “appalled” at protesters’

February 20, 2022 Glenn Stewart

“It ain’t what people know that gives ‘em trouble, it’s what they know that ain’t so” — Will Rogers

The philosopher, theologian, medical doctor and Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer disagreed with Descartes’ famous idiom, “Cogito ergo sum,” I think, therefore I am.  That was too easy for Schweitzer.  “If humans think at all, they must think something,” he wrote.  Our most fundamental thought must be, Dr. Schweitzer surmised, “I will to live amongst others who also will to live.”  Quite right.  Our survival depends upon finding some basis by which we can co-exist—perhaps even thrive if possible—with millions of others.  The most fundamental empathy; the very basis of Human Ethics, and our best chance for survival (Schweitzer was saying) is the knowledge that all Humans ‘will to live.’  

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Memories fade, books are forever, until they’re not / Glenn Stewart

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Click the image of the book cover of Maus by Art Spiegelman to access the author sharing the story behind the book on NPR

February 13, 2022 Glenn Stewart

The price we pay for a world where information from one human to another flows freely may be that some foul language and lascivious behavior is part of the lexicon.  So be it.  And if that were all that mattered, the discussion about banning books would be over.  

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No room at the inn: current homeless strategies in Whatcom County / Noisy Waters Northwest

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February 13, 2022 Dena Jensen

What’s encouraging

Three years have passed since the City of Bellingham and Whatcom County governments held a joint discussion that broached the subject of advance planning for severe weather shelters without action being taken to do so. But on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, Whatcom County Council finally authorized an interlocal agreement between the two government bodies to provide winter shelters during severe weather emergencies.

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Searchable meeting summaries of Bellingham City Council meetings January 2021 through December 2021 / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image to access the City of Bellingham meetings page on the COB website

February 5, 2022 Dena Jensen

It finally dawned on me that placing text of the meeting summaries from a series of Bellingham City Council regular meetings in one searchable post could be a way to more quickly discover when certain issues and measures were discussed and/or voted on.

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Calling for more sheltering and services and less policing / Letter to Mayor Fleetwood and the Bellingham City Council

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Click the image of two unmasked security officers in black jackets walking together in downtown Bellingham’s commercial district to access the Cascadia Daily News article, “Bellingham hires security to patrol downtown”

February 3, 2022 Dena Jensen

Sent: Thursday, February 3, 2022, 01:11:02 PM PST

Subject: Calling for more sheltering and services and less policing

Dear Mayor Fleetwood and Bellingham City Council:

I don’t know what question was asked by the reporter or what the exact statement was that Mayor Fleetwood made, but the following acknowledgement of the mayor’s that was highlighted in the February 2, 2022 Cascadia Daily article,  “Bellingham hires security to patrol downtown,”

(https://www.cascadiadaily.com/news/2022/feb/02/bellingham-hires-security-to-patrol-downtown/) is a position that I imagine a lot of community members are getting a strong sense of through the supporting actions that are described throughout the article:

“Fleetwood acknowledged that part of the security team’s job is to reduce the visible population of homeless people in the city’s commercial areas.”

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