Thanks to Dale Wilson for sending some photos my way...Both are really shocking and depressing in their own way...
First up, when you've got junkies, junkies, junkies littering your community with (potentially hazardous) used syringes, who do you send in to clean those needles up?
That's right - you send the kids from your community to do it. Oh, wow. Wow! I mean, yeah, I get the idea of looping the issue of kids into the whole drug abuse discussion...But what kind of community sends their kids out to literally pick up used needles?
Oh yeah...The kind of community where the local Republican Party headquarters feels comfortable putting this in their window...
If a picture is worth a million words, then here are two million words summing up just how screwed up Port Angeles is.
Wow. Oh, wow...
I presume they mean the present governmental incumbents. So are Big Jim and Comm. Peach concerned? They're closest.
ReplyDeleteObviously those kids got more guts and gumption than a lot of people in this town. Nobody sent them, they started this themselves. Could you honor that? I guess feckin not.
ReplyDeletedo you know how many diseases these kids can get by merely pricking a finger with a bloody needle? Where are their parents. I would not let my kids go out and pick up needles. They have special training for handling used syringes at all medical facilities. It's not child's play.
DeleteAre you really so frickin' blind? You actually think those kids came up with the plan to clean Hollywood Beach of dirty needles before the Crabfest all by themselves? Oh! Who are those "un-named adults" in the picture? Oh? Why no photo op weeks before or after the Crabfest? No more dirty needles on Hollywood Beach to clean up?
DeleteAre you really so naive as to think a church group of kids who would never have the "gumption" or "guts" to do anything that wasn't church approved, much less actually associate with those of the local drug culture, will have ANY impact on the heroin issues in Port Angeles?
You really think those white-washed faced kids know anything besides the cheerleader spiel they are told by their parents and the church group?
Wake up. The churches have been trying to save the addicts for hundreds of years now. And guess what? As of today, there are more drug abusers than ever before.
What works? And what doesn't? After all these years of these pathetic church driven happy pics, are we going to get a clue?
Statistically, heroin is unlikely to kill many of the kids in that photo, even in junkie-heavy Port Angeles.
DeleteBut you know what is likely to kill a lot of those kids? Just plain HEAVY. Look how many of those kids are fat. And they're still young. If they're that heavy now, they'll be a stroke or heart attack fatality in another couple of decades.
So how do we get their parents and churches concerned about THAT issue?
In both cases - the junkies and the overweight kids - this is a form of population control.
DeleteWho would the "Founding Fathers" be shooting now?
ReplyDeleteOf course, they want the Great Kenyan Commienaziso-shul-ist Usurper and His Secret Satanic UN Army, but they'd settle for an elementary school instead. First-graders can't shoot back, y'know.
DeleteSee, I tend to lean conservative, but shit like this is why I just can't take the Republicans seriously anymore.
ReplyDeleteAny group that would put abrasive and bigoted Dick Pilling in charge is going to be a radical and marginal group.
DeleteThey are not marginal. They control Clallam county.
DeleteIn charge of Clallam County...In charge of a county with consistently high unemployment, scandalous school drop out rates, and one of the worst drug abuse problems in the state, to name but a few things...In charge of a county that is chronically labeled "distressed" and is always looking for handouts...In charge of a county that can't compete, and that sees its kids leave for elsewhere (anywhere else will do) in order to have a shot at a halfway decent life...So if THIS is what they're in charge of, if THIS is their "product"...I'd say they don't have much to brag about. If you're king of the Turd Kingdom, then you're still sitting on a big pile of shit. A big Pilling of shit, perhaps, in this case.
DeleteSo...
"if THIS is their "product"...I'd say they don't have much to brag about."
DeleteYou clearly underestimate the Republican media machine. Over the last few decades they've become they've become a master of spinning news to their favor.
For example, our current group of Republican party members (and please note, these are not conservatives, at least not in any classic sense of the word) are spinning Clallam as the greatest county in America because we're one of the few to lower taxes... temporarily, and only a little fraction, but we lowered taxes. Sure, Port Angeles is massively in debt, there's high unemployment, high drug abuse, the town just looks dirty and survive without a neverending trickle of handouts from Olympic and Washington DC, but that's okay! Lower taxes, whoooooo!
The rest is obviously all Obama's fault. Or maaayyybee Clinton's.
And Jim McEntire wants to assure people who vote for him that he will be doing more of the same. He is running on his record.
DeleteThings have gone SO well with the Republican Rule in Clallam County. As we see every day.
Somehow I don't think that the local Republican Party understands how well educated, (and, in some cases, self-taught) our founding fathers and leaders were. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, first Secretary of State under Washington, and our third President spoke English, French, Italian, Latin, and he could read Greek, and Spanish. Benjamin Franklin, America’s first diplomat and well-known genius spoke English, French and Italian. Our second President: John Adams spoke English, French and Latin. President James Madison spoke English, Greek, Latin and Hebrew. James Monroe spoke English and French.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Samuel Adams and John Hancock did not speak any foreign languages, Hancock, the wealthiest of our founding fathers, and perhaps the most generous, founded a Professorship of Oriental Languages and Hebrew in Massachusetts.
Our founding fathers were educated, refined men. I doubt they would tolerate the buffoonery that plagues American politics today. If they would shoot anyone, it would be the people who put signs like these in windows -- advocating violence against other citizens of the United States.
Or, more likely, they would HANG THEM for treason.
Well said!
DeleteFor those following, the mattress still leans against the wall outside at the Air Crest Motel, in Port Angeles.
ReplyDeleteYes, it has now survived a few rain storms and foggy days, so it must be good and ripe!
Still located only 50 feet or so from the Motel's front door, it appears to have become invisible to the hospitality business's awareness.
With Revitalize Port Angeles looking for ways to improve Port Angeles, it is perhaps revealing that this mattress can be still be outside the motel room, along the main road into town, after all this time.
Even the junkies haven't dragged it off into the bushes. What does that say?
I was wondering about the mattress and whether it was still there. Sheesh!
Delete"Revitalize Port Angeles"? Revitalize it to what? It's former glory days? When were they?
DeleteWere Port Angeles' glory days when it was taking the lands away from the people who lived here for thousands of years before our "Fore Fathers" forced them off by shooting them all?
Oh, maybe we're going to "Revitalize" Port Angeles back to the days when the lumber mills spewed toxic gases that would literally burn the paint off cars over night. (Ask the old-timers in Gales about those days).
Revitalize Port Angeles? Really?
Who is kidding who?
Revitalize is full of hot air. A group of self-congratulating blowhard "boosters".
DeleteAs of 7 pm Sunday night the 25th, the mattress was still there.
DeleteIs the mattress still there?
DeletePerhaps it can be painted or decorated to be more attractive?
ReplyDeleteThink of how screwed up a place has to be to provide the daily outrages we read about here, and in the local press.
ReplyDeleteReally. Think about it. A little town of 20,000 can do so much so wrong so much of the time. Every day we read of new craziness.
Is it something in the water? Or the fumes from the mill? Nippon spewing some special "crazy making" smoke?
This city cannot do anything without doing it REALLY wrong.
Just read through the threads of this blog alone, for the past year, if you have any doubts.
As if to prove your point (no pun intended), here's the first line from a story in today's PDN:
Delete"Infamous for its high death rate from heroin overdoses, Clallam County is receiving positive attention for how it fights opioid addiction and its fatal consequences."
Yes, Clallam County is turning the lemon of heroin addiction into a watery lemonade of (once again) self-congratulation.
A few pages into today's PDN there's a lengthy article about Revitalize looking for designs for the water tank mural.
DeleteThat's Revitalize for you! Downtown is turning into Junkie's Paradise and Revitalize wants to paint an obscure water tank by the FAC.
There are priorities and then there are priorities!
I wonder how many Revitalize members drive by that mattress, every day.
DeleteI wonder how many Revitalize members drive by that water tank up by the FAC every day?
I'd say that very few Revitalizers drive by the Air Crest or go into downtown.
DeleteOn the other hand, that beige water tank by the FAC has got some Revitalizers all hot and bothered and that beige water tank is going down and getting muralized! I mean, when the FAC closes and the land get re-zoned for residential use, do you think those folk in the luxury condos are going to want to look at a beige water tank?
People, we're talking about quality of life here. Downtown junkies and moldy mattresses be damned!
Not to diminish the obvious ironies presented by the crazy realities that Port Angeles, Revitalize , Dam William's Fantasy Tram, Scotts' Lincoln Wet Dream and all the other weird proposals that make up life in Port Angeles these days, but let's remember what the Air Crest Moldy Mattress really reveals,
DeleteThe City Council, Revitalize and the PDN spent a LOT of time and effort getting everyone in town to click away on that silly on-line contest to self promote Port Angeles as "The Best Town, EVER!" to the whole world.
Of course, anyone convinced that Port Angeles was in fact the best, better than Maui, or so many obviously better placers than Port Angeles, would come here and stay in one of the areas' hotels and motels.
Do I really need to say more?
Anyone reading the reviews of the area hotels and motels will see Port Angeles is not "The Best". By a long shot.
Given this very critical part of Port Angeles face to the world, one would think a booster group like Revitalize Port Angeles would be on the look out for visitor experiences that might show Port Angeles in a less than positive light.
As has been pointed out for many days now, the moldy mattress at Air Crest does not present Port Angeles in a very positive light, to the very tourists Revitalize Port Angeles is trying to bring to Port Angeles.
Is this really that hard to see?
Looks like it!
But Cherie and Nathan think this group is all that, and then some.
Showing once again that this city can't do anything right.
Anonymous 11:47 PM, I think you've summed the situation up pretty well. Thanks for your comments. Cherie, are you listening? Nathan? Air Crest management? Anyone? Anyone at all? Or are you all too busy NOT looking at the elephant in the living room?
DeleteThat elephant in the room isn't housebroken, either. Oops.
DeleteMeanwhile...City Council candidate Marolee Smith has posted some very interesting facts and observations on homelessness and Serenity House on her blog. It's long, but worth checking out. Go to maroleesmith.com to see what Marolee has to say...
ReplyDeletePort Angeles -- appearances over substance, but a little shoddy on those appearances.
ReplyDeleteI duly read what Ms. Smith has to say on her blog.
ReplyDelete"Why don’t I, after living here for 20 years, know more about their organization?" "I’d love some answers here." "What is the deal with Serenity House?" Well, hey, ya know, I'm no brainiac, but why not f'n ASK Serenity House, and find out? Seems like a no-brainer, huh? Like maybe something a Council candidate >should< do? - instead of blaming them for not meeting her halfway, when she didn't go halfway herself, but instead sat in a some dark basement, insinuating behind their back. Here she is running for Council, and considering this an issue worth writing about - ah, but not learning about, evidently. Not ALL about it anyway.
Even the PDN would do better than THAT. Oh wait, they did: on 12/22/14; 2/18/15; 3/25/15; 4/2/15; 7/6/15. But, right, it's the PDN, nope, can't even be considered, although they actually DID do the homework.
Of course, it might be politically useful to leave some questions unasked, and some things unsaid, or half said, or possibly not even understood by herself; thereby permitting an exercise of what's known as the furtive fallacy - the premise that the facts presented are necessarily sinister. A classic form of intellectual dishonesty. And to be sure, it's a classic tactic in many an op-ed, and nearly every political campaign. Which does not excuse it, nor the general nitpicking, presumptive and conclusive statements, and dark insinuations.
"I simply like to look at these things, but I don’t do any deep analysis. I just look and see what pops out at me."
Well, OK then. Got it. Surely that will fix Port Angeles.
I read through both Marolees' post, and yours. As you say, clearly you are no brainiac. No, I'm not trying to be insulting, unlike your obvious attempts to make Marolee look bad.
Delete"Intellectual dishonesty"? " Classic tactic"? A bit revealing, don't you think?
No where in your post do I see any specific references to the issues Marolees' raises in her comments and observations. It is a completely unsubstantiated attempt to cast Marolee in a negative light. She raises concerns, as we enter the winter months, that the only shelter from cold, wet winter nights for homeless people is a 4 mile walk from downtown, where the services are located. Your reply to this concern? None. You, instead, use your time and abilities to try to trash the person raising the concerns. Bravo.
And you think your comments and approach are an example of how things will be fixed in Port Angeles?
Hey 4:32pm.
ReplyDeleteYes, so, here is an organization that has all these things they do, and a ton of helping hands, but its been a long time, and their main shelter doesn't have a sewer fixed?
As for sitting in some dark basement, not.
You are assuming that I didn't read the PDN articles. I did. I also read the 990's on file. And, my questions are simply questions.
I don't see you asking any. You're just jumping up and down.
Not sinister, necessarily, but it is pretty shady when articles of incorporation aren't lapsed. When 2014 taxes aren't posted When there are errors on the ones that are submitted. And, when, after nearly a YEAR the main overnight emergency shelter is still without a sewer fix -- but needy can go for a 4 mile walk to a bed, and then back again for food.
Just seems....well....what's the deal?
Meanwhile, we have a huge uptick in petty crime, panhandling, and "those people" lurking about -- is it linked?
I like the attack from you. It's amusing. So, what's your story?
Actually I did ask you a question, to wit: why won't you ask Serenity House? They ought to know. Insinuations don't count.
ReplyDeleteTotally lame response, Anon 8:29
DeleteAs Marolee documented heavily in her post, she reviewed the documents BY Serenity House, and found the problems she listed. Saying she engaged in "insinuation" is intentionally dishonest, on your part.
In fact, anyone reading your post can see the ONLY person guilty of engaging in dishonesty, insinuation and classic smear tactics is you. Marolee painstakingly backed up her concerns with facts and documents provided by Serenity House. You just attack and insult.
8:29 a.m. Why should I contact them to have them tell me why they failed to renew their articles of incorporation, put goofy stuff on a tax return, OR not file the 2014, yet? I don't need excuses. I don't care.
DeleteIt's plain, that they need to get some ducklings in a row. That was the point. How did you miss the point?
Why is it that what passes as "business as usual" is substandard? It's not just Serenity House -- it is a lot of things here. How is it that just asking questions causes such ire? (Are you part of the problem?)
I reviewed. I reported. I asked questions. I took the time to do so. Anyone, from anywhere in the country could do that. Funny, but you want me to do what? Make excuses for them, too? Why? If they are getting a million plus in tax payer money, shouldn't they be accountable?
Why are you attacking me? I didn't let the corporate papers lapse. I didn't do anything. I just LOOKED AT IT. (As you could have, too.)
Maybe, by being so defensive, is part of the problem? It tells me: something is amiss.
(So, tell me, why DO you have your panties in a twist over it? "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." -- that's a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet FYI)
I wrote the post because I was concerned. I am concerned about choices made that cause increased suffering in our community, and the trickle down suffering -- a domino effect. I also know that to get the 2016 grants (surely applied for, already) the articles of incorporation need to be renewed.
(And, I see, online, that they HAVE BEEN. Good.)
We need to get over this idea of "good enough".
Hence the stupid moldy mattress out for everyone to see, the bad YELP reviews, and Trip Advisors "stay away" comments about various establishments in our area. We need to wake up, and see that we aren't isolated, but in a fishbowl. You want to help town: ask questions.
You can swing at me all you want -- doesn't change the reality.
Slip shod and lazy has no excuse.
(p.s.Thanks 12:44pm)