4
The Northern Light • January 7 - 13, 2021
Opinion
The Northern L ght The Northern Light is published weekly by Point Roberts Press Inc. Locally owned and managed, the company also publishes the All Point Bulletin, covering Point Roberts, Mount Baker Experience, covering the Mt. Baker foothills area, Pacific Coast Weddings annual guide, and the summer recreation guide Waterside as well as maps and other publications. Point Roberts Press Inc. is a member of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, Chambers of Commerce of Bellingham/ Whatcom County, Birch Bay, Blaine and Point Roberts and the Bellingham/ Whatcom County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors. Letters Policy The Northern Light welcomes letters to the editor. Please include name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters are limited to 350 words and may be edited or rejected for reasons of legality, length and good taste. Thank-you letters are limited to five individuals or groups. Writers should avoid personal invective. Unsigned letters will not be accepted for publication. Requests for withholding names will be considered on an individual basis. Consumer complaints should be submitted directly to the business in question or the local chamber of commerce. Only one letter per month from an individual correspondent will be published. Email letters to letters@thenorthernlight.com. Publisher & Managing Editor Patrick Grubb publisher@pointrobertspress.com Co-publisher & Advertising Director Louise Mugar lmugar@pointrobertspress.com Editor Grace McCarthy grace@pointrobertspress.com Reporter Ian Haupt ian@pointrobertspress.com Reporting Intern Conor Wilson prpintern@pointrobertspress.com Creative Services Ruth Lauman, Doug De Visser, production@pointrobertspress.com Office Manager Jeanie Luna info@pointrobertspress.com Advertising Sales Molly Ernst sales@pointrobertspress.com General Editorial Inquiries editor@pointrobertspress.com
The Northern Light 225 Marine Drive, Suite 200, Blaine, WA 98230 Tel: 360/332-1777
FOBBL raised $20,000 in 2020 fundraising
s Friends of Birch Bay Library (FOBBL) presented a $20,000 check to the Whatcom County Library Foundation and Whatcom County Library System on December 28 to fund the future Birch Bay library. The nonprofit’s president Dianne Marrs-Smith said the organization now has close to $180,000, but will need $3.5 million to build the library. The past year’s fundraising was one of the group’s best, she said, because they were forced to get creative with how they raised money. “We did very well this year in light of all the restrictions,” Marrs-Smith said. From l; Wendy McLeod, Michael Cox, Doralee Booth, Christine Perkins, Brian Bell, Dianne Marrs-Smith, Ruth Higgins, Peter Young, Jennifer Rick, Connie Taylor, Sharman Burnam, Keith Alesse and Saara Kuure.
Photo courtesy Brittney Marrs-Smith
Letters The Editor: It was a real pleasure to see in last week’s issue of The Northern Light the full-page advertisement highlighting the dozens and dozens of local properties sold by Jen Freeman and Leah Crews of Windermere Properties during 2020, and to realize what hard-working, helpful women they are, even during the most bizarre year in human history. In 2008, Jen Freeman helped us coordinate the efforts to sell our house at the top of H Street hill where we had lived nearly 20 years (since 1989) and purchase a new home in Birch Bay. Jen also gave us great advice and service when we purchased another new house in Birch Bay as a rental property. Jen has that rare commodity of “a servant’s heart”– she helps people buy and sell homes that really will suit their families, and knows how to overcome problems and smooth the way through difficulties. Her knowledge of Blaine and Whatcom County has made her real estate career brilliant; she is well respected by her peers and much appreciated by her customers. I say she is the best realtor in all of Whatcom County and a great asset to Blaine, but I’m prejudiced: She is our daughter. Jeanne Halsey Blaine The Editor: Do you make New Year’s resolutions? If you did for 2020 New Year’s, and they did
not last – have heart. You can redo them for 2021 New Year’s. Then you can make an upgrade on Thursday, January 14 (Orthodox New Year). Your last chance is Friday, February 12 (Chinese New Year). Then it is good luck friend. You’re on your own for the next 12 months. E.M. Erickson Blaine The Editor: The Blaine and Birch Bay community Toy Store leadership team would like to say a huge thank you for the outpouring of love and support this community showed to our local families in need of holiday gift assistance. Approximately 800 toys and 165 gift cards were donated this year, in addition to over $6,000 in monetary donations. This allowed us to help the parents of over 300 children from 120 families provide gifts for their children. The parents were amazed and so grateful for the large variety of high-quality gifts they were able to choose from, and I’m sure there were a lot of very happy children on Christmas morning. This year’s shopping proceeds, which totaled $4,067, will be shared with the Wildbird Charity Weekend Food Backpack program and the Bridge Community Hope Center Emergency Assistance Fund in Birch Bay. Through the work of these organizations, your donations will have an impact on families in the community throughout the year ahead. Thank you for
making all this possible. A big thanks also goes to all our volunteers. We couldn’t do this without you. Laura Vogee, Blaine and Birch Bay Community Toy Store director Blaine The Editor: Pete Werner’s December 10 letter questioned the accuracy of reporting Covid-19 deaths. The best response to Covid-19 requires sound data predicated on morbidity and mortality statistics. Complex statistical analysis warrants skepticism and diverse perspectives. Vigorous debates about accuracy of Covid-19 numbers can help explain medical and scientific truths. Looking at Covid-19 deaths, remember, dying with coronavirus is not the same as dying from coronavirus. Common sense makes it difficult to imagine why it’s OK for athletes to wrestle yet prohibit them from shaking hands. Any wonder we question restrictions promulgated by government? On December 10, Washington State Department of Health announced two modifications in how it reports Covid-19 deaths. The immediate change is a reduction of over 7 percent in the number of deaths. Based on January 4 data, Washington ranks (per 100,000 population): • Tied for eighth lowest in deaths in last seven days (See Letters, next page)
Revision
Vol XXVI, No 29 Circulation: 10,500 copies
Circulation Independently verified by:
The case counts that were shown in last week’s Covid-19 update were incorrect as provided by Whatcom Unified Command. When queried by The Northern Light on the morning of December 31, the following response was given:
Next issue: Jan. 14 Ads due: Jan. 8
Thank you for your questions. This issue was recently brought to our attention. We investigated and discovered that the case rates and cumulative totals do not match. This morning, we corrected the vi-
sualizations for this geography data on our COVID data webpage. What went wrong? • In completing the school district visualization updates for this week, we neglected to shift the date range for the cumulative counts, though we did so for the case rates. This is possible because the two data points are derived from different data tables. • This means that small number of changes in cumulative counts were due to additional data input/cleaning for the week
through 12/19/2020, but did not reflect data for the week ending 12/26/2020. • The corrected visualizations includes counts through 12/26/2020 and corresponding case rates with data through 12/26/2020 that has been cleaned/corrected as recently as this morning. We have noted today’s correction date on the map visualization. Jennifer Moon Joint Information Center Whatcom Unified Command
