January 2012

To the editor:

Please allow to respond to the letter from Pastor Leskovar in last week’s Herald. He makes several points about gay marriage most people will not agree with.

1. Those who stand for marriage as God designed it to be, he says, should follow their dictates and marry accordingly. And those who do not believe that marriage was designed by God? They should follow your beliefs? No, they too, must be allowed to marry as they choose.

2. He asserts that God’s design for marriage is “what is proven best for people and society.” According to whom? How many tens of thousands of gays and lesbians have been denied rights the rest of us take for granted? And aren’t they “people” and “part of society”?

Press release
January 29, 2012 marks the kickoff for Relay for Life of Highline! Come join us from 2:00-4:00p.m. at Hiline Lanes in Burien for free bowling and information about this great event!

If you haven't heard of Relay for Life, it is an event to raise money to help fight cancer. The walk will take place at Mt. Rainier high school on June 9th and 10th. It is a fun family friendly event for a good cause. Participants raise funds for the American Cancer Society, and gather as a community to fight back against cancer. You will receive 50% off of your team registration fee if you register by January 29th!

THIS MEANS REGISTRATION IS $50 INSTEAD OF $100! So come ready to Sign Up and Kick Some Cancer Butt!

If you would like to sign up now you can go to this link!:

http://relay.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY12GW?fr_id=38301&p…

Editor’s note: Over the past few weeks a combination of dropping property crime in West Seattle (due to a number of arrests, according to Seattle Police) and some technical issues with the online police report system has limited available reports for West Seattle. So for this week: a look at crime around the city.

Metro bus driver attacked over $1.50

The Beavers basketball teams were on the road this weekend, playing against Roosevelt on Saturday after a week long of cancelled after-school activities due to dangerous road conditions.

It was a bad trip for the Beavers with both the varsity girls and boys team losing to Roosevelt.

The Lady Beavers started the game strong, only trailing a couple points behind Roosevelt.

It was still anyone's game at half time with a score of 21 to 24 for Roosevelt. But the Beavers were unable to make a necessary comeback in the last quarter as Roosevelt stepped up their defense. Beavers lost 37 to 46.

Leading the Beavers in scoring was Nancy MacGeorge with 16 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks, and one assist.

The boys basketball team also struggled on Saturday night.

They started of strong, outscoring Roosevelt 15 to 11 in the first quarter but a long scoring second quarter allowed Roosevelt to catch up.

The game started a new at half time as the score was tied 17 to 17.

A nurse I work with just gave me a bag of emeralds! Well, fuzzy emeralds – in the form of kiwi fruit.

This amazing fruit with the beautiful emerald interior grows locally here in the Emerald City and is harvested in the fall. Then you have to let them ripen, which can take several weeks. Unlike peaches and many other fruit, kiwis must ripen after they have been picked.

Kiwis are a great source of vitamin C and potassium. They are low in calories and, like all fresh fruit, are low in sodium. Foods that are high in potassium and low in sodium are good for your blood pressure, your heart and kidneys.

If you buy kiwis at the store, you can keep them in the refrigerator. But if they are out of a local garden, you will need to ripen them. Take a plastic bag and cut some slashes into it with a knife or scissors. This will let air exchange, but to keep them from molding. Add the kiwi, and a banana or apple, which will give off ethylene gas to ripen the fruit. Store the bag in a dark place at room temperature for one to two days. When your finger can press in with mild pressure, they are ripe.

Teri Ensley, was there to see the outpouring of support for her and the Furry Faces Foundation on Sunday, Jan 22 following the tragic fire in her home, Jan. 9. The event was billed as "Teri's House Party" and was staged at both Feedback Lounge and the Beveridge Place Pub next door located in the Morgan Street Junction.

More than 60 businesses and organizations were contacted by Sara Riehl, with A.A.R.F (Animal Aid and Rescue Foundation) who donated items with a retail value of more than $3000. They blew past that value by well more than $1000 as the bidding on such items as a hand made Little Wing Necklace from Velvetacide Jewelry, 3 hours of organization consulting from Karen Pfeiffer Bush, art prints, wine, and much more.

You can see a partial list of the items donated for auction at the link above.

Feedback Lounge also donated a portion of their entire day's sales of food and beverages to Ensley driving the donation total higher.

Dear Editor,

Re: Same-sex Marriage

Consenting adults should be allowed to marry their partner of choice. It should make no difference if they are straight or gay. While a license from the state is required, there is no such license requirement from a church or religion. A couple marries for a variety of reasons including economics, companionship, love, and sometimes – but not always - to have and raise children. Some couples don’t want children, some couples can’t have children, and some couples are too old for having children, and yet they can all marry. Outside of actually having children, gay couples would be marrying for the same reasons. What’s not to think this is a good thing?

It turns out that marriage between men and women has not been the norm for all of human history, but a fairly recent legal structure. Even today, men are allowed to have multiple wives in several countries. And until recently (late 1960s), interracial marriage was banned in several states in the U.S. Marriage, one might say has evolved over time and has a different meaning today than it did even 100 years ago.

West Seattle High School senior Spencer Weglin, 18, is so enterprising, one of his teachers suggested he quit "wasting time" in school and dive right into his career. But which? He has so many, and he maintains a 3.98 grade point average while making a buck. And not just a buck. A lot of bucks.

In the summer he mows four lawns a day, almost every day, and carries his tools of the trade around in his Chevy Silverado pickup truck he paid for in full before he could even drive. His parents drove him in it to his customers' lawns. He could not drive until he was about 17 as he postponed drivers ed for one year in order to be in the Architecture Construction Engineering, or "Ace" Mentor Program through high school where he interned with Callison Architecture. He helped design a theoretical add-on for Pike Place Market which was presented at UW.

* The West Seattle Herald's general policy is to not mention the name of a suspect until charged. However, in this instance, the name was mentioned in both major media outlets and in a publicly accessible police blotter. Thank you.

UPDATE 7 Jan. 24

Who is Cid Chambers?

A regular at the Feedback Lounge spoke anonymously to the West Seattle Herald. That Morgan Junction pub is where murder suspect, Lovett J. Chambers, known there best as "Cid", also hung out, and where he allegedly followed Micheal Hood, the 36-year-old victim, out the door before shooting him Saturday night. Hood died Sunday. Chambers has not been formally charged but his name was released by other Seattle media today. Normally however, our policy is to refrain from publishing the name until a suspect is in fact formally charged.

Many of our readers are familiar with our stories on West Seattle filmmaker Jamie Chamberlin and his video work with rock musicians from ZZ Top to the local sounds of Villains of Yesterday, Star Anna, and Victoria Contreras.

Last week's snow storm got Chamberlin's artistic juices flowing. He grabbed his film equipment, a bag of props, including a "bloody hand and arm", and headed for an untouched snow blanket at Hiawatha Park. The outcome, seen on the YouTube posted here, is an unsettling, gory, film noir short, a documentary style tale of the murder of Deborah Klien, called "First Snow". It is about two and a half minutes. Chamberlin said he envisions a trilogy.

"Snow days create an opportunity that you can't buy," said Chamberlin. "They create a priceless environment. How often do we get full snow coverage as we did last week where you can shoot in powder right here in West Seattle? I shot it at Hiawatha Park because I wanted to go where there weren't a lot of people around. Like, I used a fake gun and didn't want one of these scenarios where a police officer would approach me and maybe fire.