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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Letters |
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| FORWARDED TO SANTA Dear Santa, The holiday season is driving me batty trying to keep up with shopping, writing cards, and attending special parties. Although I try to be calm, sometimes I just want to scream. Too often I'm one foot forward and three steps behind. By the time Christmas comes, I feel like bed rest is really necessary. A Christmas tree is an adventure in sheer patience. Move it here, move it there. Is it too big or too little? Will the decorations look good or do we need new ones? Santa, make your trip soon, otherwise I'll be on top of the tree looking down on everyone. CHEERS! Buzz Flowers Callaway LGBT CENTER'S MISTAKES Dear Editor, One has to feel sympathy for Dennis Poplin, who only just took over as interim executive director of the Seattle LGBT Center this summer. It appears that he will now serve as executor of a brave institution that opened with high hopes only to die suddenly at the end of this year. There are probably many reasons for the demise of our Center, including rising rents, next-door construction, and internal management issues mentioned in the SGN article last week (December 7). However, two mistakes are high on the list: 1) Failure to nurture the donor base. Care and feeding of major donors is critical to any nonprofit. Many major donors to the Center, myself included, have not been contacted for three years. Former board members and officers have been completely ignored as well. Everyone knows you have to ask in order to receive. 2) Going off mission to jump into Pride events. Many of us who helped found and build the LGBT Center were clear about the twin missions it was supposed to serve: a brick and mortar place to support our many community organizations and working toward senior housing for our aging LGBTQ population. The Center has done a good job with the first mission but it seems to have forgotten the second. The Pride events sucked up irreplaceable time, energy, and resources without benefit to the Center. The previous executive director spurned any criticisms of the Center's decision to plunge into this wayward course. Meanwhile the small, struggling Rainbow Community Centers in Olympia, Tacoma, and Spokane continue on to serve their LGBTQ communities. I hope we in Seattle can resurrect our own Rainbow Community Center, less ambitious but more sustainable and better supported. Janice Van Cleve A founding board member of the LGBT Center SEATTLE TIMES, SALVATION ARMY DISCRIMINATE For at least the second year in a row, the Seattle Times has chosen the Salvation Army as one of its Fund for the Needy recipients. See http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/specialreports/ffn/agencies.html. As you may know, the Salvation Army discriminates against Gays and it does so (or at least tries to do so) with public money. In 2001, the Washington Post discovered that the Salvation Army and George Bush had a backroom deal: If the Salvation Army backed Bush's faith-based initiative, Bush would push for regulations that would allow the Salvation Army to discriminate against Gays when filling taxpayer-funded jobs and providing domestic-partner benefits. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A37723-2001Jul9 (BTW, the Salvation Army also discriminates against non-Christians. In 2005, the Salvation Army won a court case that allowed it to fire non-Christian employees, even though those positions were funded by the public. See http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/legal/legal_update_display.cfm?id=38) I encourage you to inundate the Seattle Times with protest letters. Tell the Seattle Times to remove the Salvation Army from its Fund for the Needy and instead donate to groups that don't practice bigotry, such as Northwest Harvest. Contacts at the Seattle Times: * Letter to the Editor: opinion@seattletimes.com * Mike Fancher, Editor at Large: mfancher@seattletimes.com * Fund for the Needy: communitysupport@seattletimes.com Thanks. GZ |
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