All right, all you 55-plus women out there! Are we re

All right, all you 55-plus women out there! Are we ready to make a difference in this presidential campaign? Can we set aside the more conservative tendencies many of us have developed since our hippie days?

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Let’s remember why we supported JFK and do the same for Barack Obama

All right, all you 55-plus women out there! Are we ready to make a difference in this presidential campaign? Can we set aside the more conservative tendencies many of us have developed since our hippie days?

Can we look at the issues straight on and recognize the great potential of Barack Obama and take up his cause as we did for John Kennedy? Remember the excitement of his message, as he promised to turn this country around. Didn’t he lead us in new and crucially important directions that have benefited us to this day?

Come on, ladies of my generation, let’s not get bogged down in old ideas. Instead, let’s look at this election through the eyes of our youth, when we believed there was a better world available to us all, with a president that astounded and excited us with his intelligence and plans for change. That’s a presidency we’ve never forgotten, and it’s time for us to rise up again and support Obama in the same way we did so well for Kennedy.

Our grandchildren will thank us for it.

Lake Wilderness Arboretum has many people to thank

The Lake Wilderness Arboretum Foundation would like to thank all the local residents that shopped at  our nursery throughout the summer.  Our nursery has closed for the  season after a very successful fall sale this month.

We would  like to thank all the volunteers who worked so hard to make the sales  successful, especially TWIGS, Victoria Laise-Jonas, Teresa Ranft, Judy  Nash and all the Saturday morning volunteers.

On Sept. 12, the Foundation welcomed Microsoft employees for the United Way Day of Caring. Over 100 people volunteered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on various projects throughout the arboretum.Fifteen different projects ranged from planting and weeding to rebuilding a dry creek bed and removing overgrown plant material.

There are some people that deserve special thanks:

• Noel Paterson, Foundation board member and Microsoft team leader. Thank  you for bringing this amazing group to us

• Laure Iddings, mayor of Maple Valley. Thank you for proclaiming the city’s support of this great event.

• C J’s Bakery in Black Diamond. Thank you for donating some of the best  donuts in the area.

• Arboretum and Microsoft volunteers. We can’t thank you enough for your tremendous effort. We logged over 750 hours. The estimated dollar value for this volunteer time is $12,900.

The ‘math’ adds up best for Simpson

In the Reporter’s Aug. 27 news article (“Hargrove says voter are speaking against Simpson”), Mark Hargrove, the Republican candidate for state representative, declared a mandate. Primary election voter turnout was the lowest it ever has been – only 18.4 percent – and Hargrove did not get a majority of total votes cast.

His math is a bit funny if he considers this a mandate. It makes me think that this inexperienced candidate doesn’t have the math skills needed to balance complex state budgets.

Geoff Simpson is our state representative and a dedicated firefighter with the Kent Fire Department. He is the only candidate for this position who has a track record of delivering real results for our district.

I am voting for Simpson in the general election because I want to send him back to Olympia to continue fighting for middle-class families like mine.