Letters to the Editor: July 2017

The Editor: 

Several weeks ago I attended the flag-raising ceremony at the marina for the start of the summer season. I was appalled when the American flag was raised and a Canadian man decided to move around, walk to other participants and talk during our national anthem.

Had I been close enough I would have schooled him on the spot. He was, of course, standing tall and singing along with the Canadian anthem. The level of disrespect he showed was disgusting.

As a guest in the United States, he owes my country and its anthem the same respect he would show his own. If he cannot do that, I respectfully suggest he not come to the U.S. and keep his boat in Canada where he can pay Canadian taxes on it.

Charlotte Gibson

Point Roberts

The Editor:

As a newer resident of the Point, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate the excellent efforts of you and your staff to create this paper. The articles are such a great way to bring the community together and anyone who would attack that should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

If someone feels that the paper isn’t printing the facts, they can quite easily post a comment as I’m doing right now, and present the facts for themselves. It is quite unfortunate that the Point is merely a microcosm for our country, where hard-working, unbiased journalists are not only unappreciated, but increasingly verbally abused or even physically attacked.

I sincerely hope that the paper will continue to provide this excellent resource for our community, and rest assured that there are many of us here that truly appreciate reading it.

Matt Bath

Point Roberts

(Comment submitted online)

The Editor:

The fire commissioners have apparently reached the end of their willingness and abilities. It’s time they all resigned in order to begin anew with more progressive participants and policy for the fire district. I am deeply sorry and ashamed for our community to have to write this.

Judson Meraw

Point Roberts

The Editor:

Seniors know how to have a good time and you can find them on Wednesdays and Fridays at noon at the community center. Point Roberts seniors gather for a reasonably priced, home-cooked meal in a turn-of-the-century brick building on Gulf Road.

In this setting, all seniors, including cross-border residents, newcomers and visitors meet for an amazing cultural exchange and opportunity to socialize. Yes, people migrate from all directions with the summer cottagers usually spicing up the atmosphere.

Our planning committee has a few surprises in the works for July and August. Watch for them and drop-in to see how we celebrate being a senior in this unique corner of the continent in 2017.

Abby Armstrong, volunteer

Point Roberts Seniors

The Editor:

I read about the new sister city relationship between Point Roberts and Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada in the June issue of the All Point Bulletin (“Campobello Island and the Point are now sisters”). It was an informative article.

I am surprised writer Meg Olson didn’t mention the main reason why Campobello is known to most Americans: it was the long time summer retreat of the Roosevelt family, first James and Sara Roosevelt, then Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

According to the National Park Service, American developers bought most of the southern part is Campobello Island in 1881, with the aim of developing it as a resort for wealthy families from New York, Boston, and Montreal. The island’s beauty and cool sea breezes were soothing draws away from the stifling summer heat of the city. A number of wealthy Americans arrived in private railroad cars at Eastport, Maine, like James Roosevelt, who was a president of one railroad, vice president of another.

James and Sara Roosevelt, Franklin’s father and mother, acquired land and later building a “cottage” (they were anything but). Young Franklin was first brought to his “beloved” Campobello when he was only a year old in 1883 (He said he was two).

“Ever since I have been in the White House I have continued a practice started in 1884 of coming to Canada every year, a pretty good record, I think,” he told Canadian reporters in a visit to Victoria on September 30, 1937.

While it was widely reported that FDR contracted polio from swimming in the waters off Campobello Island after putting out a small island fire, this has been thoroughly debunked. It’s thought he contacted an autoimmune virus at the age of 39 after visiting a Boy Scout camp before visiting Campobello. In 2003, research doctors in Texas believed he actually contracted Guillain-Barre syndrome, not polio, a rare autoimmune disorder similar to polio.

In 2014, Roosevelt Campobello International Park – said to be the only one of its kind jointly administered by Canada and the U.S. – celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is connected with a bridge, opened in 1962, to Lubec, Maine. Much easier than the motorboat crossing the Roosevelt family had to make to visit their beloved

Campobello.

Scott W. Larsen, FDR historian

New Westminster, B.C.