The Mullis Senior Center Operations Committee caused a lot of unnecessary conflict with their heavy-handed policies regarding the prayer, the pledge, and their guillotine punishment approach. The results were 6 months of protests and three petitions.

The Senior Service Council of San Juan County has taken similar arbitrary actions that should concern all seniors, whether one supports or disapproves of praying or saying the pledge. The SSCSJ has:

1.) Hired an attorney and sent a threatening letter to those who have gathered together as “friends” of the Mullis Center.

2.) Amended their Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws to eliminate future elections of our Mullis center committee representatives. This ends voting, the recall process, and all seniors’ democratic representative rights.

3.) Stated that if we correspond with our Mullis committee representatives it will be considered harassment and be met with a protective order.

Translation, the SSCSJ does not want to hear from seniors. They want seniors to stay away from their meetings. They want to end local influence and historical membership rights. These decisions are offensive and harm local seniors.

The Mullis center was founded with local senior donations, and was to provide a place for all seniors, and it appears that the SSCSJ has somehow stolen the control of those charitable Mullis Center donations for political uses.

A sad day for Mullis senior members,

Frank M. Penwell

San Juan Island