All I know is that we have a gold-plated, faith-based hospital under a 50 year contract sucking up 97 percent of our tax subsidy and making money hand over fist. When folks in the know respond to critical but appropriate public inquiries (most recently Mr. Tom Cable’s letter) we know we have a big problem.

Smart people worked very hard to bring improved health care to the islands.  Now many more smart people are rightly questioning the glitches, inequities, sleights of accounting, arrogance, fat profits and yes, unforeseen consequences, of our eggs-in-one-basket contract for faith-based Peace Island Medical Center. Anyone who thinks everything is hunky-dory with PIMC but for a couple little issues needs a reality check.

The repeated failure of an EMS levy is clearly due to self-serving, sloppy “trust us we have your best interests at heart” talking down to the public and refusal to share budget details in an understandable way.

I am grateful for the attention and involvement of the American Civil Liberties Union. It is laughable to hear them denigrated as an “outside interest group” threatening our way of life.

I know that next time I have a hook driven nearly through my finger by a struggling salmon fishing alone on a weekend, I will not suffer a $250 deductible and nearly a thousand bucks in ER fees but push it on through, cut the smashed barb, rinse the wound in whiskey and fish on.  Ditto for a serious jaw ache on a weekend resolved by the most outrageously expensive earwax removal one can imagine.

I respect anyone who runs for public position but in this important contest the three most likely to further the broad public interest toward reasonable health care in a complex, and now over-heated situation, are surely Sharp, Williams and Harrington. There are no “liars” in this race. Those who claim so seem to be trying to obscure the obvious evidence of serious problems with the status quo. Why one would do that?

Steve Ulvi

San Juan Island