I am responding to the letter from Lopezian James Brady in the Aug. 27 Journal issue.

When I moved to the islands there was one ferry that took two trips to the mainland and two back each day. Now there are many super ferries and 49 daily trips.

Our area of San Juan and Skagit counties has a greatly expanded population base. The extremely loud Growler jets are a poor fit in this situation and are bound to create more complaints as the Navy continues to expand the numbers of aircraft and activities at Whidbey.

As James stated our nation is seriously in debt and how not, since the United States spends more on “defense” than the next 25 counties combined. In 2009 the Department of Defense budget was $717 billion, $16 billion more than president Obama requested (Wikipedia).

Perhaps it is about time we slowed our war making. We could drop shoes and food and make friends instead of enemies.

Have our adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan made us safer? I’ll bet a “Department of Peace” could save us a lot of money and save a lot of lives as well.

Those who hope the base could be moved do, “ask what we could do for our country.” Not rubber stamping every new defense industry war toy is something we can, and I believe, should do.

I agree with James comment “it is time to think less about “me” and more about “us.” The only difference is I feel “us” is the whole world not just the United States.

Gregg Blomberg/Lopez Island