Ten to twelve thousand years ago the retreat of the ice age carved out Puget Sound. It filled with water, herring, salmon and orca whales. The Lummi people settled on the shores and created a life in balance with the sea for thousands of years.

Five hundred and twenty years ago sea pirates came from Europe to the east coast. They methodically stole both the land and way of life from those living here, gradually moving west. Three hundred and thirty six years ago they wrote a constitution. Two hundred and ten years ago Lewis and Clark came west. We're the newcomers.

There are times that our historical perspective can be lost in our bluster. The proposed coal terminal at Cherry Point would disrupt ancestral burial grounds of the Lummi people. This should be the end of the proposal.

Huge tankers would disrupt herring spawning grounds, which would further decimate Chinook salmon, so important to orca whales.

While kicking the can of what's left of the native people's culture, we would be doing the same to ourselves. Add half an hour per day of dirty trains rolling through town and we will experience outsiders decimating our way of life.

Harvey Schwartz

Bellingham