Editor,

Keven Graves is a news publisher whose business relies on advertising and popular approval of his newspaper’s perspective. It is no surprise that he “tsk tsks” dissenting views in his community. However, as a responsible journalist, he should stick with facts and not hazy boyhood recollections and paternalistic dismissal of Navy critics.

The citizen class-action lawsuit is about property rights, a protection under the Constitution upon which Americans across the political spectrum depend for their security and financial and physical well-being.

Going a step further, Washington state’s legal challenges of the Navy are not an extension of Growler opponents’ NIMBYism, but a check on governmental abuse of power and negligence in not disclosing actual effects of the Navy’s decision to proceed with its Growler program. Taken together, these are essential components of the democracy we inherited.

The Declaration of Independence called out such abuses and the Constitution guaranteed the means to prevent and correct them. Despite Navy boosterism, the “sound of freedom” isn’t jet noise, it’s the combined voices of citizens exercising their rights and freedoms. Citizens have a right — and an obligation — to seek redress from their government. Isn’t that what the Navy is supposed to defend, after all?

Robert Steelquist

Sequim