To the editor:

This is my comment on the issue of the bond brought forward by the South Whidbey Parks & Rec for a recreation center. I read in the last issue of The Record, a statement by Park Commissioner, Linda Kast referring to the state of the economy being the reason that the bond was not supported by the voters of South Whidbey.

This is only indirectly the reason that I did not vote for this center.

In my opinion, this is a proposal whose time is past. This is a new era and there is a need to rethink where we put our resources and how we spend our time and money teaching our children.

Had South Whidbey Parks & Rec presented me with a proposal to build a center to teach our children about creating tools and modes of transportation using renewable sources of energy; how to grow their own food and learn about the wild edibles all around them; how to raise animals for food and clothing; how to spin their own wool, knit and weave; how to protect and manage their water systems; how to protect and harvest the sea life around them; how to collect the clay from Double Bluff and create their own pottery; how to build a house from straw, earth and sand that will withstand weather and time; how to blacksmith and work with metals (you get the idea!).

I would have been all over such a proposal.

Of course I would have wanted to know that this center was modestly priced and maybe even created around a learning environment where the community came together to build the center using materials from the island.

Had they told me that in this center they wanted to teach children and adults alike how to build community and bring people together in consensus how we will chart a course forward while shepherding the incredible resources we have been given on Whidbey Island; how we will hold out a hand to one another and learn to rely on our own local resources while presenting a model to the world of how a community can thrive when they work together — this is a proposal that would have triggered my excitement and support.

Please, South Whidbey Parks & Rec, don’t give up the idea of creating a community center.

I would ask you to reconsider the nature and mission of this center and ask your community to help you create it.

Rebecca Bartsch

Langley