Community richer for having Kehne

The talents of a good and highly qualified local man are being squandered by an unsavory push to divide and politicize. Our community is the richer for Jay Kehne's presence.

Jay has brought value to the area through his work with the North central Washington Resource Conservation and Development council.

He and his family have worked with the Rotary and other educational exchange organizations for years to bring foreign students to Omak. He's been a tireless advocate for the Loup Loup Ski Education Foundation.

He is a biologist and hunter who brings a deep understanding for natural and political wilderness issues to his work.

One of the many virtues of a small population is it's possible to know the folks laboring to keep the community's various wheels greased and the machinery running. Jay's one of those people and he's approachable and intelligent.

It's been appalling to watch the politicians and commentators on these pages and other forums, in a shrill style seemingly borrowed form the national media, as they haves distilled one of our neighbors into a caricature.

As a father, a husband, a professional and a part-time cattle rancher, far from representing my interests, I feel poorly served by the forces allied against Jay. They are presenting over-simplified and incomplete information.

They might do well to follow Jay's example of integrity and generosity: It's my observation that he loves this region with a verve that crosses political borders.

To paint him as extreme or under the sway of west-side interests is laughably inaccurate, a low calculation to score political points.

Elected individuals are wasting our time and money to stir up a self-serving with-hunt.

They do a disservice to the public they supposedly serve while grievously undervaluing an energetic and genuinely dedicated man.

T. Lewis
Omak