A couple weeks ago the Sounder had a story congratulating a number of people for building 16 affordable homes. It indicated that the homes were primarily built with volunteer help.

This brought to mind our worldclass skate board park built with volunteers. It’s a technical wonder built by local craftspeople. I then recalled the church that was built several years ago again with volunteers. The church was especially impressive because most of the construction was competed in a week by volunteers working from dawn till dusk and beyond. All these projects had a common relationship, motivated people with limited budgets working on complex structures.

This brings us to the desire for a new school. Certainly these other projects prove a school can be constructed by citizen volunteers donating their talent and sweat. That is, if we have the desire and if we truly believe a new school building is of paramount importance. For the workforce, think parents, think school teachers, think old duffs like me and whoever else will save money on property tax, all coming together. Include all the county employees that are paid from our property taxes who would donate a few Saturdays to ensure all the work meets code and proper forms are completed at no expense. If we really want it, we could do it. The other factor in this equation is some of the less financially endowed property owners (that’s most of us) who are already struggling to pay their taxes and keep their property. What about them? Many purchased their property years ago and now live on fixed incomes. As land values dramatically increased over the years, so have their taxes.

Do we force them to sell their homes and move off the island? Do we build our own school for ourselves? Do we let the government do it for us at someone else’s expense?

Not long ago many of us were using the phrase “yes we can.” The question is “yes, we can do it ourselves,” or “yes, we can force someone else do it for us”?

Dick Bronson

Orcas Island