Gaslighting flyer
Deceptive mailer hits community
"Gaslighting", in the political sense, involves politicians or political groups presenting false information as true or denying factual information, with the intent of making people doubt their own understanding of reality. Gaslighting may have arrived in your mailbox this week.
Dungeness Levee Trail Advocates (DLTA), the anonymous group dissatisfied with the hybrid trail/road completion of Towne Road promised by the commissioners, sent out a bulk mailer this week. According to the flyer, the Dungeness floodplain and natural space are in danger of “becoming a paved road.”
The flyer urges postal customers to contact Director Bruce Emery at the Department of Community Development and to call County Engineer, Joe Donisi. The flyer also encourages the signing of an online petition.
The petition, which asks signers "to request this segment stay a walking trail and not a road," has 796 signatures as of this publication. Of those petitioners, only 15 identify where they live. Of those 15, three live in Sequim, one in Port Angeles, and 11 live in Seattle, Bellingham, Oregon, Idaho, and areas beyond -- 73% live outside Clallam County.
The campaign to halt Towne Road's completion was first suggested on January 17th, 2023, by Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe's Restoration Manager, Randy Johnson. "You might need a popular movement," wrote Johnson. "Save Our Levee! Clallam County's newest park, Levee Park!"
The road that was never supposed to close for one day has been closed for 20 months.
The flyer is deceptive in that it suggests that our county roads, some of which have been funded by taxpayers for over a century, can be converted to parks by the act of petition. County roads don't belong to the commissioners, county roads don't belong to special or private interests, they belong to us. Anyone suggesting otherwise is gaslighting you.
The flyer does have one bit of truthful information: Comments can be directed to the Clerk of the Board via email at Loni.Gores@clallamcountywa.gov. Comments emailed to the Clerk are sent to all three county commissioners.
If you feel you are the victim of deceptive marketing, contact the Washington State Attorney General's office here. The form requests the name, address, website, and email address of the offending marketer.
Dungeness Levee Trail Advocates (DLTA)
PO Box 371
Carlsborg, WA 98324
Clallam County does not need another park, pedestrians can also walk on any and all county roads as they have done and continue to do now without a designated walkway. The .6 mile roadway in question offers no unique or remarkable views of anything. It is best used for what it is a road. Pave and reopen it.
I wrote to the Commissioners in January, encouraging them to hold to their December pledge to pave the unpaved section of Towne Road and open it to through traffic. DLTA's deceptive mailing inspired me to write to them again this week, urging them to pave it NOW.