The hot buttons are abundant as firecrackers this Fourth of July, with heated debates on everything from immigration to the war in Iraq.
But on the North Olympic Peninsula, it’s not hard to find people who agree with one another on the central idea – and ideal – of the United States of America.
Opportunity.
Agreeing to disagree.
U.S. government policy is one thing, but the American dream of opportunity is another, if you ask Arturo Flores, who came north from Michoacan, Mexico, when he was 17.
“This country has the best to give . . . for almost anyone,” said Flores, now 43 and a naturalized U.S. citizen.
“I don’t agree with what’s going on,” in the Bush administration, said Flores, operations manager since 1996 at Graymarsh, a berry and lavender farm north of Sequim.
But he isn’t thinking about leaving.
“Running away doesn’t solve anything.
“We can be very good at criticizing without doing something to help.”
What’s he doing on Independence Day?
“Working,” Flores replied, grinning.
“This is always our busy time.”
Earl Jones of Sequim, a veteran and survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, bitterly disagrees with the government leaders who took the country to war in Vietnam and Iraq.
But he also reveres the United States and its democratic ideals.
“We have a two-party system, so we can vote the bad people out,” said Jones, who’ll be 84 this month.
Access to a free education makes this country among the best in the world, he said, adding that he empathizes with immigrants who want their children to grow up in the States.
“And if I were a Mexican father with two kids, three kids, I would fight my butt off to get here.”
