On Visiting Seattle

For the past few years, the wife and I have been visiting cities that have an MLB team so we can go to a game. Of course we do that once a year because we can afford to go to only one game a year because of the price of the tickets and food. The prices are a shame for they lock out a lot people, including kids, from lower economic classes.

We were originally going to visit Minneapolis this year but things fell through and so we decided on visiting Seattle because neither of us have ever been in the Northwest part of the mainland.

We had a great time in Seattle and took lots of pictures. We visited the Space Needle, rode on the huge ferris wheel, we went through Pike Street Market 2 or 3 times, rode a ferry to visit Bainbridge Island, visited Mount Rainier on a very clear day, and went to a Mariners' game. And so I could show lots of pictures of the places we enjoyed, but the most important picture to show is the one below.

The picture was taken on the side of a building on Pine street. The writing is very clear: 'Without Shelter People Die.' And I've been told that Seattle has a very big homeless population. Thus, when we add 2+2 here, we find that many people die from a lack of shelter.

As visitors, there was not much we could do for the homeless in Seattle. Back home, we donate to a few places that help homeless people. We use to work in a food bank but the combination of a new grandchild along with the pandemic caused us to step back from that. Since then we've had another grandchild. And so now we have been pressed into service of helping to watch the grandchildren. Thus, I am not sure when we will feel free to to volunteer work in helping those in need.

Yes, we had a great time in Seattle and met and talked to some interesting people. We saw some great sites and visited some nice places. I left Seattle knowing that I could be comfortable living in the western part of Seattle. But we should remember that the most important part of any city are the people who live there, especially those who are vulnerable who live in the city  We recognize that fact when we try to personally help the people we can help. But people need more than just help from individuals. They also need the government to step in to help them. That should move us to demand that our politicians support laws and programs designed to help the poor and the vulnerable.