Editor,

The Bounce-on-Whidbey group is ramping up its rhetoric and scaring politicians into uncomfortable corners. Emerging within the ramp-up is a healthy level of irrationality, the sky-will-fall prognostications, seventh grade playground labels assigned to our nationally respected AG, insistence that it’s “all a stunt,” patriot petitions and more.

As one level-headed local politician wisely reflected, folks need to realize the lawsuit is not about shutting down Naval Air Station Whidbey Island; it is about whether the EIS and attendant record of decision properly followed the law.

The sudden hyperbolic reaction seems to reveal a suppressed sense of fear in the psyche that maybe the Navy has cut legal corners, maybe it has been a bit too cavalier with the facts or even misrepresented or ignored relevant science.

If so, there will be adjustments in Growler activities in Washington state — changes that could protect civilian life as well as our unique environment and vulnerable wildlife. We’ll see. The courts will decide that, exactly as it is and should be under our U.S. Constitution.

So settle down, take a deep breath north islanders. Whidbey and the world will somehow move past this and survive in spite of the teeth-gnashing and sweaty hand-wringing. Meanwhile, let’s respect each other’s rights to fight for — rather than against — our community, which is exactly what COER is doing, side by side with the state’s attorney general.

Robert Wilbur

President, COER