Mr. Stenberg, one of my Vashon teachers, told us that articles need to be “long enough to be precise but short enough to be concise.”

The authors of “Lack of political diversity on island creates echo chamber” (The Beachcomber, Feb. 21 and the February issue of The Riptide) wrote an article that is neither precise nor concise while also disparaging islanders and teachers.

The article is not precise because a census of “white” and a poll of “liberal” does not prove that islanders do not listen. Regardless of their other values, islanders might not vote for Republicans because they do not approve of sexual predators, liars, corruption, anti-Constitutional actions and hypocrisy.

A concise, although admittedly harsh, summary of the article is that the authors are not happy because their political views were not popular during high school. Further, other students found that these views were only slightly more popular at college. Islanders and other people need to be better listeners of the authors’ unspecified views and values which the authors and other students are afraid to espouse because other people have different views.

All teachers and all U.S. citizens are proud to be “blatantly democratic.” What you mean is that some of your teachers presented ideas or principles that you associate with the Democratic Party. Perhaps you should listen. If you are prepared to make counter points, I hope that your teachers are as delighted to engage in a fruitful discussion as I would be.

— Paul Montague