Buy local to support your community

The Salmon Creek Farmers’ Market organizers appreciate the support and encouragement that has come from all corners of Clark County for a farmers market in our neighborhood. We think we may have found a location and will announce it soon. A special thanks to The Columbian for helping us find a home with the April 7 story reporting “In the market for a Salmon Creek location.”

It is important to remember that the Salmon Creek Farmers’ Market and the Vancouver Farmers Market are just two of seven farmers markets that are working hard to bring fresh produce and food to Clark County residents. In the lovely downtown sites of Ridgefield, Battle Ground, Washougal, Camas, and Woodland are growing and vibrant markets that depend upon not only committed agriculture vendors but also passionate volunteers to bring fresh and local food directly to consumers.

These markets, as well as the fledgling Salmon Creek and long-standing Vancouver markets, rely on their communities to buy local and keep Southwest Washington dollars supporting local businesses. Please support your local farmers market.

Ann Foster

Vancouver

Be objective in dispute over dogs

So, now there will be a deluge of letters regarding dogs at the Vancouver Farmers Market. (April 12 Columbian story “Doggie debate: Canines at market breed concerns.”) There will be letters from dog-lovers saying, “Of course we should allow dogs.” There will be negative letters from those on the other side. Resolution will certainly become emotional.

I believe the answer to such questions lies in the primary objective goal of the farmers market. Is the primary goal to provide a place for dogs to become socialized? Then allow them. If not, do dogs perhaps contribute to sales, which I’d assume is the goal of the market? Personally, I think they take up space, and limit the flow of people moving between booths.

Perhaps the vendors should monitor the purchasing habits of both dog-paired and non-dog-paired customers. Perhaps there should be a section at the market for dog-paired customers, and one that is dog-free? Since vendors pay for their spaces, should they have a say in the dog discussion?

Removing the emotion, using raw, objective data just might be the best way to spare readers from the predictable forthcoming emotionally charged letters. Mostly, it just might be the way to make a wise decision.

Den Fusso

Vancouver

Applaud effort to bounce back

I read with a glowing sense of pride and approval of the April 14 Columbian story “Washougal council approves impact fee deferral plan.” I agree 100 percent with what my council has engineered and placed in effect. These are the kinds of things I really like about my vibrant little city. The ability to bounce back from adversity, look squarely at the future and decide what we can do to promote business and bring back vitality and a can-do spirit to our community. Yes, I applaud these efforts and hope they continue with this progressive approach and to stay away from, the “No we can’t” mentality that seems to have invaded some minds in our present society and culture.

For me, Washougal is the perfect ideal of the “All-American town” — tough, plucky, and with a spirit that never says die. Keep it up, Mayor Sean Guard and the Washougal City Council. You make us all proud when you look to the future — and not stare with gloom about the past.

Mike Briggs

Washougal

‘Yes we can’ believers show the way

In his April 12 letter, “It’s time to elect new statesmen,” Robert Wassman quotes Samuel Adams from 1776, to the point that “our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” Well, I have news for Wassman. The “experienced patriots” did exactly what Adams suggested. In the election of 2008, they rose up and voted out of power the corrupt Bush-Cheney administration. Fifty-two percent of the votes went to Barack Obama and extended the Democratic majority in the Congress.

Wassman, his fellow conservatives, and the “No we can’t” party (formerly known as the GOP) would have us go back to those years of Bush-Cheney — back to the GOP administration that brought us the debacle in Iraq (the conflict based on bogus intelligence), those great “credit default swaps” and other dubious financial instruments which led to the meltdown of our banking and financial system. Also, they created the great taxpayer bailout of Wall Street, supported a failing health care system, and on and on. Now their only option is to blame the party of “Yes, we can” for the ailments inflicted by the “No, we can’t” party.

Hugh Shuford

Vancouver

Don’t put entire leadership in plane

Regarding the April 12 Columbian story “Investigators say no problems with Polish plane,” it might never be determined whether the pilot of the Tupolev aircraft acted unilaterally or was pressured by other authority into landing in thick fog on that frigid, fateful morning at the Smolensk airport. What this tragedy has demonstrated, with a deadly certainty, and in the gravest color known to man, is the imprudence of a policy not preventing packing an entire country’s elite leadership into a single plane.

Flying, to this day, is still a form of Russian roulette, however excellent the odds are in one’s favor now. But, should you find the loaded chamber once out of a hundred thousand turns, it likely spells the end of your existence. An airplane is a hollow bullet filled with humans lives, shot from a gun we call an airport. And should it impact with the ground other than according to the dictates of precise technology, its content perishes; the life it holds will cease, regardless of its title, character or social ranking.

Michael E. White

Brush Prairie

View others with compassion

Regularly my daughter and 3-year-old granddaughter encounter a form of discrimination. My granddaughter looks just like all other beautiful 3-year-olds, however, there is a big difference. She is autistic.

Autism is not noticeable like a physical handicap would be. Autistic children have several meltdowns a day, which seem to some people to be out of the blue. My daughter gets everything from dirty looks to remarks. One man even stated to her that her daughter was a “spoiled brat.”

I would just like to remind these on-lookers that everything is not always as it seems. Next time you see a child having a tantrum in the store, maybe it’s a mental disability and not a result of bad parenting or a spoiled child. It would be great if we could all show a little more compassion.

Pam Dimas

Camas

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