Our Readers’ Views

Salute hard-working citizens

I’d like to salute the people who go to work every day and keep things going and functional for all of us no matter what the weather or situation. They go about doing this work routinely, even when things aren’t routine, even when their pay is stagnant or going backwards.

Who are they? Firefighters, 911 operators, police, hospital emergency rooms, 24-hour gas and store employees, restaurant employees, news carriers, Clark County employees including PUD, traffic control, street and sewage repairs and maintenance, telephone and TV repair people, and many more — the list is even longer.

We don’t notice them most of the time, but, next time you need them, imagine what it would be like without them. Next time the power goes out, your street floods, an ice storm hits, or you run out of milk at midnight on Christmas eve — there they are — doing their jobs. Thank you all.

Barbara Rider

Camas

Yucca Mountain editorial was flawed

The Dec. 20 editorial, “Eyes back on Yucca Mountain,” seriously misrepresents the facts surrounding the proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada. As a representative of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects of the Office of the Governor, I’d like to respond.

The statement that “scientists (and not politicians) studied Nevada’s Yucca Mountain and drew the scientifically supported conclusion that it was the best place for a national nuclear-waste repository” is patently false. No one has ever suggested that Yucca is the best site, because no one was permitted to look seriously at other sites. States like South Carolina, Texas and Washington made sure of that in 1987 when they used pure political muscle to get sites in their states off the hook and guarantee that only Nevada’s Yucca Mountain could be characterized. This in spite of known serious, even disqualifying, flaws at the site.

Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, we hear cries of political interference. Where was your outrage in 1987 when Nevada was victimized for purely political reasons?

Joseph C. Strolin

Carson City, Nev.

Reconsider proposition

I fully support the views put forth in the Dec. 12th editorial, “Look at liquor again,” and to work in other ways to get the state of Washington out of the liquor business. Out of 2,423,515 total votes cast statewide on Proposition 1100, the “no” vote topped the “yes” vote by only 172,911 votes. That demonstrates to me that true, unbiased public opinion probably favors getting our state out of the liquor business. Why?

Consider that trade union members were largely coerced by their rabid leaders to “vote no and save union jobs,” even though those workers may enjoy having a few in their local pub.

Consider the ultra-conservative religious right, who probably were threatened with damnation from the pulpit if they did not vote “no.”

Then consider that 30 percent of our state population did not vote at all. How many of those nonvoters probably thought Proposition 1100 was a “slam dunk,” because it would reduce the size of state government?

Let’s find another way to get Washington out of the liquor business, out of the 1930s, and into the 21st century.

Ralph Burke

Vancouver

Confusion accelerated

Boy, am I confused.

The Dec. 19 Columbian story “Jobless in Clark County” states that unemployment (and hence the recession) accelerates as local government slashes its budget and fires employees. Yet The Columbian’s editorials and the bulk of the letters to the editor insist that local government consists of nothing but waste and fraud.

Possibly I am not the confused one.

Kenneth Williams

Vancouver

First response should be proactive

Marvelous! The Clark County Commissioners canceled their pay raise and did not accept a bigger car allowance. Why would they even consider such a thing? I guess that is why our beloved governor was asking for tax increases. All of this while Social Security and military are denied cost-of-living increases.

There is also talk about the city of Vancouver adding to the cost of auto licensing to pay for road repair. Oh well, I guess the people on fixed income can do without milk and bread for a month to make up for this small additional cost of living.

Clint McCourtney

Vancouver

Vote blocked illegal gate crashers

A Dec. 19 headline states incorrectly, “Republicans block youth immigration bill.” It’s true that most Republicans voted against a bill that would have allowed even more illegal immigration into the U.S. It also would have allowed even more taxpayer money to be taken from citizens in order to pay for programs that benefit only illegal aliens.

The headline ignores the fact that it was not only Republicans that killed the bill. Six brave Democratic senators thought better of our Constitution than did the majority of their own party, and killed the Dream Act for millions of gate crashers who think it’s perfectly fine to break U.S. law in order to obtain benefits that they are not owed.

Here is some advice to all those who think you can corrupt our legislation in order to get what they want but do not deserve: Do it the right way, as a co-worker of mine from Belarus is doing now. Come here lawfully, live here lawfully, and earn your American citizenship the right way – legally. Don’t try to make illegal legal. That way, this great privilege will be owned and not just rented, earned and not granted, valued and not mocked.

Frank Bair

Vancouver

Protests overlooked by press

The coverage of President Obama’s internal review of his Afghan war strategy in a Dec. 17 story, “Obama on Afghanistan: Progress, but still a long slog,” notes that public opinion in the U.S. “has soured.” How much more complete this coverage of the release of this review would have been if it had also reported on the Veterans for Peace who organized a civil disobedience action outside the White House on Dec. 16 as the war review was being unveiled. Protesters chained themselves to the fence and 131 citizen dissenters were arrested, including Daniel Ellsberg, Chris Hedges, Ray McGovern and Colleen Rowley.

Courageous citizens are placing themselves at risk while journalists elect only a passing mention of the growing opposition of American’s citizenry to this long and costly war. What will it take for America’s mainstream media to do its job and cover compelling and relevant voices of opposition that now reflect the views of a substantial majority of this country’s citizens?

Cathryn Chudy

Vancouver