Recent rains: No whining allowed
My wife and I recently returned to Vancouver after a year and a half of exile in the Tri-Cities area. There, you have just two seasons and only one color. It’s either hot and brown or cold and brown. What a joy to be back on the west side of the Cascades with its many rain-produced shades of green.
Let’s stop whining about the rain and rejoice in the beauty it produces.
Darryl Davis
Vancouver
Blame drivers, not the road
The May 30 Columbian headline “Padden Parkway: A flawed jewel” puzzled me and, I suspect, confused others as well. The substance of the story affirmed my driving experiences on the Padden: Many drivers use the parkway, and a very small percentage of them are careless.
As I read the story I found myself looking for facts that agree with the headline. The text of the story does not support the headline’s statement that the highway is at fault.
Reporter John Branton, in the first paragraph, points to “too much traffic, impatient drivers and crashes that police say can be avoided — especially rear-enders.” The construction of Padden Parkway seems remarkably similar to state Highway 500, which also has had its share of accidents. Can we not substitute Highway 500 into the text of this story and conclude that inattentive drivers cause accidents?
In conclusion, I congratulate the state of Washington and Clark County for designing and building two very efficient arterials: Highway 500 and the Padden. I disagree with The Columbian’s headline that blames the highway’s design. I feel very safe on both highways.
Larry Kingsbury
Battle Ground
Great nation ignores its less fortunate
No matter what happens to the people of the Gulf states, the fact is the stockholders and “leaders” of BP will prevail.
No matter how our state’s public schools at the end of the day are funded, the more-finanically secure families will prevail and their children, in all likelihood, will finish high school and perhaps go to an Ivy League university.
In a generation, my grandchildren will be in the minority, no matter if their parentage is Czech or Irish or Finish or Alsatian. There will be fewer of them than the other ethnic groups in the United States. And yet we allow the less fortunate in our great nation to fall through the cracks daily, be it through the health care or educational system.
When repayment comes due, how will these less fortunate treat my grandchildren, and why? And can we blame them?
Jim Comrada
Vancouver
Education reform is needed
I am writing to voice my support of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s stance on the Senate Bill 6696. As an early childhood educator, I strongly believe in the importance of the early years of education. I would like to share my thoughts on how the bill can be strengthened.
Too much emphasis is placed on “teaching to the test,” which does not benefit children in their academic learning. The information that one can truly apply to real-life situations is completely different from what is measured on a standardized test.
Teachers are not able to teach and assess children’s learning comprehensively within the current structure. I would like to see the system of assessment in our nation’s public schools let go of the misconception that standardized testing measures all comprehension.
Children who are not able to understand basic concepts today will be at risk later in their academic lives.
Smaller class sizes, retraining current teachers and a revamping of the system we use to assess achievement will benefit our whole society.
Children are active learners, and the current public K-12 system does not facilitate this.
Som Maddox
Portland
Amendment to reform ‘swipe’ fees
As president and CEO of Washington Retail Association, I can attest that retailers across the state support an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill that will benefit consumers as well as the stores where they shop. The amendment by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, R-Ill., would hold down unregulated fees that credit card companies and banks charge consumers who pay their bills either with debit or credit cards.
Americans paid $48 billion in these swipe fees in 2008, triple the amount paid in 2001. The amendment would require these fees to be “reasonable and proportional” to the true cost of transaction processing. Every dollar spent on swipe fees is a dollar not spent hiring workers or providing savings to consumers.
Now that the Wall Street reform bill is before the House of Representatives, we urge our state’s delegation to support Durbin’s amendment for the benefit of consumers, the retail industry and our nation’s economy.
Jan Teague
Olympia
Immerse kids in Latin, not Spanish
Language immersion (May 24 Columbian story headlined “Camas eyes language immersion”) has been proved to have valuable benefits for American school children, especially the improvement in their understanding and use of their native tongue. The question, then, is not “if” language immersion should be done, but rather, what language should be taught?
Mandarin Chinese has benefits in the business world, just as learning English is a required subject in all major industrialized nations.
And Spanish? It’s a lovely language. However, Spanish is spoken by our neighbor, Mexico, whose government and people have shown no respect for the American language, culture or laws, and hence should be shown no respect in our schools.
Mexico is no friend, having sent millions of illegal aliens into America in a deliberate effort to force American political will to surrender to the demands of the Mexican government. Let us not assist that effort by inducing curiosity for a culture that has proved itself to be destructive to American laws and safety.
I suggest Latin, the root language of many Western languages and the mother of Western law, art, philosophy, medicine, literature, theater, architecture, agriculture, science, mathematics and engineering. Latin is a dead language only in the minds of those who fear what our children might learn from the great thinkers of the past.
Timothy May
Vancouver
Research BP’s background
The Internet is a wonderful thing. It is like having a full library in one’s house.
If you are interested in the history of BP, look it up and find out how all of this horrid spill got started.
It’s a very long and not such a good story.
Roberta and Ward Upson
Vancouver
