Our Readers’ Views

Pause to reflect on meaning of holiday

Please, let us all remember what is the next national holiday. It is Independence Day, not the Fourth of July. Merchants should take note as well.

Robert Bauer

Vancouver

Honor Stars and Stripes

I’m writing in response to Marissa Ann Rose’s June 8 letter, “Disrespecting our flag is wrong.” I believe that dragging in the dirt, burning or mutilating the Stars and Stripes is wrong.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church should hang their heads in shame as it is this flag and this country that allows them to practice their religion freely.

If you can’t respect our flag, try going to some other country and see what you get for dragging their flag in the dirt.

Kenneth French

Vancouver

Dead dog devastates for many reasons

Recently, on a Friday, my property management company sent out their landscaper, and during his cleanup, he found a dead dog wrapped in a sheet and tossed on the side of our street. I know that I don’t live in the best area in Vancouver, however, my heart hurt. The landscaper came to my home and asked to borrow my phone book and he contacted animal control. They told him they would make it out hopefully in the next few days. I spent the weekend watching dogs lead their owners over to this poor dog, and watched children with sparked curiosity lifting up the sheet and seeing a dead dog. It was sick and sad.

On Monday morning, animal control showed up and I saw the officer pull a young brindle pit bull over to his truck. I was devastated for a number of reasons. Devastated that someone could kill/discard a dog like trash. Devastated that the city of Vancouver has better things to do than investigate the killing and dumping of a dog. Devastated at the thought that whoever did this will have no price to pay. I sincerely hope that officials choose to look a bit further into an investigation.

Kayla Van Meter

Vancouver

Turkey is party to treaty violations

The international community should be denouncing Turkey, not Israel, for the loss of life on the socalled “Freedom Flotilla.” Turkey, the flag state of the ship, had an obligation to ensure that the ships making up the flotilla adhered to international law. It didn’t. Though neither Turkey nor Israel are parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the treaty presumably spells out what the states ratifying the treaty believe to be acceptable rules of behavior.

Many of those countries are now, rather hypocritically, denouncing Israel.

The Free Gaza Movement announced its intention to breach Israel’s barricade of Gaza, requiring it to violate Israel’s territorial waters. Article 19 of the Law of the Sea Treaty specifies “any act of propaganda aimed at affecting the defence or security of the coastal state” or “the loading or unloading of any commodity, currency or person contrary to the customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws or regulations of the coastal state” are deemed “prejudicial to the peace, good order or security” of that state.

This flotilla, as with ones before it, would have done both if allowed to proceed. The bloodshed may well have been greater if reports are accurate that some activists carried arms.

Blood is on Turkey’s hands.

Loti S. Christensen

Vancouver

Humanitarian crisis needs solving

In his June 7 letter, “Israel has right to defend itself,” Robert K. Thomas stated that “Humanitarian aid is now and previously has been consistently allowed by Israel to pass intact into Gaza by land and sea.” Haaretz, Israel’s own newspaper, reported June 8, that “100 trucks carrying foodstuffs passed through the Karni crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The trucks were carrying milk and other dairy products, fruits, wheat and animal feed. Israel opened Karni, the main commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza, for the first time in some two weeks.” 100 trucks in 2 weeks isn’t consistent, and it isn’t sufficient.

Consider that Gaza has 1.5 million people. The city of Vancouver has about 165,000. We have 11 percent of the population of Gaza, but have many more than 100 trucks daily in Vancouver bringing medical supplies, food, gas and building materials. We need to get more facts before we misunderstand blanket statements like those Thomas makes. It is difficult to get straight facts from unbiased sources.

Politics aside, there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza we should feel morally obligated to solve.

Kay Ellison

Vancouver

Birth of pill was death of morals

Last month was the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill. In the 1960s, the pill was heralded as a development that would liberate women from male dominance and lead to fewer divorces, fewer unwanted pregnancies, and fewer abortions.

It’s now clear that things did not turn out that way.

As the pill became more widespread, the number of divorces and abortions soared. We saw a lowering of moral standards and a rise in infidelity and promiscuity. Though women now have access to places and positions that once belonged to men, they have never been seen more as sex objects than they are today.

The major disconnect caused by the arrival of the pill has been a loss of the idea that men and women make babies. As technological advances in artificial reproduction are made, the idea that God plays a role in procreation has increasingly been lost.

Sadly, the horizon does not look promising for the family. With the rapid increase of activist judges with a proclivity to elitist social engineering, we will soon be seeing countless forms of sexually bonded groups that are not only unstable but seriously harmful to children. May God help us.

Frank Henderson

Vancouver

Violation of Gulf Coast is indefensible

Just as I was wondering where Dick and Liz Cheney have been since the Gulf Coast oil spill, I catch Liz Cheney on ABC’s “This Week” roundtable. To what degree do we defend our family and friends — or should I say, our political beliefs?

It’s common knowledge in Louisiana and Texas, where I was born and raised, that the “good ol’ boy” system has been in place for years. Unregulated industry like British Petroleum and Dick Cheney’s Halliburton continue to get rich at the expense of refinery and oil rig workers, and the people of the Gulf Coast and their way of life.

There’s an entire culture that may not recover and will be missed in the years to come.

Republican or Democrat, death and destruction is undeniable.

Rebecca Ogdee

Vancouver