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The Columbian
Published: June 24, 2010, 12:00am

Silence is no longer an option

The June 19 Columbian story “State budget priorities: $10K on table raises eyebrows,” regarding refinishing the conference table at the state Capitol, is just a small example of the arrogance of our government wasting our tax money. Was the table broken or dry rotting beyond historic repair?

I have a hard time imagining the abuse that table has received with the pork bellies rubbing against the edge of the table, or the large amount of elbow grease that they put on the table with all their hard work budgeting our tax money they take from us.

Shame on the people in charge of these decisions. I think they know very well that the table could have lasted past our economic crises. But also shame on the taxpayers of this state for sitting on your apathetic seats and not raising loud noises to the people who abuse us. If you don’t, you fall into the same shameful bracket for letting them waste our taxes. Shame on you all who remain silent.

Randy L. Hall

Battle Ground

It’s about needs, not about gender

Having read the June 16 story “Fair or foul? Gender debate erupts on East County Little League fields” on ECLL and their alleged gender debate, I was curious as to why nothing was reported on what ECLL needs in the way of fields. So I went to the ECLL website and found that there are 22 teams for Little League and seven teams for softball. Estimating 12 players per team, nine for the field and three reserves, equals 264 players for Little League and 84 for softball. ECLL has a 3-to-1 ratio of need for Little League fields to softball.

Logically, anyone building new fields would try to meet the needs of the league as a whole, meaning build fields for Little League first. This is no gender issue, it is a needs issue only. There’s a third field that is planned to be built for softball. So instead of complaining, and threatening legal action, why is no one on the softball league putting together and lobbying a park bond or park tax to pay for the third field?

Softball parents need to stop hiding behind their daughters’ skirts, take them by the hand and lead them. Show them how they can get a community to come together and get it built.

Peter Corbin

Vancouver

Pitts’ columns full of flawed views

To its credit The Columbian chooses political cartoons equally from the left and the right. The op-ed underneath also features left and right journalists. All is well except for one — Leonard Pitts. When I see his column, I already know what it’s about — racism, a prism though which he has made a career. You can’t be critical of President Obama without being called a racist by the same people who made a living out of excoriating President Bush.

In his June 21 column, “Bigotry inexcusable, even for a legend,” Pitts calls Helen Thomas on her bigoted comment about Israel but gives her a pass while pretending he hasn’t. He quotes the Washington Post, “There is nothing new about the anti-Semitism she displayed.” Is Pitts so naive as to think we are so naive to think he didn’t know about it?

In the PC world of D.C., writers are not only selective of which presidents they excoriate but protect their own. Pitts apparently is not concerned about one of the biggest racist act of all — a race consistently voting by an overwhelming majority for the same party year after year. If the majority of whites shunned a black candidate you would hear from Pitts. And rightfully so. Too bad his isn’t a two-way street.

Vern Schanilec

Washougal

Which opportunist is pulling strings?

I’m confused by the Tea Party. In the June 21 letter, “Tea Party is not ‘anti-government,’” Don Rits’ history lesson cites examples of what he calls tyranny. Why does his outrage start with the election of President Barack Obama? Where was the outrage for George W. Bush’s record spending? His unfunded mandates? A Medicare drug benefit passed at 2 a.m., totally unfunded? His Abu Ghraib? His massive efforts to spy on Americans through the NSA? Illegal renditions? War crimes? Signing statements?

The Tea Party appears to me to be pawns of those not currently in power rather than a movement truly interested in a return to the Founders’ vision. Who’s pulling the strings of the Tea Party? Freedom Works? The Republican Party? Or maybe American Crossroads? The opportunist Sarah Palin? Look at who’s behind these groups, and you will find some of the present-day tyrants on the right.

Yeah, there are tyrants on the left, too. The tyranny of how we finance political campaigns is at the top of my list. Just, please, try to be true to the ideals you profess and rebel against the tyranny of your own manipulation.

Jim Ebacher

Camas

Generosity is the preferred approach

Real estate speculators, bankers, and certain stock manipulators have caused the biggest loss of capital in history. This is resulting in huge losses for the auto industry and other companies, causing high unemployment, which in turn causes all kinds of social problems.

BP’s well drilling blowout took 11 human lives. It will cost more than $50 billion in cleanup efforts alone. It’s impossible to put a price tag on the human lives and harm to the environment. None of these things were done by the government, however, many people are blaming almost everything on our government.

Also, there are many complaints about illegal aliens. It seems wrong to me to hear Christians complain about helping other people. What happened to being our brother’s keeper? Put the blame where it belongs. When I hear people complain, I want to ask them what they need. The fact is that most of those who complain the loudest have more than enough of everything. Look what exceptional people such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are doing, giving large shares of their fortunes to charity. Charity is my favorite word. If more people would think this way, we would have a healthier society.

Noel Johnson

Woodland

Top two primary criticized

The June 14 editorial, “One more top two,” on the top two primary process, stated that “the system has drawn widespread, bipartisan support.” That might be true if there were just two opinions, but there are many who hold other opinions entirely. In California an embarrassingly low 31 percent of the eligible voters turned out and Proposition 14 passed with 54 percent of that vote.

There are many people who are not members of the two dominant parties but who instead may be nonaffiliated, Greens, Socialist, Libertarians, or any of some 20 or more parties that exist across the nation whose ideas will be shut out. You may choose to call this the people’s primary but I choose to call it censorship, a soft warm and fuzzy kind that passes itself off as being for the good of the people or at least that is the excuse.

Michael H. Wilson

Olympia

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