Fewer family-run businesses survive
It was only a few short weeks ago when Club Oxford fitness club closed its doors after 50 years of service to the Clark County area. It saddens many folks to see the doors close. This left many of the seniors in the area at a loss. Where would these baby boomers go where their individual needs would be met with a welcoming staff and a place to drink a cup of coffee, shoot the breeze and get a good workout?
Over the years Oxford took pride in making the gym a healthy place to go for many, including baby boomers. Now, like other many family-owned places, it’s being pushed out of business by larger corporations.
It’s sad to see the family-owned businesses are going down only to be rebuilt by cooperations that are losing the touch of family operations.
Kathy Schoenmakers
Vancouver
Primary reasons to vote on Aug. 17
Do not skip voting in the Aug. 17 Washington state primary if you are a registered voter. Participation in the complete process has never been more important. Party preference doesn’t define actual positions, records or intentions, so please do your best to learn about the individual candidates before voting.
Registration deadlines are:
ŸJuly 19 for paper, online and updates
ŸAug. 9 for in-person registrations at the county elections offices and for address updates.
To register, you need to be a citizen of the United States of America, a legal resident of the state and at least 18 years old by Election Day.
Felons may not register without restored voting rights, nor can those the court has declared mentally incompetent. See the Washington State Secretary of State’s website, http://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/, for more election information including proposed initiatives that are out for signatures and a list of candidates who have filed.
Glenn Ripley
Ocean Park
Don’t discount Bull Moose Party
The June 20 Columbian story “Big party fatigue shows in quirky candidate labels” called the “Bull Moose Party” as “apparently invented.”
If he weren’t so dead, that would surprise Teddy Roosevelt, who ran for president under that party label in 1912.
Frank C. Kuechmann
Vancouver
Forced retirement sends stern lesson
Gen. Stanley McChrystal was wrong for making statements recently reported in Rolling Stone magazine in the presence of subordinates. Some of those subordinates have very neatly sandbagged McChrystal yet managed to keep their own positions secure by repeating them in anonymity.
While this is indeed a serious matter, the actions of McChrystal do not reach those of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, whose planned defiance of the orders issued by then-President Harry Truman would have plunged the United States into a war with China that we would have lost, and possibly escalated into a worldwide nuclear exchange.
On the other hand, a forced retirement at this time would certainly send a very clear message to McChrystal about his ill-conceived and delivered opinion (which should have been kept private). President Obama saves face by removing McChrystal from command. However, forcing him to retire prior to the four-year mark in serving as a full general, with the loss of two stars at retirement, along with the reduction in retirement pay would certainly teach McChrystal a lesson he would never forget.
Duane Vincent
Vancouver
No reprieve for being candid
The president fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal for an article in Rolling Stone magazine. When I first heard about the article, I decided that I would withhold judgment until I could read it, which I did.
One sign of a truly good leader is that the leader encourages his staff to be completely candid in their advice to him. This is obviously one of the traits that the general has.
McChrystal’s problem wasn’t what he said to the reporter, but what his staff evidently had said in the presence of the reporter (loose lips sink ships). A severe reprimand of the offending staff member(s) was in order.
A strong leader in the White House would have had little to say about the article. Evidently the president isn’t a strong leader, nor person, and felt he had to do something that could be viewed as manly. It will send a strong message to those who surround the president and advise him that they cannot survive if they are candid. They must agree with him no matter their own opinion, or what their advice would be under a different culture.
The president missed a great opportunity to show that he is comfortable with being a leader.
Elden Ferris
Vancouver
Greed ravages our natural resources
Enough is enough.
We have been assaulted by the greed of big-money interests long enough. It is blatantly clear that we need to move forward in another direction. After all, we all need to live together on this planet. We need to stop the ravaging of our resources and animals by the interests of big business that do not care about any of us.
Support real change and stand up to big business.
Trudy Solberg
Vancouver
Obama turns spill into worst disaster
The Jones Act, a piece of 1920s protectionist legislation beloved by unions, requires that all vessels working in U.S. waters be American-built and American-crewed. The act itself allows presidents to waive these requirements, and the much-despised Bush administration promptly waived them after hurricanes and other emergencies in order to accept foreign assistance to help mitigate the effects of those emergencies.
Immediately after the Gulf oil well disaster, offers of help flooded in from around the world, including offers from Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian companies that own some of the most advanced oil-skimming vessels in the world.
It’s been reported that the Obama administration declined these offers. Geert Visser, Netherlands Consul-General in Houston, almost begged “Forget about politics, let’s get it done.”
Unfortunately, with President Obama everything is about politics. I believe, in order to advance his own political agenda on “global warming” legislation (never let a good crisis go to waste), and avoid offense to his union backers, our president has made the effects of the Gulf oil spill far worse than they would otherwise have been.
BP had an accident. Our president’s actions and inactions have turned that accident into a disaster. For more, see http://www.icecap.us/ and search for June 20 articles.
Richard Willerton
Vancouver
