Imagine if kids just played outdoors
A June 22 story reported on “Kids and Nature: Value of outside play explored.” Is this even a debate?
Kids: Turn off, log out, go outside and play.
I am 46 years old and remember back in the day, after school, if we were not hitting the books, doing a chore or grounded, we were out of the house and didn’t come back until dinner. We could entertain ourselves with a rubber ball, an old tin can, some scrap lumber or just our vivid but far-flung imagination. How did we get along without all this virtual electronic stuff? (We had only six TV channels, two of which were educational!) If someone in high school had their own land-line phone, they were considered almost divine.
Then again, back in the day, folks my age used to tell me about walking a few miles to school. Imagine that.
Mark Werlech
Vancouver
Start with a Phase One
I’ve been following the Interstate 5 Bridge “Follies” with interest as I’m one of the lucky few with a job that requires me to go to Oregon every day. I’ve seen the proposals go from a luxurious, green-powered tourist magnet to a much more practical version of the same woefully undersized bridge. Since the “practical solution gene” has been bred out of us as a society, I’ve had the sense to look backwards as to how Americans of the past solved things.
The simple answer: Build two bridges, just like they did with the first green monster across the Columbia. The first bridge can be six or eight lanes. Then we can raise money by running bonds, planting trees and selling the carbon credits, and suing the manufacturers of compact fluorescent light bulbs for selling them in areas prone to flood because that puts mercury in the water. After enough money is raised, then we can build the second “half” of the bridge and you have your full capacity. And maybe in this multi-year process we can get Oregon to get their stuff together and fix all of their choke points.
Matt Malcom
Washougal
Reusing resources put on display
Anyone who missed the Recycled Arts Festival in Esther Short Park missed a really great demonstration on what can be done with things we just discard and the needless disposal of usable things. We’ve been going for the last three or four years and every year it gets bigger and better. A lot of people have really great imagination and talent.
Congratulations and thanks to the Clark County Department of Environmental Services and its Director Kevin Gray for sponsoring the event.
George Vartanian
Ridgefield
Big business is connected to daily life
Reading the June 25 letter, “Greed ravages our natural resources,” Trudy Solberg seems to hate “big-money interests.” Does Solberg drive a gasolinepowered vehicle, own anything built in a factory, wear factorymade clothes, own a TV, appliances, phone, stereo? Has she ever gone to a doctor or been in a hospital, ever shopped in any supermarket, wear makeup? If so, you are supporting those “bigmoney interests.” Do you expect only others to do without and you get what you want?
Ronald W. Jones
Vancouver
Recovery program at risk of closing
Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases that most families in our community are familiar with on some level. They affect people from every economic background and rob families of fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. Thankfully, there are recovery programs and 12-step meetings that have significantly proven to arrest the disease of addiction.
For 17 years, the Road to Recovery Clean and Sober Club has served as a meeting place and safe haven for Vancouver’s recovery community. Unfortunately, the club is at risk of having to close its doors. Without support from local businesses and the city council, Vancouver’s recovery community will lose this valuable resource. The group has no option other than reaching out to its members, community business owners and the city.
Keeping the club open will mean that addicts and alcoholics will be able to come together in a safe environment to help each other stay clean and sober. Already, over the last 17 years, the club has seen thousands of lives changed because of the support that they found within the fellowship on Fairmount Avenue. Sobriety for addicts and alcoholics is our goal. I hope that the club will be able to continue helping those who want to change their lives.
Robin Miller
Vancouver
Halt progressive liberalism
As European socialist countries are collapsing under enormous debt, America’s progressive socialists, led by President Obama, continue to steer us toward the same proverbial iceberg. Progressive socialism is a political cancer metastasizing throughout our republic. And its deceit is propagated as virtuous by the complicit leftist media, scientific and academic communities. As government grows and debt mounts, progressive socialist Democrats continue to vilify private corporations — the companies that provide us with jobs and that produce products and services most Americans need and desire.
Let’s face it: Local, state and federal governments do nothing efficiently and need a complete retooling. And that starts with a smaller public sector with a transition to private sector operations of services. Public unions need to be eliminated or wages and benefits made commensurate with those in the private sector.
The unsustainable debt snowball from government spending and entitlement programs can be fixed. Conservative Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has “A Roadmap for America’s Future” to get us out of this historic mess. Google the plan and read the conservative approach to curing the debt tsunami created by progressive liberal Democrats. November 2010 is the chance to start over. Electing real conservatives will heal the wounds created by progressive liberalism.
James Marchand
Vancouver
But what would candidates do?
I am extremely interested in the large amount of unknown people leaping into the political arena. I think the number of people pursuing the seat of U.S. Rep Brian Baird is the most interesting in the U.S. I will be following Baird in his last months as the national representative from our area.
After the election, what are the specific goals of our newly elected representatives to benefit the region they are responsible for? I am compelled by my time and collection of my father’s political letters during his tenure as the people’s choice as a council member for five terms and a port commission member. Let’s have all the new leaders debate for the public. We can ask our questions on what they plan to do to make it better for all they represent.
