Valuable lesson for texting teens
After reading The Columbian’s Feb. 21 feature “Teens disregard dangers of texting, phoning while driving,” I can only conclude that these teens have no regard for human life because that’s what texting and using a cell phone while driving boil down to — either their own or someone else’s.
My question to teens, and others, who text and drive is simple: Would you want to be in the position that Antonio Cellestine is in right now, serving five years in state prison after killing Gordon Patterson, a teacher and cyclist, because Cellestine was texting and not watching the road?
I also ride a bike, and I want to be clear to everyone who texts or uses a cell phone while driving: Your irresponsibility isn’t worth mine, or anyone else’s, life. Soon a bill in the state legislature elevating this practice to a primary offense will likely become law. When it does, I hope it will help stop the epidemic of texting on a cell phone while you’re behind the wheel. Next time you feel the compulsion to text with your friends while driving, think of Cellestine sitting in his prison cell.
Lehman Holder
Vancouver
Suspension of I-960 is outrageous
This letter is a wake-up call to the residents of Clark County. In February the Washington state Legislature passed legislation, Senate Bill 6130, to overturn the voter-approved Taxpayer Protection Act (Initiative 960), which requires a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to raise taxes.
We are fortunate to have Reps. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, and Jaime Herrera, R-Camas, in Olympia, who voted against this bill.
This bill is outrageous! If The Columbian really wants to serve the people of Clark County, then the focus should be on these issues as front page news in large bold print. Expose these legislators; and ask them the hard questions.
Denis Heather
Vancouver
Balanced approach is smart course
While I couldn’t go to Olympia on President’s Day, I am writing to lend my support to those who rallied at the Capitol in support of a balanced approach to the budget.
We cannot afford to make further cuts to critical state programs like health care and education. I sincerely hope our lawmakers see past the reactionary tactics of Tim Eyman and the Tea Party protestors and find the courage to make smart changes.
We need long-term solutions so our state can have a real economic recovery. Putting programs like family planning, maternity support services, and the Basic Health Program on the chopping block will not only undermine our shared values, it will result in further economic hardship for everyday people and families like mine. These simply are not just luxuries for a lot of Washington families and women.
We need a balanced approach that will raise substantial revenue to help protect the services that we all count on — now more than ever. Don’t let Washingtonians down.
Join me, and contact your legislator today — they do listen.
Sarah Ripley
Vancouver
Unions and lobbyists dominate
In his Feb. 20 letter, “Corporate money persuades vote,” Wilfred J. Hudson condemns the U.S. Supreme Court for allowing corporate money into political discord but says nothing about the allowance of Big Union’s domination of our political system especially the public employees unions.
Millions of dollars are spent to elect Democrats who are the sole negotiators in public union contracts making them beholden to the union lobbyists. Sounds more like a conflict of interest than freedom of speech to me yet there is never a word against this from people who benefit.
In 1992 both my union and my corporation gave money to the same candidate, Bill Clinton, and neither asked for my approval. I imagine they both considered him “the finest politician that money could buy.”
The only reason that people like Hudson are upset about this ruling is because this ruling breaks up the monopoly they had on freedom of speech.
Micheline Doan
Vancouver
Strategy using stimulus is working
Including the effect of tax cuts, only one-third of stimulus funds have actually been spent to date. The Democrats’ allocation strategy was to back load the large infrastructure project spending, stretching the stimulus effect through 2010 and into 2011. That is likely to stimulate some significant private sector job growth to the chagrin of GOP politicians.
The bulk of early stimulus funding went to state and local governments forestalling mass layoffs of teachers, cops, and other public service and public safety personnel. Believe it … the stimulus is working, but it should have been larger; focused on more immediate jobs restoration and creation activity rather than slow-acting general tax cuts.
Members of the GOP say they want to lead America again, but look back to where they led us when they were in control.
It wasn’t just an inept and war-prone Bush administration that led to near economic ruin. The Bush administration was in fact very effective at implementing the long-term GOP conservative agenda for America: tax cuts, and then more tax cuts, deregulation of every kind, and unleashing the worst version of predatory capitalism and corporate greed, giving birth to the Great Wall Street casino in the myth of the “self-regulating free market” where the “Banksters” win while citizens lose.
Thomas Austin
Vancouver
Tone down the hateful rhetoric
The Feb. 19 story “Rally speaker calls for Sen. Murray’s hanging” was another example of the aura of hate that infests today’s political groups. I find it alarming when anyone, irrespective of political affiliation (Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Independent) is so filled with hate that they would call for the hanging of any person because they disagree with that person’s politics.
Two Kennedys were assassinated because someone did not like their politics. That sort of political rhetoric breeds that kind of violence. When will people remember that working together can strengthen this country, help solve economic problems, and perhaps better all our lives? Hate breeds hate. Respect and dignity breed respect and dignity.
I believe that when an individual or any group shows hate, or a high level of disrespect, people back away and sometimes run from that individual or group. That kind of rhetoric is frightening. So if the Tea Party movement hopes to achieve their goals it might be in their best interest to tone down the rhetoric, and use some dignity when expressing their beliefs, instead of allowing their hatred and KKK-mentality to show.
Joan Lewis
Vancouver
