The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Access conventional fees for funding

I’m not sure why this factor hasn’t been featured more prominently in public discussions, but, speaking for myself, I voted to reject the recent library levy because Fort Vancouver Regional Library policies aren’t even accessing conventional sources of library revenue. To use only one of several examples, the library charges no fines for overdue materials, which is highly unusual. I’ve been using library services for years and can’t recall any smaller or larger library that didn’t levy these charges, not only for added income, but to encourage patrons to return materials.

In fact, I’ve already directly suggested this, given my own frustrations. In the past, I’ve wanted to check out materials that weren’t available when other patrons were keeping them much longer — in some cases weeks past due dates — rather than returning them in a timely manner. This is a practice that might be discouraged if patrons had to pay 25 cents per day, as I do when I return books belatedly to the Multnomah Country Library system.

I consider it irresponsible for any public entity to seek additional funds while refusing to consider earning income from appropriate sources.

Jennie Guild

Vancouver

Organization scores in success

I enjoyed the Aug. 30 story “Blind piano tuner finds rhythm” regarding the blind piano tuner Wilson Charles. I had the pleasure of working with Charles and other students at the School of Piano Technology in Vancouver. I was a member of a team of three SCORE counselors who were asked to establish a business curriculum to augment the technical one at the school. The end goal of our project was to provide the tools for the students in the development of their business plans, which is a key document for any startup business. In addition we mentored them in this process.

Charles was fortunate to come under the tutelage of Bruce Lulow, one of our senior counselors at the Vancouver chapter of SCORE. Lulow worked exhaustively with Charles in helping him put together his business plan. The end result of Lulow’s hard work and dedication with Charles was a minority loan that helped Charles jump start his business. Lulow was instrumental in finding this particular loan.

I thought it was appropriate to provide some important background to this story. SCORE Vancouver has helped a number of fledgling businesses get off the ground and be successful. Lulow exemplifies the fine work this organization brings to the community.

Paul Freeman

Vancouver

Irresponsibility is root of trouble

There are, currently, several inarguable truths about this nation that are leading us rapidly away from the Founders’ plan.

First: Government is too big to sustain. Too many people work for and have retired from city, county, state and federal employment. Taxpayers do not have the wealth to keep making the current payment requirements. Second: Unions, both private and public, have ruined the workplace. They thrive by seeking and gaining political influence. Third: Our elected officials have been corrupted by the ability to gain personally through their political power. They seek office as a lifelong career rather than a short service to the nation. Fourth: Schools, colleges and universities have become, since the early 1960s, institutions of “progressive” indoctrination rather than institutions promoting critical thinking associated with the learning process.

If these truths did not exist, our country would not be in the fix it is in. Incidentally, this is the short list of problems stemming from the lack of personal responsibility on the part of the individual citizen. Wake up, America.

Jock Demme

Vancouver

GOP obstructs on immigration issue

As press secretary for Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., I believe you got one important fact wrong in the Aug. 26 story, “Rally voices frustration about immigration reform, Baird.” Gutierrez, co-sponsor of H.R. 4321, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act, did not say that the bill doesn’t have the votes to pass.

He said Democrats alone did not have the votes to pass it without at least some Republicans willing to work on a compromise. It is precisely because some Democrats are satisfied with the status quo of our dysfunctional immigration mess and don’t support reform that there is a need for at least some bipartisan cooperation on legislation.

This year, about 90 percent of the Democrats support immigration reform that secures the border, regulates legal immigration, cracks down on employers, and forces immigrants in the U.S. illegally to register with the government and pay fines as a condition of remaining in the country. But because some Democrats don’t support these common-sense reforms, a dozen or so House Republicans would have to work cooperatively across the aisle to fashion a reform package.

So far, zero Republicans in the House have been willing to even discuss cooperation across party lines on this important issue.

Douglas G. Rivlin

Washington, D.C.

It’s the locale that’s under scrutiny

Cynthia Heise-Swartz’s Aug. 27 letter, “Beware deceptions of politics,” compares presidential vacations with President Barack Obama and his predecessors. She is correct in stating that Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush spent more time on “vacations” during their first year than President Obama. However, what she failed to report is the former presidents spent more days — either entirely or partially away — from the White House “on vacation” at their respective homes.

President Obama, however, enjoyed his vacations in 2009 at the following vacation sites:

A four-day holiday weekend in Chicago playing basketball and treating the first lady to a Valentine dinner date. An eight-day stay with his family at a rented house on Martha’s Vineyard in August. A trip to the Western states of Montana, Colorado and Arizona. An 11-day stay with his family in Hawaii celebrating Christmas and New Years.

Now you know “the rest of the story.”

Richard J. DiVincenzo

Ridgefield

Rally kept free of political themes

I wonder where Larry Little gets his information for his Aug. 31 letter, “Plenty of politics at Beck rally.” He stated that Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are Republican mouthpieces for Fox News. Obviously he never listens to Beck, who criticizes the Republican Party almost daily.

Little claims the Aug. 28 rally was a political event stating that many of those in attendance were anti-Obama. Using his logic we could claim that if the pope were to attend a horse race we could call it a religious event.

Steve Douglass

Vancouver

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