Our readers’ views

Passing off to other polluting nations

The Feb. 16 Business section story “Demand fuels coal export project: Asian market boosts momentum for Longview terminal,” confuses me. At a time when coal use is being curtailed at home, we’re sending the stuff to Asia so they can do the polluting and we can pat ourselves on the back for keeping our air clean. Let’s change our state’s motto to “Washington, the Ever Green State.” It seems big bucks win again.

Ken Serviss

Vancouver

Stop the bridge boondoggle

John Laird, in his Feb. 20 column, “Local ankle-biters are filing their fangs,” thinks we need a new bridge costing $3.7 billion, in part because the “experts” say that we do, and of course, they are “smarter than you or I.” Well, I don’t buy it, and The Columbian readers should not either.

One big cost component of the new bridge is light rail to downtown Vancouver, which is not where most Clark County residents live. Not only is light rail an inefficient and inflexible way to move people, it will need to be heavily subsidized by us taxpayers for years to come. Doesn’t matter, says Laird, because it will be a legacy for our “grandchildren’s grandchildren,” who he thinks will want to ride light-rail trains into Portland in the year 2111. How can anyone presume to know how people will commute to work 100 years from now, or even where the jobs and the workers will be located? Think how much things have changed in the past 100 years! Instead, the legacy I want to leave to my grandkids’ grandkids is no debt — no national debt, no state debt, and no local debt.

Stopping this boondoggle of a bridge is a step in the right direction.

John Bala

Vancouver

Pick a bridge design and get ’er done

I keep reading that there are multiple choices for the new bridge. This looks better than that. Looks are not what we need. Functionality is what we need. Pick a bridge that is functional and start building. I personally do not care what it looks like. As long as I can get from Vancouver to Portland and back, I’m happy. So let’s get it done.

Don Meyer

Vancouver

Educate parents to fight obesity

Obesity is a growing problem in America, especially among children. The working poor are most affected by this since they make up a large portion of people eating fast food, which is a major cause of obesity. We need to do something.

A recent study by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that between 16 and 33 percent of children are obese. This is an alarming statistic. Children should be better looked after and cared for so they won’t have to deal with the problems obesity causes when they’re older.

One solution to this problem is educating the parents. A study that Business Week reported found that education programs targeting parents of obese children helped their children lose weight. It said that “teaching the parents of obese children about healthy eating habits helps the children lose weight and keep it off.” We need to help obese children through their parents.

Michael Hibbs

Vancouver

Sponsorship spending outrageous

The Feb. 25 story “Military sponsors come under attack” — reporting that the proposal of Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., to ban the Pentagon from spending $29 million a year to sponsor race cars in NASCAR was voted down — did little to convince me that the Tea Party Republican-led Congress is really serious about cutting wasteful spending.

Not wanting to pick on NASCAR, it is only fair to point out that the Pentagon also sponsors racing teams in Indy Cars, motorcycles, off-road, and drag racing. I would love to hear the justification for this expenditure, while the same group of Republican-led congressmen pound the table, telling us we must cut the spending for such wasteful programs as Social Security, Medicare, WIC programs, veterans shelters, community health centers, family planning, veterans care and any number of other social services efforts.

I just don’t get it.

Brett Hockley

Vancouver

Social Security is still what we have

Let’s talk honestly about Social Security. The system is not broken. Social Security, according to worst-case estimates, is solvent until 2037. It can be made better, and we have time to do that.

Yes, the government borrows money from the fund. In return, the fund gets government securities backed by the “Full Faith and Credit of the United States of America.” This means we the people own our government debt, not the Chinese, Japanese or the big banks, and that debt will be repaid unless the United States ceases to exist.

Let’s talk about privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Stocks and bonds on Wall Street are purchased with dollars that only have a value because they are backed by the United States (We the People). Let’s assume that the government ceases to operate. Yes, Social Security won’t have any money, but how much do you think those dollars will be worth? The last time I looked, no one on Wall Street guarantees they will back your investment with their full faith and credit.

Joe Moody

Vancouver

Give health bill chance to work

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 17 percent of all Americans do not have health insurance. This could be due to lack of funds or termination from a job that gave health benefits. Regardless, the fact that that’s almost one-fifth is a substantial problem. To combat this, Congress must stop the GOP from trying to repeal the new health care bill.

It is estimated that 32 million people will receive coverage under this bill. Also, it is estimated to reduce the national deficit by as much as $143 billion.

Also, many parents will not have to worry about their child going off to college losing insurance, because under the new bill, insurers are required to cover children up to age 26.

There is no way the GOP can know that this will be a job killer since it isn’t even implemented until 2014. Until then, all statistics show it will not have any harmful lasting effects on our economy.

Jackson T. Zeiner

Ridgefield

Another excuse to pump up gas price

Do any of you feel, like me, that our major oil companies are using the riots in Libya as an excuse to raise the price of gas?

Most of our imported oil comes from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela. Yet Big Oil is using the unrest in Libya to sweeten their profits at our expense; as if they didn’t make enough already.

Ward Upson

Vancouver