Online comments regarding The Columbian’s Nov. 15 editorial about the passage of Initiative 502, legalizing the recreational use of marijuana:
Colorado has it right, up to a certain amount of homegrown plants should be legal. If someone wants more than that, there should be a sliding scale/fee/tax to permit the amount of plants a person will have on the premises. Hopefully the feds can keep their noses out of Washington’s and Colorado’s business and let the taxes roll in to plug some of these shortfalls and (hopefully) decrease the drug cartels’ business in the state.
— Josh Hoyle
The voters of Washington state have started down a slippery slope legalizing marijuana. Use of it destroys lives.
— Joan Badertscher
Gov. Chris Gregoire should just put out the word that homegrown, personal use of marijuana will not be a high enforcement priority, but importation and smuggling of large amounts from drug cartels will be.
— Norm Seubert
Regarding The Columbian’s Thanksgiving Day editorial, “Many Reasons to Give Thanks”:
One of the many things I have to be thankful for is the ability to express my thoughts on this blog. The Columbian’s management should be praised for providing this avenue for people of different ideology to put into words their thinking. It also allows one to give praise for the actions of others that might have gone unreported.
An example was a report in the newspaper of an accident involving trains. This blog gave me an opportunity to give a hint of the trauma that railroad employees experience involving an accident, especially if a fatality is involved. I wrote of the engineer whose train fatally injured a Native American boy at Cooks a number of years ago. After arriving at Vancouver and going off duty, the engineer drove back to Cooks to grieve with the boy’s family. That item received 18 likes.
I have my differences with the editors of the Columbian, however they do not edit my comments on this blog. Perhaps the reason for the non-editing is because the comments are well thought out and reasonable in content.
Whatever the reasons are, I thank you.
— James E. Hurley
I am also thankful to The Columbian for letting me express my views, based on my life’s experiences, even though I feel many reporters are highly political in their presentation of information. My journalism classes did not allow any personal political views in a news report, just the facts. Fox News and MSNBC are both highly political sources of information which keep the pot boiling, which is not the best way to find a solution to anything.
I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and enemies. May you and your families stay healthy and happy, and may you continue to express your views freely.
— Ronald W. Jones
