Letters to the Editor

Letter: Follow the lead of other bridges

It is amazing to me that we here in Portland and Vancouver will spend $3 billion or more to reduce the water clearance of a major bridge from 178 feet to 116 feet.

Letter: Time to dissolve teacher unions

Battle Ground taxpayers are still woozy from watching their real estate taxes climb to a new record as a result of the recent unwholesome school levy. Yet, what we find is half-days and waiver days instead of full days of school as the year ends … how can this be?

Letter: Museum diminished under NPS

When the National Park Service began operating Pearson Air Museum in February some asked, "Does it have the unique skills, contacts and credibility within the aviation community to successfully operate an air museum? How many air museums does the Park Service manage within its 400 locations?"

Letter: Our democracy is under siege

There are several actions that must be taken to get us back on track.

Letter: Bridge news can be terrifying

I just wish that everyone in Clark County could have been with me in my Reno hotel room a few weeks ago. I turned on the 11 p.m. news to learn more about a Reno earthquake. The quake was no big deal, but as I started to switch the television off, I heard "Up next, I-5 bridge collapses in Washington."

Letter: Pursue the third-bridge solution

On March 18, I was driving from Vancouver to Portland at 8 a.m. over the Glenn Jackson Bridge and got caught in the huge accident caused by a tractor-trailer that entered the bridge going the wrong way.

Letter: Financial burden shifts to residents

Regarding the June 10 Columbian story "Light rail: Blight or bliss?," one major component that was excluded involves the fact that the property values study is incomplete.

Letter: Light rail expands community

I attended my first C-Tran Board of Directors meeting this month and didn't stay long. I was surprised at how negative many of the speakers were.

Letter: Religious doctrine has much leeway

I'm becoming disturbed and agitated by Catholicism. Officials of the church are moving in on our health care system by buying up hospitals with political tax-free money and imposing Catholic sexual reproductive dogma on medical patients in conflict with constitutional Affordable Care Act.

Letter: Break the habit to save your life

Why do people smoke? Some smoke because their friends do it so it has to be cool.

Letter: GMO infiltration corrupts our food

Partisanship corrupts the human brain. Some people feel giving up our biodiversity to cross-contamination and ultimately total control of the food is OK.

Letter: Find money for all-day kindergarten

I about fell off of the couch reading the June 8 story about "Full-day kindergarten: primary equity" programs that are available to all students in Evergreen Public Schools and the response from Vancouver Public Schools, stating that their district decided not to offer such programs to all schools in order to lower class size. Oh, really?

Letter: Madore, Mielke, Benton: Resign

As a former freeholder, elected twice, and also wife of former six-term County Assessor Ben Gassaway, I've been politically active in Clark County for more than 40 years. I strongly suggest we should not have to go through the arduous, expensive process of once again attempting to attain integrity in government through home rule. We need not be forced into an expensive, difficult process of signature gathering for recall. Why not? Because the resignations of County Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke and state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, could solve the entire matter instantly.

Letter: Solutions start with gun safety

Has it only been six months since the massacre of 20 first-graders and six staff members in Newtown, Conn.? In some ways it seems like yesterday. Perhaps that is because we hear the same type of news about other gun-related deaths day after day after day. I decided to keep tabs on gun-related murders after the Newton massacre. It didn't take long for me to become despondent as the numbers rose to sickening heights.

Letter: How soon the banks forget

For years now, we have been dealing with an economic crisis that has affected everyone throughout the U.S. We have the banking system to thank for this mess. In Clark County, the foreclosure rates have increased rapidly through the years, and in past months changes have come into effect that only benefit banks, while hard-working folks are being stripped clean from their homes. To clean up this mess, the government decided to bail out the banking system, yet our economic situation saw little to no improvement.