Switch focus to reducing utility rates
The Columbian’s Aug. 15 story “PUD to consider hiking cost of power” contained the sub-headline “Utility needs to increase income for the end of year.” This story reports that Clark Public Utilities has done some cost cutting but suggests that the only recourse being considered now is to raise the rates because of the diminished power usage. For a considerable number of years Clark Public Utilities has promoted conservation of power to reduce power usage. The utility now appears to not take advantage of the reduction in power usage by bringing costs in line to reflect the lower usage.
If the utilities commissioners were doing their job, they would be focusing on reducing costs. What if the increase in cost of power results in further reduction in power usage? Will the commissioners continue raising rates? If the commissioners can’t do anything but raise rates, they aren’t doing their job and should be replaced. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the upcoming meeting but I hope to read in The Columbian that the commissioners will earn their pay by reducing costs instead of increasing the cost of power.
Every public agency has a strong bias toward laying people off, and they go to great extremes to avoid doing so.
David J. Bates
La Center
Not all state workers earn high wages
In response to the Aug. 13 editorial, “Late to the rescue,” about the state of the government budget, it appears The Columbian feels the woes of this recession are the fault of hard-working state employees. First and foremost, public employees never work for the taxpayers to get rich, unless you are management or an elected public official.
Line staff have families to support, mortgages to pay and groceries to purchase. Including the Legislature’s action to furlough “certain state employees” for 10 days, I personally along with other co-workers have been rewarded for our more than 20 years of state service with a 20 percent pay cut. My mortgage, groceries and utilities and other necessary purchases have not been reduced 20 percent and I, unlike this newspaper, have learned to live within my means, and not file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Also, we are not getting “free health care” as many seem to believe.
If you are going to report on state employees, talk to line staff who have already incurred great hardship, not management and politicians who continue to employ all of their “feel-good programs” at the expense of the common state workers who want to help their community and be able to afford to support local merchants when they go shopping.
Kathy D. Schieber
Vancouver
Palin picked on, again and again
Sarah Palin is in the news again after a couple of liberals publicly said it was a shame she wasn’t in the recent plane crash that killed former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. Why do they hate her so? Because Palin is the liberated female anti-victim. When she gets hungry, she goes hunting. When she has family problems she deals with them without crying for help. Faced with a Down Syndrome child, she made an unselfish, positive choice. She prefers action to whining, then takes responsibility for that action. And all without making a claim on taxpayers.
For all their proclamations for women’s liberation, liberals want women liberated just enough to make whatever irresponsible choices they want, then cry for government assistance when those choices don’t work out, and they excoriate anyone who does not agree. Palin serves as a beacon for all women that they can take action, take responsibility and live happily. That’s why the Democratic Party — the national party of victims — despises her so.
Bruce Smith
Battle Ground
Correct term is illegal alien
The media keep referring to illegal immigrants. There is no such thing as an illegal immigrant. Immigrants are persons who immigrate into the United Stated by legal means. The correct term for a person living illegally in the United States is illegal alien. It would be nice if the media could get it right.
Robert F. Nesvick Jr.
Vancouver
Religious struggles resurrected
As I watched the BBC News report of the catastrophic human misery of the flooding in Pakistan, I was unable to banish thoughts about the obscene proposal to build a multimillion-dollar edifice to the glory of Islam near a site in New York City, which Americans consider a sacred site as Ground Zero. Think about it, my fellow citizens, what those millions of dollars would accomplish to alleviate the plight of Muslim brothers and sisters in ravaged Pakistan.
Tis not a coincidence that the chosen name for that obscene edifice is Cordoba, as in Spain’s Great Mosque of Córdoba (rebuilt as a Roman Catholic church, now known as Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption.) Those of us who are students of history would understand the significance of that name. Not so hidden, indeed, perhaps is the aspiration to resurrect a glorious but drenched-in-blood past.
Loti S. Christensen
Vancouver
Let peace evolve
Prayerfully Israelis and Palestinians will soon have direct talks, though in the interim, lots of hissing and grunting will go on. Let it happen as it will. Soon enough it will happen that the distances will crumble and the power struggle will die. Whatever will prevent the mutual assured destruction should surely be one of history’s greatest stories.
The Palestine/Israeli world has given us so much. The gift of Jesus, coming from both sides, among the greatest of gifts for getting people to forgive and forget, is what this age needs most of all.
Alvin Fischer
Vancouver
BP’s ad strategy is questionable
Imagine this as a recent television ad: As a representative for British Petroleum, the first thing you’ll notice is that I don’t sound British. In fact I’m not even wearing a suit or tie. My look says I’m a “good old boy” just like you even though what I get paid per minute is probably more than you will make in a year. At BP we care about little people as well as the environment, and that’s why, when we learned one of our wells was leaking and some workers whose names I don’t know had died, we put our heads together, and, using our best technology, we came up with this ad. Oh sure, we could have spent the money on redundant safety devices that many nations require, but no one sees those. This ad will be seen by millions. We have to have our priorities; after all, lawyers, lobbyists, and hookers (not to mention senators) cost a lot of cash. Look at this beach I’m standing on — not a tar ball in sight, and if we have our way, you never will see one. BP, where out of sight is out of mind.
James D. Patton
Vancouver
