Our readers’ views

Initiative proposes no solution

Twice in the past week I have been approached by signature gatherers looking for an endorsement of Tim Eyman’s latest attempt to destroy the efficacy of Washington state government. I’m talking about the “Stop the Tax Increase on Groceries,” Initiative 1092, which apparently defines soda, candy, beer and tobacco as “groceries.” This initiative and the materials being circulated for signature are part of an incredibly disingenuous astroturf campaign that has companion initiatives funded by the American Beverage Association, an industry group that represents pop bottlers, and the Washington Beverage Association.

Like everything else Eyman proposes, there are no real solutions for funding critical state programs that are even more burdened by the faltering economy and record unemployment.

The filing paperwork in this referendum urges us to believe that “groceries” are already heavily taxed, and that “Olympia shouldn’t balance the budget on the backs of the working class.” Apparently it would be much better to cut services and balance the budget on the backs of the unemployed, the elderly, children and the disabled.

Bob Urell

Washougal

Work with the money you have

Here we go again. Once again our elected officials, this time certain members of our Vancouver City Council and Clark County Commissioners are forgetting what the people want. (June 16 Columbian story, “Mielke urges higher vehicle fees to fund road projects; Boldt says he’d back effort if property taxes are reduced.”) We voted to reduce our vehicle registration fees to an affordable amount and now they are talking about raising them. Oh, sure, they say they will reduce property taxes. What kind of malarkey is that? When has a politician ever reduced a tax once they get their hands on it?

I’ve got a solution. Make the local governments work with the money they have. They can reduce spending by cutting payroll. The private sector has done this quite well; just look at our unemployment rate. With the economy and the unemployment rate the way they are, how can our leaders even think about making the people pay more? Time for all politicians to wake up and see the picture the way it is — you are taxing us into poverty. It’s time to get rid of them and start over with people who will listen to our votes and govern the way they should by looking out for the general population.

Tony Olson

Vancouver

Spend to help drivers, not bicyclists

I read the June 13 story, “Bicycling advocates lobby city for funding: Groups want council to find money for safety improvements,” regarding the group from Portland and Vancouver that wanted the $200,000 that had been earmarked for a transportation project used for the bicyclists. They blow through stop signs, ride anywhere they want (sidewalks, middle of some streets), don’t pay gas tax for the roads, don’t pay vehicle taxes on their bicycles — and now they want money spent for them, not the general public who stop at stop signs, pay gas tax and vehicle tax, license fees etc. Now that we have a decent mayor who is not of the attitude, “all for the bikers, cause ‘I ride a bike,” maybe we can use the transportation dollars for our streets, not wasted on a strip of road that was widened, with my dollars, so a biker can “feel” safe riding on the roads.

Jim Souder

Vancouver

India’s social inequity still evident

India has well over a billion citizens, and delights in being called “the world’s largest democracy.” Fast-paced economic growth over the course of recent years has supposedly blotted out India’s old image as a place of filth, desperate poverty and incomprehensible violence. Reality is much at variance with this assessment.

India’s countryside is where 70 percent of its people still live and where ultra-wealthy industrialists seek to drive peasants off of their ancestral lands. The moneybags want to mine billions of tons of coal, iron ore and bauxite. That means the peasants have to be evicted. Maoist rebels, who claim to be fighting on behalf of the peasants, now operate in much of rural India.

Forbes Magazine, in its Special Edition for 2010, has an article about this miserable mess. It is entitled “Billionaires versus Maoists.” Its authors have compiled abundant evidence of collusion between the resource-grabbing billionaires, on the one hand, and India’s cops on the other. Maoism would never have spread so far and so violently across the Indian countryside had this officially tolerated process of thievery never gotten started in the first place. India may indeed be the “world’s largest democracy,” but its democracy is severely flawed by huge economic and social inequalities.

Frank W. Goheen

CAMAS

Perhaps egos trumped safety

Regarding the June 11 Columbian online story, “Teenage sailor rescued in Indian Ocean,” the notion of making a mark early in life is understandably exciting to most, even when it isn’t in the safest interest of the youthful undertaker. Parents called upon for prudence in such cases can’t always be counted on to deliver as expected, for a great variety of reasons. Perhaps it is to satisfy their ego through the vicarious experience of their child’s success.

Conversely, parents may genuinely wish to enable their child’s understanding that obstacles and difficulties are simply a part of life and can be overcome — to broaden their horizon and strengthen their confidence. But the level of danger encountered in such lessons is a factor to consider, and the line of pro and con is sometimes very fine.

Sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland survived a journey on her own that could well have killed her. And when it comes to such a risk, I think a parent should be more responsible. Let the individuals decide themselves when they have turned adult and have the right to make that choice. Comparing the risk of a round-the-world journey on a sailboat by a 16 year old to driving a car is preposterous, and an indicator that her father’s ego trumped concern.

Michael E. White

Brush Prairie

Raises still far below decent wages

The June 13 Columbian story, “China wage hikes increase costs but might help spur sales,” reported about wage hikes for Chinese employees who work for the Foxconn Technology group making “iPhones and other goods for Apple Inc., Sony Corp., Dell Inc., Nokia Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.” They would raise wages up to 65 percent. Employees in Shenzhen, China, will earn about 2,000 yuan or $293 American per month. For how many hours? Forty hours a week? Using 150 hours per month equals out to $1.95 per hour. Less than two dollars an hour is horrible. And I would bet the hours are even longer than the Western world’s normal working hours. It’s pathetic.

Delores M. Anderson

Vancouver