Our readers’ views

It’s not too late to re-route

BPA took criticism several years ago because some wind-generated power could not be transmitted during peak wind events. The reaction by politicians and wind interests goaded BPA to take action, or else. So where transmission lines go, the old tired cliché says, “if some is good a lot more is better.” BPA never wants to be accused of denying a wind merchant the way to market. This little secret is sold by BPA as “pending blackouts” due to excessive heat-pump air conditioning use in Clark and Cowlitz counties.

At the recent county meeting, BPA admitted no study was done on the Oregon route for the I-5 Reinforcement Project. It was “unnecessary” to disrupt the lives of Oregonians, and now it’s too late, according to the project timeline. Stand back from the map of greater Portland, and see Clark and Cowlitz counties through BPA eyes. To them Southwest Washington is a sleepy prairie waiting for development. It is, after all, merely another Oregon county. So says the “citadel of power,” Multnomah County.

Wake up Southwest Washington. You have your own identity and rights not to be plowed under by a federal construction company. Send the BPA steamroller back along the Oregon route where the power is required.

George T. Dill

Battle Ground

Many questions need thorough study

After reading the Nov. 12 Columbian story “Downtown biomass plant OK’d for further study” I have been waiting for someone to write and say what a stupid idea. I have not read the plan, but to save only $179,000 per year and put up with thousands of very large diesel trucks lumbering through our city is stupid.

Many questions come to mind. Where will the biomass come from? What is the cost per ton mile to move it? How many diesel truckloads per day will drive through downtown Vancouver? Will the trucks go by the Hilton? What will be the truck route through the city? Will the rumbling truck noises keep the prisoners awake all night at the county jail? Where is the turnaround point to exit from the area? Will the exhaust from the trucks equal the fumes and smoke stack for the biomass plant?

The proposed site is across the street from Open House Ministries. The route will go by the Open House Ministries building of 32 apartments and 110 beds with kids to breathe the diesel fumes. What will be the cost be 10 years from now?

Ron Rasmussen Sr.

Vancouver

Backward is not desirable direction

Many in the Tea Party movement want to “take our government back.” How far back do they want to go? Back to no Medicare, Social Security, civil rights, women’s right to vote, slavery, or how about back to the Puritans? We could then start hanging people as witches again.

Now, on to another possibility. How about taking our country forward? Let’s get out of the two wars we are engaged in and save the lives of our young men and women. This would also save the country trillions of dollars. Let the Bush tax cuts expire. More trillions saved. All of these monies could be used to lower the deficit, boost up our failing schools, give health care to all, fix our roads and bridges, and give more loans to the small businesses that would actually bring jobs back to the USA.

Maybe these ideas are just too simplistic for our politicians to entertain. It will be interesting to see what their solutions will be. Whatever they come up with probably isn’t going to benefit those of us in the lower income categories.

Roberta Upson

Vancouver

Collecting revenue is right move

The Nov. 13 Columbian headline read “License cheats: Gotcha!” How sweet it is. I think that the cheating is deliberate. I say collect that revenue for our great state … for troopers, roads, schools, the list is endless. My thanks to the Washington State Patrol.

Kay Fox

Vancouver

Corporations draining economy

Curtis Dubay, a senior tax policy analyst at the Washington, D.C., Heritage Foundation, got it backwards. Rather than businesses seen as a pool of funds to be pillaged by Congress, the federal treasury has been used for three decades as a pool of trillions to be raped and pillaged by investment banks, mortgage lenders, drug companies, insurance giants, oil, weapons, and other multinational conglomerates, and corporate agricultural conglomerates.

I believe in a capitalist economy, but the federal government run by corporations is a disaster. Republicans keep saying “the American people” have spoken. No, the corporations have spoken. They poured in the millions, and now they have a stranglehold on Washington. Democrats folded years ago. There is no one speaking for the millions of us who are losing our jobs, health, schools, and environment. A sad end to a once vibrant and hopeful democracy. The lifeblood has been drained from us.

Emily A. Meek

Battle Ground

Word now conveniently popular again

We should all go to our dictionaries and look up the word “bipartisan.” This word will be worked to death over the next two years. Why, you ask? Well it has not been used because it was not needed. The Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, so they did not need any input or help from the Republicans to pass all the bills they wanted. If the Republicans were against their bills, well that’s just tough luck. Oh sometimes they could not get all Democrats to agree to a lousy bill, then they claimed bipartisanship and pretended the Republicans had power to stop passage.

Now with the change in the House leadership you will hear every liberal in the drive-by media, cable news and especially liberal newspapers like the New York Times and our own Columbian.

William Secrest

Vancouver

No good comes of class envy

I have been reading letters to the editor for many years now, and have formed the opinion that many people don’t know what is in the Constitution, don’t know how economies work and feel they are entitled to whatever they want. Many of these people work in Washington, D.C. Many of our local writers are of the opinion that if only those “rich people” would pay their fair share, everything would be just great. Assuming our governing bodies could extract every last dime from all private enterprise, it would not change your life one iota. All that collected money would disappear into expanded departments, useless research grants, earmarks to pay off political favors and any lawmaker’s pet project.

I’m not sure if any of the current religions in the world promote “class envy.” I also seem to remember something written some time ago, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.”

Ken Kraemer

Vancouver