Letters to the Editor for July 5

Do you think buffalo burped?

I was curious about the article on reducing cow burps to ease global warming.

I was wondering with the millions and millions of buffalo that once roamed North America if they burped. You know, if they did, wouldn’t you think global warming would have arrived long ago?

Could it be that buffalo were less crude and have better manners than cows and didn’t do such dastardly things?

Just curious.

Will Wyatt

Shelton

Overman’s photos are works of art

Since moving to Olympia in the early 1980s, my husband and I have appreciated and valued the positive elements of this community.

While the city functions as the state capital with its attendant traditions and dignity, our calendar is peppered with celebrations, parades, events and activities reflective of a vibrant population.

Over the years, we have delighted in The Olympian’s photography created by Tony Overman. We have been fans for years — from the picture of the little boy with tongue in concentrated press scooping a salmon across the road to the recent photo of the mysterious brown bat sculpted against the night sky.

We believe Overman’s photographs are works of art, and we are grateful to enjoy them in our morning paper.

Diane Norwood

Olympia

Sterling should be hired to stage Procession

On June 22, The Olympian announced that Reader’s Digest has chosen the Procession of the Species as the best of its type of event among 50,000 considered in the United States.

This incredible achievement has resulted from the remarkable efforts of Eli Sterling, whose passionate dedication and strong, creative imagination have kept the procession vital.

His management skills keep the organization coherent among vastly diverse individuals with whom he works.

Receiving no regular compensation, Sterling remains continuously at work on the Procession, regularly putting in 12- to 18-hour days working toward elevating the human spirit and bringing the community together.

With no corporate sponsors, operating on funds from donors (the city of Olympia is currently not a contributor), Sterling is ever watchful of the integrity of the Procession. He is firm on this being a regional and community-based event.

It seems to me that an individual who brings such valuable attention to a city and the surrounding area should be employed at an appropriate salary to do full time what he loves doing. I hope public officials make this happen for this remarkable person, lest we lose him to some other region.

William Aldridge

Tenino

Public health care option necessary

Some of our senators and representatives are waffling on the public health care option as a part of health care reform.

The pharmaceutical and insurance industries are putting tremendous pressure on Congress to defeat meaningful health care reform. Millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the health care industry speak loudly in Washington.

But our elected officials need to be reminded that 83 percent of Americans support a public health care option. We can also speak loudly, and we can VOTE.

It can hardly be argued that a public plan would compete with private insurers. They have already demonstrated they have no interest in providing affordable health insurance to 49 million uninsured Americans.

They have had their chance and failed miserably.

Reps. Adam Smith and Jim McDermott have already committed their support for the public health care option, but the following members have not yet committed themselves: Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Reps. Brian Baird and Jay Inslee.

Find your representative’s phone number here, ring them up and ask them to get on board: www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml.

Carol Wilson

Olympia

We need to agree to disagree

Based on his recent column vilifying Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, how is Olympian columnist Lucius Daye modeling a better way?

His column expressed his opinion as is his right in this nation.

He points out his perceived bad guys, attacks their differing ideology and beliefs, and demonizes people for no other reason than they disagree with him. From his statements in this column, Daye appears to be drinking from his own well of vitriol, taking the opportunity to use his Diversity Panel platform to unleash some venom of his own.

Daye has the right to express his opinions. But does he not suppose that his own words may serve to start fires with impressionable, less educated, misguided people who share his views? Should Daye then be dubbed another American Osama bin Laden?

Those who enter the public forum of ideas understand that anything and everything they say, regardless of ideology, is subject to being misconstrued and misquoted. Daye’s point about Limbaugh wanting President Obama to fail is a case in point.

Limbaugh’s opinion was that if the president’s policies would lead this society to socialism, he wanted those policies to fail — not the president himself.

We need not suppress differing viewpoints and vilify our fellow citizens for holding those divergent views. We need to agree to disagree on the issues and celebrate our liberty to do so in this nation.

Jann Coffman

Olympia