Letters to the editor — May 8

Your views

• Published May 08, 2008

• Comments (0)

While I agree that low-income housing is vital, it does not add to the viability of businesses in the downtown core. The demographics of Olympia are changing. In order to continue to attract professionals to the area, adding upscale building on the waterfront is a positive move.

Professionals and upper income individuals spend money. Spending generates tax revenue. Tax revenue pays for essential services. Furthermore, the removal of unsightly, run-down structures will lead to other improvements in the area. Part of the charm of any urban area is a mix of quaint and modern: run-down doesn’t fit in either category.

I have e-mailed Olympia City Council members, and I urge my friends and business associates to do the same. In order to create and sustain an 18-hour city, we need to be proactive. The issue is not about making exceptions for particular developers, but to relax standards to encourage responsible development. That said, hats off to Tri Vo for his commitment to our community and his willingness to take a financial risk in the future of Olympia.

Renee Ries, Olympia

Students’ trip to see the Dalai Lama was wrong

Nowhere in our separation of church and state doctrine is there an exemption simply because one possesses a Nobel Prize! Please do not further insult the public with your contrived justifications. The only exemption given to the Dalai Lama is what you — The Olympian, school administrators and teachers — have arrogantly and insultingly bestowed.

The Dalai Lama is the reincarnated host and manifestation of the Tibetan Buddhist faith. Ergo, any discourse with him must be, by HIS very nature, religious! If the pope, compassionate and peaceful, were to offer the same kind of event, the most responsive detractors would be the ACLU, The Olympian, school administrators and teachers screaming about how it would violate our Constitution.

All of you have arrogantly violated our Constitution and public trust. It was just plain wrong and no amount of deception, spin, justification or coercion can make it right. Public apologies from The Olympian, school administrators and teachers involved should happen, but I doubt that any of the offenders smug within their pompous pride will agree.

Perhaps the next event should be a lawsuit against the school administrators for using tax money to support a religious event.

Also, protesters should pay port and sheriff’s department damages and police costs. TJ Johnson’s mouth should be duct taped and Evergreen’s pseudo-Marxian know-it-all should move to a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the Pachen Lama.

Lee Andersen, Tumwater