Letters to the editor — May 8

We don’t get to vote on big ticket items

The Olympian publishes many letters by people who feel overtaxed and vent their rage on school levies.

Let’s put this in context.

The National Priorities Project (www.costofwar.com) keeps track of what the Iraq War is costing — more than $500 billion thus far ($341.4 million per day). This is $1,721 per person in the U.S.

NPP breaks the cost down geographically. Thurston County’s taxpayers have already paid $428.3 million for the Iraq War.

The March 23 Olympian’s headline bragged that the Port of Olympia made $400,000 in 2007 shipping military supplies for this war. Actually the war has cost our county’s taxpayers 1,000 times as much!

In contrast, the Olympia and North Thurston school levies — at roughly $20 million each — are miniscule compared with the $438.3 million our county’s taxpayers have spent for the war.

I’d like to vote YES for the school levies and NO for the war — and NO for Bush’s next generation of nuclear weapons, NO for wildly inflated contracts for Halliburton and Blackwater, NO for flying innocent people to Guantanamo and secret sites to be tortured, and NO for illegally wiretapping our phones and reading our e-mails.

But we never got the opportunity.

The system doesn’t let us vote on outrageous, immoral big ticket items. People who feel abused are allowed to vent only by punishing schools, libraries, fire stations and local government services that help us.

The military-industrial complex has a pretty slick deal going!

Glen Anderson, Lacey

In a fire, don’t rely on divine intervention

I had to read the article entitled “Neighborhoods without hydrants” a number of times before I could believe what I was reading.

I understand if a developer or a representative of the homebuilders association makes statements like, “It’s just not practical” to install fire hydrants supplied from wells. With them the bottom line is profit and their responsibility ends when the home is sold.

But when the county administrator and fire marshal make statements like “I think it would be very difficult to raise that as a policy issue,” and it’s “complicated and expensive,” that is something else again.

Three local fire chiefs were also quoted in this article and not one mentioned residential fire sprinkler systems as an alternative type of protection in homes served by wells and/or long response times from the fire station. Haven’t they read “America Burning?”

Of all people, fire chiefs should know that if the occupants of a home on fire are not out within 4 minutes, chances are they won’t get out. It’s a proven fact, “houses burning don’t kill people, it’s the contents burning that do!” What are these people hoping for in the event of a fire, divine intervention?

Residential fire sprinklers can be affordably supplied from wells and can be nothing more than an extension of the home plumbing system with concealed, heat-activated faucets in the ceiling.

Folks, they aren’t called “instant firefighters, affordable life savers” for nothing.

Larry Glenn, retired fire chief, Olympia

Save money and send kids to church

I was under the impression that there was a separation of religion from the public school system and that the public schools were needed more money.

It is incomprehensible to me, therefore, why the public school system would spend money on gasoline in order for students to learn about compassion from the Buddhist faith. In fact, they could have coordinated with our Methodist Church one recent Sunday for students to attend our children’s sermon which incidentally was about compassion. The money for gasoline, instead, could have raised each teacher’s salary $10 a month for the school year.

Dolores Todd, Olympia

Waterfront housing key to local economy

A spate of recent letters to the editor cite opposition to lifting the waterfront height restrictions at the risk of blocking public views. I believe this viewpoint is short-sighted, and detrimental to the economic growth of Olympia and Thurston County.

Port developments and improvements, including the Farmers Market, Market Centre, Rants buildings, Batdorf & Bronson, Anthony’s Homeport and Hearthfire, and like additions have been a boon to Olympia.

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