Letters to the editor — April 18

Your views

• Published April 18, 2008

Voters cannot let the children down

It’s not always that one is given a second chance to do the right thing. Yet that is exactly what the voters in the North Thurston Public Schools district are being given May 20 — a second chance. The voters cannot let our children down as they did with the early 1990s levy failures. I watched as many valuable programs were cut and my own grandchildren moved from NTPS because of the reduced services.

If the levy fails, the district will have to cut $17.5 million from the budget. Such cuts will have a far-reaching affect on our community. Not only will it mean less programs and services for our children, there will also be many livable wage full-time teaching and support staff positions permanently lost.

North Thurston is asking for a replacement maintenance and operations levy which means that it is NOT a new tax, it’s a continuation of what we are all paying now. Property owners will not see a dramatic increase in their taxes.

I urge my fellow voters to do the right thing and vote “yes” for the North Thurston Public Schools levy!

James Echtle, Lacey

Abortion is always morally wrong

Twice during the past year, dedicated men, women and children of all faiths participated in the 40 Days For Life campaign outside Planned Parenthood in Olympia praying for an end to abortion. Every Friday, a group continues to gather to pray.

I participated in the 40 Days campaign almost every Saturday and at no time were we ever vocal, except in prayer, despite the fact that people going by on foot, in cars and on bikes would often swear at us and one group of young, “greener-types” performed a crude choreographed dance and threw glitter-filled condoms at us. We did not make any comments to them at all but kept praying.

The signs that we displayed during the 40 Days Campaign promoted adoption and life. We handed out replicas of unborn babies at 12 weeks showing what the unborn LIFE looks like at that point. We are far from misguided as Timothy McLeod indicated in his letter.