Letters to the editor for Aug. 5

• Published August 04, 2008

• Comments (0)

The low income subsidized housing residents downtown, which your tax dollars support, can not afford to spend money in the stores downtown.

Olympia's downtown needs a total face-lift to survive. Someone said we have a funky downtown. I think that The Evergreen State College needs to build dorms and house their own students instead of using our tax dollars to pay their rent shortage.

Try to support your downtown anytime you can.

Carlene Spitler, downtown merchant, Olympia

Fines aren't necessary to do the right thing

I take offense to your editorial advocating stiff fines for Taylor Shellfish. Not only does it come across as yellow journalism, the reason you give advocating stiff fines implies all shellfish farmers would be crooks were it not for laws deterring us.

The fact you lifted word for word parts of the Seattle PI story, one of the worst pieces of yellow journalism I've seen in a long time, speaks volumes. Reprinting critics claims "that Taylor secretly converted" and "it's cheaper to take it and not pay for it," can only be viewed as sensationalizing the news.

Unfortunately, your entire editorial is a regurgitation of the Seattle PI story… except for your lone editorial point. As justification for your call advocating stiff fines, you write, "Fines are most certainly warranted.

"Otherwise what's the deterrent to keep Taylor or others from using public property to reap a profit on future shellfish harvests?"

In contrast to your editorial board, who obviously must only do the right thing when faced with legal deterrent or punishment, I think I can say I speak for the Taylor family and all other honest citizens, when I say that as a shellfish farmer I take offense to your implication that the only reason to do the right thing is because one faces some sort of punishment. I, for one, will continue to strive to do the right thing, as well as turn a profit from shellfish farming, not because of some legal deterrent, but because it is right.

Jim Gibbons, Seattle Shellfish