Letters to the editor for Aug. 30

Kamala Harris was Joe Biden’s best choice

I’m so happy to be voting for the Biden/Harris ticket in 2020! Kamala Harris was my first choice for president. She’s one of the most capable and progressive Senators in Congress.

Before that, Kamala Harris was as forward-thinking as possible for an AG/prosecutor to be and still get elected. In 2010, Harris narrowly beat fake “moderate” Republican (two-term Los Angeles District Attorney) Steve Cooley in the statewide election for California Attorney General. I worked as a Deputy District Attorney under Cooley after his election in 2000. If he had been elected CAAG, I believe Cooley would have cranked the state’s death penalty machinery up to 11.

There are “progressives” who are upset Kamala Harris wasn’t something that didn’t exist 10 years ago: an elected, 2020-style progressive reform prosecutor. (And Harris was a left-leaning prosecutor, by 2003-2010 standards, in San Francisco.) That’s not rational. If Harris had run for CAAG in 2010 under a 2020-style progressive justice reform platform, none of us would remember who she was because she would have lost in a landslide.

Could the “you” from 10, 20 years ago live up to 2020 standards? If you are thinking “yes,” you’re kidding yourself. I prefer real candidates over platonic ideal avatars that will never be on the ballot. Joe Biden’s first choice was the best: Senator Kamala Harris. I’m looking forward to voting for both of them.

Victor Minjares, attorney and former California prosecutor, Olympia

How close are we to nuclear meltdown?

Human carelessness can cause the end of civilization.

We are stewards of our creations, both the sublime and the lethal. The corrupt Lebanese government allowed the conditions that led to the devastating explosion in Beirut, but a closer look at the “out of sight, out of mind” attitude reveals that it is widespread.

There are 96 operating commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S., plus hundreds of other facilities which handle nuclear materials, such as Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. Located 20 miles west of Seattle, it maintains the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the U.S.

Nuclear fuel rods, once they are no longer commercially productive, are still radioactive for tens of thousands of years. They are stored onsite in pools that need to have water constantly recirculating or they will go “critical.” This relies on the electrical grid. Nuclear plants themselves depend on the electrical grid to pump hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a minute to prevent meltdown of the fuel. If offsite power is lost, untested generator backup is all that separates humanity from nuclear catastrophe.

Loss of offsite power from the electrical grid is a matter of “when” not “if” — as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and rising sea levels have become increasingly common.

Who is overseeing these facilities and holding them accountable? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has always been an industry promoter. Now it has been hijacked by an administration that sadistically believes all government protections and regulations should be eliminated.

We are in trouble, folks.

Wendy Tanowitz, Olympia

Why did people elect you, Olympia City Council members?

In the Aug. 14 paper there is a story on the Olympia City Council “plan” to create a new Social Justice & Equity Commission: “Set the stage and get out of the way.” That’s not a plan, it’s a surrender. The City Council is abdicating the responsibilities they were elected to carry out.

Council member Lisa Parshley actually said it’s “not for us to be the leaders but to let those people lead ... The city council needs to say that we aren’t the experts who know what to do.” What do you think you were elected for, Lisa, if not to lead? You’ll turn your responsibilities over to an unelected, unaccountable committee, and follow their decisions?

Once again, “proven progressive leadership” means elected officials turning over control of our cities to unelected self-interest groups with an ax to grind. That’s not leadership. Olympia City Council, you should be ashamed!

Ted Kisebach, Lacey