Letters to the editor for Dec. 10
End child marriage in Washington
Were you aware that right here in Washington state child marriage is legal? That’s right, along with 45 other states in our country. Anyone under the age of 18 in our state can marry with parental permission. This most often affects young girls.
Statistics provided by UNICEF and Zonta International indicate that regardless of the reasons, child marriage leads to significant social, emotional and physical harm for many adolescent girls. For example, girls who marry as children tend to have little education, which limits their vocational and economic opportunities. They are more likely to give birth more often at a young age. And they are less likely to receive medical care during pregnancy than women who marry when they are older.
Early marriage doubles a teenager’s chances of living in poverty and triples the likelihood she’ll be beaten by her spouse, compared to married adults. Between 70-80% of child marriages end in divorce.
In addition to changing the law that would make all child marriages illegal, we need interventions to improve girls’ access to services, education, information and opportunities. Soon there will be a bill introduced in our state legislature to end child marriage in Washington. Please watch for it and contact your legislators letting them know you support it!
Connie Campbell, Olympia
Be careful at corners
I’ve lived in Lacey for a couple of decades and like it a lot. What I don’t like is driving here. I don’t know of any place of similar population where it is so risky to get on a thoroughfare from a side street. It’s due to trees, bushes, and even fences that obscure intersections to the point that a driver must pull out well past the stop sign just to see what is coming.
State law (RCW 46.61.196) and even manuals for rookie drivers tell us that a driver approaching a stop sign must stop before a crosswalk or stop line. It makes sense to do so, but a lot less sense to have to pull out well beyond the stop sign just to see what’s coming on the arterial street. It can be a little dicey if the other driver is near the edge of his lane.
I hope the city will, at some point, send out a crew to do some serious trimming.
Ron Waitman, Lacey
A plea to prevent flooding in the Nisqually Valley
An open letter to Chris Robinson, the CEO of Tacoma Power:
Last year I nearly lost my home and everything I own in the Nisqually River flooding. On behalf of myself and everyone who lives near the river, please lower the level of the Alder Lake Reservoir and raise the flow rate for the Nisqually River to 11,000 cfs. for December, January, and February, if possible. We’d like to avoid another flood like last year’s.
Thanks to a letter submitted by Howard H. Glastetter in The Olympian, I understand that the reservoir is kept full for electricity generation, but people’s lives and properties are at stake here, and every time Tacoma Power makes an error in managing the river, as happened last year, people’s lives are endangered along with their properties.
Where I live, most of the residents are either working poor or living with some type of disability. Putting this community in jeopardy over generating electricity is inhumane at best and cruel at worst.
This year has already been the roughest year in my memory. I urge you to please take what I’ve said into consideration and spare us from yet another flood, if it’s within your power. We could all use a break in 2021 and having a springtime without a flood would be a great way to start.
Thank you and happy holidays to you and yours.
Rick Fague, Olympia