Letters to the editor for Jan. 6

Coverups cover nothing

A little more light shone into the murk when Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.”

Tensions pervade so much these days, and they aren’t going away if we just try to cover them up. For instance, lots of children are in trouble in our county and in the world. It’s not their doing, it’s not their fault, and in the end, their trouble is our trouble. We’re all joined at the hip.

Find your own particular piece of the tension and work on it. You’ll be glad you did, and we’ll all be better off. Just do your bit. I will, too.

David L Bellefeuille-Rice, Olympia

Pass Build Back Better bill

Let’s get the Build Back Better bill passed. I am so tired of our national Congress passing bills to enrich the wealthy and to further build the military, yet being unable to bring the incomes of lower-income classes to a living-wage level. These people, children, families, aged, young folks need adequate income to be healthy and productive in our economy. Stop taxing them into poverty.

Currently our economy enables the wealthy and ignores or punishes the lower-income people who are forced to live in unhealthy and dangerous conditions often, despite their hard work. The Build Back Better bill is not a bill of “entitlement,” Senator Manchin. It is a bill that at least tries to temporarily help people of low and low-middle incomes to survive and afford to provide their children and themselves with resources to grow healthy and lead productive lives in our society. These folks are our essential workers! Stop stressing them by underpaying them and hoarding wealth.

Get those “do nothing” Republicans in the Senate to vote for the Build Back Better Bill and add to it with programs of their design. Let all the Senators know that you want to improve the living conditions for our lower-middle income people by making their incomes at least adequate to survive and be healthy, and contribute to our communities.

Get the Build Back Better Bill passed.

Lorraine Barton-Haas, MD, Tumwater

Thank you, Fred Meyer employees

I would just like to acknowledge all of the wonderful, dutiful employees of the Fred Meyer in Lacey. Like the mail carriers, despite COVID, rain, snow, freezing temperatures I can always rely on them to be there: Dee, Fanny, Carol, Lulu, Shelton and the rest of the crew.

I sure hope the Kroger Corp. knows how hard their employees work and that they are paid accordingly. There is nothing better than hard-working, loyal employees that always put the customer first.

Thank you to all of the employees that work in customer service. Just know we are grateful that you show up and give it your all every day.

Sylvia Dedrich, Lacey

New Nisqually I-5 bridges aren’t the answer

The article about the potential future flooding at the Nisqually I-5 bridges is misleading.

Ten years ago, the farm downstream of the bridges was removed, along with the dikes that helped the river to pass. After the dikes were flattened, hundreds of trees were planted, supposedly to return nesting areas to the salmon.

But salmon don’t nest on mud flats, they nest on gravel with flowing water so the roe have oxygen to survive. All that was accomplished was to slow the river and create a mosquito swamp. So no wonder the silt is piling up.

Dredge the river, return the dikes to speed it up, and remove all the trees planted. Or waste $4.2 billion.

Larry Taylor, Olympia