Letters to the editor for March 9
On-ramp is a disgrace
In late February, we spent 2+ hours cleaning a portion of the 93rd Avenue/Interstate 5 on-ramp in south Tumwater. We filled four construction trash bags with every conceivable type of trash and bodily fluid containers.
It is disgusting to see how truckers, truck stop vendors, Department of Transportation, State Patrol and towing companies have let us down.
Truckers routinely use the on-ramps as parking lots to run to McDonalds, Subway, Cinnabon or the Pilot store. There are few outside garbage receptacles. Trash is simply tossed from trucks, alongside hundreds of containers filled with urine.
The DOT has failed to fix or replace an almost unseen barbed wire fence in the past dozen years. The State Patrol seemingly has no interest in enforcing the “No Parking” signs as truckers routinely use the ramp for parking. Hey folks, the heavy trucks are destroying the shoulders!
Where are the Department of Transportation and the State Patrol? Look at the piles of garbage and trash around the Lilly Road overpass in Olympia. Why has the State Patrol forfeited their responsibility to command accident scenes, permitting complete bumpers, piles of shattered glass, license plates and debris from collisions to remain? Towing companies make little or no effort to clean a scene.
Why have the DOT, WSP, as well as the legislature, ignored their responsibilities concerning the homeless living on Washington state rights-of-way?
We have an ever-increasing level of trash along our freeways and on-ramps that will not go away unless we all take some responsibility.
Ron Knapp, Olympia
Putin good, Biden bad, and Barr tells all
The leader of the Republican Party says Vladimir Putin is a genius and a savvy leader — the one currently invading Ukraine who helped our former president become president. That’s from one stable genius to another.
Republicans are in a quandary guesstimating the reasons for Putin’s invasion.
How can Putin’s invasion into Ukraine be all President Biden’s fault? Stay tuned, Fox news will surely come through with breaking opinions. I’m sure Hunter Biden’s laptop will resurface with blistering insights.
Meanwhile, after our former Attorney General Bill Barr sold the country out, now comes his book. Selling the country out, then writing a tell-all book is pretty much standard procedure for former appointees of President Trump.
Mr. Barr will say he stayed in Trump’s orbit to save us from the stable genius going awry, until he could no longer remain silent. Apparently, Barr’s alarm clock woke him up sometime after Jan. 6.
But Mr. Barr, your book is no cleansing shower, but rather a laundered money maker. Is the ghost of Robert Muller haunting you for misinterpreting his report on purpose?
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans need to get back to the nation’s business: bad-mouthing Biden and blaming him for all the nation’s ills Republicans don’t want to help fix. Just keep yapping about them like an annoying neighbor’s dog.
All because Biden is weak compared to Trump’s and Putin’s savvy genius ways and strong leadership skills. Whatever, dude.
David Cahill, Olympia
Shame on you, Tucker Carlson
Not only Fox commentator Tucker Carlson but any American in public life, the media or our government who would compliment, support, or look up to Russian President Vladimir Putin should be ashamed. Putin’s criminal orders to begin a war against the Ukraine, a democratic country of 40 million people who have been living their lives in freedom, is a disgrace.
There are no excuses for this disgraceful behavior and it must stop. The world watches the U.S. and surely must be aghast to hear these shameful words from our country. Cease and desist.
Diana Williams, Lacey