Just wondering
Saturday, November 15, 2008 12:34 AM PST
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E-mail this articleNov. 15 Letters to the Editor
Just wondering
I was just wondering if some day our veterans could be honored even more than we honor them now. My suggestion would be to give all veterans a paid day off on Veterans Day.
As it stands now, my veteran goes to work on Veterans Day out in the rain and wind. He is a true soldier and takes care of his responsibilities. He does not shirk them. I honor him for that. Many people who are not veterans do get today off. I hope they all appreciate today and what it means.
A few years ago he attended an assembly at Kelso High School and received letters from some of the students about how grateful they were for his service. Those letters meant a lot to him.
Marquita Ward
Longview
Is school board listening?
Last week I took the time to go to the interviews of the five finalists chosen for the incomplete one-year term. I hope the school board was listening.
Three of the five interviewees said an improvement the schools could make is “communication with parents.” I hope they were listening and will take this seriously before they ask for two levies.
Doris Disbrow
Longview
A question
A question for William Schumacher (Nov.11 letter). If our current health care system is the best in the world, why is our life expectancy falling every year in relationship to other countries, including most of the counties with a national health care system?
Our life expectancy is worse than people in Jordan, Singapore, almost all of Europe, and is on about par with Cuba, though we do on average live a few months longer than Cubans. They are gaining on us, however. Since last year, seven more countries have surpassed us in life expectancy, including Bosnia, Jordan and Finland.
My husband was in the hospital in the U.K. (a national health insurance country) last spring. The care was fast and efficient, the room was nice (private room), the food was excellent, and three specialists ran extensive tests to determine the problem. He was in for three days; the bill which we paid because we were not paid into their health care system. $6,230. Try to match that in the United States.
I might add that, in the U.K. — land of deep fried Mars bars, and in fact deep fried everything — they also live longer than in the United States.
Annette Birch
Kalama
Jobs are jobs
Unfortunately for your readers, the description by Erik Olson in “Energy deal sparks strong objection” (Nov. 7) is horribly inaccurate.
While Olson claims that the BPA proposal would result in a “deeply discounted” rate to Alcoa, and that “subsidizing energy rates for certain industries would have a very negative effect on the others,” the facts are that neither of these is the result of the BPA proposal.
Under the proposal, BPA would sell to Alcoa about half of the power needed to operate its Intalco aluminum plant in Whatcom County at a rate that is currently about 3.5 cents per kwh. It would continue to sell power to Cowlitz PUD power to meet the entire load of industries in Cowlitz County at a rate that is currently about 2.6 cents/kwh.
So while BPA would continue to sell enough power to serve all the loads of Cowlitz County industries at a low rate, they are proposing to serve half the Intalco plant load at a higher rate. That is not a subsidy to Alcoa; that is a subsidy by Alcoa.
Jobs are important in Whatcom County as well as in Cowlitz County, and BPA should not deliberately pick sides by providing power for some jobs and not for others. Does Olson somehow conclude that Cowlitz County jobs are more important than Whatcom County jobs? BPA should sell power to both, and this proposal is a reasonable compromise for the Northwest.
Pat Flaherty
Ferndale, Wash.
Editor's note: The statement "subsidizing energy rates for certain industries would have a very negative effect on the others" was not made by Daily News reporter Erik Olson. Rather, it was a quote attributed to Ted Sprague, president of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council.
What’s newsworthy?
I can’t imagine how local veterans feel. As a great, great, great-grandson and nephew of Civil War veterans, a great-grandson and nephew of World War I veterans, and a son and nephew of world War II veterans, I was very disappointed that The Daily News did not devote any space or have any reference to or mention of veterans in Tuesday’s (Nov. 11) paper.
Veterans have sacrificed their lives and come home sick and injured in order to keep our country free and safe. We should remember our veterans, support our troops and give them the credit they deserve and have earned. And salute and thank them.
John Dallas
Longview
Editor's note: An article that included a list of Veterans Day events appeard on Page A3 of the Nov. 11 edition of The Daily News.
Beneficial discourse
I avidly read the letter from John Wilson (Nov. 10) pointing out that liberalism is a cancer, followed by the article by Cathy Zimmerman (Nov. 11) providing statistics for colon cancer.
As both a survivor of colon cancer and as a liberal, I say the public benefit from the exchange between Wilson and Zimmerman cannot be overstated.
James Reed
Cathlamet
The good, the bad, the ugly
Nov. 11 had all three. It started with the bad — another of William Schumacher’s letters, this one proclaiming by the second sentence, “We presently have the best health care system in the world,” and concluding with, “Barack Obama is a socialist.” In between, more such baseless speculation and divisive opinion, founded not in objective science and observation but rather grounded in blind pseudo-patriotism and an extremist political agenda.
We don’t “have the best health care in the world,” and no knowledgeable observer thinks so. The only health categories in which we lead are obesity and in cost for care.
Then I drove a crowded I-5 in the rain. When did we agree to sacrifice the middle lane to semis, thus ensuring zero lanes of spray-free driving for those of us driving smaller vehicles? Ugly. Ugly and dangerous.
And then I went to the Veterans Day ceremony in Kelso. When it ended, a young woman approached me with a child I took to be her son. She had seen the disabled/combat/vet paraphernalia I was wearing, and she offered me a homemade cookie from a plate she was holding and thanked me for my service. Her son, too, thanked me and then handed me a hand-drawn card, one on which he’d obviously spent much time, care and thought.
Veterans Day in Kelso in the rain was good. So good even the bad and ugly didn’t matter that much.
John Martinez Weston
Castle Rock
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