Oct. 16 Letters to the Editor

Ticket speeders, as well

Because of John Wilson’s second letter to you regarding the speed limit on Nichols Boulevard, I am prompted to write this letter.

I completely agree with Mr. Wilson on the need to ticket violators on Nichols, but for an entirely different reason. Many times I find the driver behind me practically touching my rear bumper as I proceed through the St. Rose school zone at 20 miles per hour. Are there motorists out there who do not understand their responsibility in a school zone? Yes.

It is just not Mr. Wilson’s “slow pokes” who need to be ticketed, but also those who jeopardize the lives of the school children.

Jacqueline Lightfoot

Longview

Flu shot policy is needed

We are saddened The Daily News did not consult Virginia Mason for the editorial “Don’t mandate flu shots for health care professionals,” but we appreciate the correction Saturday. As the first hospital in the country to require flu vaccines for staff, we are proud of our leadership to keep patients safe.

Every year about 40 percent of health-care workers get vaccinated voluntarily in this country. At VM last year, 95 percent of union-represented nurses and 99.25 percent of all staff got vaccinated.

It is the editorial board’s prerogative to agree with the nurses union against vaccine mandates for health-care workers. We respectfully disagree.

Given the chance to change your minds we would have talked about the 36,000 people who die each year from the flu; the 200,000 people hospitalized; the 28 pregnant women and 76 children who died so far from the H1N1 virus (swine flu); and many other flu tragedies.

We would have shared medical evidence that scientifically validates health-care workers indeed pass the flu to patients. We would have talked about how a hospital is where people go to get well; not contract a potentially deadly virus from the very people tasked to heal them.

We believe the responsibility of people who choose to be healers and work in health care far outweighs any one individual’s preference to refuse a vaccine.

Joyce Lammert

Chief of Medicine

Virginia Mason Medical Center

Gary S. Kaplan

Chairman and CEO

Virginia Mason Health System

Vote ‘no’ on I-1033

Initiative 1033 would cause a lot of problems for ordinary citizens. It freezes local government revenues at current amounts, allowing growth only by inflation and population. While that may sound good, the rate increases wouldn’t cover the new services needed. In my experience, when there are more people, higher levels of services — schools, roads, deputies, social services and environmental protections — are needed.

Local governments will quit promoting economic development because it brings in more jobs and people without bringing in the money needed for the additional services. With services at bare-boned minimums, citizens will also lose the ability to help decide how to create the kind of community we want.

Finally, I-1033 prescribes that money collected from sales taxes be used to provide relief to property owners. Most relief would go to large businesses and landlords instead of providing the services needed.

Please join me in voting “no” on I-1033.

Joel Rupley

Longview

One right, one wrong

It took two luxury airplanes and 2,268,356 taxpayer dollars for the Obamas to fly to Copenhagen. They should have stayed home. The IOC would never award the Olympic Games to a crime-infested city like Chicago, where teenage street gangs kill one another with clubs and visitors have a high risk of being mugged.

More recently, the Nobel Peace Prize committee awarded Obama the peace prize on speculation of what he might do in the future. He has done nothing to deserve it and said so himself. Thinking only of boosting his already huge ego, he has placed the United States military in a position of impotence. The al-Qaida and Taliban can escalate their activities and he, Obama, as commander in chief of the armed forces, has rendered himself helpless.

If he gives Gen. McChrystal, whom he appointed, more troops as requested, he goes against the award he was so quick to accept. If he does nothing, he puts the existing troops at a higher level of risk. If he pulls out, the United States loses credibility with the rest of the world. Russia, North Korea, China and the Muslim countries will see it as a sign of weakness. This president has placed our combat personnel between a rock and a hard place. The news media poster boy is not looking very good.

Dean Messinger

Kelso