Sept. 20 Letters to the Editor

WASL is on the agenda

The Washington State School Directors Association will be meeting Sept. 26 in Vancouver for their annual Legislative Assembly where director representatives of school districts will vote on issues they would like WSSDA to support in the state’s next legislative session. For the first time, directors are advised to support removing the WASL as a high school graduation requirement and making it an endorsement only on the diploma.

If you have an opinion on this or the more than 50 other issues to be discussed, read the assembly handbook on the WSSDA Web site, wssda.org/wssda/WebForms/En-Us/LegislativeAndGovernmentalIssues/LegislativeAssembly/LegAssemblyHandbook.pdf  and contact your locally elected school directors.

Diane Dick

Longview

Help during difficult times

On Sept. 22, Singles in Faith will be offering a workshop for people going through divorce or suffering the loss of a relationship through separation or death of a spouse. Our 12-week course will be held at Valley Christian Fellowship on 30th and Pacific Way.

We offer lectures and discussions led by a variety of the area’s counselors, dealing with issues such as loss and grieving, anger and forgiveness, finances, and rearing children as a single parent, as well as other topics. We have a representative from the Women’s Support Shelter talk about domestic abuse and violence. These experts will offer advice and suggestions as to where to go for help.

But, primarily we are about small-group peer counseling, where participants get to know others going through similar emotional upsets, and they can be free to talk in a confidential manner and work out some of the rough spots. We end with a talk about moving on and making new relationships and then celebrate with an ending potluck. This session we are sponsoring a small group for widows and widowers for the first time.

An adult baby sitter will be provided.

If you or someone you know would like more information, please call Carlene Lindgren at 577-1454 or Suzie Cowan at 274-7950 (message).

Suzie Cowan, Chairman

Divorce and Loss of Relationship Recovery Workshop

Good for the goose

Despite all the deceptive propaganda that is floating around, this whole health-care debate should be reduced to something quite simple.

If our country has enough money to bail out Wall Street bankers, money for foreign wars and foreign aid, it should have enough money for the health care of its own citizens.

If the members of Congress, with our tax money, can enact legislation for health-care coverage for themselves, they should be able and willing to enact legislation to offer the same health-care coverage to the people who elected them.

If they are unable or unwilling to do so, we elected the wrong people and it will be high time for some real change and come next election, to get rid of them.

Gabe Kish

Rainier

Puppy mills

I have lived in Longview all my life and in the same area for most of my life. Well, I am sick and tired of not getting sleep and the smell of the animals and the noise every night. We have called the police, the Humane Society and the city of Longview, and still they don’t do anything about it.

Is it true that the state of Washington passed a law about puppy mills in the city limits and in the state, because it is just getting really bad around here. The people that have the puppy mills don’t live in town, they live in Vancouver most of the time, so what do we do about this? If our own elected officials won’t do anything about it, call the TV, like channel 12 or 49?

This is not fair to us and the dogs to live like this. We can’t even put the house up for sale because you can’t even go in the backyard to show it. This is our dilemma.

Jeffrey Estill

Longview

An awful disease

A couple of days ago, there was an article in The Daily News about what turns out to be a super form of staph germs, found on some of Washington’s beaches. The germ is called MRSA, short for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. The words are big, but treating it is even bigger.

The researchers who discovered it on the sand and in the water have “declined” to tell us which beaches are affected. However, they do say, “It’s probably prudent to shower when you come out, to lower the risk of bacteria staying on the skin.” We are also advised to get all the sand off and cover open cuts or scrapes, to cut the risk of the disease. Huh? We have a right to know about these things, and I’m going to hold the CDC accountable.

As a survivor of MRSA, let me tell you it’s an awful, awful disease, and the treatment alone is grueling. I was quarantined in a hospital room for seven days, and anyone who came into the room had to gown up, mask up and wear rubber gloves. The follow up treatment was an ongoing nightmare, with medicine lines (PICC) running into my aorta, to try to kill the disease. The nurses (not at St. John’s) told me that they were seeing more and more of it as time goes on.

If there’s some one out there who can tell me it’s not that dangerous, please drop me a note.

Carole Smith

Vader