Aug. 8 Letters to the Editor

Grass could be greener

I found both the (Aug. 4) article and the (Aug. 5) editorial (about the browning of Lake Sacajawea Park) interesting. I walk the lake each day, so I have the opportunity to observe the park maintenance crew first hand. They do a good job, but with any job it can be done better.

I’m certain they can find someone on staff to start and stop the manual sprinkler systems. It boils down to management. If you have fewer people, you have to find a better way to get the job done. Over the years I’ve found change to be difficult to overcome and one of the biggest obstacle was the term “that’s the way it’s always been done.”

So you don’t have summer help, figure it out. Change is not easy, but necessary, if progress is to be made.

Virgil Warden

Longview

A missed opportunity

I read Cal FitzSimmon’s Aug. 2 column on jail food and it was just sad. Here was an opportunity for real justice in the world and he chose to be smug and superior.

I’ve eaten lots of jail food. A burglar broke in to my house and when the cops came in after him they found pot in my house. Off to jail I go. Feel free to feel superior right now.

I’ve had hard-boiled eggs that had a strange red tint to them where the white was slimy and they stunk and were just inedible. I’ve had milk that was so rotten it “poured” out into the toilet in one chunk. Oranges with bright blue mold running through them.

You’ve never seen lunch meat like they serve. Sliced Alpo would be a better alternative. Institutional grade food unfit for any other consumption. If the cheese in the breakfast sandwich isn’t eaten right away it melts at room temperature by noon.

While I was at the jail, I was treated for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. When I got out and went to have my doctor renew my prescriptions, he went, “What for?”

I read the column, though. If I don’t like it, quit going to jail. I’m doing my darndest to stop being a crime victim.

I read in a book somewhere that you were supposed to treat your neighbor like you would like to be treated. I’d rather go to jail than be Cal’s neighbor.

Matt McClung

Kelso

Another ridiculous law

Oregon is one of only two states that does not have self-service gas stations. Apparently, our state government does not think the average Oregonian can operate a fuel pump. If said Oregonian travels to even one of our four bordering states, they must pump their own fuel.

I guess those states don’t realize that we are just dumb Oregonians and don’t know how. Although, a person having a CFN card can, without training, pump their own fuel at any card-lock fuel station. So much for the idea that we are not capable of operating a fuel pump.

Now, the state government has recently decided that the persons we have working at the non-self serve fuel stations are not smart enough to know how to fill a gas tank properly. It has become a law that when the gas nozzle shuts off, that is all the fuel you are allowed to buy. Attendant is not allowed to top off the tank to get it full. Who comes up with these ridiculous laws?

We have a car that has a ten gallon tank. The fuel light was flashing, warning of very low fuel in the tank. My wife pulled into a gas station in Rainier and told the attendant to “Fill ‘er up.” The pump shut off at four gallons. Still needing five or more gallons to be clear full, my wife told the attendant that the tank would take more. Oh no. Not to break any laws, the attendant pulled the nozzle out and put it away.

William S. Ulin

Rainier