Aug. 28 Letters to the Editor

Noble effort among the tragedy

Last Saturday afternoon I watched the home of dear friends and neighbors Don and Anna Trimble go up in flames and burn to the ground.

All of their years of work, their household possessions and family treasures gone.

I also watched as fire fighters from Cowlitz 2, which is comprised of brave firefighters and volunteers from Bunker Hill, Bakers Corner, Columbia Heights, Kelso, and Lexington, and the firefighting crew from Wahkiakum County did their very best to save what they could.

The state Department of Natural Resources helped to protect homes and make sure all was well later.

The house nestled back in among tall pines and grassy fields that are now tinder dry and could have erupted into a much greater conflagration involving many other homes had that fire not been quickly controlled.

Out here in the country water tankers are a necessity and those wonderful rigs are what helped keep that tragic fire confined.

I would remind all of us that that equipment costs money and everyone should be ready to support the funding for such equipment. And that many volunteers left whatever they were doing on a hot and quiet Saturday afternoon to face heat exhaustion and grim disappointment as they watched a fellow citizen’s life work burn down, that our local firemen covered the miles in just minutes up winding and narrow roads.

God Bless all of those who showed such bravery and expertise during this tragedy.

Vonda Kay Brock

Longview

Take care of crown jewel

I have a deal for the City of Longview concerning ‘red’ light cameras and care taking of our crown jewel, Lake Sacajawea:

You can have your red light cameras provided that all the revenue produced by the fines charged and collected go directly to keeping our crown jewel in absolute top condition.

Daniel Seward

Longview

Cherish our community

I love living in Longview. I have lived in Longview all my life. Everywhere I go I see memories of my childhood.

We all should cherish Longview and everything that is in Longview. We are very fortunate to have a beautiful lake here in Longview.

Two months ago I went to a City Council meeting and I had the honor to talk with Bill Kasch. Bill loves Longview as much as I do. Whenever I hear him talk to the City Council he always invites everyone to the Reading Room at the Merk on Commerce.

The Reading Room has beautiful pictures of Longview from 50 or more years ago. I sure love looking at the pictures. It is always awesome to see old pictures of our community.

The one thing I want to say is whenever you see trash at Lake Sacajawea, please pick it up. We all want to see the lake beautiful every day. I hope we all can cherish and love our beautiful community every day. And a wonderful thank you to Robert A. Long for founding our beautiful community.

Cody Wells

Longview

Where’s the common sense?

I have a question: Just what will make these so called “conservationists” happy?

They are opposed to using fossil fuels to generate electricity, gasoline, diesel, natural gas and coal, they want to breach the dams and end the supply of hydroelectricity.

So all across the country we are installing wind turbines and now they are opposed to those because of the supposed danger to a couple of birds that nobody sees.

That whole “spotted owl” farce was created to stop logging on U.S. Forest lands and they succeeded, now they want to use that same argument to stop the wind turbines.

All across the northern part of the country you will see hundreds of these wind turbine blades very slowly turning in the breeze generating electricity, can someone please explain how these very slowly turning blades can harm a small bird?

Since, according to the tree huggers, the spotted owl and marbled whatever only live in old growth forests, they won’t be out in the clear cut where the wind turbines are operating. Isn’t it time for some common sense to take control of those who make the laws in this land?

Daniel Stanley

Longview

More monkey business

Folks, that was a great town hall meeting that Mr. Baird had in Longview, I got there late. The room was full and overflowing. I was surprised with the large crowd.

During the Bush years the crowds were half that size. I wondered what has happened. Maybe folks are scared of this administration and don’t trust them. I don’t trust this administration. If you disagreed with their policies you are called a racist and they try to destroy the individual.

Mr, Baird is a very loyal Democrat. He will do what Nancy says. He will not stick up for the folks. I have sent about four messages to him through his staff, he has not returned my messages.

At one of his meetings in Longview a few years ago, he told the group that when the Democrats get in, we will not do all this monkey business that Bush is doing.

It looks like this administration is fast tracking a lot more monkey business. Some folks tell me that Mr. Baird will not jump when Nancy says jump, we will see when this health care vote comes up, we will see if he has been listening.

We need to pray for this president that God will work in his life. So, folks, we will see what happens. Hang on to your pocket books, it may disappear.

Ray Van Tongeren

Longview