Letters to the Editor, April 15, 2009

A pure waste

With the dubious distinction of being the country that locks up more citizens than any other, it is taking many tax dollars to accomplish this distinctive feat. Each incarcerated person costs the taxpayer about $32,000 per year. Those long past the crime-prone years, say 55 or older, are costing us three times that much.
Many severe sentences of “life without parole” are meted out to “Three-Strikers.” These people deteriorate physically with age as we all do, maybe even faster while in prison. They will have ever-increasing health problems but will no longer be any kind of a threat to anyone.
Many were convicted of low-seriousness crimes, essentially “thrown away,” and are an ever-increasing burden to the taxpayer. They don’t deserve life imprisonment and we shouldn’t have to pay for it. It is a pure waste of life and money!
Shirley White
Port Townsend

Attend the meetings

For many years the citizens of Sequim did not have to worry about underhanded deals and how the city’s funds were spent.
Then came the “Gang of Four” (new council members). Do you as a citizen of the city of Sequim have any idea of what has been occurring within the town council?
1. Jan. 4, 2008, a special meeting was called
to swear in the new town council, as quoted in the paper, to give them a majority vote. Then came votes for mayor and mayor pro-tem.
2. A meeting was called to discuss a vacancy on the Planning Commission. Larry Freedman was invited to attend and when he arrived the only ones there were Mayor Laura Dubois, Erik Erichsen and City Attorney Ritchie. The purpose of the meeting was to push Larry Freedman into resigning. This was done without the other council members being notified. To quote: This was done by Mayor Dubois and Erichsen and did not need the other members.
3. The “Gang of Four started on their next vendettas to fire City Manager Bill Elliott. The cost to the taxpayers was over $152,000 and to this day no one has filled the job (11 months later). (Personality conflict).
4. They are keeping the promises they made to the voters (no growth). As a result, no building fees, lost jobs, no improvements to property to add additional property tax.
5. In August 2008, the “gang” passed additional fees to raise the water and sewer rates for improvements (this is necessary spending). As a taxpayer, you have the right to know how this is being funded.
6. The investigation of another city employee, caused by Ken Hays’ hearsay, speculation and his gut feeling. The cost of $11,000 plus to the taxpayers and was slid under the table so the community was unaware of how tax funds were being wasted. (Personality conflict).
7. The purchase of the Keeler property for a city park in November 2008 was done with the full knowledge that the city of Sequim did not have the funds to pay for it. Several council persons publicly were quoted saying that the funds for the purchase were not there.
How far are you going to let the “Gang of Four” continue? They have taken out a general obligation bond. This GO bond places a lien against your homes or other real estate for the payment of this bond.
Maybe you need to attend council meetings and stop the spending before the city goes bankrupt. What else has been swept under the carpet?
It will be you, the property owners, who are left to pay any and all debts run up by the “Gang of Four.”
Patricia Allen
Sequim

Speak up to
fix health care

Coming this year will be the biggest changes in health care that we have seen in our lifetime.
Our health care system is broken and more expensive than we as individuals or businesses can afford.
GM spends more on health care than on steel. Our country spends $2.2 trillion a year on health care and yet we are No. 38 in the world. We are currently spending 16 percent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product), yet over 47 million of our people have no insurance and almost as many are underinsured.
Our Congress has promised to change all of this, this year.
It will be of utmost importance for us to watch what Congress is doing and to call or write our Congress people and tell them what we think and what we want to happen.
In spite of President Obama telling Congress that nothing is off the table, Congress has apparently taken single payer insurance off. Please, be watchful of what is going on and make your voices heard.
Dottie Nicassio
Sequim

Gold and diamonds
Now, with the economy such as it is, we are to be invaded by the masses of unemployed searching for $1,000-an-ounce gold in the hills of the Olympics. Some of our locals are already up there and finding “color.” The deserted gold rush towns of the West are being rediscovered. Anyway, instead of tourists this year, expect “49ers” or shall we say “09ers” to come for the gold in the hills here in the Olympics. A major problem to arise, as they will be using campfires during fire season.
Diamonds are here too, but too small to find! Watching Channel 9 lately, the new, now proven, theory about what happened to this Earth with the last extinction event and the ending of the ice age, wiping out the Clovis people and the large mammoths and mastodons etc., with an exploding, breaking-up incoming object.
Yes, a large asteroid broke up and exploded in the sky, raining down superheated dust and very small diamonds setting everything on fire has been proven to have happened to our Earth.
Still finding tools from the ice age on the Happy Valley farm as we till the soil around the apple trees and berry plants. This last item is part of a heavy spear point for hunting the large mammoths.
The other elk antler of the pair has been found (previous issue of the Gazette).
Richard Dobbs
Sequim

Separate but equal
still doesn’t work

Same sex couples have rights that they take for granted; they have rights they don’t even know they have; they have rights that everyone should have.
This sounds familiar doesn’t it? This sounds very much like the civil rights movement, this sounds very much like the women’s liberation movement and it sounds a lot like discrimination.
Separate but equal was, and still is, a politician’s way of appeasing the general public while still not giving the minority what they deserve, equality.
The domestic partnership bill is not a replacement for full marriage, it is a stepping stone for equal rights, it is merely that first rung on the ladder of equality, it is the one before the two.
How can the U.S. say it is on the forefront of the human rights campaign when so many other countries allow full equality and rights to all of their citizens?
Please do your research, see what other states like Iowa and Vermont are doing for equality. Don’t just base all of your opinions off of what I say or what you hear about California on the news. Look deep into your heart and really ask yourself, “Do I want to be the one denying another human being the right to love and be happy?” I know I don’t, that is why I support Equal Rights Washington in the fight for equality.
Matt Wolff
Port Angeles