Dump the incumbents
Lately I’ve been reading comments to the editor regarding opinions as to why we should cast our vote for so and so who happens to be the incumbent for whatever office. My response to these recommendations is, just who do these people think got our city, county, state and country into this economic fiasco?
The citizenry is continually told by these folks that we aren’t giving enough, that we should be doing more to contribute our “fair share,” the preamble to higher taxes. As a veteran who has paid my taxes (unlike some of our elected officials) on time every year of my working life, who has paid into Social Security my entire working life, I have this retort: I am and have done my fair share.
Entrenched political incumbents are the problem. They have been charged with the stewardship of our “fair share” and have proved themselves inept and incompetent with this responsibility from illegal immigration to the national deficit.
Has anyone asked why we don’t see the term “incumbent” on our voting ballots? I urge all to start cleaning our governmental house (regardless of party) and replace them with qualified people with fresh ideas.
J.W. Esco
Spokane
Let’s talk about our “waste management” jail system, where we depersonalize people who commit crimes, treat them like damaged goods, segregate them away from the rest of us and do little or nothing to help them reintegrate after release.
Why would we? We expect them to fail, so we treat them like that is all they are capable of.
We focus on control rather than change, because we believe in control. We don’t believe in change. Yet the only constant in the universe is change. And control is an illusion. Don’t we know that?
We prefer punishment to rehabilitation. We judge. We find it difficult if not impossible to forgive. We have found a scapegoat.
We ignore the facts, locking up people who, with treatment and education, could return to us whole rather than broken.
We know drug addicts and alcoholics succeed in recovery. And it costs less than incarceration. We know that punishing addiction doesn’t work. Yet we have no money for treatment. We have money for concrete and steel.
And our jail isn’t even crowded. We need another jail like a fish needs a bicycle.
Roseanne Lasater
Spokane Valley