Letters for Jan. 12, 2022
Cantwell, Murray need to change filibuster
Jan. 6 was the one-year anniversary of the attack on our Capitol and this past year the GOP has doubled down on its anti-democracy efforts. Historically, assuring fair and free elections were a bipartisan effort. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Our democracy is at stake and we need our leaders to fight for it.
The activist community worked hard to elect Joe Biden, Mark Kelly and win the Georgia senate seats. In 2021 our team sent over 20,000 postcards, made thousands of phone calls and sent over 200,000 text messages; all in support of voting rights. We are doing our part. Now Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray need to do theirs.
Washington state offers a great example of how to run fair and free elections. Our senators should be leading this cause on the national level. It is time to take real action. If the filibuster can be modified to increase the debt ceiling, it can be changed to save our democracy.
Petra Hoy
Greenacres
Growth must be sustainable
The opinion piece “Growth rates don’t lie – Policies put Washington in peril” (Jan. 7) by Chris Cargill of the Washington Policy Center misses the reason for the state’s policies – SUSTAINABILITY.
No community, including Spokane, can maintain clean air, water, open space, wildlife and other qualities of life that draw people here without sustainability controls. Washington is the smallest Western state with a population second only to California, so I’m grateful for our growth management policies.
Cargill’s statement that “A community that isn’t growing is dying” is not true and only driven by business greed.
Bigger is NOT better.
Madonna Luers
Mead
Downtown stadium facade
Spokane voted to keep our beloved Joe Albi Stadium, but the “Downtown powers that be” didn’t like those results. Instead of keeping this memorial to all of our Spokanites that have fought for our country, and was given to the school district by the citizens, they wanted to do what the people had voted not to do.
With all of its many attributes it has served us so well for 70 some years – but you guessed it, Downtown wanted to build a new stadium holding only 5,000 people in a parking lot, one of the few there. So they decided to have a new election, this time with the school board voting.
Albi has been modified to accommodate soccer, but we were told that one of the reasons to build a new one downtown, along with bringing revenue to – you guessed it, DOWNTOWN – was that the United Soccer League might come here if it was built there.
Were we then surprised to wake up to a big article in the newspaper that the head of our Downtown Partnership just landed a top executive job with the United Soccer League?
Marilyn Smith
Spokane
Shameful behavior
It’s sadly ironic that on the very day the governor of Louisiana is pardoning an innocent American man victimized by an egregiously wrong Supreme Court ruling 130 years ago, America is faced once more with the possibility of suffering from the decisions of equally unqualified and bigoted jurists.
Seeing Justice Gorsuch sitting unmasked on the bench, considering a deadly public health issue, was reminiscent of the ignorant arrogance of people smoking cigarettes in airplanes, restaurants and elevators, his current behavior could just kill someone much faster.
Gorsuch’s lack of simple respect and common courtesy along with a basic understanding of communicable disease protocols is appalling, but a prime example of the “choice” point of view plaguing our country. The sentiment of only caring about one’s own personal preferences while completely ignoring the wants and personal safety of others is a failure of civic duty and completely unacceptable for a Supreme Court justice.
Gorsuch should be removed from the bench but, in the meantime, if this despicable allegedly impartial intellectual giant is unable to figure out how to wear a mask, he should be the one who participates alone remotely, not Justice Sotomayor.
Ted Cummings
Chattaroy