Letters

When I was working in the ER, an ambulance brought in three gunshot victims. All hell broke loose as we struggled to help. The 28-year-old police officer died, blood pouring from his chest and mouth. A young woman was hit in the pelvis, causing lifelong damage. A young man was barely alive, a 9 mm bullet hole all the way through his head.

So glad to read Nina Culver's well-written article about a champion horse and rider ("Riding away with national championship," Nov. 22). It was so nice to read something other than a bunch of folks chasing around a ball. There are many of us out here who just skip the sports section because it's the same old thing, and while there are many readers who live only for sports, it's refreshing to see something else in the paper that touches at least one other exciting sport. Thank you!

This letter is written in response to "Today is a day for all Americans," (Daniel Krauthammer, Nov. 22).

"Washington consumers have paid an estimated $100 million more for imported goods since the Trump administration increased tariffs on some products coming into the United States." Thus begins the front-page article by Jim Camden ("State feels the bite from tariffs," Nov. 16). While we consumers pay higher prices to offset the cost of tariffs to importers, the tariffs themselves are paid to our federal government. In other words, the tariffs are federal taxes.

President Trump's comments about Adm. William McRaven saying he should have found Osama bin Laden earlier reflect his total ignorance of how the intelligence community and military worked together to protect our nation. The CIA's mission was to identify where Osama bin Laden was located. The Special Ops team, under the leadership of Adm. McCraven (Joint Special Operations Command), executed the plan to get Osama bin Laden twenty-five minutes after President Obama approved Operation Neptune Spear.

In his diatribe against "a particular rancher" (he never names him) and Donny Martorello of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, retired Washington State University professor Dr. Robert Wielgus, insists that, "Washington's wolf wars can easily be prevented." He puts nearly all the blame for the killing of wolves upon this "one particular rancher."

Jay Inslee is an embarrassment to Eastern Washington.

A Spokesman-Review article ("Cash-heavy fight, big turnout, yet a familiar November result," Nov. 8) about this year's race in the 5th Congressional District quotes observers, including myself, critical of Lisa Brown's campaign in the loss to Cathy McMorris Rodgers. However, that article failed to provide some important context.

Regarding Rep.-elect Dan Crenshaw's opinion column on Nov. 17 ("I didn't need an apology from "SNL"): thank you for publishing this.

Thanks to Alfredo Llamedo for courageously forcing this city, with his sit-in and hunger strike, to re-visit our cruel "No Sit/No Lie" ordinance.

Karen Tumulty's "Does anyone love the military less than Trump?" (Nov. 15, 2018) published by the S-R exposes the myth that Republicans support the military more than the Democrats. Same goes for God and patriotism. I worked on a Navy base and an Air Force base and frequently heard praises for Republicans supporting the military, yet the funding for those bases usually came from congressional appropriations passed by Democratic majorities.

Robert Reich, in his editorial "How blue states help red states" (Nov. 17), conflated welfare programs with Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance under the umbrella of "social insurance." By doing this, he could credibly state that the majority of Americans oppose cuts to the programs.

Good grief, the Nov. 21 column from Robert Samuelson, "Debunking the stagnation myth," is pure propaganda. A simple Google search found the U.S. inflation calculator. Does Mr. Samuelson think readers to be idiots? Discussing income increases without mentioning inflation - and the actual purchasing power of said income increases, is worthless. While I am happy my annual income is more than it was in 2000, I'm also very aware of the decreased buying power of said income. What a ridiculous column by Mr. Samuelson that the Spokesman chose to print.

Whoops! What has the governor and the attorney general got us into? Republic, Washington, is voting on becoming a sanctuary city in order to ignore voter initiative I-1639 (the anti-gun initiative). The governor and the attorney general said Washington is a sanctuary state and is going to ignore federal immigration laws. They have fostered lawlessness by their action and now it has filtered down. How are the two public officials who swore to uphold the Constitution going to square Republic's action with their own actions?

This is in response to "Stand against Proud Boys," (William J. Neville, Letters, Nov. 12, 2018). The Proud Boys is a fraternal drinking club. The members come from multicultural and multiethnic backgrounds – hardly white supremacists.

The sale of local utility Avista to Ontario Canada's Hydro One will be a major event for our region if it's approved by state regulators. Nearly 2,000 employees. Over 1.6 million people living in their service area.

I am writing to disagree with Hal Dixon, who stated in today's paper that there wasn't a Blue Wave following the midterm elections ("That was no wave," Nov. 18). Here are some examples why there was the Blue Wave ...

The voters have spoken. It was great to have the stadium location choice on the ballot - advisory or not -a 2-to-1 vote is quite significant. The article from Nov. 11 ("Stadium decision reverts to school board") wonders what went wrong. I say nothing.

According to the Nov. 19 Spokesman, Governor Inslee spent $3 million for security to travel outside Washington for reasons unrelated to his duties as governor. How much would it cost to keep him from returning, and where can taxpayers send contributions?