Letters for Sunday, Feb. 5

Reducing waste

“Reduce, reuse, recycle,” a mantra of mine for more than 30 years that served me well in my previous role as educator for the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System. Spokane has emphasized education and outreach throughout our community and schools. The time has come to rethink how to better manage recycling in Spokane and across the state.

More than $100 million of valuable materials are wasted annually with 50% of consumer packaging and paper products thrown away.

State legislators are now considering the Washington Recycling and Packaging (WRAP) Act will: Incentivize producers to use reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging with a producer responsibility system. Programs have been successful around the world and recently established by state legislatures in California, Oregon, Colorado and Maine. Reduce pollution causing climate change: Higher use of recycled content in packaging materials means fewer emissions and less energy use compared to new packaging and can save money! Support Washington’s economy by building local supply chains and recycling businesses.

I agree with the League of Women Voters of Washington and other groups that support this monumental legislation to take the next steps in caring for our planet. Currently the WRAP Act (HB1131/SB5154) is in both chambers of our State Legislature. Please let your legislators know that you support these bills so that they can continue moving in the process to become law to save money and improve the end of life process for products/packaging we all use.

Ann Murphy

Spokane

Fentanyl crisis

I keep reading all the ways to stop overdose deaths and they all address the drugs themselves.

How about this, parents: Teach your kids not to take drugs from sources other than the parent. It is not the drugs’ fault, it is the fault of those accepting or seeking them out.

Too many kids these days are raising themselves. Parents pay attention!

Karen Buck

Millwood

$100 million for Spokane Valley Fire

Valley folks will vote on Valentine’s Day to give $100 million in four easy annual installments of $25 million to the Valley Fire Department.

They call it an operations and maintenance levy. This levy is in addition to the district’s current tax levy as mentioned (not prominently) in the voters pamphlet.

The fire district (according to the county pamphlet) is responsible for appointing committee members who agree to write a statement in favor of this levy.

The voters pamphlet admits “After repeated recruitment attempts, no volunteers in favor of the ballot measure came forward to write a statement.”

The pamphlet lets you figure it out for yourself. If your property is appraised at $400,000, your tax would be $432 per year for a total payment of $1,728. I have chosen to vote no.

Edward Sawatzki

Spokane Valley

A thank you to Bill Bender

I read in the Spokesman this morning regarding Spokefest and Bill Bender (“SpokeFest dissolves, provides funding for Summer Parkways,” Jan. 27). Bill has devoted considerable time and ability to making family oriented community events Summer Parkways and SpokeFest. Thank you, Bill.

Larry Adams

Spokane

Keep in touch with elected officials

I’m hoping I’m wrong, but some elected people only represent one side of the coin. And possibly don’t want to consider those who might have a different side of the coin. I do not believe that none of us is a bonafide type cast. Depending on what the issue is, we fall all over the political spectrum.

Now the election is well over and those we elected are meeting at our local level, the state capitol and/or the federal Capitol. They need to and should hear from us. So, I’m asking all to politely to get hold of your elected officials, regardless of whether you voted for them.

Let them know what is going on in our lives, dreams, hopes, concerns and ideals. It doesn’t matter whether our political, faith and/or ideology lines up with those we send off to represent us. It is also essential to keep in touch with our elected officials throughout the year.

We can communicate with our elected officials by email, letter and phone. I’m sure there are other means as well.

But we won’t have a primary and/or general election until 2024. When a candidate is elected, they represent many and various constituents. So, I encourage one to keep themselves informed on what is going on by using more than one source. Yes, I’m planning to email my elective officials. As constituents, it doesn’t end on election day.

Dora Vandenberg

Naples, Idaho

Monroe Street Bridge zip line

A zip line under the Monroe Street Bridge? That’s about as brilliant as painting rainbows on crosswalks! That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard of. First of all, it would be ugly. Second, where would traffic go? Parking? There would have to be parking and some sort of place to buy a ticket. And how about Peaceful Valley where it would end? Please tell me where I can go to protest this stupid idea. Seriously? A zip line. Under the Monroe Street Bridge. A true treasure in our city. Disgusting what our City Council comes up with these days.

Natalie Gibb

Spokane

Is Wright right for the job?

Can someone explain to me how a disbarred lawyer, married to a council member, is the most qualified for $107,000 a year position? He will be serving the City Council and sleeping with his boss! He was so busy taking care of his marijuana farm that he had no time to serve his clients. So, he lost his license to serve as an attorney. This position requires a law degree, but I guess it doesn’t matter to city council if the requirements to practice are met. Council members have disregarded ethics in its hiring practice. I just don’t think Christopher Wright is right for the job!

Louise Chadez

Spokane

Left vs. right

In reply to Richard O’Brien’s letter (Time to fix things,” Jan. 29) bemoaning how representative government is supposed to get along and how Al French is supposed to also represent those who didn’t vote for him. Just how does one do that? How is it even possible that those on the left who practically demand government do everything for them, get along with those of us on the right who want government as much out of our lives as possible?

It seems the larger a city is also means the more the government in those cities does for the people who live there and the less they must do for themselves. That less you want to do then drives one to vote for Democrats. Those of us who live more rurally tend to have to do more for ourselves because government doesn’t do it out here. Smaller cities and towns are usually the same way. That explains why if you look at an election map, the large coastal cities in America are all blue and the rest of the nation is almost completely red.

Those of us who believe in personal responsibility are repulsed when government tries to tell us what to do or says we can’t do for ourselves without asking its permission, so of course we vote for people we hope will govern that way. Why should the person we elect then have to compromise with those who want government butting unto our lives all the time? Freedom is repulsed by tyranny.

Rob Leach

Mica

Hope

There is plenty to crush our spirits, cause us to lose hope and our way: Global warming and rising seas, fracking and fossil fuel emissions, toxic pesticides in our food, our water, our bodies. But somewhere a kiss and a prayer are sewn into a quilt, a GI gets a letter from home, a soccer mom signs on for another year, a saint gives a kidney to a stranger, we recall Rachel Carson, Irena Sendler, Helen Keller, Clara Barton and Harriet Tubman. A wounded girl brings hope of education to girls everywhere, a woman may be our next president, bells ring out from the abbey, a gardener plants a tree and then another, hope pushes up through the rubble.

David Evans

Spokane

Ideas to reduce national debt

We hear that Republicans would like to limit Social Security and Medicare, perhaps starting each at an older age. This is their idea to lower the national debt … Let’s look at other options. Congress could cut their fantastic retirement program, plus health benefits (Tricare). Reduce or eliminate free perks like travel to foreign countries. Members of Congress who stay in office for too long are like house guests who stay too long, they start to stink!

Also I would like to see term limits put on a national ballot. Perhaps a House member could serve three two-year terms and a senator, one six-year term. Thus, no retirement salary, no health care coverage. Big, big savings. Right now these folks vote on their own salary, wouldn’t we all like that option? Lots of areas for cuts to national debt, no need to limit senior entitlements.

Tony Burke

Spokane