Letters for Saturday, Oct. 4

We’re gonna win the World Series. Go team, go!

The love of baseball makes people totally irrational.

Win the World Series. Go team, go.

This is the feeling that I, and millions of others in the Pacific Northwest, have for the Seattle Mariners. And the Seattle Mariners AquaSox farm team are a great asset to the Mariners. But let’s not be irrational about it.

It is rational for the Mariners to invest $40 million to refurbish the existing Everett School District-owned AquaSox Stadium – where Ken Griffey, Dan Wilson, Felix Hernandez, Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh and many more played.

The Seattle Mariners are worth over $2.2 billion dollars. The $40 million investment needed to renovate Funko Field in Everett represents less than 2% of the Mariner’s worth.

It is irrational to spend $137 million to build a new stadium in Downtown Everett at the expense of state, city, and county taxpayers.

As a rational business expense, the Mariners could loan or give $40 million to the Everett School District. The investment supports the AquaSox, the Seattle Mariners, the local Everett school district, and millions of Mariner fans.

Sounds like a good Mariner investment to me.

John E. Martin

Mountlake Terrace, Washington

Rep. Baumgartner, the sycophant

Rep. Baumgartner is failing his most basic responsibility to us as his constituents – supporting and upholding the U.S. Constitution. I don’t expect him to push back against the president’s legal actions, but I absolutely demand, as my representative, that he push back against any illegal or unconstitutional actions of the president.

So far in his term, Mr. Baumgartner has either remained silent or endorsed the following presidential offenses: Deportation of U.S. residents without due process, some of them to foreign prisons; levying illegal tariffs; halting previously approved congressional funding; mobilization of the U.S. military to U.S. cities against the wishes of local government; usurping Congress’ power to declare war; blatantly and brazenly taking emoluments; abusing his power to deprive the public of accurate historic, scientific and medical information; abusing his power to seek retribution against political enemies; attempting to fire a governor of the Federal Reserve; breaking the First Amendment to silence media and educational institutions; defying court orders; and attempting to undermine judicial authority. This isn’t even a complete list.

Mr. Baumgartner’s motivation for silence is clear: He is a selfish coward who refuses to speak honestly for fear of political retribution by the president. The only alternative explanation is that he is resolutely complicit in the president’s illegal actions. Take your pick. He is failing us shamefully.

Jeffrey Ellingson

Liberty Lake

Fan or not, sign up for Baumgartner’s newsletter

For those who are frustrated about the difficulty of getting in touch with Rep. Michael Baumgartner, I highly suggest you sign up for his email newsletter, even if you don’t feel like reading it or agree with what he’s doing in Congress.

He has been sending out surveys to his subscribers asking if they agree or disagree with recent votes he has cast. Sometimes they are all the way at the bottom of a regular newsletter email; sometimes they are sent as their own separate email. Either way, this is one of your best chances to let him know what you think.

At the moment, most of the polls end up with a majority agreeing with him, but that’s also probably because most of the people who signed up for his newsletter also voted for him and would therefore agree with him, at least most of the time.

Get your voice heard, sign up for his emails, and vote in his polls, even if you ignore everything else, he writes. When his phones go unanswered too often and emails get form letter responses, this is one way to get him to listen to what you have to say about his job performance!

Brittany Adams

Spokane Valley

Kudos for good work

My husband and I own Rock Creek Ranch, a 331-acre parcel in Whitman County that was purchased by my grandfather back in 1924. We have been under contract with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for hunting by the public for a few years now.

I must compliment Michael Wright for the excellent job in telling the story from both sides of the fence. We’ve been working with Dean Nizer since he took over, and he has been super, very knowledgeable and a great communicator. It’s obvious he cares about the conservation of lands for hunting and equally cares about a relationship with the landowner. He has certainly been an asset to the program. My compliments to both Michael and Dean.

Arlene Stromberger

Medical Lake