Letters: Jan. 18, 2019

To Jim Mattis:

Our Tri-Cities community knows what an amazing job you have done for our country through the past two years. Your personal efforts warrant more than a simple “job well done!”

We say with pride, “Welcome Home Jim!” (and we hope to again see you in the Spudnut Shop, as well as around the community).

Grandparents face cost dilemmas

A reprint from the Seattle Times is highlighting a grandparent problem. In their retirement years, many are co-raising grandchildren. State Sen. Maureen Walsh, who championed transportation and social issues, tried to help. Grandparents should not have to sacrifice geriatric needs to prevent grandkids from going to foster homes.

Generation Priced Out by Randy Shaw highlights rental concerns. It’s more than this. The Community Action Committee in Pasco can help, but grandparents apparently need help, so let’s give it to them.

SARC seeking new volunteers

Do you have a passion for helping others? Volunteering with the Support Advocacy & Resource Center is a wonderful opportunity to help make a difference in people’s lives. SARC relies on volunteer advocates to help with our 24/7 crisis line and hospital calls; providing crisis intervention and support either on the phone or at the hospital. Volunteer advocates can also respond to hospital calls for medical exams, answer questions and assist with support.

SARC assists adults and children 24 hours a day by providing support and advocacy to them and their non-offending family members, friends, secondary victims and witnesses to crime. SARC services are free and confidential.

To become a SARC volunteer advocate, 32 hours of training is required. The training is designed to give volunteers the tools they need to work with victims and their families. This year, volunteers will complete eight hours of training online with the remaining 24 hours at SARC. Check our Facebook page or website for the dates and times for the in-office training in February.

It’s time: Do your job, Congress

This lawless Mr. Trump must be removed from his position, by whatever means possible.

It appears he has never been vetted, at all, before his name was placed on the ballot. Whose fault is that? Yet we knew he was a womanizer and liar, a braggart, a narcissist.

To paraphrase his favorite poem: “We knew he was a snake before we let him in.”

It does no good to get rid of those “best people” he put into his cabinet and administration. Metaphorically, for the good of the country, we need to get rid of the head of the snake.

That is our problem. Congress? Do your job! Be as ruthless as he is.

No seat belts on buses ‘not fair’

75 years ago when I rode the school bus, we didn’t have seat belts. In the middle of the 1950s, they were offered with new cars as a option. When my kids were in school, buses did not have seat belts. I’m retired and sometimes pick up my grandkids at the bus stop. Picked up my granddaughter at the bus stop yesterday, reminded her to fasten her seat belt. She put on her seat belt. She then told me the bus driver gets a seat belt and we don’t, it’s not fair. I agreed.

Get serious about border security

Let’s get serious about the wall. President Trump has asked for $5.7 billion to build 200 miles of border wall. But we really don’t know where this cost estimate comes from, or even if it’s just the down payment on a barrier to extend the entire length of our southern border.

But let’s assume it’s the latter. The U.S.-Mexico border is 1,900 miles long. About 700 miles of wall, fence or barrier have already been constructed. An additional 200 miles would leave 1000 miles to go. Extrapolating from Trump’s $5.7 billion estimate, building a wall along the entire border would cost at least $35 billion. But that has to be an underestimate. Parts of the southern border cross some of the most rugged and inaccessible terrain in North America. The actual cost will be far greater.

Then there will be the lawsuits over government seizure of thousands of acres of non-federal lands needed to construct the wall. Such litigation can take years to resolve.

A continuous wall along our southern border is not going to be built. Everyone would be better served if we got serious about border security and focused on measures that are sensible, realistic, and cost-effective.