Letters: Pay-per mile, Japanese bombing and more | Jan. 12

Per-mile charges will hurt drivers

Washington transportation officials recommend a per-mile charge to replace the state’s gas tax.

Currently we are paying 49 cents -plus per gallon in gas tax. A 20-gallon fillup is $9.88 in state tax. At 17 mpg, 10,000 miles yearly, 588 gallons, $290 in tax. I am already paying 2.9 cents per mile.

Based on $30 tabs vs $84 annual tabs, including weight fee, the state will have to charge me at least 3.5 cents per mile, $350 per year for my vehicle. Then of course, the gas tax will never go away, so another “double” taxation.

I am retired. How will this affect the working people driving to work on a daily basis? At least $500 or more per year just to feed the general fund so the state can waste it. Gas tax for road work only.

Use the tax dollars wisely. No more frivolous, feel-good, projects, like the Snoqualmie Pass animal bridge or useless art work on bridges, etc.

SARC walk aims to fight trafficking

Recently, NBC News posted an article about a woman in California who received assistance in an abusive situation by asking for help at a McDonald’s. Thankfully, that McDonald’s was a designated “safe place for abused and human trafficking victims,” so the employees had been trained on how to respond to crisis situations.

At the 2019 Washington State Senate Republican Caucus, Sen. Sharon Brown said “Human Trafficking is an issue of great concern to the Tri-Cities community.” January is Human Trafficking Awareness month, and it is imperative in the fight against exploitation that community members are trained to know the signs and how/when to access help for those who may not be in a position to do so for themselves. Law enforcement and social service agencies cannot be everywhere and rely on community members to help them in their efforts. There will be several educational opportunities this month to gain awareness on Human Trafficking, or join SARC for our walk across the cable bridge on Jan. 31 at 4 p.m., starting at the Kennewick Lampson Building, to show support for survivors in our area.

Performing arts need a home here

On Nov. 9, Tri-Cities Youth Symphony, and on Nov. 10, Mastersingers performed in improvised venues. Youth Symphony abruptly lost its scheduled site with 10 days notice, performing at CBC’s Gjerde Center; Mastersingers performed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kennewick, needing a pipe organ. Neither venue was appropriate; (each) awkward because of space, acoustics, audience seating and performers out of sight behind partitions. In spite of frustrations, (both were) outstanding performances.

No theater here was built for choir, orchestra, band, plays, stage shows, film presentations or (with) adequate audience space/functionality. Grand theaters were built in the 1920s and 1930s when live performances were the way to access artistic presentations. The Tri-Cities were small then. In our vibrant community of 300,000, science, engineering and math professionals (STEM) and their children make up much of these performing groups and audiences. All humans need to express themselves, singing, playing instruments, and dancing. We are now large enough to support a bona fide performing arts theater.

A great model is Skagit Community College’s theater in Mount Vernon and others; a theater pipe organ needs to be included here. They are huge and powerful. Check YouTube videos showing their capabilities.

I support ACT’s efforts to get this done for the Tri-Cities. Let’s build it!

Dropping a-bombs wasn’t necessary

Recently there was published in this paper a letter to the editor (12/25) whose central — and incorrect — thesis was that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified. The letter’s author, Marilyn Young, claims that the bombings prevented deaths by forcing the Japanese to surrender — a claim disproven by Howard Zinn in his “A People’s History of the United States” (pp. 422-423): “The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, reported just after the war [that], ‘Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.’ But could American leaders have known this in August 1945? The answer is, clearly, yes. The Japanese code had been broken, and Japan’s messages were being intercepted. It was known that the Japanese had instructed their ambassador in Moscow to work on peace negotiations with the Allies.”

Young’s other claim, that the mass murder of a quarter of a million Japanese civilians was justified because of Japanese balloon bombs that killed a few Americans — is so patently absurd as to deserve no comment.

Death should come after birth — always

How does one justify taking away life created by life? Generally speaking, dying is a part of life after birth. Dying before birth is as abhorrent as dying in a WWII extermination camp. What is your path in life — to bring life into the world or to take life before entering into this world?

Let’s take more responsibility

As a community, I have a resolution for us. Let’s become a we society. So many of us wait for someone else to fix something or say we can’t do anything. We can. Start small and take little tasks for us. I watched 12 people walk around a down branch on the sidewalk at Columbia Park. I moved it aside with barely any effort. Those 12 people went around the problem. Guaranteed, it would have been a huge problem for a little child riding a new Christmas bike on the sidewalk or an elderly person with a stroller. Let’s all take ownership of our environment and selves to increase our way of life for our selves and the community. Think more “we,” less “me.” All of us are “We the People.”

Senate jurors already decided

In regard to the president’s impeachment, Sen. (Mitch) McConnell declared Republicans were coordinating with the Trump administration to determine exactly how they would like the trial to go. To be clear, this is the equivalent of jurors telling the judge before the trial that they were already declaring the defendant innocent. We’re witnessing an intentional, brazen erosion of the Constitution before our eyes. The Republican Party determined long ago that they only liked the Constitution so long as they could win with it. Now that it’s become clear they can’t, they’ll go through whatever steps necessary to keep power.

We are sinking further and faster into territory that I’m sure I’m not alone in fearing we will never be able to get ourselves out of. Some 60 percent of Eastern Washingtonians unconditionally support a grifter conartist as POTUS giving him the unlimited power to create the fascist state he demands. Despite our founders’ warnings, and kids in cages, in just three short years, your support has placed us within an inch of losing that freedom that so many had sacrificed so much to preserve.

So what do we have now? Do what the monarch says or get a mean tweet, or maybe a cage!

This story was originally published January 12, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Pay-per mile, Japanese bombing and more | Jan. 12."