Letters: Voter support, public lands bill, state of Liberty and more | Aug. 13

District 4 thankful for voter support

Benton County Fire District No. 4 wants to say thank you. Our community approved a 15-cent fire levy lid lift request during the August primary election. Funding will be used to hire three firefighters to respond to higher call volumes and staff our new station, along with support from our volunteers.

We all know that our community is growing exponentially. Our fire district doesn’t control the growth, but it must plan to serve residents and businesses in any emergency. The first step was to build and equip a new station in the west side of our district. As that project nears completion, our plan was to ask for the lid lift to staff it, which would provide additional emergency units district wide. This staggered approach meets the emergency service needs of our community while reducing impacts to taxpayers.

We know there is some economic uncertainty due to the pandemic, and are grateful that our community has prioritized emergency services when it comes to their tax dollars. We will continue to report back as we complete the hiring process for our new firefighters, and look forward to introducing them to the community.

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Passing public lands bill was right

I take exception to Mr. Lautz’s guest editorial of Aug. 6. He praises Rep. (Dan) Newhouse on his “no” vote and cites that this bill extends the national debt. As a fact, the $900 million bill is less than 0.1% of the Senate Republicans’ latest COVID-19 $1 billion relief bill.

In addition, many states led by Republican leadership depend on federal funding for their state. Examples are Maryland with $42 billion in aid, Kentucky (Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home state) with $37 billion, Alabama with $32 billion and Florida with $30 billion. Why don’t these states raise/initiate their income tax or sales tax and thereby reduce the tax (debt) burden on the U.S. citizenry?

It was Republican Teddy Roosevelt who pushed the establishment of the National Park Service for conservation of our national resources. I recommend that Mr. Lautz consider the words of “America the Beautiful” and then rethink his position.

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Lying remains a sin, call it out

Remember your parents firmly stating that you must tell the truth, you must not lie. Remember your religious leader admonishing (about) lying and calling it a sin, citing the Ten Commandments. Remember political leaders called out for lying and suffering the consequences. Whether it is cutting down the cherry tree or lying to Congress, truthfulness has been a moral position held by Americans.

Until now.

Here we are with a president who can’t help himself from lying and uses it as a game and a strategy to change the negative narrative away from himself. His supporters and the conservative media give him a pass because he misspoke, joked or wasn’t serious. As of July 9, 2020, he had made over 20,000 verifiably false claims, disinformation, misinformation and lies. These lies distort what the facts really are. When they are repeated over and over, some begin to believe that these lies are the truth.

The president lies; recognize it. Challenge his actions, his words and fact check. As one newspaper’s motto states, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

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Those who mask up deserve thanks

A genuine thanks to those in the community who have been following guidance, masking up and social distancing.

None of this is easy, and being responsible commonly comes without thanks or reward. It’s easy to get sucked into the cycle of anger over those who choose to act poorly and put all of us at risk. They deserve to be called out, we always have to push for being better, but recognizing progress is worthwhile as well.

Keep it up. Perhaps enough of us can prove to the state we deserve to proceed to the next phase, and we can help our local businesses get the tiniest bit closer to normalcy.

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We can do better; not ‘Liberty State’

Have you ever travelled anywhere and not had to explain to people that you in fact don’t live in Washington, D.C.? The same confusion will surround calling the new state “Liberty.” State of liberty is too close to statue of liberty. Confusion is inevitable.

The dream of splitting the state cannot be realized without the West Side being in accord. With today’s current political climate, it would be reasonable to assume that the cancel culture would consider it a victory to erase the Washington name from this state altogether. I am confident that a majority of east side residents would be against this.

The solution is so simple. The eastern half of the state will be called Washington. The western half can name their utopia whatever they wish. This will give our rain-soaked brethren something worth voting for. I am for the split, but we can do better for a name. Why not Washington?

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Library book pickup needed

We miss our libraries! It is time for our Mid-Columbia Library system to provide pick-up services for their physical book collection that simply cannot be replaced by online e-book offerings.

Reading entertains, relaxes anxieties, provides knowledge and offers new perspectives. This is a time of heightened need for all of these benefits. It is disappointing that summer reading is lacking at a time when our kids don’t have a lot of social choices and do have endless “screen time” choices. But as the start of the school year looms and the questions around the future of this year’s educational growth (or decline, depending on your outlook) continue to multiply, this should be the tipping point to provide the one source that would absolutely improve our children’s learning and mental health. Parents and educators are desperate for a solid game plan for this school year, and all of the possible outcomes (in-person, distance learning or home schooling), would be greatly improved with access to these collections.

Our Mid-Columbia Library system is tops at providing fantastic resources, and I am hopeful that they will find a way to safely access that mission again in the very near future.

Editor’s Note: Libraries in Benton and Franklin counties just recently have been approved to provide curbside pickup services. The Richland Public Library is now offering the service, and Mid-Columbia Libraries soon will be.

This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Voter support, public lands bill, state of Liberty and more | Aug. 13."