Letters: Forest fires cause, President responsible for deaths, unemployment pay delay and more | Nov. 26

One factor tied to fires worldwide

We hear predictable one-sided arguments about whether the recent massive forest fires are due either to climate change or poor forest management. If only it were so simple!

As a small forest owner, I watch the condition of my forest decline slowly but surely each year as drought conditions continue. Multiple hot days in the summer do not directly cause the fires. Trees in fact grow faster with increasing temperature, provided they have access to adequate water (its absence is a climate change problem). In the absence of sufficient water, the trees become stressed, subject to infestations, and fire prone.

It is not fair to simply dismiss the problem as due to poor forest management, which implies it is simply a matter of dead or dying tree removal, as if doing this over millions of acres is simple, even with clear-cutting. I don’t have a solution, but it is not going to be solved by politicians who will not fund the cost of maintaining forests (much is US forest land). I don’t believe that anyone truly wants to see our forests burn. We need to come together to support making forest sustainability a greater priority.

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Are deaths due to the president?

I wonder if presumed President-elect Biden is prepared to be held personally responsible for the approximately 655,000 deaths from heart disease, 600,000 deaths from cancer and 140,000 deaths from strokes that are likely to occur during 2021, these being just a few of the diseases that kill Americans annually.

It seems that many of the people living in the United States now consider the president to be responsible for protecting their health, among other things once thought to be matters of personal responsibility.

On Inauguration Day, when taking the Oath of Office and pledging to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, perhaps the president should also promise to protect us all from contracting or developing any kind of potentially deadly disease. It is a monumental task to place upon anyone. The president will need our prayers.

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4-month wait for unemployment pay

A friend of mine was laid off from the Vit Plant in early August along with 59 others. He filed for unemployment the next week, his claim shows to be active. After 15 weeks, he still has not received a check. Trying to contact the Washington unemployment office is useless. He has submitted questions five times on the web, no answers. He has submitted inquiries to Benton County (elected officials) Delvin and Brown with no response. He also has tried calling, only to be on hold for up to two hours then to be cut off due to closing.

What is a person supposed to do when no one will answer questions? The bill collectors/banks could care less. Four months without a check is totally absurd. What’s the use of paying into unemployment for 20 years if you can’t use it when needed? I know he is not the only one having this problem.

Inslee needs to do something about his inept Unemployment Office.

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Op-ed seemed like ‘bomb throwing’

Mark Mansperger’s Nov. 8 article on evangelicals, capitalists and the GOP came across less like a reasoned response than a bomb-throwing tantrum. The current conservative situation reminds me of what James B. North wrote in “Union And Truth,” that the people who moved West were “rugged individuals who were dependent upon their own resources,” “who expected very little from their central government and wanted it that way.” These were people who had moved from Europe with the feeling that government there was “too corrupt, too top-heavy, and too interfering” in people’s lives. Sounds like today, doesn’t it?

This story was originally published November 26, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Forest fires cause, President responsible for deaths, unemployment pay delay and more | Nov. 26."