Sheriff recall letter and more

Vote Kennedy for Pasco schools

John Kennedy’s got what we need to help push Pasco schools past the pandemic.

A decade working on the front lines of higher education. Experience working with local governments, grant money and budgets. A passion for learning, our students and Pasco!

We’re gonna need all of that and more as we come out of the pandemic and get our kids back on their feet. It’s not something we can do casually or with mere instincts.

With Dr. Kennedy, we’ll get someone who can take a fair, reasoned approach to helping our teachers work with our students. He’s someone who wants to hear from parents about what they want to see in schools, including curriculum choices and students’ needs.

Now’s our chance to set up our students for success, by putting a capable leader on the school board. That leader is John Kennedy. Please vote for him for Director Position 5 on August 3!

Jake Dorsey, Pasco

Vote yes to recall Sheriff Hatcher

For several years now, society has raised a loud voice regarding accountability and transparency in law enforcement. There is an idea out there that cops are protecting their own from discipline and even criminal prosecution. That is not the case inside the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies are publicly calling for Sheriff Hatcher to hold himself accountable for his actions. Since he is not doing so, he is now facing a recall from office. The recall was brought forward by an overwhelming majority of the deputies who work for him. Please hold him accountable by voting Yes to recall on Aug. 3. We all deserve better from an elected sheriff.

Brian Tungesvik, former president of the Benton County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild, Pasco

New way needed for handling drugs

I’m writing about the recent changes made by the (Washington) Supreme Court striking down felony possession laws.

The Washington state lawmaking bodies are charged with whether to leave drugs legal for all ages or draw up criminal penalties and wage a less racist war on drugs. This would be a mistake. The past 80 years have taught us to lie to police, especially when we are the suspects.

Drug laws criminalize everyone, and we shouldn’t have the right to vote when other people’s civil rights are in question. The problem is in the unequal policing of American citizens. The solution is to medicalize dangerous drugs — starting with opiates. Opiates are harmful to anyone who mistakenly or otherwise uses them, as they can be lethal.

Doctors are more equipped than dealers and can make better decisions when it comes to opioids such as morphine and fentanyl. It’s time that the drug laws were rewritten and weren’t a risk of arrest to anyone. The courts use old legislation to enforce outdated drug laws, which are a danger to people of color. Nobody stays away from drugs because of penalties, so we need to find a new way.

Eric Kalia, Richland

Rep. Newhouse misled voters

Republican (Rep. Dan) Newhouse deliberately misled voters asserting in the June 27 Tri-City Herald that Critical Race Theory teaches students to hate their country and to judge others by the color of their skin. Nothing could be further from the truth. Newhouse has put his heart into supporting party propaganda, not in true scholarship or for our well-being.

Author Dr. James Loewen explains the history of politically motivated false instruction in his book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” first published in 1995. It is impeccably sourced scholarship.

Dr. Loewen offered the example that most school history texts present the adoption of landmark civil rights legislation as a chest-thumping “win for America,” setting aside any exploration of the issues that led up to it. Such distortions are the groundwork for ongoing racial division.

Newhouse struck a blow against democracy by voting for a bill supporting the false election-conspiracy claims that led directly to an assault on our Capitol. Republicans threaten violence against our neighborhood poll workers and nonpartisan election administrators without party rebuke.

These and other actions have damaged trust in democratic elections. We are moving deeply into fascism. We can save ourselves from tyranny only by voting for Democrats. It is crucial to our nation’s future.

E Ivar Husa, Richland

Getting bigger not making us better

The continuation of building houses seems like a good idea, but current residents are suffering. We suffer from inadequate water and irrigation (we are in a drought right now), electricity, social services, trash everywhere and homelessness. It would make sense to see how extreme situations like hot and cold weather would impact the area before building more homes. Using Texas as an example, windmills don’t solve the problem.

https://www.westrichland.org/2021/04/23/water-update/

Anyone who has lived here 20- or 30 years can see the dumping of bagged garbage and litter on the streets and highways. It is deeply sad. We’re big enough already!

Jenny Hendricksen, West Richland

Cost of carbon: $48 a ton emitted

If you cause a car crash, you’re liable for damages (hopefully you’re insured). If doctors make fatal mistakes, they can rightly be sued for malpractice. If you shoot off illegal fireworks and cause a fire, you have to pay for it? Well, no, but shouldn’t you? If you pollute the air knowingly, contributing to climate change, you have to pay to fix the problem. No, we’re not there yet on that one, either. So, we suffer in record-breaking, fire-causing heat waves and droughts while others get rich on their fossil fuel salaries, telling you their lies.

Reality is “Carbon emissions not only are causing widespread and potentially irreversible damage to the environment but also may have significant impacts on the economy.” news.stanford.edu/2021/06/07. Most analysts estimate the social cost of carbon at $48 a ton (43.1 billion tons of CO2 were emitted from human activities in 2019).

That’s the price we pay for crop losses, damages caused by fires, storms and floods, and decline in human health and labor productivity. More people are agreeing that a price on carbon is the most effective and fair tool for reducing those emissions. Read why this is the responsible choice: citizensclimatelobby.org/how-to-put-a-price-on-carbon/.

Lora Rathbone, Richland

Kennewick’s painful past

An illness needs a diagnosis before treatment. Likewise, a social ill needs acknowledgment before change and resolution.

I graduated from Kennewick High School in 1971. In my early years, I was blissfully unaware that Kennewick was a sundown town (Black people not allowed after sundown). Now that Kennewick is not a sundown town, some may push to let the past go. We may want to forget, but, the people who were excluded remember vividly and still feel residual psychic pain.

In 1970, members of an underground newspaper, the WASP (pun intended), invited two Black student leaders to our school to see if Kennewick was “ready”. After five minutes, I learned that if our guests did not immediately leave, there would be a fight. We escorted our visitors to their cars and to the parking lot exit to avoid violence. As recently as 1970, Kennewick was not “ready”.

Please write articles documenting Kennewick’s sundown past, the painful consequences, and subsequent improvement.

Tearing a bandage off of a festering wound is painful, but necessary, as sunlight, acknowledgment, and reconciliation is the only way for the wounds of that terrible time to heal.

Mary Wilson, Seattle