Kennewick Irrigation District, shootings and Richland recall among Herald letters
Climate change a danger to KID
The Kennewick Irrigation District’s current state of emergency as 1,500 customers are without irrigation points out the importance of irrigation water to our region. As a KID customer whose water is being delivered, I’m very appreciative of the labor and planning that make that happen. I hope that water can be delivered to my fellow KID customers as soon as possible.
My KID water is essential to maintaining the pasture that feeds my livestock and the trees that keep my yard cool in the summer and my air-conditioning bills relatively low. I’m concerned that climate change could leave all of KID’s customers without irrigation water. KID relies on mountain snowpack and has junior water rights, leaving us vulnerable to drought, which will occur more frequently as our climate changes.
I would like to see some progress on this issue, such as the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (https://energyinnovationact.org/). Other approaches to a more robust water supply would be fantastic, but we’ve seen nothing from our current representative. I’ve been in communication with Doug White, and I’m convinced that he’s the problem-solver that we need in Congress working on climate change and other issues important to our region.
Carl P. Baker, West Richland
Shootings happen here far too often
I have noticed there have been so many more shootings in the area. I just can’t stand to watch this happen to so many innocent people and especially kids. I have seen cops surrounding the Yoke’s by my house after there was a shooting right at the time that all of the middle-schoolers from the nearby middle school were walking around.
I think that guns have just gotten out of control over the years. Just because you own a gun doesn’t mean you just immediately think it could be needed. I think that everyone needs to be more aware of the different issues going on in this town. It is becoming unsafe at this point. I just wanted to voice my opinion on this issue hoping to get some attention on the safety of the citizens.
Tory Baker, Kennewick
Anti-abortion laws doomed to fail?
The demise of Roe vs Wade and legal abortion may be doomed to fail.
The use of surgical abortion is declining in favor of medical abortion. The pills required to induce a medical abortion are inexpensive and easy to use. Legal DIY medical abortions already are occurring. Abortion pills likely will be readily available on the black market to meet DIY abortion demand wherever the pills are made illegal.
Many will risk arrest to help desperate women and girls obtain illegal abortion pills. Pro-life states will impose controls, e.g., hiring additional drug enforcement personnel and establishing bounties like the $10,000 bounty in Texas for reporting anyone who helps a woman have an abortion. These controls will be costly and likely as ineffective as the Prohibition-era controls on alcohol and the current controls on narcotics.
Courts will be clogged with trials and prisons will be overwhelmed where rigorous enforcement is applied. Emergency treatments for botched DIY abortions will be necessary. Deaths of women, girls and viable fetuses will increase due to the absence of competent assistance. Welfare costs will rise as girls and women who are forced to give birth leave their jobs and/or abandon plans for higher education.
Russ Treat, Richland
Wind turbines not really so green
In the May 22 Tri-City Herald on the Opinion page, the Herald editorial board published a great article on “Lack of Tri-City control at heart of wind farm concerns.”
They are to be commended for the article. However, they did not go far enough. They should have explained how the energy produced will not go to us but somewhere else. They should also explain just a few things about wind turbines. Like one wind turbine takes 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete, 45 tons of plastic. Talk about carbon footprint!! If you want to learn more, go to peckford42.wordpress.com. Brian Peckford from the Wall Street Journal gives the true story of how this is not really a good green deal.
Ira Johnson, Kennewick
It’s EMS week: Please thank them
May 15-21, 2022 is National EMS Week. I want to take this opportunity to thank the paramedics, emergency medical technicians and firefighters who provide emergency medical service in our community.
Benton County Fire District 4 also wants to thank taxpayers for supporting our EMS program. EMS accounts for 63% of all our emergency calls. Thanks to you, we are able to respond with highly-skilled paramedics who provide advanced life support, which is the highest level of care possible.
Our EMS program is funded through a property tax levy for emergency medical services. Voters last approved an EMS levy rate of $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2016. We are asking our community to renew it at the same rate later this year. We welcome your questions, and invite you to be part of the public process.
Chief Paul Carlyle, West Richland
This is why we’re having recall vote
I am a parent of two Richland graduates. I am a property owner and I attend church.
I am tired of unplannned, secret meetings between board members.
I am tired of lack of transparency: records of conversations destroyed or missing, and forgotten videos of board meetings.
I am tired, whether you agreed with the mask mandate or not, of violation of state laws.
I’m tired of contentious board meetings.
I’m tired of this School Board voting that our district has to pay the board members’ legal fees.
I’m tired of money going to lawyer fees and fines instead of to our classrooms.
We all want the same thing: a good education for our kids.
I do not remember these problems before Bird, Byrd and Williams joined the board.
That is why we are having a recall.
Chris Walling, Richland
Massacre not easy to define
This is in response to Michael Harrington’s letter to the Editor in the May 19 Tri-City Herald.
Mr. Harrington first states “….to massacre at least 130,000 innocent civilians.”. I do not believe that aerial bombing during a war rises to the level of the true definition of “massacre.” If that were true, then every bombing that took place in history that killed civilians was a massacre.
Mr. Harrington goes on to state “….our leaders chose to deploy death over densely populated civilian areas.”. There were going to be civilian casualties if we chose to invade Japan or use the bombs. The use of the bombs saved tens of thousands of American and Japanese lives. As a reminder, Japan was training and arming the civilian population (women and children) for the defense of the island invasion.
Finally, Mr. Harrington states “… aftermath of the worst civilian massacres in world history.” Not really sure how to respond to such a statement. Let me just say that Mr. Harrington first needs to educate himself in the history of the “Pacific War” and then further world history. I have many book references I could provide him but the first that documents what happened in 1937 is the “The Rape of Nanking.” There are many more terrible “true massacres” that have taken place in world history.
It is important to note, it could be argued that the Japanese invasion of China was the beginning of a world war but the fact is, the use of the atomic bombs ended a world war.
World history is complex and spans many centuries.
Jim Bertsch, Kennewick