Get information on how local ballots are handled and other Herald letters to the editor
Find out if your ballot is safe
Have you worried about the safety of your ballot? If you have any concerns or you are just curious how the ballots are handled in our state and counties, the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties is holding an informative evening titled “Is My Ballot Secure?” On June 22, at 6 p.m., at the Columbia Basin College Theater. Admission is free. Speakers will be Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, Benton County Auditor Brenda Chilton and Franklin County Auditor Matt Beaton.
The best part of this event is that there will be time at the end to ask questions with one of these experts available to provide us with answers.
Judy Golberg, Richland
GOP candidates all seem the same
I am having trouble distinguishing one Republican congressional candidate from another.
At the “debate” held in Yakima last month, every GOP candidate was looking to be more Trump than Trump. Even Dan Newhouse, who wasn’t present, has been working overtime to toe the Trump line. He learned very quickly that his vote to impeach would draw fire from Trump supporters. He has learned his lesson.
So at the “debate,” Culp’s rhetoric sounded like Newhouse’s which sounded like Sessler’s which sounded like Klippert’s which sounded like…well, you get the idea. America First. American energy independence. Don’t remove the Snake River dams. All elections are fraudulent (except theirs). Drill, Baby, Drill. China is the enemy. Close the border. Repeal restrictions on guns. Public schools are bad. They are friends with Marjorie Taylor Green and eager to join the Freedom Caucus once they get to Congress.
The only independent idea came from Klippert when he suggested that we keep the kids on the farm, so they don’t move to the city and become…what? Liberals, I guess.
There is literally no space between them. Culp is the same as Newhouse who is the same as Klippert, who is the same as…
Richard D. Reuther, Kennewick
What happened to our America?
After the killing of innocent children in Texas, we have to ask ourselves what has brought us to this point. Is it the overzealous fondness for high-powered guns or the hatred toward every person who is not the same color as we are? We are all humans, no matter what color our skin. Our ancestors all came to this country to escape from some form of tyranny just like the people who are coming to America now. People need to look at all humans, no matter what color their skin is as there are flaws in all humans. It’s just part of nature.
Hatred for one race is fanned by one group of people stating that the other races are drug dealers, rapists, murderers and other forms of low life. Well, I hate to tell you folks, but all races have these people in them. If you see small children of different races, they don’t see color.
For America to become what the flag originally stood for is to embrace all humans and to stop the useless slaughter of one race or the other.
Virginia Kent, Pasco
Pot can help curb other addictions
Marijuana is a dangerous drug as long as laws continue to make it such. The laws cause arrests every few seconds of people of color. This is true mostly because drug arrests, which are …(made) at a rate of half white and half black, but blacks only account for 13.5% of the population. While other drugs make up a higher arrest rate than Russia during the cold war and make the U.S. the highest incarceration country in the world, they falter in comparison to marijuana arrests. Marijuana can stop some of the crime and addiction problems which are hardest to treat and where the law has failed. In a clinical setting, pot could replace benzos, morphine and nicotine better than anything tried in the past.
Addiction is rampant and marijuana addiction and allergies are less than other substances. If marketed appropriately, pot can make us a society with lower use rates than any country in the world. If interdiction revolved around using marijuana accordingly, we could alter addiction rates. This is the holy grail of addiction medicines. I hope to see marijuana used more effectively in America to curb addiction rates.
Eric Kalia, Richland