Richland mushroom cloud, Pasco City Council controversy among Tri-City Herald letters

Ethics, morals needed in politics

Candidates that run for higher office must understand how government works. Prior experience in government gives a working foundation. A strong set of ethics and morals are basic requirements. Win with gratitude, and lose with grace.

Medicare, Social Security, and the Veterans Administration must be properly funded now and in the future. These programs must never be privatized and gutted.

Health care should be universal. Prescriptions drug price controls must be put in place. Americans will get better health care at lower cost. Nobody will die because they cannot afford diagnostics, treatment or medication.

Overturning of Roe vs. Wade by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court set women’s reproductive health back decades. Only women and their doctors should make those decisions. Requiring a women to carry a fetus that is the product of rape or incest, or suffering from catastrophic/lethal genetic defects to term is cruel. Congress must enshrine women’s reproductive rights into the Constitution.

Mass shootings must end. Semi-automatic weapons are military weapons and must be banned from manufacture and sale to civilians. Any firearm sale nationwide must include extensive background checks, longer waiting periods, gun safety classes and mandatory trigger locks installed.

Amy Small, Richland

Pasco criticism appalling, racist

We must call out anti-black racism when we see it. A call out is letting someone know that their words or actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. I was appalled when I read about the racist criticism directed at Pasco City Council Member Irving Brown Sr.

Oftentimes we are in shock or in fear of saying the wrong thing in response to racism, so we don’t say anything at all. I was glad to read Council Member Zahra Roach’s immediate response and learn that other residents made comments in support of Council Member Brown at a subsequent City Council meeting. At the same time, we can use this as an opportunity to call in about having a deeper discussion and reflection.

If you can’t have a direct conversation with the involved parties of this incident (or other similar incidents), what kind of conversations can you have with your family or friends? What kind of anti-racism actions can you take? To riff on Council Member Brown’s own words, we can reach higher heights together.

Alice Orrell, Richland

Leave Bomber logo, school alone

Richland High School Bombers, Sunday’s letter about the bomb in Japan. That was history. We wouldn’t even be talking about if they didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor first. Tori Bender wants the Richland Bomber logo to go away. Leave it alone. We lost too many lives at Pearl Harbor. This was a terrible war. It wouldn’t have happened at all if Pearl Harbor wasn’t bombed. So please leave the school alone.

Marvin Raymond, Richland

It’s time to dump tea overboard

When the Criminal Justice Tax was passed in 2014, it was supposed to be a one-time deal with a 10-year expiration. Now the (Tri-CIty Herald) Editorial Board and local officials are crying that you can’t live without it. Like most politicians and politically correct pundits, you never met a tax that you didn’t like. It’s time to throw some tea overboard!

Mike Doenges, Kennewick

Kudos to repave; why cut lanes?

The repaving of Jadwin in Richland is finished. Nice job.

Whose bright idea was it to throttle traffic to Hanford and Horn Rapids down to one lane?

Gregory Fox, Richland

This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 11:38 AM.