Letters to the Editor January 27, 2010 issue
Published on Tue, Jan 26, 2010Read More Letters to the Editor
Let your voice be heard this legislative session
Dear Editor,
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, I don’t smoke but it is good advise right now.
State Legislators will be raising “sin taxes” this year to continue to pay off their special interest groups instead of actually reforming our budgeting process.
If the program is not a core function of government, public safety, education, and health care, it is gone.
Many programs are either done better in the private/non-profit sector or is duplicated.
It is time for citizens to contact our local representatives and tell them no new taxes, do not raise taxes, and reduce spending.
Our voices must be louder than the special interest groups and remind them you will not forget come November about the decisions they make now.
It is time for these representatives to listen to us (the voters) or we will find people dedicated to doing the right thing for the voters.
If they need any advise, please call me and I will give you a huge list of changes.
Todd Welch
Everett
Lake Stevens students deserve community support
Dear Editor,
This started out as a factual letter explaining the importance of the current M &O and Technology Levy dollars, but then I got invited to a tea party.
I spent the morning with Mrs. Hermes’ amazing sixth-graders and their guests at LSMS, drinking tea and discussing books that they’ve been reading in literature circles. They are the reason you should support the levies.
There’s a lot of racket in the news about economic woes, but here in Lake Stevens teachers, staff and community members just continue to do whatever needs done to educate kids. With our history of commitment to education in this community, it would be easy to take for granted our success in levy and bond elections. It seems as though every four years an ‘automatic’ replacement levy is passed to continue to fill the widening gap between state funding and the cost of basic education.
I can assure you that there is nothing automatic about renewing our Maintenance and Operations Levy. In the ten years that I have served on the school board, every term we carefully consider the educational costs not covered by state funding. We agonize over the costs to seniors and others living on a fixed income and work with staff to come up with a funding plan that is manageable for property owners, serves our students, and reflects the values of this community.
All the while, Mrs. Hermes and countless other teachers, education professionals and community members continue to do whatever it takes to bring education to life for the kids of Lake Stevens. They all deserve our support!
Mari Taylor, President
LSSD Board of Directors
Obama needs more than a year to make changes
Dear Editor,
A year ago, if we had read in the paper that employers were hiring again, that health care legislation was proceeding without a bump, that Afghanistan suddenly became a nice place to take your kids, we would’ve known we were being lied to.
Back then, we recognized that the problems Barack Obama inherited as president wouldn’t go away overnight.
During his campaign, Obama clearly said that an economy that took eight years to break couldn’t be fixed in a year, that Afghanistan was a graveyard of empires, and would not be an easy venture for us.
Candidate Obama didn’t feed us happy-talk, which is why we elected him. He never said America could solve our health care, economic and security problems without raising the deficit. Instead, he talked of hard choices, of government taking painful and contentious first steps towards fixing problems that can’t be left for another day.
Right after Obama’s election, we seemed to grasp this. We understood that companies would be happy to squeeze more work out of frightened employees, and would be slow to hire more.
We understood that the banks that had extorted us out of billions of dollars, were lying when they said they would share their recovery. We understood that a national consensus on health care would not come easily. Candidate Obama never claimed that his proposed solutions would work flawlessly right out of the box, and we respected him for that.
But today, the President is being attacked as if he were a salesman who promised us that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never made such a promise.
It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything.
Ellie Light
Everett
G.F. Library overrun with teens
Dear Editor,
I would like to think that I am a tolerant individual who remembers what it’s like to be a teen in a town with nothing to do. I would also like to think that these teens are just being teens.
However, I am very disappointed in the way the Granite Falls Library is overrun by junior high students every afternoon.
I have witnessed teens being loud, rude and plain disrespectful.
One day alone, I was witness to teens playing a rather loud game of truth or dare, including the kissing dares, singing loudly and loitering.
After telling a teen to be quiet or I would have them asked to leave they were incredibly rude to me.
I watched a librarian have to come over and ask the teens to not sit on each other’s laps that their parents would not like it. The librarian eventually asked them to leave citing they were too distracting to the other patrons.
I don’t believe it’s their job, nor mine to raise your kids.
So, parents, where are your teens every afternoon? If they’re the ones lounging in the library everyday you need to be watchful of what they are doing.
I would suggest randomly dropping in, even if it means leaving work early. I think you might find that the library isn’t where you want your kid hanging out.
P. Shelly Ann Noriz
Granite Falls
Dear Editor,
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, I don’t smoke but it is good advise right now.
State Legislators will be raising “sin taxes” this year to continue to pay off their special interest groups instead of actually reforming our budgeting process.
If the program is not a core function of government, public safety, education, and health care, it is gone.
Many programs are either done better in the private/non-profit sector or is duplicated.
It is time for citizens to contact our local representatives and tell them no new taxes, do not raise taxes, and reduce spending.
Our voices must be louder than the special interest groups and remind them you will not forget come November about the decisions they make now.
It is time for these representatives to listen to us (the voters) or we will find people dedicated to doing the right thing for the voters.
If they need any advise, please call me and I will give you a huge list of changes.
Todd Welch
Everett
Lake Stevens students deserve community support
Dear Editor,
This started out as a factual letter explaining the importance of the current M &O and Technology Levy dollars, but then I got invited to a tea party.
I spent the morning with Mrs. Hermes’ amazing sixth-graders and their guests at LSMS, drinking tea and discussing books that they’ve been reading in literature circles. They are the reason you should support the levies.
There’s a lot of racket in the news about economic woes, but here in Lake Stevens teachers, staff and community members just continue to do whatever needs done to educate kids. With our history of commitment to education in this community, it would be easy to take for granted our success in levy and bond elections. It seems as though every four years an ‘automatic’ replacement levy is passed to continue to fill the widening gap between state funding and the cost of basic education.
I can assure you that there is nothing automatic about renewing our Maintenance and Operations Levy. In the ten years that I have served on the school board, every term we carefully consider the educational costs not covered by state funding. We agonize over the costs to seniors and others living on a fixed income and work with staff to come up with a funding plan that is manageable for property owners, serves our students, and reflects the values of this community.
All the while, Mrs. Hermes and countless other teachers, education professionals and community members continue to do whatever it takes to bring education to life for the kids of Lake Stevens. They all deserve our support!
Mari Taylor, President
LSSD Board of Directors
Obama needs more than a year to make changes
Dear Editor,
A year ago, if we had read in the paper that employers were hiring again, that health care legislation was proceeding without a bump, that Afghanistan suddenly became a nice place to take your kids, we would’ve known we were being lied to.
Back then, we recognized that the problems Barack Obama inherited as president wouldn’t go away overnight.
During his campaign, Obama clearly said that an economy that took eight years to break couldn’t be fixed in a year, that Afghanistan was a graveyard of empires, and would not be an easy venture for us.
Candidate Obama didn’t feed us happy-talk, which is why we elected him. He never said America could solve our health care, economic and security problems without raising the deficit. Instead, he talked of hard choices, of government taking painful and contentious first steps towards fixing problems that can’t be left for another day.
Right after Obama’s election, we seemed to grasp this. We understood that companies would be happy to squeeze more work out of frightened employees, and would be slow to hire more.
We understood that the banks that had extorted us out of billions of dollars, were lying when they said they would share their recovery. We understood that a national consensus on health care would not come easily. Candidate Obama never claimed that his proposed solutions would work flawlessly right out of the box, and we respected him for that.
But today, the President is being attacked as if he were a salesman who promised us that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never made such a promise.
It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything.
Ellie Light
Everett
G.F. Library overrun with teens
Dear Editor,
I would like to think that I am a tolerant individual who remembers what it’s like to be a teen in a town with nothing to do. I would also like to think that these teens are just being teens.
However, I am very disappointed in the way the Granite Falls Library is overrun by junior high students every afternoon.
I have witnessed teens being loud, rude and plain disrespectful.
One day alone, I was witness to teens playing a rather loud game of truth or dare, including the kissing dares, singing loudly and loitering.
After telling a teen to be quiet or I would have them asked to leave they were incredibly rude to me.
I watched a librarian have to come over and ask the teens to not sit on each other’s laps that their parents would not like it. The librarian eventually asked them to leave citing they were too distracting to the other patrons.
I don’t believe it’s their job, nor mine to raise your kids.
So, parents, where are your teens every afternoon? If they’re the ones lounging in the library everyday you need to be watchful of what they are doing.
I would suggest randomly dropping in, even if it means leaving work early. I think you might find that the library isn’t where you want your kid hanging out.
P. Shelly Ann Noriz
Granite Falls
blog comments powered by Disqus
