Letters to the editor

E-busted

Time to tap out steamy notes, but not to run the state

Editor, The Times:

Our state's financial woes, along with budget cuts and reduced services have been widely publicized. Now we find that state employees are spending a good part of their time on personal e-mail exchanges, time that belongs to their employer, the citizenry ("Department of Lust and Indecency? State L&I workers fired for racy e-mails," Local News, April 25).

This basic point was overlooked in the titillating account in The Times emphasizing the sexual content of the messages. Whether their minds were on orgies or quilting, (the workers) literally were stealing time from their jobs.

Which begs the question, how widespread is this practice in state offices? How many jobs could be eliminated without cutting services if employees invested not only their physical presence but their best efforts in their work?

As it is, the argument seems to be all about whether they should be sending sexual material.

What next? Employees suing the state for freedom of speech?
- Margaret Howard, Bellevue

Victimless 'crime'

Sex, sex, sex. How do we stamp it out? The state L & I management is "shocked" about a few racy e-mails among several consenting employees.

Nowhere in this supposedly newsworthy, front page article did I see even a hint that those "nasty and outrageous" e-mails interfered with job performance.

So management, in its fit to stamp out this plague of humanity, fired six employees instead of handing out warnings.

How much is that action going to cost taxpayers in dollars and lost productivity in negotiating with the union, rehiring those fired or hiring and training replacements?

I have a strong suggestion for L & I management — grow up!
- Dan Stuckey, Bellevue

Road to rail

Let merits decide

How dare Bruce Ramsey cause so much trouble! ("True costs of rail and those who ride it," Times column, April 24.) Costs used to determine the appropriateness of an idea?

What a short-sighted, conservative agenda fixation. It is the ends (although iffy) that we care about, not the means!

Kidding aside, Ramsey's piece is right on.

In 2002, those who protested Richard Nixon's and Lyndon Johnson's heavy-handed ways of getting things done are in positions of power, and are employing the tactics they once detested.

Can we have some honesty, some accountability, some willingness to let a proposal rise or fall on its own merits?

Sound Transit is about people who will never give up on a goal, no matter what the cost, no matter what the effectiveness, no matter what dishonest means are used to achieve their ends.

Sound Transit recently ran radio ads indicating it "had taken thousands off the road, and reduced their blood pressure." What a bunch of hogwash. Sound Transit cannot point to any facts to support its assertions. Par for the course.
- Eric Tronsen, Shoreline

On black and white

Insularity's an insult

Alvin Robert Valdez states: "No one white can ever understand what it is to be black in this country. Thus the white community has no right to tell the black community... " (Letters to the editor, April 24).

Using the same logic, would Valdez invalidate black complaints against whites on the basis that "no black can ever understand what it is to be white in this country? Thus the black community has no right to tell the white community... "?

Such claims both defy logic and insult every European-American who ever placed themselves in very real danger opposing racism.

The claim that people of a given racial/social grouping cannot understand the thinking or concerns of another denies our common humanity.

On the same order as the "no black person, by virtue of race, can possibly be guilty of racism" gambit briefly floated a couple of years back, the attempt to claim special rights or freedom from criticism because of the color of one's skin leads this society down a path we've already rejected.

Unfortunately, such claims still hold an attraction for those who would use any device in advance of their cause, regardless of the consequences of the logic employed.

We should reject such claims, and to remain silent in the face of such comments because of the race of the person who said them makes cowards of all who would oppose such racist claptrap.
- August Depner, Shoreline

WASL-wise

Graduating with horrors

Regarding lowering the bar for WASL testing and labeling objectors to that proposal "whiners," I am sick to death of listening to Republican-type labels and euphemisms such as "fuzzy thinkers," "whiners," "book-banners," against anyone trying to preserve some semblance of meaningful education.

I find it interesting that educators all point the accusatory finger at the test; could it possibly, instead, be pointed at the educators? Education in many schools is achieved by showing movies; not much class preparation time there.

The dumbing down of education in America is a thoroughly documented progression. Here we are, the greatest country in the world in so many ways and yet every year we graduate dumber and dumber students. In education, we're becoming the laughing stock of the world.

But, Lord knows, we don't want little Vermin to have to work so hard in school so, hey, let's give him/her a chance to be an achiever and move "up" for a change. Let's lower the bar; then, perhaps, he/she can be, not just dumber, but "the dumbest"!
- Clara McArthur, Federal Way

Made in the USA

Proud to buy unAmerican

With so many horrific things happening in the world right now I hate to complain about this, but what is with the American auto industry?

Why are all of the most reliable vehicles foreign-made? Toyota is extending its warranty on certain models because of a problem it feels is related to not changing the oil as often as recommended. American companies will spend 10 million on litigation before spending 5 cents to stand behind their products.

I am proud to live in this country and feel a strong loyalty to our people and products. But I will not be buying anymore American-made vehicles.
- Steve Jones, Everett

Bush meter

'Is the traitor at home?'

I find it fascinating that polls continue to show high approval ratings for the president's "war on terrorism."

Perhaps I reside in an alternate, parallel universe. I have not heard anyone explain what our military objective is in Afghanistan. I know no one who supports war against Iraq, North Korea, or Iran. I know many, many people who are appalled at Israel's ongoing illegal occupation of, and settlements in Palestinian territories and its slaughter of Palestinian civilians.

I personally know no one who has confidence in the intelligence, maturity, or understanding of foreign policy of our president and vice president.

However, we live in a country in which the attorney general and mainstream editorial writers have flatly said that people who do not support the president are traitors. I wonder if that does not cross the minds of people who receive a phone call from a pollster.
- Anne Paxton, Seattle