A moral dilemma

I gave up smoking when premium cigarettes were 60 cents a pack at the convenience store.

I gave up alcohol a little over a year and a half ago for health and spiritual reasons.

I have never been a gambler.

Our state government is caught in a moral dilemma. On the one hand, our socialist brethren would legislate what and how much of any “bad” thing we might consume. On the other hand, they lust after higher revenues.

In typical fashion they spend money on “anti-XYZ education programs” but can’t bring themselves to outlaw these vices or separate themselves from the cash. Who are really the addict and hypocrite?

Washington has raised cigarette taxes repeatedly, believing huge revenues would follow. Each year, receipts go down and we raise taxes again. The same strategy is being used on spirits. Now we will get a $3.70 “surcharge” on each bottle beginning in August.

It seems to me they got part of what they wanted: I am getting healthier by the day. However, there may be a downside. I will be around that much longer (God willing) to editorialize on this foolishness.

Konrad Lau

Sedro-Woolley

Disrespectful, hazardous

I read your article this week about the accident on Highway 20 where an eagle crashed through the windshield of a police officer’s car.

My friend and I were driving down Highway 20 shortly after this occurred. There were no signs of the accident except the huge dead eagle in the road.

My concern is why it was not removed until the next morning (according to your article).

I feel this was very disrespectful to the symbol of our country as well as hazardous to drivers.

Donna Thomas

Anacortes

A part of reproductive rights

In all the words written about the recent murder of Dr. George Tiller, few have mentioned the women he helped as they and their families faced a desperate choice, the most painful a woman ever has to face.

There are many reasons why a woman may have to terminate a later pregnancy, and all are tragic. These are not women who get tired of being pregnant somewhere in their third trimester and want to end the pregnancy, as many of the shouting media heads would have you believe.

Dr. Tiller was, by all accounts, a skilled physician who treated these patients with understanding and compassion at their time of need, and he will be greatly missed.

The hope has been expressed that the anti-choice and pro-choice groups can find common ground.

Certainly, we need to have scientifically correct, accurate sex education available to our children such as that pioneered by Planned Parenthood. That ought to be something everyone could support, and abstinence is one part of that education.

But as long as people have been on earth, abortion has also been around and it’s not going away. The question is whether it will remain safe or whether women will be forced into back alleys with unsafe amateur practitioners.

Right now in Africa, where birth control has been hard to get and expensive, women are dying in large numbers from the aftereffects of abortions performed by untrained hacks. In developing countries, when a mother dies, her surviving children are more likely to die before adulthood, so in the end several people die.

I don’t know anyone who is pro-abortion, but I do know many people who are pro-choice. Access to abortion must continue to be a part of reproductive rights.

Pat Young

Mount Vernon

Socialized health care

This week, ABC will be airing a full hour on health-care reform directly from the White House. The network has said it will not allow any opposing views or opinions on this crucial issue.

This should alarm every American as it represents yet another assault by this administration on the freedom and unbiased duties of the press.

I see it as a purely propagandized attempt to shove socialized medicine down our throats.

The far larger issue is the fascist policies being used here to further destroy our basic freedoms.

Obama must have read Hugo Chavez’s book, cover to cover.

Comrade Obama, indeed!

Maureen Schwab

Lyman

Promotes community pride

Have you noticed the workers around Mount Vernon wearing orange vests? They are with the Community Works Project Program. Mayor Bud Norris saw the importance of this program and took initiative to expand it to two work crews in 2004.

The workers are mostly young folks who have been arrested for minor, non-violent crimes, e.g. shoplifting, malicious mischief, graffiti, etc. Instead of a sentence to jail time, they are given alternative punishment of serving on a work crew. They sweep the downtown sidewalks, pick up illegally dumped garbage, weed the flower beds, maintain the retention ponds, keep our trail system pruned and maintained, work in our parks and eradicate graffiti.

I feel this is a great program. It not only saves money and keeps our community clean but also gives the workers a feeling of self-worth and usefulness. They pride themselves in the job they do in our community. They are learning about community pride, are much less likely to reoffend, and don’t take up space in our already overcrowded jail.

Kudos to Mayor Norris and our City Council for this program.

Dr. Lawrence Pirkle

Mount Vernon