Legislature left them

in the lurch



Ironic to hear our elected officials bemoaning the tragic loss of the Lakewood (and Seattle) police officers considering the fact that many of these same leaders support the situation where police and firefighters are cursed with an underfunded, underperforming disability pension.

There was a time (pre-1976) when LEOFF employees (Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters) had LEOFF 1 pension and disability coverage, which recognized that significant numbers of LEOFF employees were being injured and killed in the performance of their duties and that the state/county/city employer bears the responsibility to care for those left behind, in the case of a death, or the permanently disabled when the LEOFF employee is lucky enough to survive a career-ending incident.

Of course, the argument was made in Olympia that the LEOFF 1 system was too generous, costly and open to abuse. As to abuse, it probably was ... by some.

What our Legislature failed to remember was that no employee chooses to get killed or injured at work. So, instead of going after the abusers, it scrapped a true safety net, replacing it with LEOFF 2, a niggardly excuse of a retirement/disability pension (the officers call it the "leftout" retirement system).

Now we have five dead officers, five needy families left in the lurch, largely cared for by a hodge-podge of church and charity groups, without the resources to assume the responsibility of caring for the wives, husbands and children ... left behind.

Disgustedly,

Patrick Clark

Sequim



The solution is easy



Concerning the food bank situation there, three letters to the editor from Jean Kelley and another lady and gentleman, are impressive.

I must tell your readers that what happens in a small community does not usually stay there. Your Gazette screams far and wide, even to Texas.

I am now 70 years old and have been volunteering for food banks and other benevolent organizations since high school. Do the math, 58 years. All too often I witness excellent organizations go belly up because of Founders Syndrome dis-ease. If you do not know what this dis-ease is, Google it or look it up at your library.

It appears that your food bank operation in Sequim is suffering from this dis-ease.

The job of anyone in any position, whether with a paid title or as a volunteer, is to teach someone else how to do that particular job, then move on.

The only solution to your food bank problem is easy. Let the lousy leaders go away, or repent of selfishness. Enough said.

Richard J. Fields

Texas



Make us proud

Is this any way to run our country? If corporate America - with a few exceptions - continually operated in the "red," our entire economy would collapse.

But is it any wonder when less than 10 percent of President Obama's cabinet appointments have private sector experience? And, his 31 czars have questionable backgrounds, and most have little experience in their assigned duties.

Instead of helping corporations, mainly small businesses, and families recover from this recession, the possibility of "cap & trade" legislation passing would drive another nail in the coffin. It is estimated that the average family would have to pay an additional $2,000+/year.

There has been much discussion regarding climate change. Too much of it is fueled by politics and not fact. Instead of making the U.S. the culprit, the truth is that the U.S. has greatly reduced carbon emissions while China and India have increased their pollution.

Our government should be clearing the regulatory minefield that prohibits nuclear power plants. And, the U.S. has an abundance of a nearly perfect substitute for imported oil: domestic natural gas. Advances in drilling techniques make it available for recovery.

It is not only more abundant, it costs half as much and emits almost 30-percent less carbon dioxide. Experts calculate that we can reduce our dependence on oil from the Middle East by half in only seven years if we convert our heavy trucks from diesel to domestic natural gas.

American prosperity was built on affordable and reliable energy, which enabled us to be competitive in the world market. Let's make our country's economy strong again and make us proud of America.

Helga McGhee

Sequim



Momentous implications

The canary in the mine is no longer singing. The global human population is thus far ineffectual at stopping the destruction of native marine food stocks, carbon emissions, destruction of tropical rain forests, human population growth, the explosion of environmental as well as war refugees, desertification, soil infertility, the rising cost of grain and an extinction of species unprecedented in hundreds of millions of years.

Sustainability is not just another problem to be dealt with and forgotten. It will become the major preoccupation of the 21st century in all arenas: ecological, economic and social.

The human species is not remotely sustainable. Nor will we be until we raise a generation of children who viscerally understand the challenges we face and are academically prepared to address them through science, technology and lifestyle changes. Yet, there are virtually no resources in Sequim's school system to implement the state's forward-looking new Environmental and Sustainability Learning standards.

The current local school levy runs out in 2010. If the upcoming replacement levy is not approved, not only will the critical sustainability standards not be implemented, schools will have to cut back on existing basics.

The upcoming school levy has momentous implications for the future of both our youth and seniors alike.

Donovan C. Wilkin

Sequim