Letters to the editor, April 20, 2011
Published on Wed, Apr 20, 2011Read More Letters
Forced ‘donor’ reveals himself
“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.” — Thomas Jefferson
These words of warning, written in 1786 by the father of American liberty, have gone unheeded in today’s labor scene. Federal labor laws have, since the 1930s, permitted and encouraged the growth of compulsory unionism arrangements between union officials and employers, forcing millions of employees to pay dues to unions as a condition of employment.
Working in an area you are good at and enjoy whether as a state employee or another industry you will not have your right to decide to pay union dues. You will pay or lose your opportunity to work where you want. The union is not like the American worker — unions have the right under federal law to bargain for only their members. Unions do not exercise that right but choose to force workers who do not want the union to pay dues anyway. Unions then take the American workers money and use it against his/her beliefs politically and morally.
I being forced against my will joined a union in the 1970s because I wanted to work in a field that was controlled by unions. I then knew that the union had taken away my First Amendment right of association. It wasn’t until 1988 that the Supreme Court in Communications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735, said you could resign your union membership but would still have to pay fees. When I found the nonprofit organization that had fought for the workers to take back some of their Constitutional rights (NRTW) I became a donor. I then donated by force to the union and with free choice to my protectors (NRTW).
Wisconsin!! Would to God that other states would give BACK their workers First Amendment right so they wouldn’t have to join a unwanted union and forced to pay money (dues) to that unwanted union or lose their job! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
Daniel Gautschi
Sequim
In his recent letter Jim Dries says Washington Policy Center should reveal its donors, the way public sector unions have to report their campaign giving. However, he ignores an important difference.
Washington Policy Center is a nonprofit supported by voluntary contributions from people across our state who want to make Washington a better place to live, work and run a business. Our membership levels start at $50 a year. We do not receive any public money. Public sector unions, on the other hand, receive nearly all their money from taxpayers, in the form of mandatory dues. Unions typically charge workers around $900 a year. Failure to pay is a firing offense.
Washington Policy Center makes no political contributions, while public sector unions are heavily involved in politics. Most union spending goes to Democrats, meaning public dollars flow from taxpayers to workers to unions to politics. National commentator Michael Barone says, “In effect, public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party” (“Who benefits from government unions?” by Michael Barone, Real Clear Politics, February 24, 2011).
Campaign money means public sector unions help elect their own bosses.
Washington Policy Center funding is private and voluntary. Public sector union funding is public and mandatory. That is why it is important for the public to know the powerful role unions play in our government.
Paul Guppy
Seattle
(Ed. note: Guppy is vice president for research at Washington Policy Center.)
Communication is the lifeblood of democracy. How sad then, the current efforts by Republicans and the Tea Party to defund NPR. National Public Radio keeps its 27 million listeners in tune with reliable and diverse broadcasts which run counter to the Republican agenda of “dumbing down of America” to the Fox News level. The GOP can’t sell its pack of lies to a well-informed and intelligent population.
Remember when Republicans and Tea Party rowdies tried to shut down the dialogue in town hall meetings, well now they’re trying to do the same thing to NPR, using budget deficits as an excuse to silence this media outlet. Using budget deficits that they themselves created by huge tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. Nothing like creating a problem and then capitalizing on it!
Ron Lowe
Nevada City, Calif.
So, this spring GM (genetically modified) alfalfa is being planted. It received approval in January 2011 with the “compromise” that scientific testing and research of the hazards will be conducted later!
Alfalfa is the fourth-largest U.S. field crop grown on about 20 million acres as food for livestock. Even if you do not directly eat alfalfa, when you eat meats, eggs and dairy products you are ingesting the mutated cellular structures and additional pesticides used on the crops the livestock has been fed. Alfalfa joins the list of other GM approved crops of soy, corn, cotton, sugar beets and canola that are used in all prepared and fast foods. The mutants and toxins accumulate in your body. Every body will have a different reaction to these unknowns.
GMOs will fundamentally undermine the entire agriculture industry, especially organic. The wind, bees and other insect pollen carriers cannot be trained to avoid GMO crops.
The USDA and Monsanto say American consumers don’t care about the contamination of food. European countries have long banned GMO food. Do you care?
Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) Tom Vilsack and his Monsanto cronies (Vilsack and the Monsanto CEO are close friends) are tipping the balance of the entire planet. Not for the good of humanity but for accumulation of personal wealth. There is not a word strong enough to express this villainy. What part of “you stand on citizen’s shoulders, if we fall so do you” are they not wise enough to understand!? Or are they just too corrupted in the worship of profits that they don’t care.
Do you care? We are giving them our permission and approval with our silence and continued support.
In my opinion, nothing will change and the corporations will continue poisoning us and the planet if we continue to support them. The only way to affect them is in the pocket book; emotional pleas do not work. The suicides of over 200,000 Indian farmers since 1997 who went bankrupt playing by Monsanto’s rules and GM crops did not faze Monsanto or the rest of the world in the least.
Since they even refuse to label any GMO use, please consider boycotting all corporate foods and buy only from reputable local producers. The government has long been bought out and no longer is acting in our best interests. It will be a fun new adventure changing your eating habits and you will gain better health. Are you up to the challenge? Start a little at a time if you think this too difficult, your habits will evolve with your intent.
For more info on GMO risks, see http://responsibletechnology.org/. It includes video clips of Dr. (Mehmet) Oz on the subject.
Cathe Muller
Sequim
“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.” — Thomas Jefferson
These words of warning, written in 1786 by the father of American liberty, have gone unheeded in today’s labor scene. Federal labor laws have, since the 1930s, permitted and encouraged the growth of compulsory unionism arrangements between union officials and employers, forcing millions of employees to pay dues to unions as a condition of employment.
Working in an area you are good at and enjoy whether as a state employee or another industry you will not have your right to decide to pay union dues. You will pay or lose your opportunity to work where you want. The union is not like the American worker — unions have the right under federal law to bargain for only their members. Unions do not exercise that right but choose to force workers who do not want the union to pay dues anyway. Unions then take the American workers money and use it against his/her beliefs politically and morally.
I being forced against my will joined a union in the 1970s because I wanted to work in a field that was controlled by unions. I then knew that the union had taken away my First Amendment right of association. It wasn’t until 1988 that the Supreme Court in Communications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735, said you could resign your union membership but would still have to pay fees. When I found the nonprofit organization that had fought for the workers to take back some of their Constitutional rights (NRTW) I became a donor. I then donated by force to the union and with free choice to my protectors (NRTW).
Wisconsin!! Would to God that other states would give BACK their workers First Amendment right so they wouldn’t have to join a unwanted union and forced to pay money (dues) to that unwanted union or lose their job! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
Daniel Gautschi
Sequim
Far from a union
In his recent letter Jim Dries says Washington Policy Center should reveal its donors, the way public sector unions have to report their campaign giving. However, he ignores an important difference.
Washington Policy Center is a nonprofit supported by voluntary contributions from people across our state who want to make Washington a better place to live, work and run a business. Our membership levels start at $50 a year. We do not receive any public money. Public sector unions, on the other hand, receive nearly all their money from taxpayers, in the form of mandatory dues. Unions typically charge workers around $900 a year. Failure to pay is a firing offense.
Washington Policy Center makes no political contributions, while public sector unions are heavily involved in politics. Most union spending goes to Democrats, meaning public dollars flow from taxpayers to workers to unions to politics. National commentator Michael Barone says, “In effect, public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party” (“Who benefits from government unions?” by Michael Barone, Real Clear Politics, February 24, 2011).
Campaign money means public sector unions help elect their own bosses.
Washington Policy Center funding is private and voluntary. Public sector union funding is public and mandatory. That is why it is important for the public to know the powerful role unions play in our government.
Paul Guppy
Seattle
(Ed. note: Guppy is vice president for research at Washington Policy Center.)
And now a word for NPR
Communication is the lifeblood of democracy. How sad then, the current efforts by Republicans and the Tea Party to defund NPR. National Public Radio keeps its 27 million listeners in tune with reliable and diverse broadcasts which run counter to the Republican agenda of “dumbing down of America” to the Fox News level. The GOP can’t sell its pack of lies to a well-informed and intelligent population.
Remember when Republicans and Tea Party rowdies tried to shut down the dialogue in town hall meetings, well now they’re trying to do the same thing to NPR, using budget deficits as an excuse to silence this media outlet. Using budget deficits that they themselves created by huge tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. Nothing like creating a problem and then capitalizing on it!
Ron Lowe
Nevada City, Calif.
GMO fears
So, this spring GM (genetically modified) alfalfa is being planted. It received approval in January 2011 with the “compromise” that scientific testing and research of the hazards will be conducted later!
Alfalfa is the fourth-largest U.S. field crop grown on about 20 million acres as food for livestock. Even if you do not directly eat alfalfa, when you eat meats, eggs and dairy products you are ingesting the mutated cellular structures and additional pesticides used on the crops the livestock has been fed. Alfalfa joins the list of other GM approved crops of soy, corn, cotton, sugar beets and canola that are used in all prepared and fast foods. The mutants and toxins accumulate in your body. Every body will have a different reaction to these unknowns.
GMOs will fundamentally undermine the entire agriculture industry, especially organic. The wind, bees and other insect pollen carriers cannot be trained to avoid GMO crops.
The USDA and Monsanto say American consumers don’t care about the contamination of food. European countries have long banned GMO food. Do you care?
Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) Tom Vilsack and his Monsanto cronies (Vilsack and the Monsanto CEO are close friends) are tipping the balance of the entire planet. Not for the good of humanity but for accumulation of personal wealth. There is not a word strong enough to express this villainy. What part of “you stand on citizen’s shoulders, if we fall so do you” are they not wise enough to understand!? Or are they just too corrupted in the worship of profits that they don’t care.
Do you care? We are giving them our permission and approval with our silence and continued support.
In my opinion, nothing will change and the corporations will continue poisoning us and the planet if we continue to support them. The only way to affect them is in the pocket book; emotional pleas do not work. The suicides of over 200,000 Indian farmers since 1997 who went bankrupt playing by Monsanto’s rules and GM crops did not faze Monsanto or the rest of the world in the least.
Since they even refuse to label any GMO use, please consider boycotting all corporate foods and buy only from reputable local producers. The government has long been bought out and no longer is acting in our best interests. It will be a fun new adventure changing your eating habits and you will gain better health. Are you up to the challenge? Start a little at a time if you think this too difficult, your habits will evolve with your intent.
For more info on GMO risks, see http://responsibletechnology.org/. It includes video clips of Dr. (Mehmet) Oz on the subject.
Cathe Muller
Sequim
LETTERS POLICY
Your opinions on issues of community interest and your reaction to stories and editorials contained in your Sequim Gazette are important to us and to your fellow readers. Thus our rules relating to letters submitted for publication are relatively simple.
• Letters are welcome. Letters exceeding 250 words may be shortened. We strive to publish all letters.
• Letters are subject to editing for spelling and grammar; we contact the writer when substantial changes are required, sending the letter back to the writer for revisions. Personal attacks and unsubstantiated allegations are not printed.
• All letters must have a valid signature, with a printed name, address and phone number for verification. Only the name and town/community are printed.
• Deadline for letters to appear in the next publication is noon Friday. Because of the volume of letters, not all letters are published the week they are submitted. Time-sensitive letters have a priority.
• Letters are published subject to legal limitations relating to defamation and factual representation.
• To submit letters, deliver to 147 W. Washington St., Sequim; mail to P.O. Box 1750, Sequim, WA 98382; fax to 360-683-6670 or e-mail news@sequimgazette.com.
Your opinions on issues of community interest and your reaction to stories and editorials contained in your Sequim Gazette are important to us and to your fellow readers. Thus our rules relating to letters submitted for publication are relatively simple.
• Letters are welcome. Letters exceeding 250 words may be shortened. We strive to publish all letters.
• Letters are subject to editing for spelling and grammar; we contact the writer when substantial changes are required, sending the letter back to the writer for revisions. Personal attacks and unsubstantiated allegations are not printed.
• All letters must have a valid signature, with a printed name, address and phone number for verification. Only the name and town/community are printed.
• Deadline for letters to appear in the next publication is noon Friday. Because of the volume of letters, not all letters are published the week they are submitted. Time-sensitive letters have a priority.
• Letters are published subject to legal limitations relating to defamation and factual representation.
• To submit letters, deliver to 147 W. Washington St., Sequim; mail to P.O. Box 1750, Sequim, WA 98382; fax to 360-683-6670 or e-mail news@sequimgazette.com.
© 2009 Sequim Gazette. All rights reserved. 147 West Washington, Sequim, WA 98382 • 360.683.3311 • Email the Webmaster