Letters - August 12, 2011

Money trumps safety with gravel pit plan

What Mr. Stanfill is too much a gentleman to say (“Gravel mine foes kick up a backlash,” July 22) is that the county, your elected county commissioners, and their contracted hearing examiner favored a non-resident with lots of money over the safety of a long established community, safe traffic on Northlake Way, and a healthy future of Chico Creek.

The residents’ factual and passionate testimony at the hearings meant little to officials digging through boxes and boxes of data produced to confuse the actual environmental impact. A process that allows this to happen is indeed flawed.

Jim Tucker

Bremerton

 

Fight socialism, get country back on track

To help Americans understand what is going on in  Washington D.C. over the national debt, one needs to relate it to how (hopefully) most Americans run their own households.

Most of us know that we must set priorities.

First we pay our bills (mortgages, rents, utility bills, property taxes, etc.) Keep the number of credit cards at a minimum and pay off monthly if we can. Also recognize what your “needs” are and not your “wants” until there is enough extra money for the “goodies” and learn some self discipline! The U.S. government should do the same!

It would be wonderful if all Americans could own a home, go to college etc. but that isn’t possible. And our politicians shouldn’t make those promises either!

For many folks it has to do with choices made early in life. It is totally unfair to those of us who have sacrificed and worked hard all our lives to foot the bill for those who haven’t done so!

When I see my fellow Americans in their ‘70s and ‘80s working in stores and restaurants as waitresses and clerks to pay their bills (by the way, I worked in an office until I was 67) it just screams “UNFAIR” while others don’t shoulder their fair share!

If you are able-bodied you can do something! We all recognize that there are some among us however who must be taken care of because they aren’t able to do so.

To quote Margaret Thatcher: “The trouble with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”

Norma L. Card

Bremerton

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