Letters to the Editor

In his guest column of Monday, Jeff Jared advocates "partially privatizing" the University of Washington. He goes into some detail about how it could be done, but does not raise a convincing argument for why it should be done. The proposals he offers would do nothing for Washington state residents but raise tuitions, certainly at the "partially private" colleges at the UW but also for other colleges at the UW and in the rest of the state, which would then face the upward pressure of being compared with this new tuition base.

State financial aid, whether through current programs or "vouchers," will not keep pace with the new high tuition, so these new private colleges would be available primarily to those who are already able to afford them. High tuitions would continue to decrease income and racial diversity at our elite universities.

Going to the UW was once a reasonable goal of any intelligent student in Washington. Let's keep it that way by funding our state's higher education system rather than turning it into a "business."

Sandra Schroeder
President, AFT Washington
Tukwila

TV COVERS CONVENTION

Fox lets you see only what it wants you to see

Fox News carried much less of the Democratic convention than CNN and MSNBC, leading many to question Fox's slogan "fair and balanced."

Instead of letting voters hear the speeches themselves, Fox News interrupted many of the Democrats in favor of Republican pundits. In one case, Bill O'Reilly showed just a few seconds of former Vice President Al Gore's speech before cutting him off to attack him. The other cable networks showed Gore's speech in full.

According to watchdog group Media Matters for America, Fox News showed a quarter less of the Democratic convention than CNN and a full third less than MSNBC. There's no arguing with the numbers: Fox News is protecting its Republican friends instead of giving us the news.

Serious news outlets give their viewers every opportunity to decide for themselves how to vote. Anything less is unfit for democracy.

Citizens who want to make up their own minds can't rely on Fox's partisan coverage anymore.

Jennifer Erlandson
Des Moines

STATE TAXES

Sims offers road out of stagnation

Ron Sims is offering this state a bold path out of the stagnation and resignation to lower standards that has settled upon us. His plan would restructure the state's tax burden lifting it off the average citizen and small business and placing it upon those able to shoulder the burden. In doing so, average citizens would have more money in their pockets to spend and businesses would have tax incentives to create jobs and reinvest profits in new facilities and equipment. We should all stand and applaud a politician who has the courage to offer us solutions instead of just tired platitudes.

Ray Goforth
Auburn

STEM-CELL RESEARCH

Newspaper plays politics with a most vital issue

In response to your Friday editorial comments about Ron Reagan's Democratic convention speech, I would like to ask the following questions:

How come when we use animals for vital research, there is so much opposition?

Why did Reagan not mention Alzheimer's disease once during his speech?

Why has the paper not researched the Bush administration's choice for vital research, which is "cord blood"?

Why do you assume the reluctance to pour millions of dollars into stem-cell research is ideally motivated as opposed to having more faith in "cord-blood" research than stem-cell research?

Kathy Bowyer
Edmonds

Methods should be free of moral dilemmas

Quoted from Ron Reagan at the Democratic convention regarding federal expansion of embryonic stem-cell research: "A few of these folks, needless to say, are just grinding a political ax, and they should be ashamed of themselves."

I am the mother of a 7-year-old diabetic son. I guess I should be "ashamed" of myself because I support President Bush's stand on limiting embryonic stem-cell research with federally funded dollars. I don't want my tax dollars to go toward this type of research because a "life," however you define it or get it (i.e. donated from fertility or abortion clinics from leftover procedures), is still morally wrong to those who claim to be pro-life. A "life" should not be destroyed to save a life or, in my case, make it more convenient or extend the life of my diabetic son.

I want the best for my son. I support ways to find a cure that would not compromise my moral belief on life. We contribute to research that respects our viewpoint on stem-cell research. There are research projects that are using stem cells from non-embryonic human sources. Stem cells can be found in adult bone marrow. Stem cells can also be derived from umbilical cords of newborns. Both methods are free from any moral dilemmas of destroying a life.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that favors embryonic stem-cell research, has given alternatives to this type of funding when requested. The money given to JDRF is purely voluntary. When Ron Reagan wants to expand the funding by the federal government (Department of Health and Human Services), it is supported by tax dollars. There is no choice when paying your taxes. If private companies with private donations want to do this type of research, that is a different story.

L.J. Bonner
Seattle

LAYOFFS

Bank makes 'difference' in its employees' lives

Your July 23 story says Washington Mutual is closing 100 of its home-loan centers and laying off thousands of employees.

The bank's window sign advertises the "WaMu Difference." The chief difference that I see is the contrast with a year ago; in 2003 when our nation's mortgage refinancings reached almost 10,000 a week, they were feverishly gearing up to capture the last bit of revenue. But like our nation's venture into Iraq with no planning for the aftermath of the military conquest, WaMu cranked up the machinery with no plans for when national refinancing returned to a much more normal level -- under 2,000 a week.

WaMu's Chief Executive Kerry Killinger was quoted as saying, "Wamu did not fully comprehend the depth and breadth of these issues": losing money on interest rate hedges (which properly managed avoid losses) and the costs of a mortgage banking staff too large for the current volume of business.

That seems a pretty weak explanation from a CEO of a company advertising to the banking public that its bank makes a "difference."

Bob McCoy
Seattle

WAR

We could have called the whole thing off

Here is a make-believe story of what might have been, with a surprise ending.

They wreaked havoc on the Iraqi infrastructure like they said they would.

They disposed of Saddam Hussein like they said they would.

Both sides suffered casualties like they said would happen.

The United States defeated Iraq like they said would happen.

Then came an ironic twist: Iraq didn't have any oil. It didn't have a dime. It was a destitute country.

The cost of this war was huge. It looks like the U.S. taxpayers are going to be stuck with the large expenditures.

The question then arises: Would President Bush invade Iraq if it had no oil?

Ralph A. Setterman
Auburn

THE MIDDLE EAST

Muslim Arab countries rife with internal conflicts

In response to David Smith's Sunday letter ("Palestinians' democratic proposal was refused"), the proposal to create two states in that area actually was voted on and decided by the United Nations in 1947, not recently by the United States and Israel. Likewise, all the other disinformation in that letter is either distorted or wrong.

To say that Palestinians as a group seek a secular multi-ethnic state is highly speculative. I cannot think of a single country with a Muslim Arab population and other ethnic groups that is not rife with internal conflicts and bloodshed, Sudan being the latest example.

No Muslim Arab country is a secular democracy. They all are Islamic states, where non-Muslim and non-Arab people are discriminated against and persecuted to some degree.

While one could hope that independent Palestine be at least tolerant of non-Muslim Arabs, it would be unwise to have one's life depend on it.

Gilad Odinak
Bellevue

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