Letters to the Editor

Seafair stands for a lot of old, outdated values: male chauvinism (those awful, paunchy Seafair pirates who used to harass women); environmentally unfriendly activities (the noisy and disruptive hydroplane races and the expensive and dangerous Blue Angels that create a terrible noise disturbance and scare the local wildlife half to death); drunken, offensive, trashy and rowdy behavior at the hydroplane races.

Why in the world is this silly, unfashionable and out-of-date event still around? It's a dinosaur.

Patricia Fong
Seattle

KARL ROVE

Don't sweep political scam under the carpet

We know that Karl Rove leaked Valerie Plame's identity to Matthew Cooper and Robert Novak. It's an important story that I want to see on the front page. Let's demand accountability. I am much more interested in this case than in anything else right now. This is the kind of political scam that we should all be furious about and not sweep under the carpet.

Berg Danielson
Seattle

STATE GOVERNMENT

Math not strong suit for state legislator

Does anyone ever check the math? I bring to your attention three points in "State government hiring outpaces population growth" (Monday).

First, the table from the Office of Financial Management shows that state employment grew from 91,758 to 106,754, an increase of 14,996.

Second, Ed Penhale, spokesman for the governor's Office of Financial Management, said Department of Corrections employment grew from 6,102 in 1996 to 8,777 in 2005, an increase of 2,675.

Third, House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler said prison staffing accounts for roughly 74 percent of employees the state has added in the past decade.

Let me see, 14,996 divided by 2,675 is roughly 17.8 (not 74) percent. Maybe passing 10th grade WASL should be a requirement to hold office.

If state employment had been held to only the 12.4 percent growth of the population, without any of the gains in productivity that have been realized in industry over the past 10 years, the state would save almost $215 million per year.

Wayne Smith
Duvall

IMMIGRATION

Those who come here illegally hurt others

Initiative 343 requires voters to provide proof of citizenship, verify eligibility for public health benefits and requires agencies that provide benefits to report immigration law violations. How can anyone, other than those who break our laws just by coming here illegally, object to those requirements?

Illegal immigration is a great problem today -- not only monetarily, where public services and hospitals in border states are bankrupted by illegals who don't pay for services -- but also it presents a growing danger from terrorists who find our porous borders easy to violate. The United States is one of the most lenient nations in the world as far as taking in immigrants and providing liberal and legal ways to become naturalized: There is no justification for not utilizing those provisions. No amnesty should be given to people who are here illegally. They should be deported and suffer a longer waiting period than their countrymen who seek legal entry.

Everyone understands an emigrant's desire to improve his life, but there are better ways to do so than breaking the laws of your host country.

H.E.B. Shasteen
Seattle

LOWRY COLUMN

Casinos improve life for Native Americans

I'm a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and proud of our tribe's ability to put casino profits into keeping a viable economy going in north-central Washington. With little profit to members, and with a troubled budget, casinos provide jobs to native and non-native workers. They put money directly into the surrounding community.

Rich Lowry's July 5 column paints Native American country with a wide paintbrush. I remind Lowry that under manifest destiny, Europeans took our land. Tribes are rightfully attempting to regain small portions. The American culture demanded our people assimilate into the mainstream. The basic tenet of a capitalistic society is greed, so you can deem it a success when Natives come to the marketplace with greed as their impetus.

Gambling is a false economy with money changing hands, creating taxes and no product, except for those who put the money to work, such as my tribe.

Noel D. Orr
Shoreline

ESTATE TAX

Grateful Americans don't mind giving something back

As a non-millionaire who paid an estate tax, I am tired of the false claims made in Thursday's guest column by Dick Patten. For starters, a recent non-partisan study found that virtually no farm or small business would pay estate taxes with a few simple changes to current law. In our state, raising the exempt amount to $3.5 million per person means that only 80 estates would likely pay any estate tax in 2006, and just 3 percent of them are family-owned farms or businesses.

Millions of average Americans have good reasons to oppose repeal.

Money from estate taxes helps support public schools, roads, hospitals, nursing homes, the postal service, national defense, farm subsidies and, yes, small businesses.

The estate tax is a proven incentive for charitable giving. For 2006, estate tax repeal would cost our state's local charities $169 million. That's more than the $156 million in annual grants from the Gates Foundation.The state budget couldn't make up that loss.

Third, it wasn't just assets that my parents passed along to me and my siblings, but values -- such as patriotism and a belief that U.S. citizenship includes shared responsibility as well as enormous benefits. The tax lets those who've benefited most from this country's stability and opportunity give back a little to the country that made it all possible.

Nancy Amidei
Seattle

BOOMTOWN CAF�

Fine program closes for lack of funding

Thank you for the story about closing the Boomtown Caf� (Friday). It's shameful that our society doesn't care enough to support this wonderful program for the benefit and dignity of those who live on our streets.

I've attended Boomtown's fund-raiser events, and I can tell you that the paid staff and volunteers are wonderful, talented, giving and caring folks. They work hard to help people on our streets and to treat them fairly, without judgment and without apprehension. I've also been there at noon. The restaurant presents a cacophony of sights and sounds related to dining and human activity, but it is a controlled and respectful environment.

The people on the streets who depend on these meals deserve some dignity and basic respect. Some with HIV and without medical assistance need the regular and nutritious meals served there. This is a sad day for Seattle. We should all be ashamed that this fine program is closing for lack of funding.

Gary Blanchard
Seattle

CAFTA

Our congressman gives thumbs-up to outsourcing

I am disappointed that the Seattle P-I gave little coverage to the fact that last week U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., voted in favor of CAFTA. The passage of CAFTA makes it yet again easier for corporations to outsource more good-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs and allows them to use this threat of outsourcing to keep wages low, forcing Americans to compete with workers paid less than $1 an hour.

U.S. workers deserve representatives who will stand up to the multinational corporations and vote in the best interests of their constituents.

Stephanie L. Wallach
Medina

BLOCK PARTY

No one mentions large animal in the room

No one has mentioned the Camel in the room at the Capitol Hill Block Party. Events like this one, sponsored by Camel cigarettes, seem to have made smoking cool again here in Seattle. There were Camel ashtrays on every table in beer gardens and some bars, along with Camel signs and posters. One of the reasons cigarette companies prey on cities such as Seattle is that they can still use bars and other establishments to promote their deadly products. In more progressive areas that have indoor smoking bans, such as New York, L.A. and Boston, they can no longer get away with it.

Capitol Hill regulars seem to have digressed almost to the days of their grandparents when tobacco ruled the world. The smoking rate for 18- to 24-year-olds is almost twice that of the entire state.

Patty Carlson
Seattle

GEESE DE-PARKED

But they probably didn't get very far

What a joke. Seattle Parks Department is pleased that its hired dog chased the geese away from the city parks (Saturday story). Guess where they went? To someone else's yard. Not so nice to the neighbors of the parks or other green areas of our city. It's not like they disappeared, never to poop again.

Jean G. Amick
Seattle

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