Letters to the Editor

Tim Eyman's failure to get the religious community to abet his most recent, mean-spirited initiative drive makes one wonder where he will go next to find the money to pay his mortgage -- the devil himself?

His usual defenders have finally seen the light, not just to his vindictive dark side, but to his true motives -- to put their money in his wallet. My suggestion to Eyman is that he find meaningful employment. My guess is he's already dreaming up his next bogus initiative.

Judy Hauser
Olympia

AL-ZARQAWI

Terrorists as angry as they're going to be

A large majority of Americans are very pleased that our military made certain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will never again have the opportunity to behead another innocent person and grieve for him about as much as we grieved for Adolf Hitler.

There were a few exceptions from the Looney Left who hate George W. Bush more than the terrorists, namely Michael Berg (whose son Nick was beheaded by al-Zarqawi), Cindy Sheehan (whose son was killed in Iraq) and a couple of people who wrote letters to the editor claiming the killing of al-Zarqawi was a mistake because his death will only make the terrorists "more angry" at us.

In view of the fact that the terrorists are determined to kill all of us, I do not know why people would think that killing al-Zarqawi could possibly make them "more angry" at us.

To our brave men and women who are risking their lives to protect our way of life, I say a job well done and we are very proud of you.

Richard King
Seattle

It's hard not to be cynical about timing

One other factor most likely played a sizable role in the "outing" of Abu Musab al-Zarquawi by one of his inner circle. Your headline would have been more accurate if it had made mention of the matter of $25 million, the bounty that the U.S. government said it will "honor." That much money also made it possible for the United States to control the timing as well as the method of interception, or am I being cynical?

Rachael Levine
Seattle

Meanwhile, flag-draped coffins not for viewing

So, I must witness in the papers, the 5, 6, 10 and 11 o'clock news, the visage of a mangled dead person (al-Zarqawi).

Yet the image of a coffin draped in an American flag would be way too traumatic for me or the family whose body said coffin contains?

Well, thank God our thoughtful government (not to mention media) is looking out for my delicate sensibilities.

Bob Thomas
Seattle

THE MIDDLE EAST

Hamas not injured party in the attack

Words and reason appear to be meaningless when discussing the Middle East. The Saturday P-I carried an Associated Press story with the headline "Hamas militants end truce after Israeli attack." This would lead you to believe that Hamas was the injured party. But in reading the article a different story emerges.

Rocket attacks from this Gaza area killed 10 people in Israeli settlements on Friday. Homemade rockets killing unsuspecting civilians or artillery shells killing unsuspecting civilians doesn't sound like a truce to me. But the headline is manipulation.

Terrorist attacks on Israel have been going on for years and military retaliation has been going on for years. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The disputed areas came to be occupied after Arab-Israeli wars. Is the occupation a land grab by Israel or a defense against attack? The answers are rooted in history, but headlines like this one simply inflame the situation and do nothing toward providing balanced information to the public.

Stuart Creighton
Normandy Park

Arabs target innocents; Israelis go after killers

In the June 5 letters, Katrina Pestana expresses her outrage that just more than 25 percent of the Palestinian Arab casualties of their latest intifada were women and children. We are supposed to come away with the impression that the Israelis are targeting defenseless civilians.

She needs to finish her math lesson. Just more than 25 percent women and children translates to just under 75 percent of those casualties being adult males. The corresponding figures from the Israeli side put the number of women and children killed at more than 50 percent of their casualties.

The conclusion is inescapable, and exactly the opposite of what Pestana wants us to believe. The Arabs are targeting defenseless civilians, and the Israelis are targeting the killers.

Robert G. Kaufman
Seattle

HANFORD

There's no such thing as permanent disposal

In "Contractor at Hanford ordered to give back fee," this sentence caught my eye: "The vitrification plant will convert highly radioactive waste into glasslike logs for permanent disposal in a nuclear waste repository." Say a silly thing enough times and some people will start to believe it, but surely the majority are now evolved enough to, 1, question authority and, 2, recognize there is no such thing as permanent disposal of anything on a small planet, let alone any kind of "permanent" disposal of a poison with a half life of 25,000 years.

Glass logs are simply the pitiful best we can do. King Tut's tomb laid completely forgotten by every living human for only 3,000 years when a curious man opened it in 1922. The curse of King Tut's tomb had none of the actual, hideous fury our curse sends 25,000 years into the future.

Look for more such nonsense slipped into your morning coffee (and Associated Press stories) in the guise of "common knowledge" because Big Money is losing its grip on oil and means to sell us nuclear power once again. It's a sin and a shame.

Lynne Findley
Bellingham

THE VIADUCT

Mayor and pals will fill the space with condos

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' office and quite a number on the City Council seem to believe we all agree that, absent financial considerations, we'd all be better off without the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Glowing (and likely expensive) pieces of art show the current "blighted" view of the space under the viaduct contrasted with the lovely "open and inviting" view there would be if the viaduct was removed. The only trouble with this is that it works only when viewed from a distance. Up close, the underside of the viaduct actually does more to connect downtown to the waterfront that all the pretty no-man's-lands in all the pretty pictures ever could.

When I go down the Pike Hillclimb, I can get out of the rain and walk to one of the few places where I can park my car relatively reliably. (Since the city is so dead-set against reasonable public transit solutions, my assumptions is that want me to use my car to get downtown.) Enclosed, roofed-over areas are inviting and encourage people to explore what's around the next corner, and, in a city where the majority weather pattern is rain, I'm thankful for a place to get out of it.

Of course, I'm sure the people in the mayor's office and their friends in the development community know what would become of the proposed "open space" and, in time, would be generous enough to step in (10 or 15 years later) and clean up this unforeseen blight by building, oh I don't know, condos or office space; but with 10 percent or 15 percent of the space set aside for public use from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Hal Colombo
Seattle

Tear down viaduct, but keep the church

Wouldn't it be a tragic irony if a hideous concrete structure downtown is saved by gaining historic preservation status and a beautiful church that already had preservation status is torn down? Your June 5 issue detailed efforts by preservationists to save the Alaskan Way Viaduct and a vote by the First United Methodist Church to sell its property to Martin Selig, which would lead to the demolition of the Fifth Avenue church. Both efforts will be detrimental to the soul of Seattle. Tearing down the Viaduct would correct a historical mistake. A maritime city such as Seattle should be world-famous for its waterfront, but the viaduct severed our city's connection to Elliott Bay.

The church humanizes downtown and is an important part of the architectural legacy of our city. How sad if a grim concrete highway survives and a beautiful church is destroyed.

Luke Jennings
Seattle

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