05/17/08 Letters to the Editor

Yakima needs a float

To the editor -- On May 3 my wife, Karen, and I saw the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival Parade with over 120 entries and dozens of community floats from the Northwest. There were beautiful floats from Sunnyside and Prosser. Yakima had no float. Yakima Sunfair Parade is probably the only community parade with no float from a host city. Union Gap and Selah each have a float along with Wapato, Sunnyside, Zillah and Prosser.

I am a past president of the Sunfair Festival Association. Parades in all of our communities are a reflection of community pride. They are an excellent way to sell our city to others. They in turn may visit us, and buy, work and play in the state's best valley.

So how do the other communities do a float? The smaller ones get funded by the cities, Chambers of Commerce and donations. Larger cities have a yearly corporate sponsor. Stemilt Growers sponsored Wenatchee this year.

We can do all of this, but it takes teamwork, a combined effort and resources to put Yakima back on the parade route with a first-class float. We should at least have a float for our own Sunfair Parade.

DAN FORTIER

Yakima

An unsung hero

To the editor -- Joanne (Norman) Sargent is a real unsung hero! She gave a piano concert to raise money for the youth programs at the Salvation Army. She works with these kids and loves doing it. Even while fighting cancer and undergoing painful treatments, she would faithfully be planning and working with them. The concert was great! Sorry if you missed it. She played all types of music and dedicated different selections to people who have made a difference in her life, including her special music teacher, Mary Walters, who taught her during her teenage years.

The concert was complete with a PowerPoint showing the tributes and pictures on the screen, including her family's Disney vacation. An enjoyable two hours and I hope she does another concert next year. Thanks Joanne; keep up the good work!

DOROTHY WOODWARD

Yakima

Feeding 35,000

To the editor -- On behalf of myself and committee members Dale Carpenter and Diane Eilmes, I would like to thank all those in the Yakima community who made "Feeding Five Thousand" such a blessing to so many. On April 19, Mt. Olive Lutheran, Bethlehem Lutheran and Peace Lutheran, along with many volunteers representing area organizations and Children of the Nations, packaged over 35,000 meals that consisted of rice, lentils, dehydrated chicken and vegetables and spices.

We originally hoped to package 5,000 meals but due to the generosity of many people and groups in the Yakima Valley we were able to increase this by sevenfold! We are grateful to all those who donated to our recycling program, who donated to our other fundraising activities, but also to the many people who helped package the meals. We were blessed by all our volunteers but know that those who will be receiving these meals in Uganda, Malawi and Sierra Leone will be blessed even more.

SHEREEN STOCKER

Selah 

Wonderful Cinco

To the editor -- On behalf of the Hispanic Professionals Association, I would like to thank the Morelia Sister City Association for the wonderful time I had watching the Folkorico Quetzalli de Vera Cruz at the Capitol Theatre on May 1, also the dinner on May 2 at The Seasons. The Mariachi Los Trovadore, the dancers Bailadores de Sol Aztec and then the concert by Bola Suriana were great. I'm looking forward to the next Cinco de Mayo.

SALLY ROSALES

Yakima

Donors appreciated

To the editor -- As chairman for Tieton Lions Club White Cane Days, where the monies collected go for sight and hearing, I would like to thank the friends and neighbors in our communities who donated so generously to help us out for this great cause, and also the businesses who contribute so much.

A special thanks to the members of the club who always are willing to help.

Our club would also accept old eyeglasses and hearing aids that can be reused. Some have been returned to our community to people who cannot afford them.

ZORA SMITH

Tieton

Leading by example

To the editor -- On May 4-7 the Central Washington Junior Livestock Show was held. I would like to thank all of the people who took their time to volunteer in the office, in the barns, on the grounds and at the auction. The approximately 300 4H and Future Farmers of America exhibitors also deserve a thank you for being such respectful, courteous and hardworking young people.

During the four days of activity, we had no incidents of trouble and that is the reason we in management, on the board, and volunteers are involved year after year. Along with volunteers, we have many sponsors who donate to the show through memberships and donations for show activities and we thank them as well. The Central Washington Junior Livestock Show is held yearly and if anyone would like to come see just what great youth we have in this Valley, we will do it all over again next May.

PEGGY CUILLIER

Wapato

Let go of the flag

To the editor -- I found it interesting reading about some of the comments of those who participated in the now annual immigration march, especially the one made by Aniceto Ibañez. He should remember that we have an all-volunteer Army, which means you ask to go fight. I understand noncitizens who are willing to put their life on the line for this country by serving in the military can take an accelerated path to citizenship. I, for one, feel this is the way it should be and I'm very proud of them.

I do feel those who come here illegally and march in our streets demanding amnesty are not making us feel sorry for them. They can't seem to let go of the flag of the country that has refused to help them have a better life. Why? Also, if they are treated so badly here, why don't they go back? We all know why. They don't dare march and demand a better life in their own country of Mexico.

I wish the Yakima Herald-Republic would print the immigration laws of Mexico so we can compare theirs to the ones we have.

RICHARD G. COX

Yakima

Micromanagement

To the editor -- I am dismayed by the public display of trustee micromanagement of our Yakima Regional Library. I have been on several nonprofit boards. An important and fundamental principle of board function is to stay out of the organization's daily management. Their role is to set policy and periodically evaluate the management of the director and to stay out of the way of management otherwise. Management will keep the board informed about the broad direction of the financial and personnel management and large policy directions will be the board's task.

There are few public organizations more important here than our libraries. Their health and good funding and good management helps us all. I worry about new trustees Jerry Maggard and Jim Barnhill going public about how they feel resistance from the director to provide information like "staffing, salaries and openings." This smacks clearly of board micromanagement, which should not be tolerated. The two new board members with "business background" should step back and realize their function is not to micromanage the Yakima Valley Regional Library like they do their business but to look at broad policy, stay out of the way and leave that management to the library director, where it belongs.

Dr. DOUGLAS O. CORPRON

Yakima

Hospital choice

To the editor -- In his May 9 letter opposing Memorial Hospital's certification for elective angioplasty and stent placement, Dr. Pat Overand ignores several germane points.

1. There is data in the medical literature documenting safety of coronary stenting in hospitals without open heart surgery.

2. Emergent open heart surgery for complications of angioplasty has dropped from 2 per 100 procedures in the pre-stenting era to less than 1 per 500 today.

3. The same team of interventional cardiologists services both hospitals.

4. Coronary stenting for patients who present with impending myocardial infarction (heart attack) is currently being performed at Memorial with results identical to Regional.

5. As an open heart anesthesiologist employed by Regional, Dr. Overand is aware that to perform open heart surgery, an operating room must be prepared. This takes longer than transferring a patient from Memorial to Regional.

As a now retired cardiologist still on the staff at both hospitals, I know we have a long tradition in Yakima of patient choice when hospitalization is needed. The job of the medical staff is to ensure that whichever hospital is chosen will provide quality undiminished from the other. I know that to be the case in cardiac services.

Dr. RICHARD D. TWISS

Yakima

Guns in parks

To the editor -- The "Right to Bear Arms" editorial from the May 2 The Mountain Press newspaper from Sevierville, Tenn., which was included in the May 10 editorial roundup, states that bearing arms in national parks is illegal, but lifting the ban is under consideration. It states that the Constitution didn't intend for firearms rights to be unrestricted and that "there must be places in our society where guns are not allowed."

Fact: Firearms are not allowed in bars, liquor stores, schools, federal buildings (government buildings in general), to name a only few. National parks are wilderness (public) areas. Additionally, with the re-emergence of the bear and cougar populations, it is folly to go too far into the wilderness nowadays without protection. Last time we camped near Leavenworth, we pitched our tent next to a tree covered with bear claw marks. The article regards banning firearms from national parks as reasonable. One would suggest the author(s) are much better at promoting leftist propaganda than at recognizing reason.

Fact: The Constitution doesn't place limits on the right to bear arms. If the writers choose not to exercise their rights, that's their prerogative; however, they do not possess the right to restrict my or anyone else's God-given rights.

KEVIN KISSEL

Yakima

Adult fairy tale

To the editor -- Evolution is "a fairy tale for adults," which is known for its "unsubstantiated just-so stories" designed to "keep the Divine Foot out of the door," according to Richard Lewontin in the Jan. 9, 1997, The New York Review.

The Faye (Flim?) Flam piece on the April 27 front page was a good example. The timing was probably to dissuade people from considering the evidence in the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." Even Richard Dawkins admits that everything studied in biology has the appearance of design, and he would welcome a designer as the explanation, as long as it couldn't be God.

I am looking forward to meeting the God who designed sex. It wasn't just fish with migratory testes in search of a scrotum. "A society which accepts the idea that the origin of the cosmos could be explained in terms of an explosion, reveals more about the society itself than about the universe." (E.P. Fischer, Editor, Neue Horizonte 92/93 -- Ein Forum der Naturwissenschaften -- Piper-Verlag, München, Germany, Page 112, 1993.) The same could be said about a person who believes he is descended from a fish.

TIM BEARD

Toppenish

Publicize meetings

To the editor -- As a past president and board member of the Yakima library board, we worked very closely with the library director. In my day, the board had significant oversight responsible for personnel changes, salaries, benefit packages, leasing, contracts, budgets and marketing library services. From the media I see where things have changed. Change is not bad and is inevitable. The real challenge is understanding change.

Since library board meetings are public and the library operates on millions of our tax dollars, let's videotape the meetings for replay on local television for the benefit of the public. This should give us a good understanding of the library's current operating policies.

GUY SHINN

Yakima

Legal immigration

To the editor -- I was at Yakima Avenue and First Street on May 1 supporting of Law Day and legal immigration. We let our signs speak for us and were peaceful and nonconfrontational. However, some people supporting rights for illegal immigrants harassed us; we called the Yakima Police Department to maintain our safety.

We heard them chant "we're here and we're taking over," "We are proud to be Mexican-American," and "This country belongs to us." That speaks volumes.

I spoke with one very vocal and angry girl. Born in the United States, she told me she never been to Mexico and never wants to move there, yet she had a Mexican flag and was totally supporting that country -- not ours! And she called me a racist?

Our own country created this divide by years of not enforcing existing laws. So now we citizens, who value our laws, sovereignty and secure borders, must stand together before unlawful entry and the children born as American citizens to illegal immigrants turn us into a country we don't even recognize.

We the people defeated the government's mandate of amnesty (McCain/Kennedy), and the fight continues. Those who really love our country will come legally and be welcomed just as Americans.

ROBERTA BYRNE

Yakima

No play coverage?

To the editor -- I cannot believe there was no coverage of any kind of Davis High School's play, "The Wizard of Oz." Did any of your reporters even attend the play? It was great. Those kids -- from Dorothy all the way to the darling Munchkins -- showed amazing talent. Kudos to all of you, and to the teachers and coaches of these kids. Even Toto was gifted.

We need more coverage of things like this and less of gangs and people beating each other bloody and calling it a sport.

This was a pleasure to watch. Thank you, Davis!

BONNIE REITER

Yakima

EDITOR'S NOTE: Information about the Davis production was included in the ON theater Calendar for several weeks.