01/16/10 Letters to the Editor

Fundraising success

To the editor -- Thank you, Yakima! Camp Prime Time has just completed the second of two recent major fundraisers and we are thrilled.

Our biennial auction and dinner in November was a great success, raising over $103,000. It was a fun night with dinner, live and silent auctions, and comedian Josh Blue. We thank all 600 people who were in attendance for helping to make the evening such a huge success. We also thank all who partnered with us in donating items, in-kind support and volunteer time. We truly could not have raised these funds without you.

Our recent Christmas Tree Recycling event was once again a booming success. During the 16 days after Christmas, we collected over $14,000 in donations. Thanks to the many enthusiastic volunteers who worked in the cold, wintry weather, and to the many local businesses that partnered with us by lending us equipment and advertising time. And a huge thanks to Barnett Implement for again allowing us the use of its property.

Camp Prime Time relies on your generous donations to keep the camp for special-needs children and their families open and free of charge. For more information, please call 509-248-2854 or visit www.campprimetime.org.

DIANE EILMES

Executive director, Prime Time Inc.

Liberty renovations

To the editor -- Re: The Jan. 3 article, "Lady Liberty to glow again." Thank you, Oscar Martinez, for renovating the Liberty Theatre. I, too, have wonderful memories. I was an usher and cashier at the theater in the early 1940s.

We moved to Toppenish in 1939 from Belle Fourche, S.D. I still reside here. I am anxious to see the final results of his renovations.

LEONA BOUCHEY

Toppenish

Grateful for support

To the editor -- The volunteers for the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop would like to thank all the people who have helped us meet our goal this year. We could never have done this without all the donations we received and the support of our many customers. We just want the community to know how much your support is appreciated by the volunteers and those who can benefit from your kind and considerate regard for others. Thank you.

DOROTHY CROSSLIN

ACS Discovery Shop board chairwoma, Yakima

Caravan thanks

To the editor -- Thank you, Yakima Valley, for the kind comments I received by mail and over two dozen phone calls regarding our Christmas Caravan. Thanks need to go out to family and friends who help donate their time on the truck, Mary Jarvis, Robert Wickersham and James Alexander. I would like to thank my fellow Christmas Express Trucks: GS Long, Critter Cab, Burrows Tractor, Oasis Well Drilling and King Sales. See you next year!

BUTCH JARVIS

Fleet manager, Coca-Cola

Nonsectarian state

To the editor -- One important reason why early immigrants came to America was to escape the religious wars that ravaged Europe between 1517 and 1648. These wars demonstrated the folly of placing political power into the hands of churches.

Our Founding Fathers, as a result, established -- not a religious or a secular -- but a nonsectarian state. Their decision has proven to be among the wisest ever made by politicians.

If no church holds the reins of power, all sects can live together in peace and harmony. Make one group into a state religion, however, and friends will become enemies and our civil society will descend into conflict.

Most of our Founding Fathers were rationalists, which properly understood is a nondenominational religion. Descartes argued that our minds were created -- presumably by God -- with the power to perceive the truth.

By using our common sense and our powers of reason, we can see "self-evident truths" -- that "all men are created equal" and "that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights."

The freedom to worship without interference from the government or from our neighbors may be the most important right of all.

DOUG PATTERSON

Yakima

Show accountability

To the editor -- When is Obama finally going to demonstrate some accountability?

Certainly not with the Christmas Day attempt to blow up Flight 253 where he has attempted to shift the blame to our intelligence gathering agencies. As with past missteps, he is trying to find a scapegoat instead of looking at his own culpability. It was Obama, himself, who created the politically correct climate of downplaying any threats of terrorism. This is evidenced by his deletion of the words "war on terror" along with plans to send some of the Gitmo detainees back to such terror-breeding hotbeds as Yemen.

Additionally, his attorney general, Eric Holder, plans to prosecute former CIA agents for doing their jobs in protecting America. Now, just what does that message send to agents in the field? Namely, that the president is averse to hearing anything about terror plots, so consequently, aggressive investigations that are required to "connect the dots" do not occur.

Furthermore, his lackluster reaction to the massacre at Fort Hood is even more evidence that he doesn't take terrorism seriously and that mind-set permeates all facets of his administration, especially Homeland Security.

Obama's acute state of denial has only emboldened our enemies and emasculated our counterterrorism efforts.

RITA HANSES

Yakima

Change denied

To the editor -- I remember one of the last debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, in January 2008. Mr. Obama was making the point that he would bring change, that he would bring bipartisanship, and bills would be formulated in public and posted on the Internet before being voted on. He would end the practice of "ear-marking," etc.

The Health Care Reform Act was done behind closed doors, in secret, by only Democrats, all with the approval of Mr. Obama, and while over 50 percent of the public does not want the bill as written. What they want is reform.

Winston Churchill has been quoted as saying, "With integrity nothing else matters, without integrity, nothing else matters." Think about it before the November elections of 2010.

MARK A. DELAGASSE

Selah