Soviet Moscow
Stickergate failure: The Soviet Moscow sidewalk chalk art was cleaned up immediately by city employees while BLM sidewalk art was allowed to weather off. Clean light poles and street signs are nice, but what did it cost the taxpayer? The city doesn’t know as there are no records concerning who issued the order to clean up, what date sticker clean up started, the man hours expended, or the actual dollar cost. Our beloved leaders are spending large sums of money on special projects attempting to protect themselves from civil lawsuits and additional, embarrassing court cases resulting from the illegal actions they directed.
Obviously, Moscow has matured to a point where the mayor, the council and senior city staff are no longer required. Secret meetings and not keeping records show exactly why we are now Soviet Moscow. Our city employees can take care of things with complete transparency, can run Moscow with proper record keeping and without discriminatory input from beloved leaders who are supposed to direct actions to benefit Moscow residents, not to silence those they don’t like. Since Soviet Moscow leaders aren’t doing their jobs, consider how much our city budget could be trimmed by removing all costs associated with their positions.
Then, our city employees will take care of the real problems around Moscow, such as fixing residential street potholes, crumbling sidewalks and curbs or something drastic — repairing leaking water and sewer lines.
Dave Glasebrook
Moscow
About Asian hate
Recently, a female writer posted a letter here that claimed Trump was not behind the rise in Asian and Pacific Islander hate we have recently seen. She pointed out that all we had to do was look at the videos that had been published to see that it was the Black Lives Matter people that were assaulting Asians. She also said the attack against the Asian massage parlors was not about hate, but about sex addiction.
Perhaps she missed videos showing whites attacking Asians. Just this past weekend a 15-year-old white boy pled guilty assaulting an Asian couple in Tacoma. The Seattle stations showed that video several times. I also saw another video of two white men trashing a store owned by an Asian. The day after Trump had been elected, a white boy told my Filipino granddaughter she was going to get deported, though she had been born in the United States. Trump lived on racism and it readily spilled over into his followers.
About the claim that the shootings at the Asian Atlanta spas were about sex addiction and not about race, then why did the shooter target Asian spas? The very existence of the American concept of “Asian massage parlors” is rooted in racism built on the idea that Asian women are exotic, submissive and interchangeable. Since the mid-1800s, Asian women and girls have been commodified and exploited as they were brought here to service gold miners, railroad workers and other men who built our nation’s transportation infrastructure.
It is time we face up to the real story. Asians have been discriminated against for a very long time, and it has not subsided. Rather, it was egged on by Mr. Trump; and those that follow him keep ignoring that fact.
Wayne Beebe
Pullman
New homes, new responsibilities
Welcoming new people can be a joy. The whole community also benefits if the development is planned for sustainability. Recent news discussed a plan for adding 235 acres to the south end of Moscow, west of a 150-acre site being developed for Schweitzer Engineering. Currently platted for 130 home sites on 27 acres, the idea is to develop the whole site. Another development anticipates 275 single-family homes North of Moscow.
With efforts of the Palouse Basin Summit to bring our water use into range of replenishment by the aquifers being tapped, it would be helpful to know what strategies are being implemented for sustainability by all these developments. Such strategies might include low volume toilets and showers, minimizing traditional lawns in favor of allowance by a homeowner’s association for xeriscaping or native habitat landscaping, collection of rainwater, processing and use of greywater for outside irrigation. Also, reducing the effects of additional outdoor lighting can be achieved by use of LED, motion activated lighting. Incorporating parks and greenways allows passage of wildlife and can encourage healthier lifestyles too. There is a lot of potential here, if we can maximize the benefit.
Susan Rounds
Moscow
A message delivered
Finally! A Pullman mural which states what we intended to state in the upfront way that many of us wanted and in an appealing format. BLM is the message. Message delivered.
Ronald Ziegler
Pullman
The dams, andthe ‘Dunes’
If there is an infrastructural bill passed, it will be a great time to really build things that support the move for improving communication and transportation and against global warming. It is disappointing to me that some local plans are directed at tearing down structures already in place such as dams on the Snake River and buildings such as the still-functional Johnson Hall that supports the largest portion of three WSU departments. If there is no net gain it will be a waste and a mistake we will eventually have to pay for.
Dam breaching may be of concern to our students/Pullmanites as the major recreational area, “the Dunes,” is currently accessible by traversing the river using the dam. I have been here long enough to have kayaked the undammed Snake fighting the ~5 mph current. This aspect of its recreational purpose will be greatly diminished.
Lee Hadwiger
Pullman
Wrong to emulate Little
While I admire Ed Schweitzer for all that he has done for our area, I disagree that Gov. Little deserves congratulations and that Gov. Inslee should emulate him. As of April 7, Washington state has partially vaccinated 33 percent of its population and fully vaccinated 21 percent. Idaho lags at 28 percent and 18 percent. What we did get from Gov. Little’s policies is an infection rate of 10,000 per 100,000 people, and 110 dead people per 100,000, compared to Washington State at 4,800 per 100,000 and 69 dead per 100,000. Who should emulate who?
Kurt Obermayr
Winslow, Ariz.
Jim Crow in Idaho
Our state representative Brandon Mitchell is working for the Republican Party’s sore-loser goal of holding on to power by bringing Jim Crow voter suppression to Idaho (“Bills from local lawmakers,” April 6). This new politician is serving us by championing unnecessary barriers to voting (HB 344), because, heaven forbid, citizens might turn again out in record numbers and make themselves heard.
The once-pleasant experience of voting in our rural and small town corner of a quiet and sparsely populated western state, of chatting with familiar poll workers or county clerk’s office employees, of confidence that each vote could make a difference, will be replaced by dizzying demands for documentation (student ID, but only if it shows your birth date, or concealed-weapons permit, showing you are a true American), so that the Republican Party — or, should we just drop the pretense and rename it the New Confederate Party — will vet our right to vote.
Thanks, Brandon.
Duncan Palmatier
Moscow
