Tree removal
The article (Daily News, Sept. 19) about the removal of the beautiful ash trees downtown shocked me.
I can hardly believe it is actually even considered. It would be a travesty and take the heart right out of Pullman. The fall colors and winter lights are a treasure it would be a shame to lose.
I would ask readers to contact Pullman City Council members and prospective mayors to prevent this.
Clara Morrison
Pullman
Pay and play
The taxpayers of Idaho fund the total cost of all political elections in Idaho. They pay for everything from the wages of election workers to the cost of printing ballots. The cost of administering elections is millions of dollars statewide. Under the current “closed” primary election system, thousands of independent Idaho voters are blocked from voting. Literally, they pay for the cost of an election they cannot vote in. Sounds kind of like taxation without representation
If the Idaho Republican Party wants to have a private club, so be it. If the private GOP club wants to mandate rules and laws for its candidates, more power to them. If the GOP private club wants to hand pick its candidates, no problem there. But the taxpayers of Idaho should not be paying the cost of a private election that not all Idahoans get to vote in.
I support the Idaho Open Primary Initiative. You should too.
Blair Moncur
Idaho Falls
Epistemology
Our problem is not that there is too much fake news. Our problem is that too many people believe it. Fortunately, there is an “antidope,” which is epistemology — the theory of knowledge, or “how we know what we know.” Epistemology is a good solution because it has validity tests to distinguish between justified belief and opinion. And this distinction is central to most disagreements.
Epistemology has simple and clarifying definitions, e.g., truth has the property that corresponds with facts and reality. Can you imagine how many arguments would end if we examined the evidence supporting each position?
Put up or shut up may sound undiplomatic, but since when did adults treat justified belief and opinion the same? We have become too politically correct when we give sound reasoning and idiotic blather the same respect, especially when consequences are severe, such as in climate or health science denial.
However, while a broader application of epistemological disinfectant might be beneficial, this does not mean we should apply it everywhere. For instance, everyday conversations won’t flow comfortably under overzealous scrutiny. And did you hear what happened when the pedant who constantly corrected his friends? Epistemoff.
Simon Smith
Pullman
Misplaced loyalty
I sit, most evenings this summer, enjoying my dawn redwood tree. On shower setting, I swing the hose over its soft, delicate needles, watching the cascade of shining water drops dampen the earth. It gives me peace, joy and shame. You may understand the peace, the joy. I planted it three years ago, and it has grown to be tall and proud. The shame is a different piece. You see, a dawn redwood should be placed where it gets plenty of moisture its entire life, and that can be a thousand years. It needs a large space to grow, and mine is in a semi-tight suburban yard. But I love it fiercely, and that put me in mind of Trump followers.
I’d bet they too have both gladness and shame for their behavior. His endurance in the public sphere may feel like a beacon, but his record must give them pause. Who among us would champion one who had a record such as his if it wasn’t him? The litany of offenses must feel shameful: to know he’s been indicted for so many crimes! There is even a mugshot of the former president of the United States. Now there is a first! What’s going to come out of Georgia will be another shameful notch on a full belt. If such a character lived in your town, went to your church, how would he make you feel? Would you vote for him, thinking him wronged by society and one who needs another whack at leadership?
I’m sad about the tree’s future, given I didn’t follow the cardinal rule of planting: right tree, right location. Getting over misplaced loyalty is a brave step in recovery.
Zena Hartung
Moscow
Trees should not be target
I remember walking downtown Pullman as a child in the 1960s. I don't remember any trees. There were none, but I remember lots of concrete.
As I walk through downtown now I mourn the empty, decaying buildings. They really should be revitalized, but how can anyone think that the trees should be destroyed? Who in their right mind seriously thinks that ripping out beautiful trees to widen/repair some sidewalks is going to attract viable businesses to downtown? Who is going to benefit from this project ? Not the community. Trees did not invent the internet and kill the brick and mortar business. Why target them in a spectacularly misguided attempt to bring it back ?
Rather than denuding Main Street and returning to its god-awful 1940s-60s aesthetic, how about adding trees to the other commercial avenues in town? The entire loop of Grand/Bishop is a worthwhile candidate. The 60s urban renewal tactic of paving paradise to put up a strip mall proved to be a disaster for quality of life, human and otherwise. Let's be smarter than repeating the mistakes of the recent past.
Charles Morrison
Pullman
Shine on, old man
For a dodderer, that D.C. daddy delivers and that, frankly, demands some cred. I peeked at the Build.gov website’s state-by-state projects happening right now from Joe Biden’s presidency, and I could get used to seeing bangs for my federal tax buck. Especially local bangs.
Broadly speaking, both Idaho and Washington are benefiting from broad funding for infrastructure projects including overdue highway and bridge repairs, agriculture support, rural broadband, nutrition, and healthcare, record small business applications, airport and railway transportation modernization, record low unemployment, clean water projects, alternative energy security, lower prescription drug prices, and improved veteran healthcare to name a few.
Specific local projects include Dworshak Dam and hatchery improvements, electric school buses for Genesee, McCall-Donnelly, Pomeroy, Spokane and Pullman-Moscow airports upgrades and two manufacturing enterprises opened to employ hundreds in Moses Lake. Boise bagged such a boom for Micron the site plan boasts a facility larger than the pentagon.
In contrast, during that last administration I witnessed the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley become a Walmart desert losing Shopko, Kmart, JCPenney, Macy’s, etc.
Biden must be some kind of a bad*ss sleepwalker to put together that cabinet and staff of professionals who aren’t rotating through at speeds too fast to build anything but 15 minutes of fame on Fox. Consistency is working for me.
Personally, I appreciate a president who can tell the difference between a witch hunt and our U.S. legal process. Decency is a superpower in a world gone mean so shine on, old man, shine on. Improve rural America some more!
Janet Marugg
Clarkston
