Good letters
Dear Editor:
Congratulations to the Liberty Bell High School students for their letters to the editor in the June 6 issue. I have no opinion on the school-related comments but I second the letters on the mining law, the carbon tax and the skate park. Ms. Scholz has it right. The 1872 mining law was built on the earlier 1865 version which was itself based on the experience of the ’49ers. Even by the early 1950s the circumstances had changed enough that it was no longer possible to build a good law abased on the ’49ers situations. (See Zerbe and Anderson, “Culture and Fairness in the Development of Institutions in the California Gold Fields,” Journal of Economic History, 61(1), 114-143)). Thus the existing law is both obsolete and undesirable by a majority of citizens.
A carbon tax is a straightforward approach to reducing greenhouse gases; such a tax could have hugely beneficial consequences, especially if the proceeds are allocated as Ms. McCabe suggests.
Similarly, Mr. Nielsen has an imaginative idea. With recreation being a good deal of the lifeblood of the Methow, a skate park is an imaginative idea that would benefit the whole Valley.
Richard O. Zerbe, Winthrop
Thanks to bus drivers
Dear Editor:
Today as my husband and I were driving home, a typical thing occurred that must be mentioned. We were the second car behind a Methow Valley School District bus and after the riders had safely crossed to go home, the bus started up. As soon as the driver could, the bus was pulled over to the right and stopped so that the cars behind could continue rather than stop each time the bus did to let students alight. Every time this happens I applaud the bus driver from my car. That is not enough. The drivers ensure students will arrive at their homes – that is their job. However, they go the extra mile in courtesy allowing passage of the cars behind. A huge thanks to each of you.
Bob and Dotti Wilson, Wolf Creek/Winthrop
Wonderful tribute
Dear Editor:
Recently I attended a very touching celebration of life for Egon Steinebach at The Merc Playhouse. I think the musicians that performed in memory of Egon offered quite a tribute. My only wish is that the event could have happened when Egon was in good health. He would have been pleased to know how many musicians really were grateful to him (and his wife, Carolanne), as they had the foresight to make The Merc Playhouse be a reality. They have touched so many musicians’ and actors’ lives here in the Methow.
Betty Wagoner, Twisp
The real problem
Dear Editor:
Look in the mirror, people.
In mathematics, the transitive axiom stipulates that if a=b and b=c, then a=c. In politics, it’s no more complicated: if A supports B and B supports C, then A supports C. That means that a big chunk of our nation’s population, in supporting the current regime, supports, among other atrocities, internment and abuse of children in our own country, murder and starvation of North Koreans in theirs, and obvious perversion of the American political process.
Donald Trump is a problem. On any given day he lies more than I, at least, have lied in all the years since 1985. He clearly has no clue how the American government is designed to work, and doesn’t much care unless it can be used to make him feel bigger than he will ever be. But he’s not the real problem: The real problem is the Republican Party, which has finally hit rock-bottom and pretty much unanimously pegged its destiny to an apparent sociopath whose policies and philosophies should be anathema to all Americans.
All of my representatives are Republicans, that’s how eastern Washington rolls. I looked at their legislative websites just now, and they all appear to be perfectly happy with the status quo. I suspect that, privately, they have serious doubts and aren’t all that tickled with what they see in their own mirrors. But they go right out and push Trump’s agenda all the same.
We’re filling out ballots soon. Perhaps we should think while we’re doing it. Think about a little kid interned in a tent city in Texas, who hasn’t seen Mom in months. Think about a child in North Korea, eating grass because there’s nothing else. Think about a young leukemia patient, perhaps right down the road from you, who will die soon because his parents’ insurance went away. You could even think about a Russian journalist, lying in his own blood, because of “fake news” Will it be an American journalist next time?
When a party consciously decides to abandon all decency for the sake of electoral gain, it forfeits its right to rule.
Alan Fahnestock, Mazama
Respect trail work
Dear Editor:
We volunteer as trail stewards for the Pacific Crest Trail Association, a nonprofit group of mainly volunteers who help maintain the trail. We are stewards for a section from Rainy Pass south for 5 miles. Many of you hike the Bridge Creek to Stehekin section – good news, volunteers working with the U.S. Forest Service are finishing the reconstruction of the bridge over the creek this summer (early August).
A project we worked on three summers ago was placing PCT trail signs at locations at Rainy Pass and Bridge Creek. Too often we’d notice people starting off in the wrong direction at Bridge Creek Trailhead, not realizing the trail starts across the highway. We felt like the new signs helped a great deal.
But the signs are too much of a temptation for some. We’ve had the PCT emblem part yanked off all of them, some twice, over the last three years. The most recent is the Bridge Creek Trailhead sign. That happened last weekend. Pure vandalism. A lot of folks work hard to maintain these trails. Everyone, please respect that.
Teresa Skye, David Ward, Twisp
Editor’s note:
Sophomores in teacher Scott Barber’s civics class at Liberty Bell High School were recently assigned to choose a “civic action” project which required the students to think about how to make the world a better place and what actions might make that possible. Several of the students chose to write letters to the editor on their chosen topics. Below, we are publishing some of the letters. We hope to publish more in the coming weeks.
Enact single payer
Dear Editor:
Picture yourself sitting in a hospital bed, the doctor has just informed you that you will never be able to walk again – unless you spend $100,000 you don’t have on surgery. Which do you choose? To walk, or to afford food and other everyday necessities?
Health care is not an optional part of life, but a right for every United States citizen. A single payer health care bill should be passed giving free health care to all. Single payer health care or Medicare for All is a system employed by other OECD countries where a single public organization, such as the government, pays for the cost of health care, but the provision of health care remains in the hands of the citizens.
The only way to do this is for the people to push the issue so Congress is forced to realize the necessity for a bill.
Everyone having access to health care wouldn’t be the only benefit to switching to a single payer health care system. The United States spends more on health care than any other OECD country but according to economics professor Gerald Friedman, under single payer, “The U.S. could save an estimated $592 billion annually by slashing the administrative waste associated with the private insurance industry ($476 billion) and reducing pharmaceutical prices to European levels ($116 billion).” Not only would the country as a whole save money, citizens would as well.
If everyone had equal access to health care, families once unable to send their children to college because of medical expenses would have a revenue to escape the cycle of poverty. We have the ability to change these inequities and increase savings in the country. It doesn’t take much. Today you can call, email or mail our senators to show your support for single payer health care and push for change: Sen. Maria Cantwell, (202) 224-3441; Sen. Patty Murray, (202) 224-2621.
Maya Sheely, Liberty Bell High School
Change advisory sessions
Dear Editor:
This year in our 10th grade civics class each student had to take action and try to change, improve or abolish a policy. For my Civics Action Project I decided to try change a school policy, by trying to improve advisory and advisory lessons. Advisory is a free class period where students work on schoolwork and catch up on work if they missed a day of school, but this free period is being taken away from us, and replacing advisory with advisory lessons. Most advisory lessons topics are about social and emotional skills and they take up the whole class period when they should only be about 10 minutes long, instead they are about 42 minutes long. So I’m trying to change it by improving them, changing lesson topics and shortening them.
Naomi Carter, Liberty Bell High School
Abolish advisories
Dear Editor:
Have you ever felt stressed out about not having enough time to complete your tasks? What about thinking that you would have time later in the day and then it is taken away? Two times a month on a Thursday, students are supposed to have a lesson about social emotional skills during the 42-minute advisory class period. However, a majority of the students that attend Liberty Bell are unaware of when the lessons will actually happen because of their inconsistency. This means that students could plan to work on a project that is due during the second half of the day or is past due and have that 42 minutes taken away because of an advisory lesson.
I sent out a survey to the high school students at Liberty Bell and asked, “Do advisory lessons impede on time that you need to spend completing other assignments or talking to teachers?” Of the 122 students who responded, 85.2 percent answered “Yes, therefore we should get rid of them.” If we abolished advisory lessons, students would be guaranteed that time to talk to teachers about their grades before the weekend, and finish their assignments.
Another reason that I believe we should abolish advisory lessons is because students at Liberty Bell do not retain the majority of the information that we are being taught in the advisory lessons. On the survey that I sent out I asked, “Do you retain the information that you are taught in the advisory lessons?” In response, 68.9 percent of students said “No, none of it.” That being said, only one student answered that they retained majority of the information. I believe that if the students are not retaining the information that is being taught, then it is pointless to be teaching.
In conclusion, if we were to abolish advisory lessons, students would be able to use that time to complete assignments, and talk to teachers about their grades before the weekend. Advisory is crucial for many students that attend Liberty Bell. I believe that we should be able to occupy the time we are promised. Do you?
Hailey Dammann, Twisp
