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Washington, behold!

The real Hague

In "Hague's bid for fifth term anything but uneventful" [Times, News, Oct. 25], King County Councilmember Jane Hague is described as "polite, soft-spoken," with a "gracious" and "dignified" manner. The police officers who arrested her for drunk driving, however, described her as falling-down drunk, profane and verbally abusive.

No matter how much a person drinks, he or she is not somehow transformed from Dr. Jekyll into Ms. Hyde. The Romans had a phrase for the Jane Hagues of this world: in vino veritas. That is, "in wine, the truth."

Seattle voters should remember that the real Hague made a brief appearance only after she was arrested.

— Iain Moffat, Seattle

Brave new Seattle

In "Industrial-land fight goes to council" [Local News, Oct. 22], Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis is quoted: "This is kind of shaping up as a battle for the fate of industrial jobs in the city. It's downtown versus industry, white collar versus blue." This is not accurate; it's really the past versus the future.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' proposal tries to freeze our industrial area in the past, based on an outdated conception of what industry needs and what the city's industrial neighborhoods offer.

Those who oppose the mayor's downzone proposal understand that these diverse areas have already moved on and that no zoning will take us back in time. It will only prevent the areas from adapting to the changing times already upon us, doing more harm to industry than good.

— Joe Mitter, Seattle

City Council's greener future

I'm perplexed by The Times' recent endorsement of Councilmember Jean Godden for Seattle City Council while "Improve Seattle Council" [endorsements, Oct. 7] primarily describes her significant failures.

The Times says Godden "brags about dreaming up the idea of the overpriced downtown tunnel, while 70 percent of Seattle voters opposed it." The Times adds that she's "beholden to the nightclub lobby" and then saddles its support with a "caveat."

The Times is essentially saying: "Hold your nose and vote for her." This is not a very compelling argument for voting for Godden.

Such a weak endorsement, coupled with the fact that even the 36th District Democratic Club didn't endorse her — I heard from one member the club found her too closely aligned with Mayor Greg Nickels and his pro-development allies, like development firm Vulcan, and quite a few preferred green challenger Joe Szwaja — leads me to conclude that the city can and should do better than Godden. So I'm giving Szwaja my vote.

The Times itself said Szwaja has a "strong record of community service." I think he's the better choice for improving our City Council. A local teacher and environmental activist, Szwaja also has public-service experience — he was twice elected to the Madison, Wis., City Council before moving to Seattle. He also ran an impressive campaign against Congressman Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, in 2000, earning 20 percent of the vote.

I guess you have helped me decide how to vote after all!

— Sue Peters, Seattle

Mental-health plan

Time to act

As a professional with more than 30 years of experience in community mental health and as the current chair of the Washington State Community Mental Health Council, I gratefully applaud King County Executive Ron Sims for his leadership and vision in including the funds to implement the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan in the 2008 King County budget and the councilmembers who worked hard to promote this long-awaited plan for prevention and treatment.

One in three families has at least one person with a serious mental illness; one in five of us will have a serious mental illness throughout the span of a lifetime.

Those with severe and persistent mental illnesses are vulnerable to mistaken incarceration, avoidable homelessness and the ravages of substance abuse. Mental illness can quickly result in an individual's loss of a normal life.

With the treatment and services to assist with housing and vocational rehabilitation this plan will make possible, thousands of people will recover from mental illness and substance abuse. They will be stabilized with adequate housing and once again become valued employees in the workplace.

Isn't all of that worth a tenth of a penny in sales tax?

In 2005, the state Legislature provided counties with the authority to enact a one-tenth-of-a-cent sales tax to fund new or expanded mental-health and substance-abuse treatment services, as well as therapeutic courts. Since then, seven county councils have enacted that option: Spokane, Skagit, Island, Clark, Clallam, Jefferson and Okanogan counties.

A report to the Legislature shows two dollars are saved for every dollar spent on treatment for this population. Sims wants to do the right thing for Washington's largest and most densely populated county. It's time to fund and implement the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan in King County.

— David Johnson, CEO, Highline West Seattle Mental Health and West Seattle Psychiatric Hospital, Seattle

Saving lives

I just want to publicly thank King County Executive Ron Sims for including the funds to implement the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan in County budget.

The prevention and treatment aspects of this plan will result in diversion from unnecessary jail stays, homelessness and costly use of the emergency health-care system. These will save lives and dollars as, once again, King County moves to the forefront of providing services at a level designed to improve the plight of thousands, ranging from the working poor to the homeless population.

— Suzanne Wietting, Bellevue

Too cool for school

Matter of tax

With respect to school-levy proposals, it should be obvious that a reasonable, well-thought-out, detailed proposal will get much greater support from intelligent voters than one "asking for the moon." The vast majority of levy proposals do pass, even with a 60 percent approval required. The real impact of this proposal will be to encourage districts to propose much higher levy amounts. The ads supporting EHJR 4204 say as much when they claim passage will mean smaller classes, more books and other niceties.

Passing the resolution doesn't provide these things; increasing taxes does. The claim by supporters that its passage will save money by reducing delays and repeat elections is absurd.

I hope the people who feel that only a simple majority of voters should be required to pass a school levy are willing and anxious to get a much-higher tax bill.

By the way, I've never voted against a school levy, but there could be a first time for everything.

— Gary McGavran, Bellevue

All in the same boat

In "How's school going: We got 60% right" [Northwest Voices, Oct. 23], reader D. Kevin Baker assails the school-levy system for being "unfair to homeowners because those who don't have to pay are allowed to vote to increase the taxes of those who do." That is true — but only as it pertains to the homeless.

The truth is, both homeowners and renters support the schools and pay the property tax. Landlords do not pay the tax; they collect it from their tenants as part of the rent they charge and send it in to the county.

All households pay the property tax.

— Al Rasmussen, Seattle

Proposition 1

Hope springs eternal

As an 18-year-old speaking for Washington's future, I believe Proposition 1 is extremely important.

With the traffic issues today, they are only going to become increasingly worse. I think light rail is much more important than the expansion of our roads. With light rail, people will be able to commute much easier and take traffic off the roads without having to expand them.

It would be better if the ballot was expanded with the choice of only light rail. The expansion of roads will cause too much chaotic traffic at the time of implementation. Speaking for the future, I think light rail is critical to our traffic solutions and the expansion of roads is not.

— Natalie March, Seattle

Good old values

If God had a name

The Freedom From Religion Foundation ["Wisconsin capital welcomes atheists, agnostics," News, Oct. 12] should be named the "Freedom From Religiosity Foundation."

I don't see their cause as being so much against religion as against the use of religion for purposes of personal exaltation, intimidation and political power. The world is plagued by true believers who are more about making society and other people to their liking than about becoming nicer people.

Speaking as a gentile, infidel nonbeliever, I say it is self-evident that science is doing a good job of describing the creation but has not explained its existence. So there must be a God. Furthermore, God gave us freedom to choose between good and evil, and God will not be thwarted by self-absorbed, power-wielding religious freaks who think theirs is the only true religion.

Indeed, they have made their choice.

— Robert Keiter, Johnson City, Tenn.

Philosopher's stone

We've been hearing a lot lately about the terrible Islamofascists who are terrorizing everyone. We haven't heard much about the Christian fascists who may be equally problematic.

A long list of Christian fascists includes the Crusaders (didn't Bush describe our current war as a crusade?), the Spanish Inquisitors, Cotton Mather, the Nazis and most recently the current fundamentalist Christians, best exemplified by George Bush and the president of Blackwater, a friend of Bush's who is also "born again" and makes major contributions to the Republican party and kills Iraqis with abandon — for which he is paid huge amounts of money).

I have talked to many so-called Christians about their favorite philosopher lately. Like our president they claim to be "born again," having "accepted Jesus as their personal savior" and Jesus is their favorite philosopher.

So I asked them about the philosophy of Jesus, specifically the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, and the commandment to love your enemies. They all consistently said this was impractical and could not apply to the world today. Most recently, a professor from a Christian college confirmed that this was his belief and he challenged me to tell him of anyone who had actually lived by those outdated and impractical principles. I guess he hadn't heard of Jesus Christ, Indian pacifist leader Mahatma Gandhi, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, retired Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, or former South African President Nelson Mandela. Probably they didn't count anyway because they didn't claim to be "born again," as far as I know.

I don't quite understand Christians who reject all the major messages Christ left us. Perhaps one of you "born againers" could explain this to me.

By the way, Christ is my favorite philosopher.

— Donald Sherrard, Bellevue