Letters to the editor

Underground rebellion

Movement on the way: Many take up the cry to tear down government

Editor, The Times:

So our elected officials don't think voters should have a say in what is going to have a significant impact on our lives? They don't think our time and the price we have to pay for fuel is important enough to give us the opportunity to vote on it? ["No voting on viaduct; ball is in Gregoire's court now," Times page one, Sept. 23.]

I must have misunderstood. I always thought the elected officials were serving in the interests of those who voted them into office in the first place. How did they think they arrived in those positions?

We obviously made a mistake but how many do they think will make that mistake again? Obviously, they think most.

I guess we'll find out.

— Lloyd Peterson, Seattle

Common sense quashed

We are absolutely stunned by the outrageous vote taken by the Seattle City Council.

It is frightening that we have a fascist mentality in our governing officials, who are supposed to represent the people! Apparently, it doesn't concern the council that seniors on fixed incomes and young families are being forced out of their homes because of heavy taxation.

Facts such as cost, earthquake vulnerability, etc., are arrogantly brushed aside as irrelevant because the truth, if it were widely known, would reveal the absurdity of [the council's] utopian plans. The tunnel proposition would have gone "down in flames," as Councilman Nick Licata so aptly said ["Rising costs of replacing viaduct, 520 bridge complicate decisions," page one, Sept. 21], if true figures had come out.

The cost is unknown, and it has already gone up 40 percent since the original estimate. The $2 billion gap between the tunnel and reconstruction is rarely mentioned. Terrain challenges in the Alaskan Way area rate it "high risk" for earthquake damage.

It is past time these "public servants," with the exception of courageous Licata, are booted out of office. They should be held accountable individually and represent their precinct exclusively.

— Helen and David Belvin, Seattle

Run out on a rail

The mayor is complaining about the new financial numbers on his "dream" of a tunnel.

But when the numbers came in higher on the monorail project, he and the City Council toadies pulled their so-called "support" and said "Put it to a vote."

Now, when the ball is in their court, they say "No public vote."

Well, time for Greg Nickels et al. to sit down and shut up! This isn't Boston and we won't be bullied into a boondoggle to "cement" their names in history.

City Hall is obviously scared of the voters when it comes to things they want, whether it truly benefits the majority — or not. They need to be reminded of their civic duty and that it is the voters who put them in their cushy jobs, whether we held our noses and crossed our fingers — or not.

— Stephen Cardona, Seattle

Ends with oodles

One more time! That's right, one more time, let's build another cost sinkhole (a tunnel) in Seattle.

It happens every time. The voters approve a tax increase to help the ever-mismanaged Puget Sound infrastructure after Boeing threatens to leave Dodge, and the politicians can't wait to see how fast they can waste those precious tax resources.

This [Alaskan Way Viaduct] project hasn't gotten off the drawing board and it already has increased 28 percent to $4.6 billion, as compared with a replacement structure of $2.8 billion (which will also grow).

Call your Bostonian counterparts to learn about "tunnel vision" on cost overruns, folks. Tunnel construction is inherently risky, as history has told us over and over again. If Washington and specifically Seattle voting taxpayers think the bill is known, their head's in their "tunnel." Cost overruns are the rule, not the exception.

As a Boeing retiree who spent a lifetime on the freeways, I support rebuilding the infrastructure but not wasting those dollars on "pie in the sky" ideas.

Get the best value by replacing the viaduct with a new and improved one.

— Grant Stephens, Spokane

Starts with tea

I resent that the City Council and the mayor do not think the general public is intelligent enough to make a rational decision concerning the viaduct. Or maybe they are afraid that the public will make an intelligent decision.

I have lived within my budget all my life and resent that the council spends my money in an extravagant manner.

The council's non-vote approach reminds me of taxation without representation. I think I will throw a tea bag into Elliott Bay in protest.

— Terry Stevens, Lake Forest Park

Intervention

Rescuers must cross line

Funny how our government can switch signals so easily. We consumers are supposed to be getting it drummed into our heads that it would be dangerous to buy prescription drugs from Canada and other countries. But that hasn't deterred many Americans from buying less-expensive prescriptions in Canada and elsewhere.

So Uncle Sam, in the form of the Department of Homeland Security, has been confiscating drugs ordered overseas by U.S. citizens, according to a recent AARP bulletin.

Some of us can't quite swallow the "dangerous drugs" theory. Why? Many of the drugs sold here and in Canada are made by the same manufacturers. And remember when a major supplier of the flu vaccine being produced for the American market by a British manufacturer became contaminated? That incident about two years ago left the United States without enough vaccine for the flu season.

Guess where our government turned for more vaccine. If you said Canada, go to the head of the class.

And at the same time, Uncle Sam said drugs made in the two countries are comparable.

Go figure then and now.

It's time for Congress to pass Senate Bill 334, introduced by Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. The Dorgan-Snowe bill would permit the safe and legal importation of drugs from Canada.

— Shelby Gilje, Seattle

Lifeguard's recognition

Laps of luxury

Regarding "A nagging compulsion to move up or get left behind," by Susan A. Nielsen [guest commentary, Sept. 22]: Bill Gates has donated billions upon billons to fight world poverty. Even in Nielsen's bitter little world, at the very least, shouldn't that merit him a swimming pool?

— Mark Tarnowski, Minneapolis, Minn.