Letters to the Editor

Gas-guzzling

Society pays for its fuel addiction

Editor, The Times:

Here is where subsidized gas should work ["Truckers who keep Port humming are pushed to the brink as costs soar," Times, page one June 15]. The money comes from taxing all who drive without necessity: the majority.

These truckers are a vital part of our supply system and they need to be compensated. Most car and light-truck drivers do not see the error of their ways and refuse to adapt.

We have maintained a careless attitude for far too long regarding the nation's driving habits. For decades, public transit was viewed as something for the lower classes. The American way of life, dictated by certain automobile companies, has been designed as drive-anywhere-and-everywhere, with no regard to the cost.

Now that gas prices have risen, people are complaining. These truckers have a right to complain. Everyday commuters don't. Society has to pay for its habits through increased medical expenses, deaths, roads and polluted air, as well as stress for all its members.

We should sue General Motors Corp. and make it pay for manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.

For nonessential vehicles, until we have a better transit system, make society pay as it goes. I am exhausted from decades of this car habit.

— Myna Lee Johnstone, Saltspring Island, B.C.

Traffic and transit

Now's the time to act

Traffic problems in Seattle are not new or covert. With the recent report that Seattle is ninth in the country for traffic congestion, it's appalling that we have to fight for expanded public transit.

In the recent opinion piece, "Putting the 'rapid' in 520 transit," [guest commentary, June 17] Rob Wilkinson mentions many ways Sound Transit could help relieve some of the traffic congestion through light rail and expanded express bus routes.

As we can all feel in our wallets, gas prices are at an all-time high. The fear of global warming is causing more people to reduce carbon emissions. There is not a better time to develop and enlarge public transit here in Seattle. More people are now willing to take public transit, and Sound Transit should step up and deliver.

— Loma Colombo, Seattle

It's up to us

A recently published story should be raising the hackles of Seattle residents ["Seattle traffic rated 9th worst for congestion," News, June 17]. You don't have to read the paper to know that gas prices continue to break records almost weekly. As one of the most progressive and forward-looking cities in the world, it is shameful that we do not have a light-rail system.

Our leaders have dropped the ball on this one, and we residents of Seattle and the planet need to let them know this is not acceptable. We must take matters into our own hands and support a ballot initiative calling for light rail. Our government's failure to act has gotten us into this mess, and only a real outcry from the public will get us out.

— Bethany Stackhouse, Seattle

Sonics and Mariners

Moving time

OK, here's how we can keep the sports fans in Seattle happy: The Sonics will stay here, but we'll send the Mariners to Oklahoma. They may have to play Triple A ball, but that might be for the best this year.

Let's also try this: I heard a rumor that the Mariners have been sold to a consortium based in the Philippines.

In fact, the new owners plan to move the team out there and rename them the Manila Folders. It's probably just a rumor, because I haven't read it in The Times.

— Jon Jensen, College Place

Bennett's loss not so sad

It's quite clear that new Sonics owner Clay Bennett never had any intention of keeping the team in Seattle. The damning e-mails he sent after acquiring the team prove this and no amount of denial on the witness stand can hide this fact ["The 'man possessed' sticks to his claims," page one, June 18].

Bennett knew the team was under contract to play at KeyArena through 2010, but he thought he could find a way around it.

Bennett owns the Sonics now and if he wants to move the team after the contract is up, he can do so. Until then, he needs to abide by the lease agreement. If he loses millions because of it, I, for one, won't shed a tear.

— David Pfeifle, Lynnwood

Political diversity

Tolerating McCain in Leftyland

Like many of my 20-something peers, I'm enjoying getting involved in the presidential election. I even spent five hard-earned dollars on a window sticker for John McCain.

Incidentally, I was alarmed to walk out to my car Tuesday afternoon to discover my sticker had been ripped off my rear window. Pretty interesting that in this diversity-espousing city, Seattleites are unable to accept that there's a Republican in their midst. That people who claim to support diversity would destroy something because I have different ideas about health care, education and economics is pretty amazing.

You'd think having a McCain sticker in my window was tantamount to saying "4 more for W." Apparently, conservatism is the last frontier of acceptable discrimination these days. I live in a city that expects everyone to have homogenous opinions. That's mighty undemocratic.

When someone steals my McCain sticker, it suggests we don't believe in diversity. We believe in uniformity. Sure, it's just a sticker. But it's also faith lost in people I live and work with.

I'll replace my sticker because I'm even more energized about my candidate having been vandalized for my opinion ... and even more disappointed in my city for being so intolerant.

— Heather Husa, Seattle

Habeas corpus redux

Captain's wrong

It seems Peter Soverel wants to have it both ways ("Habeas corpus for all?," Northwest Voices, June 18). He rails against the U.S. Supreme Court decision granting habeas corpus to "illegal combatants," but goes on to say that neither the Geneva Conventions nor the Uniform Code of Military Justice cover them. This essentially puts them in a legal no man's land.

While many "terrorists" may have been captured "while engaged in armed conflict," it appears that some were simply ratted on by persons trying to get even, some were turned over by bounty hunters and some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In neither case do they represent a threat. Shouldn't some independent authority take a look at this?

— William May, retired colonel, U.S. Air Force, Maple Valley