Food metaphor madness
All the whining and complaining from people who wish they had a different kind of governor than the one they’ve got is nuts in my book [“Governor Soccer Dad,” 5/18]. While it may not be politically correct to say so, when I go to a Chinese restaurant I don’t expect to order lasagna. I order from what’s on the menu. Yes, I wish Gary Locke were a lot more like me. I was just crazy about former governors Mike Lowry and Mario Cuomo. One of those governors got ‘lost’ and one got beat. Times have changed, and so have I. Perhaps the time is ripe for a celebrity ego-freak government basher like John Carlson, but I’m betting the sensible people will hire a seasoned, responsible CEO to keep running our state. Those are the choices on the political menu this year. Bon appetit!
NORA PORTER
PORT TOWNSEND
Election hooky
Thank you for publishing your article on Gary Locke [“10 things Gary Locke could do if he had a spine,” 5/18]. Some points in the article are right on target. He wants to be known as the education governor, but would not support a living wage for one of the most important jobs in our society, the teacher. He certainly had no problem giving himself a raise. He refuses to take a strong stand on the environment and that really worries me. Should he be reelected, he may very well see the extinction of the salmon under his administration. The author was absolutely on target when he accused him of pandering to the farmers and the Association of Washington Businesses. His main interest is to stay popular, not do the right thing. Removal of the dams will not significantly raise our power rates. The four dams in question only provide about five percent of this region’s power. If only Locke had the courage of the governor of Oregon. I am a staunch Democrat. However, I will never give my vote again to this man. I will skip the election before I do that.
LORRAINE BROOKS
VIA E-MAIL
Elian-Geov exchange
Geov Parrish’s column “10 things Gary Locke could do if he had a spine” [5/18] was liberal socialism at its best. To address each of Parrish’s suggestions individually would be cumbersome, but suffice to say that socializing health care and expanding welfare via the WorkFirst program while penalizing businesses that produce tax revenues and jobs would do Marx and Engels proud, not to mention Fidel Castro or Kim Jong-Il.
As well, giving teachers more money won’t solve education problems. Teachers make more money than ever while working with smaller class sizes than ever, and yet student scores continue to decline. What’s wrong with this picture? Until school districts and the teacher’s union are actually accountable for their performance, nothing will change and scores will continue to fall no matter how much money you throw at teachers. Public education has become a bigger monopoly than Bill Gates could ever dream of building, although Microsoft is better at what they’re SUPPOSED to be doing than teachers have been.
Restore I-695 cuts to transportation? From where? Raising taxes is political suicide, and no state program exists whose advocates won’t cry bloody murder if they’re threatened with the shifting of a single penny from their budget. Good luck!
I think Gary Locke is a decent guy and brilliant on policy issues, but his leadership is questionable. Problems exist that need fixing, but socialistic responses that drive businesses and jobs out of state is no answer (unless the “answer” is to make us all wards of the state).
Hey, here’s one answer: Let’s keep Elian Gonzales here and send Geov Parrish to Cuba. They’d both be happier.
BRUCE BASKIN
GALVIN
Cruel cover
I was deeply offended by your imagery for the governor of Washington on this week’s cover [5/18]. I did agree with some of your 10 points of action he might undertake. However, as a woman who has spent decades of her life with a distorting congenital spinal disease, I think the real impact of your “cartoon” was to demean those of us who have spinal diseases. I am a citizen who does have and does act upon my political beliefs. But my bone structure does not “make a statement.” You demeaned me. What you printed was not just in poor taste: It was cruel. Your using that depiction says more about your publication than it does about Governor Locke’s action or inaction.
MYRA LUPTON
MERCER ISLAND
Moth governor
I LOVED your cover on the May 18th issue. What an appropriate representation of our very own governor. As a resident of Ballard, when I was awakened at five in the morning by the sound of helicopters flying about two feet above my house, spraying for that one gypsy moth AGAINST the protests of the residents of the affected neighborhoods, I decided I would NOT be voting for Locke EVER AGAIN. Thank you for fearlessly portraying his true nature.
B. BIERNAT
BALLARD
Pissing on Ballard
Mr. Downey’s article concerning the moth spraying campaign waged by the state of Washington in the air over Ballard, Magnolia, and Interbay [“Moth-eaten state,” 5/18], raises the larger issues of corporate science—which, as Ralph Nader recently said at a UW lecture, “Isn’t science at all”—calling the shots.
Indeed, on the morning of the first spraying, KIRO radio’s Dave Ross had, as the indisputable voice of order, a UW professor who also was simply reciting the “talking points” of Downey’s article. The approach is to manage the situation as a political PR campaign. The whole thing reminds me of a used-car salesman trying to calm down a pissed-off customer—Governor Locke, the WSDA, the UW, probably the “science” division of Weyerhaeuser, and all of us upstanding, take-your-medicine if you know what’s good for you, law and order, don’t even think about nothing, just buy more crap, kind of folks.
My roommate had the idea of a WSDA helicopter protruding a phallic nozzle and pissing all over Ballard.
Lots of doing [in] Big Business these days. Plenty of us plugged into Corporate World, where Topdown is the Law, and you had just better do your damn job, Mister. Only now we’re wakin’ up and seeing the Soul we sold was our own, and the Land of the Corporation ain’t much different from the supposed Land of the Free.
Yes, Mr. Downey, much more going on here than spraying.
WILLIAM M. FERREN
SEATTLE
Duh
The EPA and the Clinton administration announced this week that there is finally a study that shows “conclusively” the link between dioxin and cancer. Duh. Thirty years after we suspected it and 20 years after we knew it, science has finally proven it. That word “conclusively” is what Science is all about.
Unfortunately, pesticide rules are shaped by politics [see “Moth-eaten state,” 5/18]. Our health officials are quick to clamor about the lack of “conclusive” evidence linking btk to human health effects. Dr. William O. Robertson of the Washington Poison Center (which has been telling concerned callers and health officers that btk is “benign”) recently pointed out the fact that there are as yet no “conclusive” studies linking DDT to human health effects. While technically and perhaps legally correct, it is not a bright conclusion.
It will be hard to ever conclude there might be negative health effects when 30,000 residents are sprayed with btk-based pesticides and our area doctors are not advised what to look for or how to report a possible exposure. The Public Health department admits it has not instituted a way to test for btk exposure (because it is considered “safe”).
Btk-based pesticides in large doses have been “conclusively” shown to kill mice and fish. How big of a dose does a Ballard or Magnolia resident need to have a “conclusive” reaction? Do we want to find out? If we are lucky, we will have “conclusive” results about btk in about the year 2017.
BENJAMIN S. SCHROETER
SEATTLE
Life isn’t fair
Is it fair of you to describe the recent approach Amazon.com has taken to confront its slow season as ‘manipulative’ (Kiss My ASCII, “Up the river<," by Angela Gunn, 5/18) when your article opens inferring that the company's new time-off options are mandatory?
My understanding is that any employee who would like to take some time off to enjoy their summer may do so without losing any earned vacation—and those who don’t care to participate will continue to work as usual. I’d be glad that I could take some time off during a slow season, accommodating a coincidental corporate lull AND the emergence of some heat and sun in this city—all the while averting any possible need for layoffs and still being able to use some earned vacation time when New York City cools down in the fall. Most appreciable is that this is an option—in no way comparable to a drop of the corporate axe, as your article insinuates. This is a progressive and considerate approach for everyone involved.
As far as mysteriously slanted, uninvestigated journalism is concerned, it appears that in this example, the Seattle Weekly has chosen “Option D: No Change.”
JEF HOSKINS
SEATTLE
Angela Gunn responds: Earned vacation? Perhaps “Jef” can afford to take vacation when he’s not drawing a salary, but the people I was talking about in the column—those pesky grownups—are rarely so lucky. And I doubt that most folks, given the choice between losing accrued vacation and losing health benefits, would be more concerned with Maui than major medical.
Cop shoots back
The subtitle of your article “Open and shot case” [5/18] asks, “Is it self-defense when a cop shoots a man in the back of the head?” I am a Seattle police officer and would like to answer that question: Yes, it can be self-defense when a police officer shoots a violent criminal in the back as it clearly was in the case of the Okarma shooting.
There is a common public misconception that it is always wrong to shoot someone in the back. Where the suspect is shot is immaterial, the important thing is if the suspect is a threat or not. My only knowledge of the Michael Okarma shooting is what I read in your article and from your account it seems to me that after Okarma dropped the gun he was struggling to reacquire the weapon and
kill Officer Chilo. You must remember that the police are required to use reasonable force, not the minimum amount of force. A “minimum amount of force” standard would be impossible to meet because one could endlessly second guess the officer’s split-second life-or-death decision. It is unreasonable to expect Officer Chilo to have gotten in a wrestling match with a man who is trying to kill him when there is a loaded gun on the ground.
Your article also calls into question what possible motive Okarma would have had to kill a cop when he had not gotten into trouble in some time. Do you think maybe he did not want to get arrested for being a felon in possession of a firearm and go back to prison? I am also puzzled by your quoting the “expert” Kay Sweeney’s report saying the “shooting could not have occurred in the manner the officer asserts” and not revealing exactly what the inconsistency was. If you are going to call an honest cop who was nearly murdered by a sex offender a liar, you had better back it up.
Although your article is biased against the police, you have a valid point when you question if the inquest system “serves no legitimate purpose?” I think that it is indeed a waste of resources and unfairly treats the police officer, who is a victim, like a criminal. Pierce County has its fair share of police-involved shootings and they do not have inquests. They simply have a press conference with the results of the investigation. I believe you and your colleagues in the press can do a far better job of keeping the government honest than any inquest!
CHRISTOPHER YOUNG
SEATTLE POLICE, WEST PRECINCT
Rick Anderson responds: It’s the expert who had a different view of the shooting. He was ready to back it up but wasn’t allowed, even though the limited inquest is purportedly a fact-finding process. Would police approve of a restricted system that, should a citizen kill an officer, allows the citizen’s friends and coworkers to investigate and defend the killing with little say from the cops? They might wonder what the citizens are trying to hide. They might say it’s time to let in a little light.
Dr. Laura on BigoTV
I find it extremely disappointing that this person (Laura Schlessinger) is encouraged to continue her message of intolerance and hate, especially on KING 5, which it seems would have better corporate sense [“KING of controversy,” 5/18]. The only good thing that can come of her continued appearance in the media is that she gives everyone a good look at a bigot—and it’s not a pretty picture.
My lesbian partner and I have a tough enough time raising our two kids with the stresses and difficulties that all parents face today. Public figures like Dr. Laura who promote and perpetuate antigay attitudes and stereotypes to hundreds of thousands of listeners just add to what is an already challenging task.
What KING 5 must already realize is that she has already seriously insulted and demeaned a good percentage of its watching public. A good test for anyone, KING 5 included, is to ask yourself, “Would I hire or even listen to this person if she made incredibly derogatory comments about African-Americas, Jews, or Catholics?”
KATHERINE CLARK
BELLINGHAM
Censoring Dr. Laura
These protesters are the same people who would fight to the death to squander any attempts at silencing free speech on pro-homosexual matters [see “KING of controversy,” 5/18]. Yet when a talk show host discusses opinions that are not aligned with theirs, they close their eyes to the first amendment in attempts to censor. This is ridiculously hypocritical and shameful behavior from insecure people who feel threatened by words. Wouldn’t the world be a great place if no one was allowed to say anything that we don’t approve of. Get real. Step out of fantasy land and change your TV to a different channel. How bout Dawson’s Creek.
RYAN KING
NJ
Seattle’s road rage
Thanks to Knute Berger for some great observations on the way Seattle traffic has gone to hell in a handbasket [Uffda, “Rules of the road,” 5/18].
What I’m fed up with is the way getting around downtown has become more and more like taking on an obstacle course. The morning and afternoon rush-hour trips I take between the Ferry Terminal and where I work provide an almost daily adventure playing dodge-em with clueless drivers and ducking around the construction “messes du jour.”
As a downtown pedestrian, I wish something would be done about motorists whose road rage is often taken out on those of us who walk. I can usually count on having at least one “close call” with a car each day, between those who run lights, block intersections and crosswalks, and otherwise show a lack of regard for pedestrians.
I hear a lot of stories about how Seattle cops are eager to pinch people for jaywalking. I suggest they be fair and take more time and effort to address the other part of the problem, namely drivers who believe their rights are absolute over pedestrians. How about ticketing those who are clueless behind the wheel as well as those who are clueless on foot?
BRIAN HEATH
BREMERTON
Proteomic pie portion
I enjoyed your article regarding the emergence of proteomics in the biotechnology industry [“Your genes at work,” 5/18]. My comments:
“PE is the hardware arm of the biotech empire founded by Craig Venter, the scientist-entrepreneur who last month claimed to have sequenced the entire human genome.” Craig Venter did not found Perkin Elmer. Perkin Elmer’s future was well established prior to Venter’s emergence on the biotech scene, which was a recent event. PE holds the patent rights to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and bought Automated Biosystems (ABI), the biotech company (related to Leroy Hood) that holds many of the key patents for automated DNA sequencing. In fact, Celera, Venter’s company, is only a division of PE, relies heavily on PE’s latest developments in automated DNA sequencing, and is financially dependent on PE’s deep pockets. Venter’s fortunes prior to Celera came from his starting the Institute of Genome Research (TIGR) and its related commercial partner, Human Genome Sciences (HSGI).
“Seattle and the Eastside look to be the West Coast capital of the action.” While a number of talented individuals in academics are developing proteomic technology in the region, the Northwest still lacks the resources necessary to make it a hotbed for proteomics spinoffs. The vast majority of commercial proteomic technology development is centered in the Bay Area, Boston, Bethesda, Maryland (home of NIH), and San Diego. Seattle’s portion of the genomics and proteomics company pie is tiny in comparison to these other areas and as of just a year ago, regional interest in funding biotech was lukewarm at best.
Seattle does benefit from having the resources of UW and other institutes, most notably the department of Molecular Biotechnology, the UW Genome Center, and the Institute of Quantitative Biology. Undoubtedly, the intellectual capital from these groups and others at UW will aid in development of startups for genomics and proteomics, but in my opinion, not to the extent that has already occurred in the Bay Area.
HANLEE JI, M.D.
DIVISION OF MEDICAL GENETICS
UW SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
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