Vets are proud
To the editor:
Have you ever wondered what some veterans have experienced? I got to interview my family’s friend George W. Noble. He was 22 when he joined the Air Force. He was in the military for 6 1/2 years. He served in the Vietnam war as a pilot. He directed the air war as an On Scene Commander. He was also a transport pilot at Travis Air Force Base, flying a C141.
Vietnam was a tumultuous time in our country. Noble felt compelled to serve, even though it was a hard thing to do. After the war was over, he flew the evacuation from Saigon, Vietnam. One memory was a young Vietnamese man driving an Air Force pickup who was selling brass bells to the flight crew. So in the midst of bombings he looked for humor, and the resiliency of the human spirit.
Noble would like me to remember that he was proud to do his duty, and they taught him a profession. He had a long career as a pilot for American Airlines. He would like us all to remember that veterans answered the call of duty to their country, and it wasn’t always easy. Regardless of politics they supported their country.
Chloe Frederickson
Fourth-grader
Bainbridge Island
No on I-2117
To the editor:
In a recent letter to the editor in The Review, readers were treated to some interesting math proclaiming that because CO2 is such a small component of our atmosphere, it is not a problem worth addressing.
I’d like to assure readers that the small concentration of this potent greenhouse gas is extremely meaningful. We know that bringing CO2 back to 350ppm, or 0.035%, is critical for global climate stability. Dialing CO2 back a little bit, to around 0.02%, would likely land us in an Ice Age. In our last one, earth was 10 degrees cooler on average and a quarter of our land surface was covered in ice— not an appealing scenario for our current population of 8.2 billion people.
The last time our atmospheric CO2 was up around where it is today, at 0.042%, was about 3 million years ago, and temperatures were 5 to 7 degrees hotter, and sea levels were 50 to 100 feet higher. Also important is that we’ve created this change in hundreds, not hundreds of thousands, of years, which means we don’t yet see the full force of the coming impacts, and the rate of this giant experiment is not something life on earth has previously experienced.
Neither extreme bodes well for people, but we are headed for the second scenario if we don’t enact policies, like the Climate Commitment Act, that work to dial back CO2 quickly. Science supports voting no on 2117.
Deb Rudnick
Bainbridge Island
No on initiatives
To the editor:
On the General Election ballot are four initiatives. With our votes we show what we value as citizens.
As a grandparent and former educator I care deeply about our future generations. So I will vote no on the four measures. These deceptive measures were written by and for super-wealthy people and corporations.
If we were to pass Initiative 2109, the excise tax paid only by folks who earn over $250,000 a year on stock sales (and paid only on the amount over $250,000), $2.2 billion would be cut from public education, childcare and early learning over the next five years. Property sales are exempt from the tax.
I-2117, the misleading initiative rolling back Washington’s climate legislation, would result in less protection from pollution and lead to unintentional consequences, such as stripping billions of dollars from our transportation system. If you think traffic and ferry service are bad now, this could make them much worse. It could also lead to more pollution-related illnesses such as asthma from polluted air.
I-2124 would take away long-term care insurance for 3.9 million working Washingtonians. As we age, the guarantee of this insurance is more and more important.
I-2066 uses scare tactics in an attempt to repeal common sense protections to our environment and to attack the goal of energy efficiency. If passed it could make communities more vulnerable to storms, wildfires and deadly heat waves.
Please join me in considering how your vote, both for candidates and initiatives, will affect future generations. Our children are counting on us.
Alice C. McCain
Suquamish
