Memorial Day

Tribute was a treat

My many thanks to the Music Director of our new Kingston High School. Adam Campagna and his many students were a much appreciated addition to the annual Memorial Day Cermony on the waterfront. Several pieces were played and played very well.

I know many probably missed a camping trip or some other fun time on this holiday weekend because of their performance.

Thank you students and Mr. Campagna for taking the time and making the effort to perform today.

Susan Clotfelter Jimison

Poulsbo

Energy crisis

Solution is simple

The uninformed and sound-bite intellectuals never cease to surprise me with their vacuous comments. Reading editorials declaring such statements as “President Bush needs to hold OPEC accountable” is like telling a bank they owe you money because they have money. The last time this foolishness was tried was by President Jimmy Carter. Remember the gas lines of the 70s? The facts are, “he who owns the oil rules.”

To blame anyone other than the environmentalist and cowardly U.S. Democratic Congress for this energy crisis and alternative fuel debacle is shameful and totally fact-less. We have untapped energy resources which could easily make the United States independent.

According to the Department of Energy, U.S. oil production has fallen approximately 40 percent since 1985, while consumption has grown more than 30 percent. There are approximately 112 billion barrels of oil in areas that Congress has placed off limits. When refined into fuel, it would power more than 60 million cars for 60 years. These projections do not even take into account the newly discovered oil deposits throughout the United States and Brazil, nor the billions of tons of oil shale. To resolve the U.S. energy crises is simple. Utilize our own energy producing fossil resources.

Dean Jenniges

Bremerton

Whoopsie

Headline’s wrong

Your article written by Kelly Joines in the May 24 Herald addressing boating safety issues was excellent, factual, and provided good insights on the challenges facing boating safety. The people you contacted and interviewed are our top-notch boating safety specialists in the state. Good for you.

However unfortunately the headline (You have a license for that boat?) on the front page article was misleading. There is no such thing as a license for boaters. A license is a document that must be periodically renewed (usually for a fee) and can be revoked. The Boater Education Card, as you correctly explain in the article, costs $10 for life, never needs to be renewed, and cannot be revoked. It is like a diploma.

As part of the boaters’ five-year grassroots effort to pass the 2005 mandatory boater education legislation, we fought hard against the licensing concept and still continue to do so nationally. One of our arguments for mandatory boater education was that we did not want another government license shoved down our throats. Boaters, please don’t call your new card a license, you don’t want that requirement and expense.

Because this program was advocated by the boaters, and is monitored constantly, we have seen little bureaucracy to create the program and issue the cards. We have learned a lot from other states and can be proud ours is one of the best boating safety programs in the country. Washington was the 4th highest state in the union in boating accidents, but we expect that number to improve thanks to our new boating education program and informative media like the Herald article.

David Kutz

Past President & Govt. Affairs Director

Recreational Boating Association of Washington

Kingston

FMLA

Not again, please

I am curious, does anyone ever read the reports coming from our state governing body, or do they just take the word of television reporters? It is an election year and of course the bashing of President Bush will increase, as he is responsible for everything and anything that happens to our country! I have even heard that grass is not growing well and it is President Bush’s fault. Not true.

Washington State is almost the highest, if not the highest, state in the nation that taxes its people past the limit of reasonable. We do have a say in this, don’t we? Let’s put it this way, only if our Senators will act according to our votes.

So, why does Senator Rockefeller choose his party over his constituents? He has been a part of the most reckless state spending spree in Washington’s history. He is guilty of strapping the United States with a huge budget deficit for the coming years.

For example, Rockefeller supported SB 5726, the ‘Family Medical Leave Act.” It sounds good because it allows workers to take up to five weeks ($250 per week) of paid leave to spend time with a newborn or newly adopted child. However, there are already five different types of leave policies: a State Family Leave Law, the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, State Maternity Disability regulation and others that help families bond with children and aid sick family members.

Do we really need another act which will be funded with a new tax on employees? Can employees afford another imposed, unnecessary tax? By the way, it also creates a new, 90-person bureaucracy. We get to pay for all of this too.

Another totally unnecessary tax — there are five — do we need six?

Nancy Zorrozua

Bremerton