Cedar County vs. City Slickers

Have You Been To Duvall Lately?

I agree with Geov Parrish that the passage of the critical-areas ordinance and the subsequent furor exposed the already present rift between urban and rural parts of the county ["Cedar County vs. City Slickers," Dec. 22]. Parrish fears that in going too far, a backlash has been created and the good might be thrown out with the bad. In much the same context, though, I worry about the precedent set in establishing "takings" legislation. Once you start going down the slippery slope of reimbursing people for losses incurred (whether real or perceived), it will be difficult to ever climb back up to a level playing field where any real improvements to the common good can be adequately funded. And Parrish is simply being obtuse in his statement that a house that posed no environmental threat in September now does. Obviously, the threat (or potential threat) was always there, it just wasn't addressed via the regulatory process.

One irony in this whole issue is reflected in how Parrish describes it: rural vs. urban. Has he been to Duvall, Fall City, or North Bend lately? They really are no longer rural. They're fast becoming suburban. Development is rampant and threatens the "rural" lifestyle these folks seek to protect more than any critical-areas ordinance does. But let 'em build their hobby farms and homes on their 5 acres, and a few years from now they'll be complaining about being surrounded by residential development and all the traffic from the shopping mall down the road. If rural landowners really wanted to protect their lifestyle into the foreseeable future and were not simply pursuing their own interests, wouldn't the critical-areas ordinance be a step in the right direction?

Jeryl Kolb
Bellevue

Critical Path

The clearing part of the critical-areas ordinance was not a problem but a solution ["Cedar County vs. City Slickers," Dec. 22]. I could not disagree with Geov Parrish more when he says there is no reason for the clearing section of the ordinance other than preventing sprawl. How about flooding, water quality, and salmon habitat, just for starters? Perhaps this reporter does not understand how the environment works. You cut down a bunch of trees and the rain comes, you flood your neighbors and your roads. With trees gone, you flood streams in the fall and winter and effectively kill salmon in the summertime. You remove trees, you don't have rain recharging groundwater. The great divide is not between Cedar County and city slickers, but instead it is between land speculators and those of us that have a more practical approach to making our lives better.

Jesseca Brand
Seattle

Stalinist Neocons

Good article and interesting question [Mossback, "Rummy, Romanism, and Rebellion," Dec. 22]. I suspect that if there were a military coup, international policy might be moderated but only because they will be focused on mopping up opposition at home.

I think the snazzy new commander in chief uniform is very telling. This cowardly lying little punk in a made-up uniform, strutting about with a heroic swagger, is one very sick puppy.

George W. Bush and I walked away from the Air Force at about the same time. Deserted, if you prefer. Now he is the president, a war-loving commander in chief of the American military. Bush seems to be a shining if very extreme example of a man who has never taken responsibility for his own actions. It has become such a habit, the man actually believes his own made-up history.

You know, the guys responsible for Stalin's falsification of Russian history could have taken lessons from the neocon spinmeisters. Thanks for a good read.

Thomas McCay
Vancouver, BC

Wake Me When It's Over

Four years ago, when we were all hanging on Florida's chads, I was poignantly amused at how we all seemed to believe that it was Florida's fault that the vote was suspect. Reality check: There are vote-counting scandals everywhere. When the electorate seems to be half in and half out with any given set of candidates, our system is not clean enough, efficient enough, or sensitive enough to give us any assurance that we actually elected those who serve [Buzz, Dec. 22]. This isn't a Florida, Ohio, or Washington problem. Just as you can't blame the guy who puts up the last Hail Mary shot for the loss of a basketball game where the whole team got them to dead heat at the last second, neither can we place blame on any one state, county, or secretary of state. We are in this together and we gotta get out of it together, too.

So what should we do about this? First, get the whole software situation under scrutiny. It is possible to audit for hacking, leave paper trails, and allow for instant verification at the polls. Do that. Do all of it.