TNT letters to the editor, 4/10/2021
Traffic ticket amnesty
Re: “Activists say bill too diluted to end license suspensions,” (TNT, 4/6).
As a lifelong motorcyclist I am more aware than most of the results of poor driving. When a car hits a motorcycle the car always wins.
These days even on a short ride I can encounter a driver running a red light, failing to stop for a stop sign, drifting into the oncoming lane while texting, or changing lanes without so much as a wink and nod.
I was surprised to read the legislative proposal that even the smallest behavior correction in the form of a traffic ticket can be ignored. Ignore the ticket, no problem. Don’t show up for court, no problem. No one will take your license.
It makes you wonder how one can pay for car payments, insurance, license tabs, fuel and maintenance and not afford a traffic ticket.
The suspended licenses were earned honestly, by bad driving. Now the plan is to put 64,000 bad drivers back on the road.
The problem is not driving while poor but poor driving.
Dan Zlock, Spanaway
Climate change
Re: “Have we lost the battle on climate change?” (TNT, 3/31).
John M. Crisp’s forlorn opinion column was both accurate and inaccurate. Why? Because more and more meteorologists and atmospheric physicists are discovering there is much more to climate change than man’s carbon footprint.
There are many other naturally occurring — and neglected — cyclical events involved. These include solar cycles, orbital perturbations, cosmic ray influxes and much more.
As for Crisp’s scary list of global warming related dangers, they trace back to Al Gore’s sensationalistic “An Inconvenient Truth.” Britain’s highest court ruled that Gore’s 2006 film is often more about political science than physical science.
The court confirmed nine major flaws, including the infamous polar bear climate change extinction myth. Thanks to enforcement efforts regarding overhunting, polar bears have actually made a dramatic comeback.
Thomas P. Hoyle, University Place
Sheriff confrontation
Re: “Accountable as sheriff, learning as I grow in job,” (Ed Troyer guest op-ed, TNT, 4/4).
Sheriff Troyer’s arguments for keeping his job are not persuasive. His 911 call included multiple misrepresentations and fabrications.
It is a gross misdemeanor to make such calls. (RCW 9A.84.040). Officials who don’t “faithfully, impartially and honestly” perform the duties of their office violate their oath.
Our Sheriff’s Department mission is to treat the public with “dignity and respect” and to act consistently “in the best interests of the public without bias or prejudice.”
Troyer’s violations shatter norms for public service. His behavior is dangerous and traumatizing. He claims he’s not a racist, but his behavior shouts otherwise.
This is a moment to see – to see a white sheriff ignoring his multiple breaches of duty, honesty and public care. To see his proclamation of entitlement to remain in office as traumatizing. To see the reality of yet more versions of behaviors that have harmed BIPOC communities for generations.
Accountability is to see.
Troyer says he’s “growing and learning.” That’s gas-lighting. For the good of all, he needs to apologize and resign.
Monty Smith, Tacoma
Nuclear deal
Hopefully President Biden will make nuclear deals with Iran and North Korea.
However, it is equally to be hoped that he does not repeat the fatal flaw of the first Iran deal under President Obama: It imposed a waiting period for the inspection of suspected sites.
This allowed them to move materials for making a nuclear weapon, such as enriched uranium, to a second site during the waiting period for the first site. Then when the second site would come under suspicion, the material could be moved to a third site. And so on.
Unless that is avoided, a future president may decide to cancel the deal again.
Alvin Blake, Tacoma
This story was originally published April 10, 2021 at 3:39 PM with the headline "TNT letters to the editor, 4/10/2021."