Letters

Sno-Isle levy

Libraries are a valuable asset

Public libraries may be the most public of our institutions. They offer the free loan of books and other materials to residents of all ages, many of whom are regular users. Moreover, libraries are open convenient hours, and their online catalogs and information databases are accessible anytime to residents from home or office computers.

Libraries also reflect and advance some of the highest aspirations of communities – literacy and the pursuit and value of knowledge. Works in library collections not only keep us informed, they express feelings and sentiments of what it is to be human. For this, each of us is less alone.

Sno-Isle Regional Library is facing a budget shortfall of $800,000 in 2004 that will have an impact on its ability to provide the service we have come to rely on. This can be avoided by restoring the library levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. For a $300,000 home this amounts to an additional $12 per year in property tax.

Please support the library with a yes vote on the levy lift.

MICHAEL LEVINE

Edmonds

Levy will help prevent closures

Seattle residents have been denied access to their public library because of budget deficits. I urge my friends and neighbors to keep this situation from happening in Snohomish and Island counties by voting yes for libraries.

All public agencies are suffering. During these times, it is important to keep the public library open and available. The Sno-Isle Regional Library is facing a budget shortfall in 2004 and has asked residents of the library district to increase their support of libraries by restoring the library levy to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

If we neglect this opportunity, we will experience a one-week library closure, a reduction in the library system’s book budget, and reduced hours in some communities. Please preserve our high standard of public library service by voting yes for libraries.

KARIN THOMSEN

Bothell

Church and state

State accepts money but not Jesus’ name

For those who like a tall, thick wall separating church and state, consider the following story, as related by Ken Schram.

A couple named Daria and Evan Buchanan paid $100 for a commemorative brick to be placed in a state park playground. Other bricks had different inscriptions. Theirs read, “Thank you, Jesus.” The state took the $100 but refused to put on the inscription because it would violate the 1st Amendment — without the Buchanans’ knowledge or consent.

What park was it that should not be soiled by a Christian message?

St. Edward’s State Park. A park, worth millions of dollars, that was graciously donated not many years ago by the Catholic Church to the state of Washington. And we can’t allow Jesus’ name in this park?

No good can come of such narrow-minded, anti-Christian bigotry. Are we Christians really so fearsome that hardshell secularists can’t even allow us an opportunity to leave a brick with Jesus’ name on it in a child’s playground?

We Christians observe these same anti-Christian folks in government are always happy to take our tax money just as they were happy to take the Buchanans’ gift. But once they receive our money they spit in our faces. I think their concept of separation of church and state is rather convenient.

For my own part, I don’t think it a wise policy for the state to engage in such acts of pettiness toward people of good will. It should treat all people regardless whether they are religious or not as equals under the law.

The Apostle Paul once said Jesus would be a “rock of offense” to some unbelievers. Perhaps he meant a brick.

CRAIG SPICER

Lynnwood

Rotary project

Trip aimed at ending

the disease of polio

Fifty Rotarians will soon leave Seattle for Ethiopia to participate in a polio immunization campaign. For some this will be their first visit to a third world country. They will experience a depth of poverty and disease that is unimaginable.

They will be led by Ezra Teshome, a local insurance agent, Ralph Munro, former Washington Secretary of State, and Dr. Omara Benjamin Abe, local Anthropology Professor. The group will join efforts to eliminate polio by 2005.

The eradication of polio means many of today’s children will not be trapped in twisted bodies unable to move, walk, work or attend school. For them we can be happy. But what about those with polio? Do we pack our bags in 2005, congratulate ourselves, and say the job is done? I hope not.

The job will not be done until those with polio have mobility. The campaign does not end when the last child is immunized and the world is declared polio free. It continues until every person with polio is provided a wheelchair.

Local Rotarians will soon deliver 500 wheelchairs to Ethiopia. Many more are needed. For a donation of $75 to Rotary anyone can help deliver a wheelchair.

To those Rotarians going to Ethiopia I am asking you to do something special. Help lift someone into a wheelchair. The moment you do you become the most important individual in that person’s life. You’re empowering them with mobility. Then ask yourself if Rotary’s polio campaign really ends in 2005 or are we, as Rotarians, now entering the next phase of a program to assure mobility to those who were never protected.

GREG GOURLEY

The Rotary Club of Lynnwood