Letters to the Editor

To the editor,

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

Due to Biden/Harris policies, the cost of living has risen.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the S and P, and Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, home prices from January, 2021, when they took office, until March, 2024, were up 33.9% (Shiller).

Household energy from January, 2021, to May, 2024, was up 29.8% (BLS).

Vehicle Maintenance and Repair from January, 2021 – May, 2024, up 30.5% (BLS).

Motor Vehicle Insurance: Jan. 2021-May, 2024, up 51.8% (BLS).

Shelter (rent): January, 2021-May, 2024, up 21.4% (BLS).

Harris says inflation is under control but the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported motor vehicle insurance up 20.3% in the last year alone.

All food prices are up 21.5% since they took office (BLS).

Overall prices are up 19.2% (BLS).

Gas Prices are up 46.86% (AAA).

Credit card debt up 44.8% (St. Louis Fed).

Do you want more of the same or will you please join me and vote for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance? Together let's Make America Great Again.

Dwight Richter

Dayton, Wash.

To the editor,

October 20 through the 26 was the American Library Association's 19th annual National Friends of the Library Week. Our community is fortunate enough to have a small group of dedicated enthusiastic members who make up the Friends of the Dayton Memorial Library, a "non-profit corporation, dedicated to making contributions, grants, and gifts to benefit the Columbia County Rural Library District and it's patrons." Their efforts leave a positive and lasting impact on our library and community through volunteerism, fundraising, and advocacy.

The following officers and active members of the Friends have made an impact with their time, dedication, and care: President Pearl Dennis; Vice President Lorna Barth; Treasurer Louis Hemphill; and members Sylvia Buehler, Betty Keller, Teeny McMunn, Tonya Patton, Pam Russell, Alys Webber, and the numerous friends of the Friends that pitch in.

Kevin and Carole Rust

Dayton, Wash.

To the editor,

A vote for freedom.

I am the daughter of generations of child educators and the sister of a teacher.

Kamala Harris mocked pro-life students at her rally in Wisconsin, telling them that they were at the wrong rally. The students proclaimed their faith and were forced to leave. What happened to freedom of speech? You can't say anything anymore without being censored.

Our new vice president could be J.D. Vance. He was the obvious winner of the debate with Tim Walz. Tim Walz called himself a knucklehead. We don't need a knucklehead in the White House.

Pro-choice is a lie. Babies don't choose to die. (Quote from George N., Tina Foley.) I also "believe in the sacred duty to love, nurture, and protect the vulnerable you," Paul Ihle, quoted from a letter to the editor in the October 17, 2024, Waitsburg Times. Babies are the most vulnerable. Babies are the most helpless. Aborting is permanent separation. It is more than abuse. Abortion is totally inhumane. Abortions were being done outside of the Democratic convention last summer.

Donald Trump wants to keep our families intact. Limits on abortion will do that.

This country was running smooth under Donald Trump for four years. When Trump was in office, there was no war in Ukraine with Russia. Ukraine's cities were not destroyed. The Middle East was not a hot bed of intense fighting. Iran was not at war with Israel, and there was no fear of World War III.

We aren't voting for the personality of Donald Trump. We are voting for the right of freedom of speech, a world without multiple wars, a secure border with less violence, affordable living with a good economy, and safety for new babies in the womb. Make babies safe again!

I will choose the candidate that has four good years of experience as president.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Dawn S. Spitler

Dayton, Wash.

To the editor,

Voices in church. From the rear of the church last Sunday sparked a voice small and beautiful. That voice met at mid-point of the church with the readings from the pulpit and later the sermon from our priest. It was a blessed mix of sounds that a baby not yet a week old could add to Holy Scripture and guidance from our celebrant. The newly exercised noises pushed by lungs so fresh, combined with the apostles' writings... It gave me hope and it gave me joy.

Then later, after Mass it made me wonder how so many people can have such anger and hatred of the unborn to wish them to be destroyed, especially in the name of a "women's sexual health."

What then of a man's sexual health? Are we not the dominant of the two? In the power of thinking who would women put into the ring against Albert Einstein or Elon Musk? Who would compete against Jesse Owens in a footrace? In a swimming pool they might have to resort to getting a woman with male genitalia to even place in the top 100. In beauty pageants, men are winning those contests too, that's a fact.

As the left increases noise with LGBTQ and other perverted ideas, more schools and the public is tricked to follow a false prophet. Powerful voices within the Democrat party who represent Islam (not America) wish this country to be ruled by Sharia Law. In the heart of that law, women have no rights to speak of, as I understand. They are property of their father or their husband as if they were livestock. So, if a woman was to displease her husband by not being exactly what he wished for in their intimate relations, should he for his sexual health not have the right to club her like a baby seal? Why should she have more rights than the unborn, who have done no harm?

Do I believe that this upcoming election will be stolen? Yep. They must to protect all the lies we have been forced to digest. The "FACE" act is putting American citizens in prison. Lauren Handy, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, William Goodman, and Herb Geraghty were protesting in our nation's capital where they have Constitutional rights and reason to do so. They have been convicted by evil, something that is not us. The penalty is nearly five years and up to $260,000 in fines. They are now criminals simply because they spoke to protect the right to draw breath.

Williams, a young American black mother and wife, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for crying out in behalf of the most defenseless among us. Grandmothers are rotting in captivity for the same reason. In Brittan, an army veteran, Adam Smith Connor has been arrested for silently praying. It was interpreted as anti-abortion and he receives imprisonment.

In my opening I spoke of a child and her voice that lifted my soul inside our church. However, it was speared when I heard of a recent situation when Harris spoke at a rally in La Crosse, Wis., (not a church) she remarked to an attendee who voiced "Jesus is King" that he was in the wrong place. It seems Jesus is not welcome where left leaning democrats assemble.

George Orwell foretold of these things and we read them as fiction. When it comes time to vote, don't think of the little ones who haven't had the opportunity to give their gifts to us, but rather think of yourself. You will not last forever but your soul will. Aim it correctly.

Eric McKeirnan

Pomeroy, Wash.