Letters to the Editor for March 27, 2012

Vandalism outrages Dorothy Fox community

Recently, Dorothy Fox Elementary School was vandalized. Someone spray painted random graffiti on most of the playground walls.

This is so frustrating to everyone at the school. My reaction was “why did they have to do that? I want them to be caught.”

Now, it’s not as nice of an environment to play sports during recess or hang out with friends. We’re hard workers, we enjoy the things we accomplish and the playground is the only place we get to relax besides lunch.

Whoever did it should be punished. They should pay for the damage, clean the walls and apologize to the school at an assembly. Also, they should see what its like to get arrested. If it’s a student, then their parents need to take a special parenting class.

When people vandalize schools, the community pays. That’s not fair. We pay for something that we didn’t do.

We all need to do our part. Be a friendly reporter. If you see someone suspicious or doing something they’re not supposed to, like climbing on a building, then tell someone that can help. These are our schools and we want to keep them in the best shape we can.

Andrew Okerlund, Third grader at Dorothy Fox Elementary in Camas

Help support families dealing with Alzheimer’s disease

In October I found out my mother, who is 71, was diagnosed with early-stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and my 76-year-old father, for now, is her sole caregiver.

Alzheimer’s is a rapidly growing concern to our country, state, the families who are on the front-lines of care giving, and those who are suffering from this incurable disease. Although the passage of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act is a huge step in the right direction, much more is needed to meaningfully help these families.

According to 2010 Washington State statistics, there are 110,000 Washingtonians with Alzheimer’s, many of whom are cared for by approximately 310,000 unpaid caregivers who provide about 350 million hours of unpaid care worth about $4.2 million a year.

It’s estimated that Alzheimer’s is going to cost the US $200 billion this year in health care and will increase to over $1 trillion by 2050 if we don’t do something now.

More needs to be done in our community to support these families medically and moreover financially because too many families are losing everything they worked so hard attain in order to provide proper health care for their loved ones.

Jorge Martinez, Camas

Keep natural resources, including coal, in the U.S.

There has been great publicity concerning the probability of increased traffic of coal carrying trains and the associated environmental concerns such as dust and noise. However, nothing is mentioned about the much more important and pressing issue about the conservation of our own domestic energy supply.

Is anyone else concerned that we (the USA) are exporting our ( domestic) natural resources to eastern markets such as China? Why are we doing this at a time when energy costs are at all time high and climbing and people are constantly told how our resources are limited and we should all ride bikes and drive Volts?

Coal has been deemed an evil resource by the environmentalists and the media but there is technology to minimize the sulfur in the coal and produce clean energy.

With unstable middle east and rising energy prices we should utilize and guard our own natural resources, including coal, and not send our energy down the tracks to derail our economy and our future.

Elena Kokta, Washougal