Abortion: The Great divider

I want to respond to the letter to the editor by Frank Gibbs (“Right-wing drivel about abortion,” Sept. 6). (Note: The letter in question ran online Sept. 5.)

Gibbs supports a woman’s right to choose. He says we don’t have the right to tell our neighbor to plant marigolds rather than petunias, so why do we have the right to tell her how many children she should have? Mr. Gibbs, if you think you are funny, forget it.

I read the column by Frank Gibbs several times hoping to find even a small reference to the third party in this abortion business. No luck. The baby has no rights. Of course, you would not call it a baby. To you it is simply a “fetus.” Well, it seems to me that when this fetus is being born and the doctor kills it while it is being born, I will call it a baby. A baby has just been killed.

In a botched abortion, one where the baby is mistakenly delivered alive, he has voted to give that doctor the permission to kill this delivered, alive baby. If we were to interfere in this process, you might call it messing with the neighbor’s right to choose petunias or marigolds. I call it infanticide.

Leo J. Thoennes

Federal Way

Karma will catch up with bad driver

As I drive to work doing the speed limit traveling east on Peasley Canyon at 5:22 a.m., a small red car decides I am going too slow and proceeds to pass me on the left (into the oncoming lane).

It is very dark on that curve (the lights are out again). I want that driver to know I am not speeding up because you can’t get out the door on time. The next time you decide to crawl up my ***, I am just going to brake.

But HAHAHAHA, you got stopped at the red light. You can continue on your way, and one day you will cause an accident and then it will be too late to decide whether to speed or not.

Every morning there is one *** on Peasley Canyon who is late trying to reach their destination (you know who you are), and since karma has a way of predicting the future, be careful the next time — or your destination will be heaven.

Charla Evans

Federal Way

Let’s train teachers to use guns

I am so glad guest columnist Mark Knapp (“the firearms lawyer”) has been contributing to the Federal Way Mirror.

Your perspective and voice have long been needed in this community and, frankly, everywhere else the liberal “guns kill people” crowd force their neuroses on the rest of us.

As a legal concealed carry citizen, I have long favored the idea of trained teachers in schools. I homeschool, therefore I am a trained teacher. Fortunately, my classroom has almost zero chance of encountering terrorists or the local thugs attending public schools! As a Marine Corps family, our children have been/are being trained in the use of weapons. We refuse to be part of the victims awaiting police response after being brutalized.

If you remember the Thurston School (Springfield, Ore.) shootings a decade ago by Kip Kinkel after killing his parents — that could have been minimized by a carrying teacher or other staff member. This school is my alma mater (1972) and the slain Mr. Kinkel was my Spanish teacher for three years — the only teacher I went back to visit post high school, as he was my favorite (long before he married Faith and fathered Kip).

My daddy heard the shootings that morning, as we live within eyesight of the school. The first funeral was held at the church we had attended for 14 years before moving to Puget Sound.

The televised news featuring the mayor, police and fire chiefs was haunting as I personally know both chiefs (it’s a small town). The man who eulogized the young victims at the church was also a close friend who was lay pastoral staff. He and his wife were both called to the hospital from separate points in town and didn’t know the other was there. She was an emergency nurse. He was directed by the hospital staff to go in with this boy’s family and was with them when they were making the decisions about his organs.

It’s been 12 years now and I can’t believe that as I write this, my body has begun to tremble unbidden as the shock of that day flows through my memories: Watching my school on CNN, my teachers, my friends, knowing if they parted the trees behind one certain news interviewee I would see the home I was raised in.

Much of this tragedy could have been prevented by armed staff. By the time the school’s “officer” (also a good friend) was back on site, the shooting was over.

By the way, just a tidbit unknown by most: The churches pulled together in a magnificent fashion as they opened their doors and offered themselves for counseling and care of the community.

And I know why: 20 years prior, my pastor began breakfasts once a week for pastors to come together in unity and get to know each other. Not very many at the beginning, but it grew. Their response to this tragedy was the growth from those early seeds planted by a pastor with a heart for the city who had also been a teacher in that school district before being called by God to become a pastor.

Keep up the good fight — I appreciate your columns!

Harriet Cook

Federal Way

No love for the Governor

I was reading, with interest, about the forum (“District 30 candidates cozy up with the mic,” Sept. 6).

Both sides have their own ideas on how we should fix the problems we are facing, and then along comes Gov. Christine Gregoire and she puts in her two cents worth. I just don’t get it: Why one side of the coin, but not the other? Was Dino Rossi informed of our forum? If not, why not?

Your governor’s idea of fixing a problem is to raise the taxes, or doesn’t anybody remember, the minute she took office, that it took her three tries to get, right off the bat, she imposed a 9-cent gas tax, over three years, plus, plus, plus.

Her goals, as she calls them, are a bunch of bunk. We are still having special levies for our schools, and the state is still paying less and less. Job creation? You have got to be kidding. Why are there so many people out of work — and don’t blame the president. The transportation is still lousy, by anybody’s idea of public transportation, and last but not least, I don’t see the economy in any great shakes, being our state spending increased $8 billion!

These are just my opinions, after reading the forum. Oh, by the way, I will be voting for Mr. Skip Priest, only because Ms. Carol Gregory is not to my liking in her answers.

Pat Gee

Federal Way