Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Monday, July 11, 2005

Bette Davis Eyes

A rather amusing letter to the editor from Michael Rutledge Riley of Potlatch, a language arts and civics teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Pullman, appeared over the weekend in the the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. I’ll quote some of the best snippets:
...I’m firmly against the idea of a Wal-Mart in our community. The reasons are the same as those hitting the pages of the Daily News opinion page ad nauseam...
Probably the most accurate thing he says in his letter. The anti-Wal-Mart letters are stomach-turning.
...just general heebeejeebees over anything corporate America...
That just about sums up the best argument Wal-Mart opponents can make, followed closely by: “Wal-Mart spreads cooties.”
...I like Pullman as it was when I came here in 1981...
Gee, 1981 was the year I graduated from high school. There are a lot of things I wish were still like they were in 1981:

My waist size
Gas prices
Top 40 music
Ronald Reagan as president
Music actually being played on MTV

But, alas, times change.
...with the real estate and consumer-related growth of the past few years, I’m not sure I’ll like it in 10 or 20 years...
I wonder if he will still like his job in 10 or 20 years. Because it is for certain that the new Lincoln Middle School would not have been built and that the Pullman School District would not be the quality system that it is today without the growth Pullman has experienced over the past few years.
...I find it appalling that an out-of-state business has more say in Pullman City Hall than concerned lifetime residents...
I find it appalling that an Idaho resident, whose salary, health benefits and retirement plan are paid for by the taxpayers of Pullman and the State of Washington, has anything to say about this at all.
As for the super-size supporters, local business owners and ordinary citizens alike who would prefer to have all of the amenities of Lewiston, Spokane, or Coeur d’Alene, I’d suggest that you might stop trying to morph Pullman into another shopper’s paradise and perhaps consider moving a few miles closer down the road to be next to your favorite outlet shopping mall.
I suggest the opposite. I think anti-Wal-Mart supporters should follow Mr. Riley’s example and move to a small town whose high school doesn’t even teach the foreign languages which are a prerequisite for admission to WSU and U of I. There are a variety of towns to choose from around here that are 25 years behind the times and that have no economic or residential growth. Your conscience will rest easier and it will help the housing shortage around here.

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