Letters to the Editor

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or off-line to presjour@pressenter.com. Otherwise, comments cannot and will not be printed without a verifiable source.

Don't recycle new recycling guide; it's a good reference

Dear Editor:

This is an open letter to Pierce County residents and businesses.

Do you have used tires, appliances, electronics and fluorescent bulbs at your home or business that you'd like to dispose of, but don't now how? Do you have questions about recycling but don't know who to ask?

Do you have old scrap metal, motor oil, oil and fuel filters, antifreeze, auto and household batteries and outdated cell phones that you'd like to dispose? Have you ever wondered what to do with carpeting, mattresses, furniture and construction debris?

The answer to those questions and many more will be arriving in your mailbox the week of Feb.12 in the newly revised and colorful "2007 Pierce County Recycling Guide." The newly updated recycling guide, complete with an index, clearly outlines the proper disposal of these items and many more.

If you are a new resident in Pierce County, or you own a business here, the recycling guide will be extremely useful because it lists the numerous recycling drop-off sites and curbside programs, compost and yard waste sites and official contacts for township and municipal offices. The location, dates and hours of Pierce County's 2007 Clean Sweep hazardous waste collection events also are posted.

As odd as this sounds, I must ask you - please do not recycle your new updated recycling guide! Please take a minute and read through it, then put it in a safe place for reference throughout the year.

Together we can save money and save our natural resources as well.

Steve Melstrom

Pierce County Solid Waste

Ellsworth

Ivins' insights will be missed

Dear Editor:

Here's to a rare journalist, a terrific writer, a woman of great courage, real intelligence and knowledge, incisive wit and a profound sense of comedic irony.

We will miss Molly Ivins but appreciate and treasure the many years she has served as a voice of reason and dissent. She encouraged people in all walks of life to take freedom of speech as a serious civic responsibility in the defense of democracy.

Phyllis Golden and

Wanda Brown

River Falls

Bush fails to admit his failure

Dear Editor:

In his State of the Union address, President Bush sounded a familiar note of anxiety: America must not fail in Iraq. The public, he added, did not "vote for failure."

Unfortunately it's no longer a matter of "must not." America has already failed in Iraq. And to the extent that we actually voted for Bush in 2004, whether knowingly or not, we did "vote for failure."

Much harm will come of this refusal to face up to the very evident fact of our failure in Iraq. We have broken that country and like Humpty Dumpty, it can't be put back together again the way it was before.

This is not to say that some good cannot come from admitting our failure. We can learn valuable lessons - not to do this again. Not to place blind faith in our leaders as they seduce and bully us into war.

Meanwhile, we have the sad spectacle of a broken presidency clinging to the fantasy of some sort of American victory amid civil war and chaos, a dysfunctional president impervious to reality and bent on self-vindication.

Some commentators say that Bush's "legacy" depends on succeeding in Iraq, whatever that now means. Do we then place a president's legacy above the lives of our troops, not to mention the Iraqi civilians being sacrificed daily to Bush's refusal to go down in history, as he inevitably will, as pitchman for a failed, unnecessary and horrendously costly war?

Thomas R. Smith

River Falls

Good samaritan acknowledged

Dear Editor:

On Feb. 3, the temperature was below zero all day and the water pipes burst at the Water Tower Apartments. We were without water most of the day.

Ptacek's grocery sent jugs of water over to the residents. It was appreciated. Thank you very much, Mike and Kate.

There is still much kindness in this world if we just look for it. People do have love in their hearts.

Melba Leighty

Prescott

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