Neighbors rallied with hoses during Zintel Canyon fire, and other Herald letters | Opinion

KID water was slow in coming

Recently, I witnessed and lived through a battle to save homes from the Zintel Canyon fire. It was terrifying. Disasters like this often bring out the best in people. Unknown neighbors showed up with their water hoses and jumped fences to save precious homes. Humanity at its best. Thank you. It also calls out a long-standing problem.

This year, Kennewick Irrigation District (KID) failed to supply us with enough irrigation water to run our sprinkler systems until a couple days after the fire. The drips we received could not prevent trees and grasses from drying. It took KID about one month to figure out a pump issue. Really, one month? Until fixed, we hooked up to city water (what a bill that’s going to be!) while already paying KID for what had been mostly non-existent irrigation water since the season began.

While we’re grateful that our system now works, I hear some farmers have water issues as well. How can they feed the world without access to one of our most precious resources? I’ve no answers, just frustration. Please, someone in a position of authority do something to help prevent an even bigger disaster from happening in the future.

Cindy Suryan, Kennewick

Careless driving needs penalties

I have a question for the Tri-Cities: Are the police charging drivers every time they fail to yield for pedestrians or are they waiting until someone has been hit by a car? Because it seems to me if you’re not issuing a fine every time a driver ignores a pedestrian’s right to cross safely, you are asking for the current problem.

As is it, pedestrians are at constant risk of being run over by drivers too inconvenienced to wait a few seconds for people to take their due turn. It’s already hard enough for pedestrians to get around here, with incomplete sidewalks, people blocking the sidewalk and no safe spots to cross some roads for miles, even with a crosswalk.

What is the point of trying bring in tourists if they can’t walk from a nearby hotel to Columbia Center Mall safely? I wouldn’t come back to a city where half the people who live here drive like they don’t care if they accidentally kill someone and face no consequences for driving so recklessly unless they hit someone. Consequences should be happening before drivers kill anyone.

Racheal Brown, Kennewick

High court fails ethics standards

The Supreme Court’s decisions affect the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. Recently, the Supreme Court limited the wetland protection of the Clean Water Act. According to the court, the science of clean water doesn’t matter. The judges, unelected and employed for life, fail to police themselves with a code of conduct and ethics required of lower courts. Federal laws that apply to them include financial disclosure and recusal standards.

Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose luxury trips, and the private school tuition of Thomas’s grandnephew, all paid for by billionaire Harlan Crow. Crow is affiliated with at least one company with a case before the court. Neil Gorsuch sells real estate only days after taking his seat on the court to the chief executive of a law firm that has regular business before the court. Chief Justice John Roberts, when asked to appear before a Judiciary Committee hearing, waved off the request.

As a former employee of a Department of Energy contractor, conflict of interest training was required. If you are a Supreme Court justice, you have won the lottery and you can be arrogantly dismissive of the ethics that apply to many who work in the federal government.

Mickey Beary, Richland