Jeanne McHale, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 4/27/12

Dan Carscallen wants everyone to know that the Mayor’s Earth Day award to megaload protesters was not his idea (Letters to the Editor, April 20).

Perhaps he is smarter than the climate scientists who decry mining the Alberta Tar Sands as the final act of irreversible, anthropogenic climate change.  Perhaps he doesn’t mind that indigenous people of northern Alberta are suffering from alarming rates of rare cancers and being robbed of their livelihood as fish and other wildlife are poisoned.

He bemoans the lack of respect given for drivers and flaggers who were “just earning a living.”  There were employees at Auschwitz who were just doing their jobs, too.  And he cites the need to have police “out in force” because “there was no telling what a protester might try.”  This statement implies that police were needed to prevent protesters from committing some unknown but apparently heinous act that Carscallen imagines us to be capable of. Continue reading →

Jacki Vorhees, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 4/26/12

This is in reply to Dan Carscallen’s letter to the editor (Opinion, April 20).

Don’t worry, Carscallen, none of us in attendance would ever think you were for this award.  We saw the eye roll and the lack of respect you showed the mayor.  Your letter is just another chance to stick a pin in your Nancy Chaney doll.

What went on out there on the streets was no worse than what goes on before and after a Vandal football game.  I know you were really hoping for those Molotov cocktails to be thrown, but sadly the group you saw accept the award — and was there every night the megaloads ran — had an average age of 50 and recognize those “just doing their job.” Continue reading →

Allie Pfeiffer, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 4/21/12

I just read Dan Carscallen’s letter to the editor this morning (Opinion, April 20), and while I was not surprised he felt the need to save his own skin, I thought he did it with rather poor form.

My first impression of his letter was not that he felt the need to present a dissenting opinion, but that he saw a golden opportunity to further his own agenda against Mayor Nancy Chaney.  If his sole desire was to express another opinion or “clear his name,” he could have done so without mentioning Chaney at all. Continue reading →

Dan Carscallen, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 4/20/12

When I discovered that Mayor Nancy Chaney was giving one of her annual Earth Day awards to the megaload protesters at Monday night’s council meeting, I was taken aback at her audacity and by her disregard toward the City Council and the Moscow Police Department, especially after the recent employee survey results.

I watched several “megaload protests” and was disappointed at the disrespect shown to not only our fine men and women in uniform but also the flaggers and drivers moving the equipment through town.  I’m sorry, but those folks are just earning a living, and in this day and age, any job is a good job.  If you have a problem with ExxonMobil, take it to ExxonMobil, don’t take it out on the hired help and for dang sure don’t take it out on the cops.

The cops weren’t out in force because the loads are coming through – they were out in force because there was no telling what some protester might try. Continue reading →