Dori Monson’s Feedback Friday — Snow, Patty Murray, and a $250K octopus

Welcome to our new Feedback Friday feature, where we collect a sampling of comments we receive over email and Facebook on various topics throughout the week. Want the chance to have your comments included in Feedback Friday? Send your thoughts about any show topics via email or the Dori Monson Facebook page.

Patty Murray and infanticide

These children are worth saving

First, I want to thank you so much for bringing to our attention the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act that was brought before the Senate and that our own Patty Murray voted against. I would like to share a story of a dear couple we know who just recently adopted a child born to an unwed mother at 26 weeks, weighing 2 pounds, 2 ounces. I think of that child lying on the table needing oxygen as the debate goes on between mom and health care providers to decide if he is worth living.

Fortunately, this little boy was given the oxygen he needed in the hospital for four months, and fostered out to this wonderful family, who eventually adopted him. He is now almost 2, walking, talking, laughing, normal in every way, blessing the lives of all who know him. It makes me weep that he is the child Patty Murray is talking about killing. God help us.

– Gayla in Orting

Stop the dangerous rhetoric

Democrats are not obsessed with KILLING babies. STOP this dangerous rhetoric. As a public health nurse with over 30 years of experience both in nursing and fostering children, I can tell you that no one wants an abortion. It is a personal and difficult decision for WOMEN (not men) to decide. How I wish N.Y. and Virginia didn’t legalize late term abortions. This will be a seldom used but explosive topic for you white males! I hope to God that none of your daughters ever needs or wants to terminate a pregnancy.

I don’t listen to your show, but hear your awful messaging while listening to Tom in the morning.

– Mary in Buckley

This goes beyond abortion to murder

I am absolutely disgusted with Patty Murray! Who could ever think this is OK? I’m pro-choice, but this is beyond that. It’s murder of a living, breathing baby. Shameful!

– Anjela on Facebook

Puget Sound blanketed by snow

Remember, snow hurts small businesses

Ursula, thank you for your concern about the problems with snow. Think about how this weather could kill Valentine’s Day for all of us florists. We have a major investment in flowers that have been ordered for two months. We depend on Valentine’s Day to make it. Not only would we not make much-needed income, we could lost our shirt over a severe snowstorm. Snow is only fun if your business can survive it.

– Jennell in Milton

We pay high taxes, yet are still snowed-in

I am really mad right now. We live in unincorporated King County, east of Woodinville, on a hill that has quite a large population, Hollywood Hill. Normally, the main arterial is sanded and plowed. If you can get to it, you are good to go to get to the town.

We just tried to make the trip; the arterial is a half-block from our house. We made it. But, horrors! The road wasn’t sanded. We turned around and I got on the King County site to see what’s up. It would appear that because of reduced gas taxes and because of road levies not being passed, they reduced the budget for road services — but, of course, the budget for the homeless goes up.

Our taxes just went up $500 “for the children.” How are we to get emergency services up here if the roads are impassable?

– Dee in Woodinville

The ‘slush fund’ — a suggestion for mitigating snow impact

I made this suggestion to a former mayor of Olympia and he found every reason to offer that the suggestions wouldn’t work. As an East Coast transplant, I come from a place that gets snow on a regular basis. My suggestion was simply this — how about we set money aside every year into a revolving ‘slush fund’ for snow removal? Establish a current outside private contractor list of companies that are capable of snow removal — companies with proper insurance, drivers, and equipment.

Pay them a flat hourly rate for snow removal and hire them when we have an event for side-street plowing while the city trucks handle the main roads. I also mentioned that the garbage trucks all sit idle when it snows, so they could be fitted with plows (a one-time cost) and could be out clearing streets.

The former mayor’s concern was that if the drivers are not trained in snow removal, they might scrape off the traffic buttons on the road. The bottom line is that the people responsible don’t think outside the box and are not willing to look for solutions that work, so be prepared once again for gridlock.

– Jim in Olympia

There’s ‘snow’ favoritism here … or is there? 

It seems like, based on my anecdotal evidence, WSDOT is focusing on plowing areas that will be served by ST3, or perhaps areas that voted to approve ST3?

– David in Lake Stevens

An octopus of an art installation

Art is valuable to our culture

C’mon Dori, anyone with half a brain would know that it’s state law that any public infrastructure project is required to spend a certain amount of money on public art. So why do you lie to your listeners about it? You called for them to complain about it? Do you realize that you are setting them up to sound ignorant?

Maybe that is exactly what you are capitalizing upon, per usual. This all goes without saying why you or your listeners would even fathom why art (and access to it for all) is important for our culture. Your free market argument about how buying some trinket in Hawaii is good enough is bunk, demonstrating how far we have fallen as a society that doesn’t understand art’s value to our culture.

Stop lying to your listeners — you are making them even more under-educated than they already are.

– Jeff in Kent

Blame the politicians, not the artists

I’m not an artisan and couldn’t care less about art. Artists react to opportunities to practice their craft, just like you, just like everyone else. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all a waste of money, but it’s money Rogoff and our politicians put out there. It’s hard for me to blame anyone who applies for any government job, including art.

The people, our politicians and government agencies that offer our money, are to blame for the waste of our dollars from projects that are 13 years behind schedule and billions over budget. They are the ones to blame for spending money huge sums of money on so-called art.

They offer the contracts — hard for me to blame anyone who takes advantage of the opportunity.

Joseph in Puyallup