The latest in the “blame game” is the question who is responsible for allowing deterioration of the Howard Hanson Dam, to the point where the engineers are telling us Kent soon faces devastating flooding.
Actually, it is the American people who are to blame. The government agencies whose mission it is to look ahead and prevent future disasters have been underfunded now for 40 years. Conservative national administrations have done this, they believe, in accordance with the will of the people.
The political parties compete to offer the highest tax cuts, program agency budgets are held level in spite of inflation of costs, the American people vote for fanatical big-government haters.
The Corps of Engineers is no exception. They simply have not had the appropriation of the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to rebuild this dam. They will not have it, either, as long as we continue to send “big government haters/tax resisters” to the U.S Congress and White House. So we in Kent, like the people of New Orleans, will have to become used to damaged infrastructure, evacuations of residents of the valley, loss of our economic base, etc.
It is a shame that we cannot take better care of our wonderful communities like Kent. No other developed country allows these natural disasters to happen. Citizens of countries like Switzerland, Denmark and Holland willingly pay as much as 50 percent of their income in taxation by their national governments. They receive services and protection which they think are well worth the taxes they pay. When will Americans grow up and face the costs of protection and services which enhance community life?
Larry Greene
Kent
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