The verbal attack on Matt Richardson at my front door over the weekend by Pam Roach really has me upset. I hope voters in the 31st district are smart enough to see through the lies.

Richardson has no criminal record. He has a security clearance from the Department of Defense, which involves an extensive FBI background check, and he’s a teacher in good standing.

It appears that Roach is desperately seeking to defame Richardson and make him into something he’s not.

I would suggest that Glenn Beck do his theological homework before evaluating the quality of someone else’s Christianity.

The report on his assessment (TNT, 8-30) of President Obama’s faith as somehow deficient and a “version of Christianity” which American people won’t recognize reveals an ignorance of a very central theme of the Bible.

“Liberation theology” is a modern term for a theme at the very heart of the Bible’s testimony to the nature and activity of God. From beginning to end, the Bible shows God as an advocate for the poor, the powerless and those exploited by the powerful. It …

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I implore Americans who care about America’s covenant of community to reach hands of friendship to our Muslim brothers and sisters. It is time for people of conscience to speak out against the stereotypes, the fear-mongering, and the bigotry that crush the hearts of American Muslims. Anti-Islam is the new Antisemitism. We know where that leads insecure and frightened people who feel that their nation is losing its dominance.

Think what it must feel like to be Muslim in America today. My own Muslim friends are anxious and afraid to speak up. They feel like Jews in Nazi Germany, just …

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I have had it! Nearly every other night, my husband relates how someone is walking or jogging in the bike lane in which he is riding his bike.

These bike lanes are clearly marked by the universal bicycle symbol. On a recent evening, a woman was walking south on Grandview Drive, facing traffic. This was an area that also has sidewalks that she should have been using. She, like most of these bike-lane walker/joggers, did not move out of the bike lane when my husband approached on his bike. She selfishly stayed in the bike lane, forcing him out into …

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I’m voting no on Initiative 1082.

This would provide less protection for workers in the state of Washington. Currently, when a worker is injured and files a Labor & Industries claim, the claim is handled independently of whether or not the employer has worker’s comp insurance. If it doesn’t, the state deals with the employer separately, allowing the worker’s legitimate claim to go through.

Under I-1082, this independent handling would stop. Instead, when a worker is injured, files a claim and the employer has no worker’s comp insurance, it will be up to the employee to hire an attorney and …

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Re: “Smoke-free in apartments” (TNT, 8-29).

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department should definitely endorse amending the state Landlord-Tenant Act to include secondhand smoke as a “nuisance” similar to loud music or barking dogs. Many people are surprised it wasn’t included as a nuisance five years ago.

Declaring secondhand smoke a “nuisance” would simply give a tenant the upper hand in removing unwanted secondhand smoke from their property, particularly in the case when a landlord does not include a smoking policy in their lease (now law in Oregon).

Pierce County landlords should know they can already include a very strict no-smoking …

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Re: “Climate change: At least science admits its errors” (editorial, 8-31).

Your editorial rightly noted that science corrects itself over time. That is one reason policymakers and citizens should have confidence in the conclusion that the Earth is warming rapidly due to an overload of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.

If the contrarians who have been attacking climate scientists were held to the same standards those scientists hold themselves to, they would have been shamed out of the public debate decades ago.

Finally, your editorial mentions the controversy over e-mails stolen from climate scientists last fall, …

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In all the well-deserved praises that have been heaped on the Chambers Bay golf course, the U.S. Amateur championship and the many volunteers who made it a success, no mention has been made of the people who made it all happen.

I am speaking of John Ladenberg, our former county executive, and other county officials who, in the face of much criticism and resistance, had the foresight and courage to stick to their guns.

The property could have easily been zoned for high-end homes, condos and supporting businesses benefiting a few and generating substantial tax income to the county. Yet …

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