I recently asked Congressman Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, this question. I found his reply less than satisfactory.

“The path forward should be focused on evidence-based steps that will actually improve public safety and prevent future tragedies,” he stated in a letter. Those steps, in his view, include cracking down on gun trafficking, improving mental health services and enhancing background checks.

While these sound like fine ideas, they do not go far enough. What about banning military-style assault weapons that have no legitimate use in our society? What about banning high-capacity ammunition that inflicts so much damage so quickly?

And what exactly are “evidence-based steps”? The only evidence we have is that what we are doing now is not working. When 6- and 7-year-olds are paying with their lives for the interests of the gun industry, that is not working and is just plain sickening.

I urge Kilmer and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to take strong action against gun violence on behalf of Washington voters.

With that in mind, former congressman Jay Inslee captured 46 percent of the primary vote, Sen. Maria Cantwell 55 percent and U.S. Rep. Adam Smith a whopping 61 percent. With the economy being the No. 1 issue in the November election, I decided to revisit my voters pamphlet to determine what these candidates had to say about jobs and the economy.

Inslee states that his mission as governor is to create a stronger and growing economy, making Washington a hub for clean energy. Cantwell states she is focused on job creation and that she is working to develop new clean energy industry. Smith states creating jobs and growing our economy is his top priority, and we need to focus on fundamentals.

Are they part of the problem or the solution? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce provides us with a pro-jobs legislation rating for our congressional leaders. The chamber rated Inslee at 36 percent, Cantwell at 54 percent and Smith at 51 percent. This doesn’t square with jobs are their “jobs are my No. 1 priority” statements in the voters pamphlet. Half of the time Inslee, Cantwell and Smith voted against jobs and business during a recession when unemployment in Washington state is 9 percent.

The congressional approval rating is 13.8 percent, and voters can only blame themselves; we sent them there over and over again.

I met with Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Jaime Herrera-Buetler, Sen. Maria Cantwell, and staff from Sen. Patty Murray’s office, and made it clear that Congress needs to put partisanship aside on behalf of the nearly 14 million cancer survivors in the United States and more than 1.6 million people in America who will be diagnosed this year.

Funding for research at the National Institutes of Health and for cancer prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and through the new Prevention and Public Health Fund must be top priorities in the federal budget. Legislation recently introduced in Congress to improve the quality of life for cancer patients must also be an important priority.

By making these life-saving programs a priority, we will ensure that progress continues in the fight against cancer.

Kilmer was born and raised on the Olympic Peninsula, the son of teachers. Watching friends and families suffer the debilitating effects of the timber industry failure, he had a vision to create jobs, support economic development, protect the environment, and ensure that community and our veterans could thrive. Kilmer respects the balance between small business and broader community concerns.

Kilmer has pragmatically worked at job creation; he helped create a new hospital and 450 jobs. He works across the aisle, acknowledging that all people need to work, and his success is measured by accolades from many prestigious organizations.

When Norm Dicks announced his resignation from the 6th Congressional District seat, an opportunity was created for Kilmer to seek that seat. Dicks, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and organizations supporting middle-class values have endorsed Kilmer. I know that he will fight for what’s right to keep our economy moving forward.

My retirement beckons. Kilmer is committed to expanding opportunities for people like his grandmother, me and eventually his two small children to have meaningful work and retire in modest comfort.

Kilmer has economic vision, planning and policy experience. Our military, workers, businesses, and our families will be the winners with him representing the 6th Congressional District.

I believe the B Reactor is fine the way it is, and I believe it’s a mistake to turn it into a park.

I visited the B Reactor in 2009. At that time, public tours were infrequent, space was limited and reservations were hard to come by. My tour group found the building very much as it was when shut down in 1968, save for the necessary clean-up work. There was little sign the place had become a museum.

In the control room, I stood inches away from the console where Enrico Fermi himself orchestrated the plant’s first operations, and the only thing that kept me from pushing the buttons was that I had my hands in my pockets.

All of this will change if the National Park Service is allowed to turn the place into a tourist destination. It will become necessary to rope off the relics and put them under glass. Increased visitor traffic will cause deterioration, and the experience of seeing the place first-hand will be diminished and become trite.

I don’t believe Sen. Maria Cantwell and Congressman Doc Hastings have the B Reactor’s historical value at heart. I think the goal is to attract tourist dollars. And votes.

As a result I’m knocking on doors and calling citizens in my precinct urging them to support Democrats at all levels: Barack Obama for president, Maria Cantwell for U.S. Senate, Jay Inslee for governor, Bob Ferguson for attorney general, and Democrats for the other statewide and county offices.

I’m supporting Denny Heck in the new 10th Legislative District and, in the 25th Legislative District, Dawn Morrell and Bill Hilton for the state House and Eric Herde for state Senate.

There are occasional good Republican office holders who supported the values of my parents when I was growing up in Oregon. No-compromise tea party folks and Grover Nordquist (never raise taxes) shout down the moderate Republicans.

Support middle-class values rather than those 17 angry billionaires who need our tax dollars to build their next mansion in Bermuda.

(Beckendorf is a Democratic precinct officer in the 25th Legislative District.)

Our state already has almost a million Medicare recipients and our 65-and-over population will increase 136 percent between 2000 and 2030. Yet Congress could impose additional Medicare reimbursement cuts on home health services, limiting access to care and the opportunity for greater efficiency.

The home health community believes it can also help address the nation’s fiscal challenges by proposing legislation to strengthen Medicare’s integrity and reduce costly fraud and abuse. As a home health professional, I hope Sen. Maria Cantwell will support reimbursements for Medicare home health services and will vote to strengthen Medicare integrity.

Two weeks ago the price of regular was $4.16 at Costco in Puyallup, well above the national average. Today it’s $3.54 and dropping like a rock. What a difference, thanks to the efforts of Maria Cantwell.

Why, then, do schools have their students spend so much time on computers in class? The time spent on Internet research, YouTube videos, smart board and power point presentations, and online tests, adds up to a little over two hours a day.

Baroness Susan Greenfield, a professor in brain neurology, says, “Working on computers prevents the brain from learning properly, and can lead to addiction to drugs and gambling in later life.” I bet parents are startled to discover that their children’s mental health is at risk.

In a press release, Sen. Maria Cantwell says that “computers in classrooms help students prepare to succeed in an economy heavily dependent on technology.” However, in the Silicon Valley Waldorf School, there is no technology – just paper and pencils – and the students grow up to become prosperous in businesses.

Exposure may be a good idea, but research shows that at a younger age than high school, it could do more harm than good. There should be little or no computer exposure for grade school students – just books and pencils. This will make children’s futures much brighter and will save schools thousands of dollars.

Unlike the writer, I have had quite a few contacts with Sen. Patty Murray over the years, and she has always been very responsive to my comments and inquiries. I admit that I did not use email in these contacts, but wrote letters to her using her Seattle address (The Honorable Patty Murray, 2988 Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98174).

I believe that all of our legislators’ addresses and other contact information may be found on the Access Washington website.

Like the writer, I am a retiree (military veteran), and just so no one thinks I am biased in favor of Murray, I am, as the current trend goes, one who “prefers the Republican Party.” Also, though it hardly matters, I have never received a reply from Sen. Maria Cantwell on any subject I have referred to her.