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Common Sense does Battle with Politics as Usual by Benton Williams Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 20, 2003

Congratulations on your common-sense editorial concerning the Klamath River basin (Wednesday). Now if we can only apply some of it to our own dire circumstances. How much longer are we to endure the failed system of barging salmon, costing billions of taxpayer dollars, while passing over the recommendations of biologists? It's common sense versus politics as usual. Salmon migrate in clean, fresh water, not in barges.

Who can we turn to? Certainly not the Bush administration, whose preoccupation with Muslim matters and anti-environmental issues inhibits any federal assistance. Extinction is forever. The four Snake River dams, whose benefits are replaceable by other means, are expendable. Their removal means jobs. Restoration of salmon means jobs. A salmon fishery benefits all and is mandatory for economic progress. We need leaders with vision, such as the state delegation from both parties, to rescue us from this imbroglio, which has festered far too long.