OUR BOYS

COURTNEY NASH: I want to thank you for the respectful and compassionate story you wrote about "our boys" ["Final Tracks," Feb 28]. It was done with obvious concern for the families, and my wife and I thank you.

There is an item that you might be interested in following up on. After Kevin died, his mother and I created a memorial fund for the boys. We have raised money for a new type of avalanche transceiver that has a longer range and can be deployed from a helicopter. This has the potential to improve the effectiveness and safety of searches.

On March 14, this unit will be placed in service by the Pierce County Sheriff's Department's Search and Rescue Unit and will be made available to the entire Western Washington area. A lot of different S&R units were involved in the search for our boys. There is a very cooperative relationship among the groups.

Stephen J. Carter, MD

DISBAND THE PEOPLE AND ELECT A NEW ONE

HELLO ELI SANDERS: The criticisms you level against Democrats in "Washington State as Prologue" [March 10, online only] are interesting, but utterly misleading—not only because the part-time Washington State legislature can't be compared to the United States Congress, but also because your piece tacitly implies that the skittishness Democrats display around tax reform results from some confusion among Democrats about the need for higher taxes to support certain key initiatives.

Democratic politicians aren't the ones who are confused on this issue; it's the electorate of Washington State and the United States at large who have bad policy priorities in this area. Politicians who want to raise taxes for anything—even spending priorities that voters care about—face an uphill battle convincing the electorate that raising taxes is the necessary and appropriate way to address those priorities. Blame the Democratic politicians if you want, but people are basically getting the legislators, and the legislation, they deserve.

Jason Kovacs

GODLESS VS. GAYLORDS

JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE: Your article on the Boy Scouts ["Badge of Dishonor," March 6] correctly criticized them for discriminating against gays, but failed to mention that they also discriminate against a much larger group: atheists. Recent polls show that approximately 15 percent of Americans are atheists or agnostics. In contrast, gays make up only 2 to 3 percent of males (the oft-quoted 10 percent figure is a gross overstatement). Discrimination against gays is wrong; so is discrimination based on religion [or lack thereof].

Jon Noll

MEGAMANSIONS, MINI-LOTS

DEAR STRANGER: Erica C. Barnett is either naive or needs to get better acquainted with a tape measure when she writes about "massive lots averaging more than 4,500 square feet" ["Are the Terrorists Right?" March 6]. I have no doubt that the overblown, and subsequently burned down, megamansions themselves were too massive for lots more appropriate to modest bungalows, but, at 45 x 100 feet, we're talking about smallish, city-type lots. No wonder the U.S. always comes in so low in those international math-literacy surveys.

Gayle Richardson

POLAND'S FINEST

TO ERICA C. BARNETT: Be jealous: My grandmother was straight from Poland ["Sauerkraut and Steak Tartar," Feb 28]. My babcia was the best cook ever, but the ladies at Dom Polski are pretty good, too. My personal favorites at Dom Polski are the golabki (stuffed cabbage, pronounced "gaw wump kee"—my babcia used a mix of ground beef and pork, along with fried onions and par-boiled rice, for the innards); pierogi ("pyeh raw gee," with a hard r); the breaded pork chop (my babcia used veal instead of pork); and when they have it as a special, the ground-pork burgers with mushroom gravy, and the white cabbage (biala kapusta, "byahwah kah poo stah"). I usually go to Dom Polski on Sunday afternoons because I go Balkan dancing on Fridays, and also, it's more crowded on Fridays.

Don't forget, March 15 is the spring bazaar, and May 10 is all-you-can-eat pierogi for a set price (they have more variety in the pierogi stuffing this day—besides the meat, sauerkraut/cabbage, mushroom, and potato/onion, they also have fruit stuffing). On the regular menu, they have nalesniki (crepes, "nah lesh neekee") with cottage cheese stuffing. In theory, you can have all the varieties of pierogi stuffing in nalesniki (but they don't offer it at Dom Polski at this time).

Leonard Plodzien