Letters to the editor:

Have we become blase? & Parra has my support

Have we become blase?

Editor: Last week I was at the Fresno County Library reading the Aug. 29 issue of the Washington Post. A sub-headline noted in large letters that "20 U.S.-Backed Soldiers are Killed" in the secular violence that continues in Iraq.

Five paragraphs later, readers were told in much smaller type, "Nine U.S. soldiers also were killed over the weekend in and around Baghdad." Evidently, those who publish the premier newspaper in our nation's capital - the one read in every congressional office and throughout the District of Columbia - think the death of 20 Iraqis is far more relevant than the death of nine Americans.

The families of those dead service personnel would surely disagree. We have obviously reached a point in this conflict when the death of a few Americans one day and the loss of a few more the next day has become such a common occurrence that their demise merits merely a few barely noticeable lines in this very influential publication. Isn't something terribly wrong here?

RICKY MARTIN

Hanford

Parra has my support

Editor: My name is Rick Leach and I support Nicole Parra in her re-election bid for the 30th Assembly District. I am proud to say that I served my country in the United States Army, serving in Iraq as an infantry soldier with the 4th Infantry Division.

I am a graduate of Hanford High School and am now attending West Hills College in Lemoore.

I support Nicole Parra because she is an experienced and effective legislator who has represented us well in Sacramento as an assemblywoman from the 30th Assembly district.

She is smart, well-educated and infinitely more knowledgeable about the issues that matter to all of us living in the Central Valley than her opponent.

She cares about us and our communities and will continue working tirelessly to make our lives better. Nicole Parra is my choice for the 30th Assembly District, and I encourage everyone to get out and vote for Nicole Parra on Nov. 7.

This election matters.

RICK W. LEACH

Hanford

(October 11, 2006)