(Editor's note: This letter was addressed to Governor Christine Gregoire. A copy was sent to this newspaper.)

Dear Gov. Chris Gregoire,

You wonder why you don’t get more money from the government? Well, let me say with all the road problems, not enough police for drug and gang enforcement, because you don’t have enough money to go around. You have backed the mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, to put in all the parks we don’t need, money to funnel into a tunnel we don’t need.

Keeping our viaduct, which is still in good shape-with a little refit it would last another 50 years.

Don’t you think the president, Barack Obama, hasn’t talked to the real people here when he visited? He knows what we want. Yet you funnel the tunnel.

The money’s being wasted. Nothing is as it was. You let fireworks be sold on the reservation that are illegal, so what should we do? Maybe if we show the taxpayers what has to be done instead of taking the easy road we can overcome our past mistakes.

I will send a copy to the paper and to the president of the United States to see what he thinks. And a thing you might do is use some of our schools you must close for the homeless, with rules of course and oversight, which might put welfare recipients back to work for the money they receive. It would help to pay their keep.

Kathleen Vogel
West Seattle