Before we consider adding state Sen. Frank Morse’s proposed new sales tax, ask the governor what part of the current budget he would eliminate. He would tell you that the mandated construction of new prisons is taking money away from our education budget and other much needed state services.

So let’s just say no to new taxes until we revise the current policies of mandatory minimum sentencing that are clogging these prisons and requiring such huge sums of our tax dollars.

Mark Rohlfs

Philomath

Ivins on point with immigration view

A bouquet of roses to Molly Ivins, whose March 30 column, “Immigration 101,” made my subscription to the Gazette-Times for the year 2006 worth the money.

To quote Thomas Friedman, author of “The World is Flat,” the Berlin Wall did not succeed. The Great Wall of China is a museum piece.

A fence on the southern boundary of Texas will not work. (It’s too late to think about one on the north side!)

The illegal worker is not the culprit, and perhaps it is the employer who does the illegal hiring. Why do these all-

American employers operate illegally? Could it be that they are competing for customers in a world of consumers with a Wal-Mart/Costco mentality?

Consumers who seek bigger houses with bigger rooms for their bigger plasma screen

TVs? And more and bigger garages for their bigger SUVs and bigger boats? Consumers who want more for less money? Including their tax dollars?

Let’s be fair consumers and pay a fair price. Let’s let the employers hire legal workers and pay them an honest wage with full benefits, including Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Donald A. Jones

Corvallis

Grad student’s study ‘ludicrous’

I have deliberately stayed out of the dust-up over a graduate student’s research on logging fire-killed timber in the Biscuit fire. However, with state Sen. Charlie Ringo throwing more gasoline on the fires of criticism, I am compelled to write.

I had the privilege of earning a degree from the College of Forestry. I am acquainted with the talented college faculty and tenured professors, who concluded years ago that recovery from fire required salvage logging, followed by tree planting. This process restores the forest and minimizes recurring fires from lightning strikes on snags left in the area.

For graduate student Daniel Donato to attempt overturning years of research with his limited, incomplete and flawed studies borders on the ludicrous.

Perhaps an even greater affront to the college faculty is for Charlie Ringo to take up the cudgel and reopen what should by now be a resolved issue. His inference that the college is in bed with the forest industry is a slur on both the college staff and leaders of the forest industry.

I would strongly suggest that the good senator take a Sunday drive to the Wilson River and see first-hand the dynamic results from salvage logging and tree planting. If that journey doesn’t convince him, he should visit the Mount St. Helens blast area and observe dramatic tree growth on Weyerhaeuser property compared to the still-devastated adjacent land, managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Delay in beginning the post-fire (salvage logging) process only exacerbates problems of restoration.

Larry M. Christiansen

Corvallis

Be precise with war language

President Bush again is facing a possible censure from the Senate for allowing domestic spying. Mr. Bush’s argument is that he is a “wartime president.”

I have a problem with the language the administration is using. Terrorism isn’t an enemy; it’s an ideology. How can we declare war on an ideology? Because of the “War on Terror,” we are spending billions of dollars, watching our civil liberties be curtailed, all while being told that the war will last for the unforeseeable future.

Our social programs are being dumped, and the budget and loan deficits are higher than they’ve ever been. Generations of children to come are going to be suffering the impact of the financial ramifications of this “War on Terror.”

We should work in a rational manner to expose the faults and wrong thinking of an ideology that promotes suicide bombers killing innocent people.

We are not at war with Iraq. Mr. Bush’s contention is based on the premise that the “War on Terror” is an ongoing, active, boots-on-the-ground war. It isn’t.

Discarding social programs and putting our country in the deepest debt ever trying to fight this war is paranoid thinking, at best.

As concerned as I am about preventing any further 9-11s, I am even more concerned about the kinds of laws and edicts being perpetrated in the name of security.

We’re not at war, and he isn’t a wartime president; he should be censured! We all need to start at least using correct language when we talk about these situations.

Terry Thayer

Philomath

Bible as law? You need logic, too

The situation of the Afghan man who was in danger of losing his life for having converted from Islam to Christianity was a front-page story (until he was safely relocated to Italy).

This story reminds me of the passage in the Bible where believers are commanded to kill anyone, (even a brother, son, daughter or wife), who tries to entice them to serve other gods; they should even take matters into their own hands: “Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people” (Deuteronomy 13:9).

Anyone who cites the Bible as reason to support a public policy should be asked if they stand by everything in the Bible, and if not, why not. By what logic can one “cherry pick” from the Bible?

The Bible should be respected and studied as an essential document in the history of the West. People who make the Bible an important part of their personal faith should also be respected.

But religious toleration, one of the United States’ strengths, should not be extended to the point where mere faith becomes the only support for Biblical passages brought into public policy debate. Anyone who wants to cite the Bible in public debate should expect to be asked to support it with rational evidence and logical consistency.

Robert Wess

Corvallis

Why not just blow up that prison?

When our troops discovered Abu Ghraib prison, I thought, “Why don’t you blow up that place to show the Iraqis you want them to be free?”

But, no. They had to play Big Man and raise hell in there.

War is not the way to change minds.

Jane Sivetz

Corvallis

Reform labor to stem immigration

There are 12 million or more illegal immigrants now (compared to fewer than 2 million before the Reagan administration) because corporate America wants it that way, in order to drive down wages for a middle class already reeling under globalization and job outsourcing, and to destroy what remains of union representation.

These are not jobs that Americans won’t do; they just won’t do them for poverty wages. Any economy that depends on a frightened, subservient, permanent underclass is fundamentally flawed and needs reform.

A sustainable rate of legal immigration (a replacement rate to maintain a steady population level) is good, but advocating any limits on immigration leads to charges of prejudice and xenophobia from the left. I am neither.

However, living in the reality-based community, I recognize that there are limits to growth and carrying capacities that we have exceeded. The planet cannot afford more oil-addicted Americans.

Compared to Native Americans, we are all recent descendants of immigrants. But that is beside the point. We live in today’s reality. Because something happened in the past (high immigration rates), arguing that it can or should continue to happen into the indefinite future is both a logical and moral fallacy. No country can possibly absorb all refugees from Mexico and other corrupt, third-world oligarchies.

The compassionate action would be for our government to stop supporting their corruption so their citizens would not need to leave. Cheap labor corporatists, racist fence-builders and open border advocates are all wrong.

Ted Daum

Corvallis