Will Bradley certainly has an idealized vision of a traffic circle. (Letters, June 14, “Traffic circles offer many benefits.”

Admittedly, I have seen many traffic circles that work. However, none of them was plopped down in the middle of a residential section of town where there is a lot of foot traffic.

Obviously Mr. Bradley must not live near the circle on 10th Street and Grant Avenue. He doesn’t see the young people coming from the high school, both on bikes and walking; mothers pushing strollers and holding the hands of small children, scrambling the last few steps to safely cross that intersection.

He doesn’t see, on a daily basis, the close calls between cars, bikes and skateboards or the numerous fender benders that occur weekly.

The circle is so overgrown, it is difficult to see around to the other side. However, you will not see any of the neighbors “interacting” at the circle any time soon. They don’t want to risk life and limb.

I invite Mr. Bradley to park in front of my home for a couple of hours and watch traffic during rush hour, when school lets out or in the early evening.

He could bring his lawn mower and clippers to work on the center of the circle and cut down the overgrowth.

Of course, he might meet one of the drivers who speed through in a more forceful way than he imagines, but what the hey ... the driver would be saving on gas and wear on his brakes.

Janet Tinney

Corvallis

Grads can serve but not cogitate?

Let me see if I have this straight: Graduates of the Corvallis High School Class of 2006 are mature and clear-thinking enough to visit with recruiters from various branches of the military, and possibly choose to commit themselves to two-plus years of service, during which they are likely to be shot at and killed, as well as to shoot and kill.

These same students, however, are not mature and clear-thinking enough to listen to various points of view with regard to the involvement of the United States in Iraq, the associated loss of personal liberties in the name of national security, or presumably any other issue about which there is not total agreement with the current administration.

Hmm ... yes ... I would say there might be something wrong with this picture.

Connie Bozarth

Corvallis

Is political split all in our heads?

Why are we politically so polarized as a country? I have often wondered that.

There seem to be few people in the middle, and as much as I would like to be objective, I know I can improve on that. (My bias tends to be liberal).

In the July edition of Scientific American, there is an article that I found really interesting.

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic, explained that in a 2004 study of “strong” Republicans and “strong” Democrats, magnetic resonance imaging brain scans showed illuminating results while the participants were assessing statements by candidates George Bush and John Kerry.

The part of the brain most associated with reasoning was inactive, while the most active parts were those associated with emotion, conflict resolution and moral judgements.

And then, when the participants made their assessments of the candidates, the part associated with reward and pleasure was the most active.

Both sides were critical of the opposing candidate while letting their own candidate off the hook for “clear” contradictions.

Shermer goes on to say that skepticism is the antidote for this “confirmation bias.”

If we can, in our minds, propose a case for positions opposite of ours, perhaps we can be more objective. Whether Republican or Democrat or whatever, I think everybody should practice some degree of skepticism to make sure we aren’t sheep for some politician’s flock.

Andy Gillespie

Corvallis

Grads knew what they were doing

I’ve read and reread math teacher Rob Cornell’s graduation speech to CHS grads, and I’ve had the good fortune to talk with Rob in person since the speech.

I come away from these experiences concluding that the students from the graduating Class of 2006 knew exactly what they were doing when they invited Rob to speak at their graduation.

As a former teacher of various age groups, I know that young people learn quickly whom they can trust and whom they cannot trust — who is sincerely interested in their lives and who is just collecting a paycheck.

Looking over that speech time and again, I see not one shred of evidence that Rob distorted the truth or tried to gloss over the United States’ role as a player in world violence and exploitation of the world’s poor in order to accomplish its nefarious goals.

Rob Cornell is much more than a math teacher. Rob cares first and foremost for the well- being of the next generation of this nation’s leaders.

Armed with the facts outlined in the speech, perhaps these new graduates will apply their knowledge and skills toward making this country and others better places to live.

Jerry Rooney

Corvallis

Possible new role for ‘Star Wars’?

Does anyone remember the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka “Star Wars”? It was the missile shield envisioned by Ronald Reagan and continued under the succeeding presidents to the tune of billions of dollars a year — with extremely limited results.

Following a series of unsuccessful tests in the early years of the Bush administration, its proponents decided to go ahead and deploy the untested weapons at the cost of billions of dollars.

The “Star Wars” program was supposed to protect us from a limited missile attack by a rogue nation (North Korea?) by intercepting one or two missiles.

There now are nine untested interceptor missiles installed at Fort Greeley in Alaska.

The North Koreans are threatening to test a missile that might, with luck and a small payload, reach the West Coast of the United States.

What an opportunity for our president to raise his approval rating out of the thirties. I can see the headlines now, “Bush anti missile program defeats North Korean threat.”

Fox News would go abolutlynuts.

And even if everything failed miserably, who could prove otherwise? We could claim a flawless interception, and the North Koreans could deny that anything happened. One thing for certain would be a big boost in the budget for “Star Wars,” which would make the defense lobby and certain congressmen happy.

Considering what has happened in the last five years, I would expect almost anything to happen before the next election.

George Novak

Corvallis

Senate cut its own pay? No way

For a joyful moment, I thought the words in bold type: “Senate kills wage raise,” referred to their wage raise!

But, in fact, it referred to a minimum wage raise. And though I often disagree with Sen. Ron Wyden, I am proud of him for voting in favor of increasing the minimum hourly wage.

Joan Hoffman

Corvallis

Defend neutrality of the Internet

From the start, the Internet was built on a cooperative, democratic ideal. The only job of a network provider is to move data between users.

But providers such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon are attempting to block or discriminate against legal content and services available online by charging extra fees for content viewed through other vendors, by not letting people run applications of their choice and by not allowing fair competition between network, application, service and content providers.

Please write to your congressional representatives and senators and let them know you want them to defend Net neutrality, not the big businesses that are trying to destroy it.

Rachel McGonagill

Corvallis