On apologies, recreation, drugs in jail and Ralph Nader

An apology for theft from fund for child

I want to sincerely apologize to the Corvallis community for mis-appropriating the funds raised for the Cricket Beebe Medical Fund.

As stated in my sentencing trial, the funds will be repaid to the trust immediately.

I am truly sorry for violating the community’s trust.

Christina Simpson

Corvallis

Taking aim at parks, recreation programs

Corvallis has been a seminal spot in Oregon for demonstrating the abilities of those with cognitive and related developmental disabilities.

Here, we have working programs to advance the dreams of respect and full inclusion. The Arc of Benton County proudly recounts volunteer services and advocacy that pre-date legislated services for people with developmental disabilities.

Our children, once excluded from public education, were educated by Arc-paid teachers in a church basement.

Benton County Health Department hired the first developmental disabilities program manager in the state.

Community group homes, where adults with developmental disabilities live more like a family, broke the dehumanizing tradition of institutionalization.

Jobs were developed in sheltered settings and have matured into supported employment in the community. People with developmental disabilities live, work, vote, pay taxes, and play here.

With admiration for the accomplishments of those with developmental disabilities and those who care about them, the Arc enters our 50th year of service with a primary goal. We will remove the barriers to participation in the city parks and recreation programs.

We encourage the city to actively generate the conditions that will allow the participation of people who may need accommodations.

One opportunity is available now. There is to be a change of director of the Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department. We urge the city, at this natural break in business as usual, to locate a director with clearly proven experience and success offering recreational programs to all of a city’s citizens, all incomes and all abilities.

Karin Frederick

The Arc of Benton County

Corvallis

How many jailed for illegal substances?

As a former drug counselor, I continue to wonder how many of the prison population are people incarcerated due to illegal substance issues.

During Prohibition, thousands of people became criminals overnight. Illegal breweries started, smuggling increased, violence increased, use of guns increased and the prison population increased while tax revenues decreased.

Making substances illegal creates crime and criminals.

People with substance abuse issues like cigarettes and alcohol have medical addiction problems, but because they are legal, regulated and taxed, they have all kinds of treatment options to utilize.

We are not arresting these people and locking them up in prisons, but if we made those substances illegal we certainly would be.

Many of those cigarette and alcohol addicts would turn to the illegal market; they would steal to get money for those substances, because once a substance is illegal the price skyrockets, and once the price rises people start carrying guns to protect their money and their stash.

A whole criminal black market would develop, and the war on drugs would escalate. It is patently absurd to allow the two most deadly drugs we know of (cigarettes and alcohol) to be legal, while criminalizing other drugs that are in many cases much less harmful.

Making all substances legal would allow us to control manufacturing and distribution, and to tax those substances to provide treatment programs. It would also reduce the prison population and the associated costs.

William Switzer

Corvallis

Don’t blame Nader for being ‘spoiler’

Ralph Nader’s back. That could be bad news for the Democrats, although he garnered only 0.34 percent of the popular vote in 2004, as compared with 2.72 percent in 2000.

Nader was not the “spoiler” in 2000; the electoral process that accepts a plurality victor was.

Nader was no more an interloper than George W. Bush or Al Gore, and his return to the fray could be good news for our democracy.

Those with philosophies of government differing from the mainstreams of the Democratic and Republican parties such as Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul need opportunities to be heard, and they would do at least as well if they were independents.

After the orthodox candidates duke it out in the overlong personality contests of the primaries and the unaffiliated establish their candidacy with the states’ election divisions, all candidates should be encouraged to participate in meaningful exchanges of ideas to inform the electorate of the broad possibilities available in a democracy.

As noted above, the system that permits election by plurality is the “spoiler.”

Had ballots requested voters to designate their second choices, the Nader votes would have been redistributed between Bush and Gore according to the wishes of the Nader supporters.

Gore immediately would have been designated the winner by majority and the judicial interventions that plagued the 2000 election would have been avoided.

The instant runoff system is applicable regardless of the number of candidates.

Oregon’s secretary of state should be urged to lead the nation in affecting this change.

Mike Wolf

Corvallis