Remember: Clemens scholarship is a gift

Regarding the story “Educator: Clemens mission lost” (April 15):

A gift is something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned (according to dictionary.com).

The Clemens scholarship is just that — a gift, to be administered in any way the foundation sees fit.

Nobody is entitled to it, and if students do not want to follow the rules set forth for acquiring it, that’s OK. There are plenty of student loans available that can be paid back after college. Most of us have gone that route.

Whether you agree with the Lowthers’ stipulations or not, at least applaud them for standing up for their beliefs in this very blue county and not backing down from the pressure and criticism they surely must receive.

And remember: What do you do with a gift? You say thank you.

Suzie Downing, Monroe

Preservationists are derailing dreams

Attention all wetland wallowing, tree-hugging, anti-growth busy bodies: For sale, two shrub- and tree-covered acres near a floodplain, zoned for homes on Southwest Brooklane.

It is time to put your money where your mouths are.

Do it before some overly optimistic contractor or dreamy-eyed family decides to waste their time and money expecting to build a family residence.

Someone is bound to buy it expecting to deal with a reasonable city development and building department, while having no idea the fear and clout that you wield over the bureaucrats in those departments.

Please pool your money right now with the owners of Brooklane Cottages who are lauding the importance of sidewalks on sales property but have taken no action to provide sidewalks on their own property.

You should buy the property and revel in your sidewalk-bordered sanctuary.

Better yet, use the brilliant extortionist-like tactic utilized by Susan Morre and the Friends of the Whiteside.

Threaten to spoil any sale offers that the current owner may entertain until he has no choice but to “donate” the property to you.

You get a freebie and the seller settles for a tax break instead of a deserved payday.

Act now! Or, when someone does come along and puts out their time, money and heart in the pursuit of a home or dream, leave them alone and realize you had your chance early on and passed.

Ricardo R. Loza, Corvallis

Where is Holmes when we need him?

Regarding the “old legal saw” cited in the April 15 editorial: “Hard cases, it is said, make bad law.”

The actual quotation is from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in a 1904 decision. His exact words: “Great cases like hard cases make bad law.”

Very likely the idea was not original with him.

As a scholar before he became a judge, he had written a classic textbook on common law, had done tremendous amounts of research, and may indeed have run across the basic idea expressed in the old saw.

But he made its further association with “great cases,” as just one of his many keen insights into law.

I wish he were around now. We need him.

Craig Leman, Corvallis

401(k) a better plan than Social Security

In a letter published on April 15, Dale Coberly states that those who are the “enemies of Social Security” have never shown a private plan that can do better than Social Security and that passes detailed examination.

Sure we can. It’s called a 401(k) plan. They’ve been around for a quarter-century, contain trillions of dollars in actual wealth (not government IOUs), and offer myriad investment options.

Those who place a higher value on safety than return can choose certificates of deposit or treasury bills. Those seeking higher returns can opt for stocks and bonds.

All we have to do is phase out Social Security over the next 40 years and simultaneously phase in mandatory 401(k) plans.

Making a change would not be easy and could not happen overnight.

People who have paid into the current system for many years were promised something at the end, and a promise made must be a promise kept.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the same system must make the same promise to future generations when there are better promises available.

Ask yourself the following simple question: If we as a nation were devising a plan today to fund retirement, would we choose the current Social Security system?

Coberly apparently would, but would you? The vast majority of people answer that question no, we wouldn’t.

So that raises the next obvious question: Why, then, would we want to keep the current system intact and burden our grandchildren with it?

John Brenan, Corvallis

Palestinian conflict a war, not holocaust

Jeanne Riha’s letter (“Don’t overlook Palestinian tragedy,” April 15) comparing the Holocaust to the plight of the Palestinians, was more than insulting to the dead. It was obscene.

Holocaust victims did not send suicide bombers into crowded German restaurants.

They did not wave signs and shout “Death to the Germans!”

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a war, not a genocide. It is a tragedy, but one the Palestinians are responsible for as much as the Israelis.

If everyone is a victim, no one is a victim.

Michael Peck, Corvallis

Raymond best choice for City Council seat

Jeanne Raymond, candidate for Corvallis City Council Ward 7, would bring to the council the benefits of decades of compassionate, far-sighted community work.

Long before the phrase “sustainability” entered the political vernacular, Jeanne has been concerned about and working for the well-being of our grandchildren’s grandchildren and the world they will inhabit.

She has done this in her professional life as a teacher in the public school system, and tirelessly as a community activist.

Thirty years ago Jeanne was conservation chair when she served on the Portland Audubon Society Board of Directors, a position which required advocacy, community organizing and educational outreach at a time when concerns about sustainability were bucking a strong counter-tide.

She has never wavered from that path of activism on behalf of future generations and the natural world.

Jeanne’s remarkable communication skills, her ability to listen and to treat all opinions with respect and consideration enable her to help people with disparate opinions find common ground on difficult issues.

There is no person better suited to facilitate a contentious discussion than Jeanne Raymond.

I confess a bias, since I share Jeanne’s views on global and local environmental, peace and social justice issues, but regardless of our individual perspectives and political persuasions, I believe most of us agree that we need civic leaders who are intelligent, fair, good-natured and willing to listen.

Jeanne Raymond is all those things and we would be fortunate to have her serve on the City Council.

Carol Alexander, Corvallis

How far do we carry fight for diversity?

Under the banner of reverence for diversity, GLBT activists have gained considerable ground in their battle to secure legal recognition of marriage for all.

So organized has this lobbying effort become, in fact, that there is now a FreedomToMarry.org Web site operating to ensure that further headway is made.

Indeed, from this source we hear that “excluding committed couples from marriage means shutting them out of freedom to legally recognize their love and commitment to each other, and denying them the protection, rights, and responsibilities that come with marriage.”

Homophobia, they insist, must forever cease to influence legislative affairs.

Now, the Gazette-Times has become one of the honored bastions of respect for diversity (despite their refusing to print my recent rebuttal to Laurence Padman’s March 18 letter “Skepticism is part of good science”).

Therefore, I suppose it not improbable that they will take it to heart when I ask: Why not broaden the scope of this reverence for diversity?

Instead of merely denouncing homophobia, why not denounce incestophobia, as well?

After all, it is now a matter of international news that an Australian father and daughter — a “committed couple” — have been “shut out of freedom to legally recognize their love and commitment to each other.”

And this, despite their having a child together, who has been described as “fit and healthy.”

When we are told to respect diversity, are we to respect it in all its forms?

Kevin Taylor, Corvallis