Senior Center not for ‘sitting around’

In reference to John Detweiler’s Aug. 14 letter, “Seniors: Too busy to hang around center?”:

He is to be congratulated for being a “busy retiree.” He joins thousands of others who spend their retirement year “busy” with the volunteer opportunities available here in Corvallis. These are the people that I most see at the Senior Center.

Contrary to Mr. Detweiler’s suggestion, I find few people “hanging around” there! Most people come to the Center because they want to become involved in in volunteer or personal development programs. They work in the Meals-on-Wheels program, Dial-A-Bus program, tax consultant program and dozens of other programs designed to help those less fortunate than they.

They come for physical fitness classes, art, computer, music classes and many more. (Perhaps these are the “self-actualizing” programs Mr. Detweiler describes as the interest-focus of our new crop of seniors.

As for “not needing a larger Senior Center”: In the 15 years that I have been involved in the Center, there has never been a time in which the need for more space has not been a factor in limiting the kinds of programs we could provide.

One example is visible from the Senior Center’s northwest corner: The Dial-A-Bus program, a vital service to older adults, must now occupy a pre-fab module because there is no room for it in the center. The expansion plan will bring it back into the center building.

Fred Quale, Corvallis

Use common sense in homeless policy

As a volunteer at St. Mary’s Stone soup for the past 10 years, I have met and befriended many “houseless” folk and I really resented Curly Finster’s letter of Aug. 6, “Put homeless camp out by the airport,” and its stereotypical opinion of all homeless people.

I agree with Jennifer Ambrosius’ Aug. 8 response, “Reject stereotypes about homelessness.” If we are to finally allow the long overdue “legal” camping, it needs to be a place that is centrally located for people who do not have the luxury of a car or bicycle.

I also wish to address Curly’s contention that it is the homeless alone, who somehow “‘offend the senses’ of Corvallis’ citizenry … ” As a downtown resident, I was awakened at 2:30 a.m. recently by someone getting violently ill in our front yard, which we had to clean up this morning. My senses were thoroughly offended, and I can assure you that this was not a homeless person, for they do not have the funds to patronize the downtown bars until last call and would have been long “tucked in” by 2:30 in the morning.

Toni Anstadt, Corvallis

Georgian invasion heralds new big chill

The sad news from Georgia is not so important in itself, except for the suffering of those poor people, but because it heralds the terrible news of a new Cold War worldwide.

Larry Daley, Corvallis

GOP’s drilling push a sop to the rich

Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t ignore the energy crisis (Letters, Aug. 6, Charles R. Nelson). She stopped a Republican bill that offered only a continuation of failed policies; flogging the same old dead horse of expanded drilling.

What will expanded drilling do? Any leasing on land or sea that is currently off-limits to drilling must be put out to bid, a process that takes months, if not longer. Then the sites must be assessed, explored, tested, evaluated, constructed and drilled; again, years of work.

The expanded drilling advocated by the Republicans and the oil industry will take years(!) to come on line. The energy crisis is upon us now. Expanded drilling will do exactly nothing to help the current situation, except exacerbate environmental problems.

Additionally, it will do next to nothing to solve the greater questions of dependency on foreign energy sources, peak petroleum, excessive pollution and the balance of payments deficit. It is the GOP that has ignored the oil crisis by blocking all attempts in the last 30 years to encourage alternative fuels, mass transit and energy independence. Why? Because the auto and oil companies paid them to! Rampant, exploitative, predatory capitalism (as opposed to the regulated capitalism proved necessary by the Great Depression) is one of the salient problems we face, and the GOP is its champion. This is the main reason for the sea-change away from the Republicans this election year. Most people have finally realized that the GOP is the party of the wealthy, by the wealthy and for the wealthy.

Martin R. Mulford, Corvallis

McCain’s campaign style a puzzler

Even before the Britney Spears-Paris Hilton flap at the end of July, Sen. John McCain’s campaign tactics really made me wonder if he was acting like another Bob Dole. If so, why?

Tom Amoth, Corvallis

Proof of Bush’s failures evident now

In a letter to the editor posted in the Aug. 13 edition of the Gazette-Times, a writer, John Brenan, questions an earlier letter writer, Chris Foulke, criticizing him for a lack of documentation or proof regarding the incompetence and corruption of the current administration.

My reply to this is that if one cannot see with one’s own eyes the ample evidence of incompetence and corruption in the Bush administration, paraded before the public over the last seven and a half years, then one is in such a deep state of denial that the evidence would have little effect. The documentation and proof is already in the public sphere, obvious to those who don’t view it with ideologically colored glasses.

Douglas Walker, Corvallis