Posted: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 12:00 am
'Snapshot' of local homeless gave a distorted picture
I found Pat Wray's Sept. 5 column, "Homeless in Corvallis: A snapshot" interesting yet disturbing. My first thought when finishing the column was, "So what's the point? Is this guy saying shame on the community for making this town too easy on the homeless and should stop giving them handouts that only enable them to live their jobless lives?"
That may not have been the intent of the column, but that was the impression I got. Yes, there are people who use and abuse the system and choose not to make a better life for themselves. But for the majority of homeless, this is not the case. And a large number of homeless are not adults but children. Many children benefit from the provisions in the community; the free clothes from the Vina Moses Center, the hot meals at St. Mary's Catholic Church, the shelters that give them a place to sleep. As for the adults, a good many of them have mental illness or an upbringing that has not given them the proper tools to live in our society.
Several of the homeless men who come off the streets, become sober, and get jobs because of the listening ears they have encountered as they receive services in the community. So I choose to continue to support those who are doing good deeds, and pray that those being helped will find encouragement and hope for a different life.
Patty Jackson, Corvallis
Protect babies' tender skin from exposure to direct sun
We have written before regarding this matter, but we feel the need to address it again: Sun is not good for babies! At the Oregon State University home football opener Saturday, we saw many unprotected babies.
As the parents sat in the full sun enjoying the game, their babies were being exposed to the sun for long periods of time. They were too young for sun screen, and most did not even have on a hat. Think about how warm their little bodies get and how the sun must feel in their eyes.
From personal experience, we know the pain of having a child diagnosed with malignant melanoma. We did not know in the early 1970s the danger that the sun could do to our children. Parents are more informed now. It is better to find someone reliable to watch your baby, or make the sacrifice and stay home to watch the game.
Sharron de Montigny, Corvallis
Drivers who are ignorant of crosswalk rules danger to all
I'd like to thank the driver of the newer maroon Altima at the intersection of Northwest Third Street and Northwest Polk Avenue for providing my daughter a lesson on how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
We met, however briefly, when in her misguided ignorance, the driver decided to stop in the middle of Northwest Third to let some bicyclists cross. They were waiting, as required, for traffic to pass on Northwest Third when this driver made it her crusade to stop all traffic headed north.
Honking her horn and waving her hands would not have relieved her of any responsibility had someone been injured by her foolishness. Perhaps she was confused or was unaware of the law that states:
Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, a bicyclist on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk has the same rights and duties as a pedestrian on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk. The situation here, instead, was that the bicyclists were waiting on Northwest Polk Avenue at the stop sign, not on the sidewalk and there is no crosswalk.
In this case, the bicyclists were to be treated like any other motor vehicle, and they were to wait until it was safe to proceed east across Northwest Third Street.
Her insistence that they cross endangered them as well as me and my daughter. We were able to safely stop. What if the people behind us had not been?
Patrick Acree, Corvallis
Why don't Democrats show they have a sense of humor?
I am constantly amazed at how little it takes to send Corvallis' uber liberal Democrats into spasms of righteous indignation. The latest is the reaction to Jonathan Last's mildly amusing Aug. 28 column, "Denver filled with strange Democrats" that Jan Fraser and Martin Mulford have interpreted as an attack on the Democratic Party as a whole and causing them to sprout Democratic rhetoric in response. I didn't interpret it in that light at all, and I think this over-reaction is unwarranted.
While nobody seems to proof-read the Gazette-Times, I have always found the paper's reporting to be reasonably balanced. They even occasionally report on Duck football for crying out loud, a waste of column space if there ever was one. There are fruitcakes on the fringes of both parties. Let's try not be one of them and keep some semblance of a sense of humor.
Jay Burreson, Corvallis
Presidential campaign lies just keep mounting up
Debra J. Saunders pauses in her praise of Sarah Palin's visiting of wounded Alaskan Guardsmen in Germany to say "I suppose it would be a cheap shot to report that Obama did not visit wounded troops in Germany."
It might or might not be "cheap," but it is definitely a "lie." See snopes.com.
John M. Burt, Corvallis
GOP convention in St. Paul site of police-state tactics
I recently returned from Minnesota, where I attended the Veterans for Peace National Convention and participated in protests in the streets of St. Paul, the site of the Republican National Convention.
What I witnessed was truly frightening: Arrests of credentialed journalists, warrantless raids on homes, massive police presence on the streets, holding people in jail without charge for days, profuse use of pepper spray, tear gas and percussion grenades and mass arrests of innocent people. Eight people who were planning nonviolent civil disobedience actions were arrested on felony counts of incitement to riot: Bail was set at $75,000.
The city of St. Paul turned its police authority over to Homeland Security, who was there in force. The 3,700 police officers were confrontational, provocative and frequently attired in full riot gear, but without any identification like a badge number, name tag or unit name.
Friends of mine were forced out of their car at gunpoint, handcuffed, and detained for 30 minutes before they were released without charge. An environmental teaching bus which was coming to St. Paul as part of a peace conference was pulled over and impounded.
I could give you many more examples of this shocking police state, but what worries me even more, is that there was no mention of this in the corporate (mainstream) media. Unless you find alternative, independent media sources, you won't know what is happening right before our eyes. I urge everyone to support independent media, and demand that "regular" media start doing their jobs.
Leah Bolger, Corvallis
Voters should remember Smith's praise for Palin
Buried on page A3 of the Saturday, Sept. 6, Gazette-Times was an "In Brief" article quoting Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith as being impressed with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. He stated that he liked what he saw and that "… she has the right stuff."
I interpret this to mean that Smith supports the following: book banning, job termination for those who will not ban books, job termination for those who will not fire employees with whom she has personal issues, misrepresenting her record on taxes (she raised them as governor), and spending almost all of the "bridge to nowhere" money before she "killed" the project.
Should Smith be re-elected to the Senate? Absolutely not!
Michael A. L'Heureux, Corvallis
Obama's risks irking voters with those 'cold calls'
During the spring primary, Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers caught the Obama campaign violating the do-not-call law with robotic prerecorded calls that could not be hung up on. (A serious safety issue if you have to call 911.)
I was twice promised by the Obama campaign they would not call me again. This is why I was shocked to receive an illegal call from the Obama campaign's Corvallis office in September.
The attorney general's complaint form asks for the telemarketing supervisor's name, but she refused to give it to me despite her having my name and number.
I asked her why Obama's campaign would bother calling anybody on the do-not-call list when doing so might alienate voters. She insisted nobody else had complained about these community-based calls.
My understanding of community-based calling is you call your friends and encourage them to call their friends. It is not receiving a call from a stranger who won't give her name.
I suspect most independent voters will be irritated by Obama's cold calls. I bet few would have the time or knowledge to file an official complaint with Oregon's attorney general. Obama may just lose their vote.
Thomas Kraemer, Corvallis