Trace your own roots to illegal immigrants

How small have we as a nation and as individuals become?

The Feb. 7 opinion page had an article in which the author called everyone that disagreed with him morons. This was followed by an article in which the author belittled immigrants because they don't speak our language, put "a strain on our social and economic systems, on our schools and our legal citizens." On top of this, she says it's bad enough that their children born here are granted citizenship.

History: In 1607, 144 English settlers bearing a charter from King James took up residency in Jamestown, Virginia. By 1610 only 60 were left alive, and that only because of the Powhatan Tribe's generosity. By 1690 the population was 250,000 and in 1790 it was 2.5 million.

Question: Who gave the kings of Europe the right to divide up North America that had a population estimated at 10 million, belonging to more than 200 nations or tribes?

If you're not Native American, you're an illegal immigrant.

How many of our ancestors learned the native tongue? Did our ancestors care about the disruption they caused to the social, economic, or religious systems of the indigenous peoples?

I would wager that the majority of the immigrants from south of our border have more indigenous blood in them than any white person. Logically, they have more of an historical right to be here than us.

Open your minds, hearts, and arms to fellow travelers on a small blue planet in a large universe.

Roger Paul, Corvallis

Columnist missing mark on Whiteside

After reading Pat Wray's column ("Whiteside plan needs to be realistic," Feb. 8) I have to wonder if he can recognize the difference between dream and reality himself.

Apparently his dream is to be the decider of downtown Corvallis development, based on his personal opinions about "the greater good" and "positive development."

Opposed to his dream is the reality that a great many citizens want to preserve a beloved historical building. The long-range benefits of historic preservation are a reality also, as demonstrated in many cities around the world, where Americans among others are happy to pay money for the privilege of enjoying old buildings.

To contrast the benefits of historic preservation with those of modern development, maybe a trip to Florida would suffice. There the "development" provides concrete subdivisions, high-rise hotels, strip malls and Disney World.

Maybe it's a wonderful place for wealthy retirees who can fly to Europe to enjoy historic preservation. But it's not so wonderful for ordinary people who recall the less-developed landscapes of yore but are stuck in the "benefits" of modern development today.

I think there are more than one criteria for "positive development" and "the greater good," and time alone will determine whose criteria are counter productive.

Every city deserves to get what the majority of its citizens want and I'm hoping that Corvallis will want to keep the Whiteside as the delightful theater that it has been.

Shirley Gaventa, Corvallis

Don't haul boats across state lines

If zebra mussels or quagga mussels make it into Oregon, it will cost us billions of dollars.

The tiny fresh-water critters cover submerged surfaces, clogging water intake pipes and boat hulls and making streams uninhabitable for native fish, ruining fishing.

This has happened in the Midwest; now both mussels have appeared out West. But they didn't crawl here on their own: they came on recreational boats hauled over the country's highways.

To prevent this scourge to our state, the Legislature should pass an emergency ban on highway transport of boats across state lines.

Boaters can be educated to scrub their boats down before moving them, but mussel larvae are tiny and easily missed.

And as with most things, two percent of the people cause 99 percent of the problems - a couple of boaters too soused to act responsibly make the efforts of the rest of us useless.

Boaters should support this ban. It will ensure good fishing in the future, and they won't have to spend hundreds of hours scraping mussels from their hulls and propellers.

To be effective, the ban should probably include all boats, not just motorized ones.

One alternative to a complete ban might be requiring treatment of boats at licensed quarantine and cleaning stations on major highways.

If boaters can afford to haul boats across the country, surely they can afford to have boats properly treated - or better yet, leave their boat at home and rent one at their vacation spot.

Andrew Gray, Corvallis

Breast cancer study needs help of sisters

A few years ago the National Institute of Health authorized and sponsored a long-term and very large study of women whose sisters have had breast cancer, with the hope of determining the risk factors that contribute to the occurrence of breast cancer in all women.

Most of us remember the ground-breaking information that was collected in the earlier nurses' study. This study promises to reveal even more and better information.

Many women have already responded to the call for sisters to join this study, now dubbed the Sister Study. But more women are needed, especially those who are members of minority groups in the U.S. or Puerto Rico.

To qualify, you must have (or have had) a sister who has or had breast cancer, you must not have been diagnosed as having breast cancer yourself, you must be between the ages of 35 and 74, and live in the U.S. or Puerto Rico.

To contact the Sister Study or to obtain more information about it, go to www.sisterstudy.org, or www.estudiodehermanas.org.

If you qualify, please help. It takes only a little time and has the potential of improving and saving the lives of our younger sisters, daughters and granddaughters.

Molly Hannah, Philomath