I have always supported our local police department. I co-founded Corvallis Safety Town more than 20 years ago in partnership with that agency.

I respect these police officers who put their lives on the line daily for the safety of our community. However, I wonder if something is amiss in the department.

Officer Dave Cox served the CPD loyally for more than six years. He loved his job. As a personal friend, I have admired his integrity as a father, husband, and community servant and was disappointed to learn of his recent resignation.

I question whether he was given his due process. Why was he never given the opportunity to defend himself to his superiors during his seven weeks of administrative leave?

Did the internal investigation begin with a biased approach? Did management violate department policies? The public deserves answers because we have lost a fine officer whose sole interest was the safety of the citizens of Corvallis.

Alice H. Rampton

Corvallis

Measure 50 loss not due to 'Big Tobacco'

Our elected officials really need to get out more. There is a saying, "Know thy opponent."

The governor assumes that Measure 50 went down in flames because of the money the tobacco companies spent on the add campaign.

Frankly I am offended that he thinks that my vote is so dependent on what I get from the television, and I think most voters probably feel that way.

I voted "no" on Measure 50 because it's not about kids, it's about more government. Government has become so addicted to taxing products that, under any other circumstances, would be illegal.

We are worried about lead in toys, yet we think nothing of putting a smoker's ash can right in front of a doorway to a business, where we all have to breathe the remnants of what continues to burn.

Smoking is an addiction to everyone; smoker and non-smoker alike by way of all tax- funded programs. Smokers will buy cigarettes as long as it's legal, and taking more money from people who are already living with less to keep up their habit just creates more working poor.

I am a nonsmoker, but I am not sure which I hate worse: the smell of smoke or passing a slum in the middle of town where people can't afford house paint but can afford a carton of cigarettes.

Randy Wisnia

Corvallis

Klamath renewal project good for all

As a farm foreman, my Dad brought home the soil of Tulana Farms on his clothes everyday; his hands had the grease from the machinery he helped to maintain, and his pickup the usual covering of bugs that came with commuting along Klamath Lake.

Farming is hard work, but the job suited him, and he labored there for decades, continuing after the Henzel family sold the farm.

Like any farmer, he battled the elements every day: frost, encroaching water, fire (the peat soil actually burned there under the right conditions) and mosquitoes, to name a few hardships.

He loved the beauty and waterfowl of the area, shooting it with a camera rather than the shotgun that he had mothballed long ago.

He was glad when a group led by the Nature Conservancy purchased the land. He recalled sharing a chuckle with a previous owner that the "farm was probably better at growing ducks than barley."

We can honor the men and women who worked every day to make Tulana Farms what is was, and to bring what prosperity they could to their families and the region. We also can value the farm's restoration to marshland: a rich home for waterfowl and wildlife, and a storage basin for water that will benefit many a farmer, fisherman, tribesman and citizen downstream. The land remains to benefit us all, and the history will not be lost.

Bill Peterson

Corvallis

Bush torture stance isn't America's way

The gist of a recent article in the New York Times is that, in spite of the public declarations by the Bush administration that torture is "abhorrent," the administration secretly acted very differently. The article describes in detail how Alberto Gonzales issued a secret opinion that was "An expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the CIA."

When Bush signed anti-torture legislation into law that was introduced by John McCain, he also attached a statement declaring his authority to set aside the restrictions if they interfered with his constitutional powers, effectively giving his administration the legal right to ignore the legislation if they choose. Whenever questioned, Bush administration officials always use terminology that states, "If we don't do this, Americans will die."

My problem is the question of why we have an administration that is not just willing, but seems to be hell bent on usurping and acquiring every single bit of dictatorial powers possible.

The idea that we, the American people, need to protect ourselves from the very people that have been elected to serve our own best interests is bewildering to me. Bush adding a signing statement to the postal reform bill that declared his right to open personal mail under emergency conditions should alarm any intelligent person.

It is ludicrous to think that if a person opposes the Bush administration's tactics, they aren't patriotic or that they don't support our troops. Our freedom is at stake, and it is going fast.

Terry Thayer

Philomath