I am writing this letter in fury and in great sadness. The article "Teens punished in public" brought back a valuable lesson that I learned in, yes, a summer camp simulation. It's one that Chris Melton seems to have somehow horribly missed.

Public humiliation is a primitive, noneffective way of punishing wrongdoers. Chris wanted the punishment to be 10 times worse than the crime? Well, it is for him. All public humiliation does is incubate hate for two things: the punisher and the catcher.

These girls are not being taught never to steal; they are being taught never to get caught and have lost all respect for their dad or uncle. It is saddening that a man with so little effective parenting skills is the authority figure for these two girls. It is also depressing that this is the only way he knows how to prove his authority to himself, his children and the community.

Please, Chris: take a parenting class. There are other ways to deter potential rule-breakers - ways that work a lot better and are not mentally damaging.

Aliza Tuttle (age 16)

Corvallis

Bush overlooked big difference in wars

President Bush, speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City about parallels between the Vietnam conflict and the Iraq conflict, failed to note that his studied avoidance of any involvement in the former was a striking difference.

Mike Wolf

Corvallis

Fees for sports, yearbook still rising

Your Aug. 23 article about school expenses, "School costs: It all adds up" is very true. However, I wish to share the school side of the issue:

I was a school counselor in the district for 18 years; 10 of those years at Corvallis High School, and each year I saw the budget dwindle since passage of Measure 11 in 1990.

Sports indeed is extremely important in positive involvement by athletes and student body alike. The severe cuts necessitated the sports programs to become practically self-supporting. The fees for athletes and student body cards are necessary to keep the program afloat, and I can assure you that every dollar is carefully spent. There is not extra money to reduce fees.

Many staff members have anonymously supported students who they knew were needy.

The yearbook, as well, is completely self-supporting. The district pays for the teacher to teach the class, but the total proceeds from the book go to pay the expenses incurred. The department happily donates a few books if they are able.

I do find it unfortunate that the brunt of expenses falls upon the students and their families. If you read this and believe there should be a fund to help students, you may earmark any donated money to the Corvallis Public Schools Foundation. It would be greatly appreciated by the athletic or yearbook departments.

Judy Riggs

Corvallis

Do kids really need all those supplies?

My wife and I have just finished helping accumulate the long list of supplies required according the school lists furnished to most of the stores in Corvallis. We are helping our daughter, who has school-age children, get them equipped for school.

We empathize with the many parents, some of very limited means, who are faced with a similar task.

When we were in school, in the 1940s, no such onerous task existed. Supply requirements were minimal, and the school system provided amply for the children.

And the San Francisco school system was great! It seems to us that Corvallis has a good school system, too, but why the big list of things required to be furnished by the parents? Can't we teach our children without such a pile of supplies? Have we priced ourselves out of a normal good education with a plethora of sometimes unnecessary material add-ons? Big isn't necessarily better.

Parents don't have bottomless pockets, and it isn't fair for local churches or grandparents or others - however generous or well-intentioned they may be - to have to pick up the slack. Let's cut our material requirements to a sensible level.

John G. Booker

Philomath

Sympathize with those born in USA

Aleita Hass-Holcombe's Aug. 21 letter, "'Free trade accords spur immigration" and Joan McConoughey's Aug. 22 letter, "Stop tolerating illegal immigration," appear to be 180 degrees apart in their thinking. But are they?

Both writers bring up valid points regarding border crossings. Aleita talks about the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement as reasons for the influx of immigrants into this country, and Joan speaks about "illegals who purposely come here to have their children so they can work the system." The main difference is that Aleita never mentions the term "illegal," and Joan focuses solely on this term.

The use of semantics is a key factor in the public's support, or denial, of the Latin American people's plight. Are we "scapegoating immigrants" by using the term "illegal immigration"? I think not. There are no "illegal immigrants" per se, but there are people (including drug-dealers and criminals) entering this country illegally, i.e. against U.S. law.

Yes, "It's time to demand comprehensive immigration reform," but isn't some type of enforcement for a legal path needed? What about those persons who went through the legal system to attain citizenship? How do they feel?

If politically correct liberals want to reach some sort of reconciliation with the American majority, illegality needs to be recognized and stated - not excused.

Many angry exchanges on this issue could be avoided if our hearts would bleed a little more for law-abiding citizens and native-born Americans and the plight they also face due to the corporate domination of our world.

Robert Simms

Corvallis

Show illegals no further tolerance

As I read the paper, I notice more and more that Hispanics (usually illegal) are allegedly involved in murder (the 15-year-old girl in Milwaukee), manslaughter (the sheriff from Independence), drug trafficking (the Icebreaker case in Albany) and now cockfighting in Corvallis.

Add to that the fact that the churches are bringing some of these people into the area, as Joan McConoughey stated in her Aug. 22 letter. She is right: those churches should have their tax-exempt status yanked.

Just as bad are the companies who hire the illegals, who are sometimes using innocent Americans' Social Security numbers and IDs. These companies need to penalized in accordance with existing law.

Some of these alleged offenders run for Mexico right away, but that doesn't solve the problem. Others, like the woman in Southern California who hid out in a church for two years, think that they should be able to stay because their children were born here. Ms. McConoughey and I also agree on that point: make it illegal for them to automatically produce American citizens. If the parent(s) are illegal, the children should be, also. When the parents are deported, the children should go with them, if keeping the family together is so important.

Rebecca Stillwell

Albany