OK for some at OSU to endanger others?

Apparently, if you go to OSU and belong to a fraternity, or a sports team, you get a license to shoot a gun endangering others.

Bewildering.

At what point does loading a weapon and pointing it at a person, or a house where people live, become a deliberate action rather than a "mistake"?

A mistake is bumping into someone because you aren't looking.

Shooting a gun is a deliberate action. It isn't cute. It isn't "Boys will be boys." It isn't something to write off.

The judge who last year decided that an OSU fraternity boy was "not the sort of person to go to prison" is directly responsible for the latest student shooting incident.

Coach Pat Casey, whose need for star players outweighs his morality, is also responsible. Not only for this incident, but for the next. And the next.

Why would any of these kids take shooting a gun, in a way that endangers others, seriously?

The adults who have authority to enforce the rules are letting the kids down by not giving them appropriate consequences.

They are letting us down by making shooting a loaded weapon a "mistake," not a dangerous activity.

If these young men are not removed permanently from their team, expelled from OSU, and do serious jail time, then there will be more students shooting. Until someone is killed.

I hope OSU's president has the moral strength to fire Casey and expel these students; and a judge, with some judgment, will hear this case.

Terry Weiss, Corvallis

Be careful with use of prejudicial terms

"Criminally insane patients won't live in Albany house," reads the headline in the March 21 newspaper.

No wonder communities are appalled at being asked to house these people.

"Criminally insane" is a horribly prejudicial term. A person who has committed a legal offense while in the throes of a psychotic break does not deserve to be branded "criminally insane." How about mentally ill offender?

I call them PSRB people, because they are under the authority of the Psychiatric Security Review Board.

The PSRB regulates the release and placement of mentally ill offenders. It is an extremely tough "parole board" and can "revoke" or return to the state hospital anyone who violates the terms of their release.

The PSRB revokes 48 to 50 a year, but only one or two of them will actually have committed a crime.

Even when released, they spend a long time in a group home, under 24/7 supervision.

We really don't need to fear these people.

The state must expand the number of group homes both for PSRB people and other mentally ill persons, because reforming the state hospital requires placing the backlog of approved-for-release persons into appropriate living situations.

Oregon now has only 32 percent of the number of places needed. Sometime soon, Corvallis will be asked to accept a PSRB group home.

I hope we will do better than Albany has done. It would help to start referring to them as "mentally ill offenders" and start thinking of them as real human beings, deserving our sympathy.

Dianne Farrell, Corvallis

We'll be paying for this war for 50 years

The appalling number of lies authored by the Bush administration concerning the Iraq War is well documented on a new Web page. The site has gathered this documentation from many sources, all reputable and irrefutable.

While I don't think anyone at this point would deny the fiasco that has been the Bush administration, it still is impressive to read in one place the hundreds of major falsehoods that stand as just part of the Bush legacy.

The Web site address is www.publicintegrity.org. Click on "The War Card" project link.

After reading that page, see projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/.

There are 100 faces per page. Click on each photo. Take a few minutes, looking at each face.

On this fifth anniversary of the war, contemplate the 4,000 lives ended but remember, too, the 750,000 troops discharged from service so far; the 20,000 who have suffered serious burns, spinal injuries, amputations, etc. The tens of thousands with lesser brain injuries, such as concussions, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.

The cost of care for these people exceeds the material cost of the war.

We will be paying for this war, the second most costly war in U.S. history, for the next 50 years.

We have been made weaker and less safe by an administration that has forgotten or never knew that to be a super-power requires economic, diplomatic, and moral strength, not just military might.

While I suppose it's too late to impeach, let's not, as voters, ever let this happen again.

Ed Fisher, Corvallis