This letter is in response to the "Rose-berries" that the Gazette-Times issued to Sara J. Underwood, now better known as "Playmate of the Year":

I would give her two dozen roses! How could the editors possibly give a raspberry to this beautiful and very intelligent young woman? Who in their right mind would not be happy for this small-town girl to have this amazing opportunity for herself and her family? The jealous fullbacks and linebackers sitting behind the opinion page editor's desk, I suppose.

What an honor - whether morally sound or not - to pose in this famous magazine and to be named the highest honor of "Playmate of the Year." I say congratulations, Sara. You should never be ashamed of being who you are. With clothes or without, you are an amazing young woman and you should continue to follow your dreams.

Kyle Taylor

Corvallis

Rieck supported wasteful, useless school programs

We've all heard about the impact of inadequate funding on Corvallis schools. I'm voting for Bill Ten Pas because his opponent, Kari Rieck, enthusiastically supports a program that is a misuse of the district's thinly stretched resources. Mr. Ten Pas has a much better grasp of the kinds of decisions that will best benefit Corvallis schools.

In the May 4 Gazette Times, Kari Rieck stated that her "proudest accomplishment is the launching of a program to track and improve students' reading ability."

How did Ms. Rieck determine such a program was needed? Did she visit schools and while there, did staffs indicate there was a need for such a program? Did she survey parents and then realize that practices already in place were inadequate? Were building administrators looking for a new way to look at student progress?

As a former Corvallis teacher and a parent of a student at Corvallis High School, I am angry that she indicated that practices already in place are not meeting the needs of students and that a new program was necessary. Did she consider the cost of this program?

It's not just the money that might have been used to support programs already in place or greatly diminished due to Measure 5 (physical education, music and art), but the cost (time and energy needed to implement a new literacy program) to an overworked, yet very dedicated staff. Corvallis voters deserve a school board member who will make better decisions for allocating district funds.

Jill White

Corvallis

Rieck's service on school board merits our support

I served on the school board with Bill Ten Pas, and was sad to see him go when he resigned to accept employment in Portland. He was board chairman at the time. We had to take time away from board business in order to interview and select a replacement, and another board member had to jump into the chair position with no notice.

I also served on the board with Kari Rieck. I was impressed with her tireless work ethic, her commitment to open process and her responsiveness to and respect for the public. She treats her board service like a full-time job.

I learned from my time on the board that being a competent board member requires the ability to serve on committees that meet during the day, as well as one-on-one meetings with constituents, other board members, and administration. Ten Pas says he can do this while maintaining full-time employment in Portland. I admire his optimism, but I value our school system more.

I am voting for Kari Rieck. Rieck's vigilance brought clean drinking water to our schools. She is committed to fixing the open block scheduling system, which results in kids roaming the streets during the day for hours at a time.

Ten Pas has decided he wants to be on the board again, and maintains that he is motivated by altruism, not a personal vendetta. Why, then, did he choose to challenge Rieck, the most experienced member of the young board?

Joan Demarest

Corvallis

School board member

2001-2005

Even violent crimes don't result in serious prison time

What a sad state we find ourselves in when violent crimes are know considered acceptable. Don Caughey, in his May 4 letter, "More prison won't make young offenders better," feels a prison sentence for someone convicted of intentionally shooting an unarmed man is offensive. He wrote that imposing a just sentence fitting of the crime will somehow denigrate an otherwise upstanding individual.

Let me tell you something: If Josh Grimes was such a swell guy, why did he intentionally shoot another human being who was not a threat to him?

The point here should not be just about a sentence to fit the crime (community service hardly qualifies), but about the tolerance of our society - the kind of society that abets and in fact condones criminal behavior like Josh Grimes'.

The way I see it, this sentence gives the green light for others to take pot shots at humans for fun. Just what kind of world would Don like to live in?

He seemed so concerned about ruining the life of a person for an act that the person decided to commit.

How many victims' lives are ruined as a result of such callous acts? Just whom is Caughey trying to protect, and whose side is he on?

If a prison sentence might "offend" someone who committed a crime, why don't we just give the same gun to the victim and let him take the same cowardly shot at his attacker?

And yes, Josh Grimes was given special treatment. If the roles were reversed, the shooter would be in jail.

Doug Huntley

Corvallis

Dog abuse pales compared with meat industry's routine

On April 30, 86 dogs were seized from a home in North Albany. Every so often, cases of animal abuse and neglect make the news. Many kindhearted people are moved and rally to help.

However, there are other cases of animal abuse which don't make the papers. For example: A day-old calf is torn from his mother, who bellows in distress. The calf is chained by the neck and put in a crate so small that he can't turn around, stretch his legs or lie in a natural position. He is deliberately malnourished, deprived of drinking water or bedding, and kept in darkness. He will live his whole life like this until he is sent to slaughter for veal.

Another example: A male chick, who is worthless to the egg industry because he can't lay eggs, is thrown into a blender where he is torn apart while still alive.

What is the difference between the cases we hear about and the ones we don't?

The unreported cases are legal. And they are perpetrated on farm animals. And they happen on a huge scale. Billions of farm animals are subjected to abuse so extreme that if the public knew just what they endure, there would be shock and outrage and a lot more vegetarians.

These animals suffer their whole lives out of sight and out of mind. Please think of their plight before you eat. As Albert Schweitzer said, "When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another."

Nettie Schwager

Corvallis

So condemned have rights, but veterans don't?

During the early 1960s, I was stationed at Fort Ord in California, going through basic training. One of our training exercises was in the use of the bayonet. Our drill instructor would yell at us, "what's the spirit of the bayonet?" and we would yell back, "To kill, sergeant." The basic mission of the military is to kill or be killed trying.

I bring this up because of a headline in a recent issue of the Gazette-Times: "Execution drugs can fail, study finds." In the first paragraph, it explains that in the execution of prisoners, the use of drugs may cause a slow and painful death that probably violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

I find it ridiculous that we can live in an "enlightened" society that finds it cruel to execute criminals found guilty in a slow death; but it is not cruel and unusual punishment (and therefore not unconstitutional), to allow our wounded military personnel to languish in military hospitals, some to the point of death; that it is not cruel and unusual to let the poor and homeless go without proper medical care; that it is not cruel and unusual punishment to let the victims of natural disasters like Katrina suffer for two years.

But then we have a president who, at any and every opportunity, invokes God's blessing on this enlightened country.

Roger Paul

Corvallis