Posted: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 12:00 am
OSU has its priorities in the wrong order
I am extremely frustrated by articles such as "Art only for artists at OSU" (Gazette-Ties, Jan. 30), which describes a new policy that prohibits OSU students from taking studio art classes unless they major or minor in art.
The reason for this new policy is purportedly a lack of funds.
This is absurd - OSU doesn't have a funding problem. It has a values and priorities problem.
The university just built a multimillion-dollar scoreboard for the football stadium and pays the football coach a hefty salary of well over $800,000 a year.
This shows that OSU's priority is not education.
This situation is analogous to our federal budget. Our government has plenty of money, but when it chooses to spend over 60 percent on the military, war and "national defense," little is left to fund health care, education or housing.
President Bush says that his No. 1 job is to protect the American people, but the average American is much more likely to suffer physically and financially from a catastrophic illness or injury than from a terrorist attack.
Spending billions on defense while ignoring basic human needs simply fuels the profits for the military industrial complex, while millions of Americans are hungry and homeless. Medical expenses are the No. 1 reason for bankruptcy.
If our federal budget truly reflected our national values and priorities, then no one would lose their home because they became ill. We would spend our money on human needs, not warfare.
Leah Bolger, Corvallis
Museum would work in Whiteside building
The Benton County Museum owns the old Copeland property on First and Second streets from Adams to Washington in Corvallis, which has increased in value since their purchase several years ago as a home for a new museum.
If they sold that property to a developer at a substantial profit, it might provide enough income when combined with the funds they already have in savings to buy the Whiteside and build a museum at that location.
They could restore the Whiteside, thus saving that historic property and have a location for the museum all in one shot.
A museum at the Copeland site does not appear to be the highest and best use for that location, and the Whiteside property does seem to fit the highest and best use as a museum for that particular site.
Ronald Naasko, Corvallis
Satellites have found Arctic ice shrinking
In his Jan. 30 letter to the editor, John Jones includes many false statements that he claims would question the validity of global warming.
For example he states "Arctic sea ice coverage exceeded its 10-year average."
This is contrary to satellite observations that show Arctic sea ice is at a record low (data from National Snow and Ice Data Center, http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20070810_index.html).
Andreas Schmittner, assistant professor of oceanography, Oregon State University
Why isn't CHS softball field ready for use?
It is with great disappointment that I write this letter.
The new Corvallis High School is completed, the football field is done, the baseball field is useable, the track is done.
So why is it that the softball field is not done?
The season starts in less than a month with practice.
The field is a mess. It has large pieces of rock on the field. Looking at the field you can see a definite slope from the outfield to the catcher. The dugouts are not finished.
How come it seems like the field has been put by the wayside?
Our girls deserve to have this field done. The school's athletic director needs to step up and take care of this.
I am very disappointed that this is happening.
I sure hope that the school will step up to the plate, and fix this huge problem so our girls can have a field to play on.
Valerie Carlson, Corvallis
This 'war on terror' doesn't make sense
Immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush announced his "war on terror."
An analyst of President Bush's foreign policy recently pointed out that having a "war on terror" makes as much sense as proclaiming a war on airplanes following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
I recently read "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. In addition to showing how our foreign policy is influenced to favor Israel, this book also contains some thoughtful comments about the "war on terror."
Mearsheimer and Walt say that terrorism is not a single, unified phenomenon, as it is often depicted by the Bush administration.
"Terrorism is not an organization or a movement or even an 'enemy' that one can declare war on: Terrorism is simply that tactic of indiscriminately attacking enemy targets - especially civilians - in order to sow fear, undermine morale, and provoke counterproductive reactions from one's adversary."
Mearsheimer and Walt remind us that both Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir were Zionist terrorists before they became Israeli prime ministers.
When Gov. Mitt Romney suspended his campaign, he said, in part, "I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror." So, if we don't join Romney in supporting the leading Republican candidate, we are surrendering to terror? I don't believe it.
David R. Prichard, Corvallis
Parking garage best use for theater site
It was a pleasure to read Pat Wray's column in the Feb. 8 Gazette-Times regarding the complete foolishness and naiveté exhibited by the "Friends of the Whiteside/"
The effort to buy the building is just the beginning. The switch from purchase to operating requires something that doesn't exist from a financial standpoint.
An operating subsidy from the city is not in the least realistic. One is enough and we have the Majestic Theatre.
Raising money for this project will be very difficult (impossible) and in the meantime we continue to more firmly establish our reputation of difficult to enter commercially.
We had one offer to develop the property in six years and we turned it down. In another six years the building will probably cost twice as much to develop.
What about maintaining our vibrant and active downtown? Let's just ignore the east side of Fourth Street.
It's time to get realistic. Tear it down and build a parking structure which would help develop downtown at least.
Ted Langton Sr., Corvallis