Meth still a problem in our community

Your recent article "Crackdown on chemicals dries up meth" was certainly good news.

And we owe a huge vote of thanks to the law enforcement people who have debilitated the meth drug labs in Oregon.

While it's good that people are making less meth in our state, it is important for people to know that the drug lords in Mexico and South America are creating more and more "super-labs" all the time. Producing enormous batches of the stuff.

They are cutting back on producing drugs like pot and cocaine (made from plants) because it is far cheaper to produce high quality chemical-based meth in their labs. Meth-amphetamine use is not declining, it is increasing.

In conjunction with Linn County Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse, we recently produced a DVD/television show titled "Drug Endangered Youth and Children."

I recommend highly that parents watch this program with their children. The program will be aired several times on Corvallis TV channel 29. For dates and times please call 757-5756.

One way meth addicts afford to buy their meth is to sell it to other kids and soon they are also addicts. Meth users are also responsible for 80 to 90 percent of the property crimes in this state.

It's up to us to educate ourselves, our children and the community about the deadly effects of meth.

Morris Walker, Corvallis

Dems offer much-needed change

I'm ready for a new beginning in America. The last eight years have been disastrous, in my opinion. I am completely disillusioned with the past eight years' politics.

The Democrats have two good candidates that I think can bring change. One will take us back to the 1990s, and one will bring us into a new dawning for America. Either will be a welcome change.

I am old. I have good memories of the 1990s. I sometimes feel that I must keep running to keep up with all the changes happening in the modern world. I don't even know the current songs or singers other that what I learn from American Idol.

The new electronic gadgets are a mystery to me. I don't even have a cell phone. I understand those of my generation that want a return to the past. As comfortable as it might be, I don't want to go back.

I want a president that can end partisan bickering. I want a president who can bridge the racial divide. I want a president that can inspire our youth and bring them into the political process. I want a president that will end war as a political tool. I want a president of intellect and integrity that the world will respect. For me, that looks like Barack Obama.

John Wolcott, Corvallis

How can humanity destroy the Earth?

Let's be very clear: the Earth is warming.

The "debate" as to the validity of global warming is fascinating - but not for the science, just the sociology: How can humanity knowingly destroy its own future?

It turns out to be pretty easy: For instance the American Enterprise Institute provided direct $10,000 cash payments to have people with Ph.D.s make statements questioning global warming for the benefit of folks like John Jones ("Scientific data shows no global warming," Letters, Jan. 30).

So let's be clear: the Earth is warming. The thermal geothermal temperature gradient from the surface toward the core show the long-term surface temperature trends, and around the world these gradients are now warm at the top, cooler at about 50m depth, then get warmer toward the Earth's core.

There is no way to fudge this one. Keep in mind, this is about as surprising as feeling warmer when you put on a sweater. The Nobel Prize-winning father of physical chemistry, Arrhenius, born in 1859, correctly computed the magnitude of CO2 warming before the first trench had been dug in World War I, a basic feature that has been reaffirmed countless times since.

Mr. Jones's letter and the Kenyans hacking their countrymen to bits are quite similar to me: sad reflections of the misguided ability of humanity to leaf by leaf, step by conscious step, march this precious earth from the paradise we were given into an unlivable hell.

Sorry, Mr. Jones, you are dead wrong. But I am much more sorry that your innocent ignorance is the root of this slow-motion global tragedy.

John Selker, Corvallis

Sen. Wyden wrong about health care

Sen. Ron Wyden is claiming that, in his view, Americans aren't ready for a government-managed, single-payer health care system such as every other industrialized nation in the world has.

Is our senator out of touch or is there another reason he continues to protect the health insurance industry?

Instead of a single-payer system like our elder citizens have in Medicare, Sen. Wyden wants to require, by law, that you purchase health coverage from the private, for-profit, health insurance industry - and it's more expensive.

This is clearly an unfunded mandate directed at the citizens. He should know that.

As an ABC News/Washington Post poll showed in 2003, the majority of Americans support a single-payer, government-sponsored health care system. This poll showed that 79 percent of Americans say they support "providing health care coverage for all Americans, even if it means raising taxes" over "holding down taxes, even if it means some Americans will not have health care coverage."

Sen. Wyden continues to misrepresent the wishes of the American people. Every concerned voter should call him up today and set him straight. You can bet the insurance industry lobby has his ear.

Gretchen Newlin, Corvallis

'Ethnic cleansing'? Just call it genocide

The headline of the lead article on the Jan. 31 Nation & World page reads, "Ethnic cleansing complete."

I have added the quotation marks. Unfortunately, the Gazette-Times did not.

"Ethnic cleaning" is a term that Wikepedia says "was developed in the Balkans, to be a less objectionable code-word meaning genocide, but its intent was to best avoid the obvious pitfalls of longstanding international treaty laws prohibiting war crimes."

Why the Gazette-Times and the other media that use this term join the butchers in their reframing of murder and mayhem as a form of making the world whiter and brighter, is totally beyond me.

The rest of the article is great. It accurately depicts the horrors being perpetrated in Kenya, no punches pulled.

I seriously doubt the Gazette-Times intends to condone this activity, but that is what is does every time it uses this term without putting it in quotes or context. Idea: every morning before going to press, the editor should do a global search and replace. For replace, try "genocide" or "forced migration" or "murder."

Seth Bernstein, Corvallis