(In regard to consignment shops, Dec. 17): First, I do have an interest in consignment shops. I have a family member who owns one and has been in the business for several years.

That aside, my greater interest is in the fact that another government body is charging a fee for actions that they are forcing on these businesses. Sixty dollars an hour for an auditor? Why? I already pay their salaries, benefits, and for the vehicle and travel expenses every payday.

Yes, I have a great distrust for the way our governments function and where they think they need to be involved.

If there are shops not cooperating with law enforcement, taking undue advantage, then take action against them, but don't unduly penalize all because of a few.

I would hope that, each time before our legislators vote or our government officials make a final decision, they would consider what kind of a world they are leaving to, not this generation, but to my children, my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren. Will they be able to afford it.

Steve Sprenger

Shedd

Use the lien process

Re: "Standstill at Walnut" (Dec. 17): Corvallis officials are right to avoid a lawsuit over the delayed repair to Walnut Boulevard by the California owners of the Timberhill Shopping Center.

However, I am surprised the newspaper article didn't say why Corvallis isn't using a property lien process.

I saw firsthand the problems of getting absentee owners to comply with city requirements when I served as a planning commissioner for Lake Stevens, Washington (when it had a population of 1500).

To force compliance, the city clerk would add monthly liens against the property until the owner complied or the property was sold either voluntarily or through foreclosure.

The part-time city attorney never spent more than an hour to get the rarely contested lien upheld by a judge.

Corvallis should develop a formal lien process for this type of situation if they don't already have one.

The process should provide flexibility to levy fines or the cost plus interest to remedy safety and health issues in a timely manner.

Thomas Kraemer

Corvallis

Against those tirades

I think it would be helpful if Jews like Mona Charen (Opinion, Dec. 17) and Bob Horenstein of Portland's Jewish Community Center had meaningful discussions with and listen to Jews like Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun, Jeff Halper of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, and Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies (who cites many legal precedents showing that both occupations, Israel's in the Occupied - not "disputed" - Territories, and ours in Iraq are violating international law).

What's more, the majority of the citizens of both areas want the occupiers out!

Moreover there are a number of Jewish organizations like Jewish Voice who have the the courage to support President Carter's approach.

Charen should also consult Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as Mahatma Ghandi's grandson, Arun, who firmly agree with President Carter that the plight of the Palestinians exceeds the apartheid that existed in South Africa. What else can you call lack of freedom of movement, confiscation of property without compensation and often with little notice, frequent 24-hour curfews lasting weeks where to venture outside is to be shot, nightly raids and killings of your neighbors who Israel suspects may be "terrorists," the nightly average of 41 highly-accurate rockets fired into Gaza (which have killed some 400 mostly civilians since June), and the constant house demolitions in order to expand the illegal settlements that Israel has repeatedly "promised" to stop building but has instead actually expanded?

And why is any reference to Jesus anti-Semitic? Carter was simply saying that the Jews in Jesus' day didn't recognize the importance of the Samaritan holy sites and the Jews of today don't either. Freedom to worship in their holiest sites is a right lost to Palestinians under Israeli occupation. That is true, not anti-Semitic.

Conversely, the tirades of many pro-Israeli pundits against Arabs (subhuman or incapable of modern society or democracy) are truly anti-Semitic since Arabs are Semites also, and were highly civilized when Europe was in the Dark Ages.

It is the highly personal attacks on those who criticize Israel that is part of the reason Carter wrote the book. Let's just discuss the facts. And find a solution that provides justice and security for both sides.

I recommend you read Carter's book for yourself.

Ben Kenagy

Albany

Zach's recovery: So many friends!

Without making this sound like a Hallmark commercial, we would like to express our thanks to our family and many friends. As many of you reading this know, our son was seriously injured on Dec. 1 during a basketball game. Zach remembers very little about the actual accident, unfortunately for many of us, it will be with us forever.

After being evaluated and released from the hospital, we all breathed as sigh of relief that our boy would soon be back to normal. Unfortunately, that didn't happen as we had anticipated. Things took a turn for the worse and we had some very scary days ahead of us. Our son braved through the situation with the strength that he shows through everything he does. He told us one night, "If I don't get better, I guess I will find out who my true friends are." Luckily for us all, he came back to us completely and will be able to return to his element, sports, soon, but we all definitely found out who our true friends are.

This was not a easy thing for a teenager to watch their friend go through but throughout it all, Zach never went a day without having many friends hang with him on the couch, and I believe the average text messages he received each day was 250. Along with his amazing friends, we were shown support by so many families, some we have never met. For the countless cards, flowers, cookies, candy, visits, hugs and prayers, we are eternally grateful.

Through this challenge that Zach has been faced with, we have come to find out that we are a lucky family to have the support of so many when times were hard. We believe that our son is amazingly strong, but without the support of all of you, his recovery would have taken longer.

Please hug your loved ones, tell them you love them and when people you care about are going through difficult times, don't think that your card or phone call won't make a difference, because we are here to tell you that each one counts tremendously.

Thank you to you all.

Monte and Gina Ayers

Albany

Make our land-use system fair

Measure 37 is not fair and threatens our quality of life.

Measure 37 undermines neighborhood and farmland safeguards. It is an under-funded mandate. Local and state governments don't have the money to compensate landowners and it's not fair to authorize governments to issue waivers to select property owners.

Oregonians voted for fairness, but Measure 37 doesn't deliver. The measure doesn't include a revenue source in a cash-strapped environment. Governments are forced to repeal Oregon land use protections.

Waivers threaten nearby property owners. Measure 37 eliminates normal public notice and hearing requirements citizens rely on as part of the land use process.

The Legislature needs to act to ensure fairness. A fair land-use system means transparent and government decision making process, public input, a funded compensation system for cases of individual hardship due to pinched land use rules and application of those rules in an even and certain manner.

If you are concerned about Measure 37, please write to your state legislators and elected city officials. Oregonians voted for fair land compensation, not a land grab.

Stacy Drake

Corvallis

Legislature: The press can help

Annual Oregon legislative sessions of the sort described by your column "A better way to legislate" (Dec. 10) may very well improve the quality of legislation here in Oregon. But the most concrete step towards improvement would be more effective citizen involvement.

The key to a "more measured, better organized and more transparent legislative process" lie not only with the Legislature itself, but with that very important establishment - the press. Perhaps the most important reporter on any Oregon news staff should be the one who knows the Legislature backwards and forwards, upside down and right side up. A reporter so well versed that s/he can put the legislative process in terms any sixth-grader could understand. Oregon has a valuable resource in its "citizen legislators who have obligations outside of their public service" - one that would be wasted by going to a professional legislature. But if such folks operate in a vacuum or, even worse, in a pool of professional lobbyists, poor results are almost guaranteed.

More rank-and-file citizen involvement in the process is needed: Effective involvement. The key to that effectiveness is the press.

Robert G. Gourley

Corvallis

Let's quit inflaming prejudice

We are all appalled at the Holocaust Denial Confab where the Iranian President is fanning the flames of hatred toward Israel. However, some who believe they are defending Israel by denying the facts of Israel's origins and history are playing into his hands. Mona Charen continues to be a danger to Israel as she presents anti-Islamic propaganda and lies about history.

Her attack on Jimmy Carter's new book on the occupation of Palestine by Israel (Dec. 17) is blind polemics. Carter clearly states that Israel is a democracy and focuses his criticism upon the occupation and the policy of "bone-breaking" because he sees them as dangerous to Israel's security and survival.

As Carter has pointed out in many interviews, his views are discussed openly in Israel. It is in the United States that this position is called "anti-Semitic." This is a serious problem for Israel because American politicians provide support for the violent faction and its immoral policies. If you are an Israeli trying to engage in peacemaking, this is very frustrating.

It is also a way to undercut the efforts of Palestinian moderates and insure that the occupied respond with violence and rhetoric about wiping out Israel. Please avoid opinionists who inflame prejudice and make peacemaking more difficult. Anyone who concludes that Mona Charen is a more honest person than Jimmy Carter needs a reality check. You can disagree with Carter, but do so with facts if you can find them.

Don Caughey

Corvallis

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