Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 12:00 am
Can't we afford $9 a month to improve Senior Center?
If the federal government can afford $700 billion to bail out Wall Street, surely we can afford about $9 a month to bail out our senior center.
Join me in voting yes for 02-65 that will provide space for Dial-A-Bus and Meals on Wheels and improvements for our kid's parks. We need to keep everyone healthy and independent.
Barbara Ross, Corvallis
Turkeys were here before humans took their habitat
This morning I looked out the kitchen window to see six turkeys in the back yard. There were five adults and one baby. This is down from a flock of 18 last year.
The Philomath Bulletin was the first to report on the turkey invasion in Philomath, and recently the Gazette-Times also picked up the story. But stop and think: Did the turkeys invade the city, or was it the city that did the invading?
Have we encroached on the turkeys? Are we the true invaders of nature? There are so many examples of nature becoming and inconvenience to us, as we over populate and invade nature. If the turkeys had the power, would they have us trapped and relocated us? Or even better yet, exterminate us?
I must admit, turkey flop is large and nasty. Anyone who has stepped in a turkey flop and tracked it in to the house will agree, it is harder to remove from the carpet than car grease. But is that the fault of the turkeys? The turkeys have been here long before we arrived and tried to convert their habitat to suit us.
I view the turkeys and deer in my yard as wonders to behold. I don't want them removed. I just want to live in harmony with them. I have invaded their habitat, not the other way around.
D. J. Freeman, Philomath
Senior Center tax supports, fixes a vital community hub
A number of letters regarding Measure 02-65, the so-called "Seniors, Swing sets and Softball" initiative, seem to be based on the idea that the Senior Center and its patrons are a small, isolated group of no concern to the rest of the community. Seniors are an increasingly large and active part of the community. The Senior Center is actually a community center, and many of the programs are aimed at the community, as well as seniors, their relatives and those who work with them. The Senior Center's ability to deliver these programs is limited by the size of the facility and by parking. The Senior Center is an essential part of public services such as the public schools, health department, parks and recreation and public safety.
Younger people may view the possibility that they will become seniors as such a remote event that it is of no concern to them. But I have news for you: it will happen sooner than you think. If you drive carefully, exercise regularly and eat your veggies, you, too, can become a senior citizen. And then you will want the programs the Senior Center provides.
Irving E. Dayton, Corvallis
U.S. financial institutions are leaking and foundering
Today's ship of finance is like being on the Titanic, with the Captain of the Valdez at the helm.
Art Boyle, Corvallis
'Top two' measure only serves to hurt third parties
For anyone who thinks Measure 65 will allow them to vote for any presidential candidate during the primary, think again. Section 18(e) reads that for the political party nomination for President of the United States: "Only votes cast by members of the applicable political party shall be tallied," meaning it is the same procedure as now. All that Measure 65 would do is keep minority party candidates from running in general elections.
Tanya Shively, Philomath
Do we respect origins of new Iraqi government?
Jeff T. Barrie's Sept. 23 letter - "When will we honor Iraq's request that we leave?" - implores us to respect the sovereignty of the new Iraqi government by honoring its request for U.S. troop withdrawal.
To this, I must add, for clarification, that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has not yet endorsed a specific timetable for such withdrawal. It is reported that he "instead discussed 'an Iraqi vision' of U.S. troop withdrawals based on negotiations with Washington and 'and in the light of the continuing positive developments on the ground.'" (www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/20/10482/)
Still, in response, I am also led to ask: If we ought to respect the sovereignty of the new Iraqi government - as, indeed, I believe we ought to - is it not according to reason that we ought also to respect those who enabled this new government to arise? Could such a democratically elected government have arisen under the oppressive and vexatious regime of Saddam Hussein?
Whatever may be said, either for or against, the rationale of the Bush administration in entering Iraq, can it be maintained that the good people of Iraq would have fared better as subjects of a delusional and sadistic tyrant who fancied himself the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar?
Think on it.
Kevin Taylor, Corvallis
Democrats blocked Civil Rights movement in South
A recent letter regarding the liberal tradition in America states that liberals were fighting for civil rights and voting rights for blacks in the American South "while conservatives manned the fire hoses and police dogs." Alas, neither part of that is accurate.
After reconstruction, the "Solid South" took form, and the Democrat Party won nearly all local, statewide and national elections for the next century. They wrote and passed all the Jim Crow laws, and they also enforced them.
The mayor, police chief and fire chief of Birmingham and Selma, Ala., were all Democrats, as were the governors of Mississippi and Alabama who stood at the university door trying to prevent blacks from registering for classes. The mayor of Little Rock and governor of Arkansas, who tried to defy the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, were also Democrats.
On the legislative side, a much higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats in both houses of Congress voted in favor of the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act, and the Equal Opportunity Employment Act.
I would not deny that the liberal of today champions civil rights for all people; so does the conservative. In the conservative's case, however, it has always been that way. And the actual people manning the fire hoses? In all probability, at the moment they turned the hoses on the first marcher, not a one of them had ever voted for anybody but a Democrat in his life.
John Brenan, Corvallis