Letters
Aug. 21, 2010 

Head meets heart

I was very glad to see the new 39-cent mil rate for the proposed library district.

I was talking across his counter with a smart business man last week while getting the propane tank filled for a family barbecue. We talked about the library. His head had told him the original mil rate needed some heavy rethinking. Of course, my heart had told me you can’t have a town without a library.

I’m hoping the recent thoughtful reevaluation brings us closer together.

Now, from a heart point of view, I think the need for more citizen volunteers is a good thing. It says you can’t take the library for granted without more involvement. Just like that family barbecue and the need for propane.

The library is many things to the town and the county: the availability of books and knowledge on a myriad of subjects, the access to computers, the importance of the children’s program.

But the library provides a focus for organizations and meetings and actions, as well. As often as I am in Rosauers and Safeway and Walmart, I don’t see them as a meeting place for community activity.

The new proposal has had a lot of smart thinking applied to it. I hope it can fly in the fall.

Dick Swart
Hood River

Sacrifice suggested

Lowering taxes without cutting spending, expanding entitlement programs without adding funding sources, launching wars without paying for them and battling recession with bailouts and stimulus programs.

For reasons good and bad, we are left with an unsustainable level of deficit spending. While both political parties own much of the blame for runaway deficits, we also share responsibility. We ask for more and more from government while looking the other way when Congress passes the costs on to our children and grandchildren. Bringing spending and revenues into balance will be painful.

 While it is easy to name sacrifices we want from others, I doubt that we will see real progress on deficits until each of us is willing to claim our own piece of that pain. Rather than pointing to sacrifices for others to make, each of us needs to identify the sacrifices we are willing to make.

Here are the sacrifices I am willing to put on the table — ones that hit my own pocketbook:

n Allow the Bush-era tax cuts expire for all Americans — rich and poor.

n Repeal the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit and replace it with a lower-cost program that pays for generic drugs and other drugs based on their cost-effectiveness.

n Increase the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare by two years over the next decade to reflect longer life expectancies.

n Increase gas taxes to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and reduce our dependency on oil.

While these changes would be painful, I believe they would help reduce the national debt, ensure the future viability of Social Security and Medicare and restore confidence in the economy.

I challenge others to speak out on the sacrifices they are willing to accept. Only then can we hope that our elected leaders will take up this difficult work.

Rick Davis
Mosier

Right of choice

I am writing to support a local man, Cliff Mansfield, who has been maligned in the paper recently by another reader. I would like to remind Gary Fields of our Constitution which grants a great deal of power to the individual regarding personal freedoms. Included in that is the freedom of choice.

I can only assume that Mr. Mansfield believes it is his and his company’s best interest to move operations to a Central American country and eliminate American jobs and take money out of our economy. He is guaranteed that right, and we should not judge or malign him in any way for his personal decision. He can support America any way he chooses, even if it is Central America.

When I moved to town in 1999 I went to a large grocery store in town looking for local produce and specifically apple cider. I could not find either. It was very surprising to me that a local store would not carry these items since they represent products from the valley. The store made a choice not to carry those products.

Venturing to the other employee-owned grocery store, I found fresh apples and cider. My choice was to become a loyal customer to that smaller store. I can come up with many examples other examples of the benefits of free speech and choice which are enjoyed by myself, Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Fields.

Suffice it to say, some are made for financial reasons, some personal, some ethical. Mr. Fields, I ask you to kindly reconsider your mission — I know we can all learn from each other about what it means to be a good American citizen. I believe sometimes putting ego and profit aside to do what is right is important.

In the meantime, we can all use our personal freedom to support (or not) U.S. and local companies who may charge a little more for their products while contributing to our own economy.

Steve Kaplan
Hood River

Study and vote

I read recently in the letters to the editor references to our country being a democracy. It isn’t. It is a democratic republic. This means we function as a democracy to choose our representatives who work for us to keep our democratic function.

If we are dissatisfied with the bigger role government is having in our lives, we need to look at whom we are choosing to represent us. Study all the candidates and choose the one(s) you believe best thinks the way you do.

The thing is, we need to study to do this. Follow what the candidates are actually saying; their backgrounds that show what they emphasize, and their accomplishments. What do you want in your representatives and government?

Marilyn Brennan
Hood River

Branch questions

Can someone please tell me what part of the proposed library budget goes toward keeping the Parkdale and Cascade Locks branches?

And are those branches on land that could be sold or leased out to raise money for a consolidated single location? I say this as someone who grew up in Parkdale: It seems ridiculous to attempt to keep multiple branches of a library open when even the survival of the core library is in question.

And if this is a matter of fairness for the people of Parkdale and Cascade Locks, then what about fairness for the people of Odell, Pine Grove, Dee, etc?

 So please, what are the budgetary numbers?

Jeff Hawkins
Hood River

Back library tax

Even though I think libraries important, I agree with Irene Duniphin’s letter that we cannot ask anyone to go without food or other physical necessities to this end. The millage fee being proposed for the November ballot seems a decent compromise — and perhaps we can make provisions to waive a portion of property taxes in cases of serious hardship, without collapsing the county budget.

 We all know where monies can better be cut — from highest-level public salaries, and probably from at least some potential contract situations and consultancies, and from the small but additive aids to regional big firms in hopes they may hire more people.

It can be hard to remember being poor — the meals of rice or macaroni, the moving of one cake of soap among bathtub and basin and sink, the choices between taking the kids swimming or having a loaf of bread this week or a drive into town to a coffee shop, ex-library, or other computer/net site — let alone impossibly saving to buy a computer (or pay repairs once one has one).

But libraries are where even those undergoing poverty (or disabled or ill in ways not enabling keyboarding) can nevertheless learn culture and the love of reading.

Support the library tax in November.

Paula Friedman
Hood River

Re-gifting

Is this an amazing community or what? Two weekends ago we had the three-day WINGS Treasure Sale at the old Movie Gallery location. The idea sprouted from my husband complaining about all of the stuff in our garage — so I talked to my board and a month later we opened our store with donations from over 40 families.

We had so much great stuff — including a trailer, a wooden boat and a tractor. Well, we kept the trailer and boat, but we sold the tractor — thanks, Glenn Taylor — and so much other stuff that we made over $10,000! Crazy!

But the best part was the “re-gifting.” The Women’s Shelter took the best of our leftovers and they made $1,000 at their garage sale. All of the stuffed animals went to the senior center for bingo night. The TV and monitors were recycled at the transfer station. Twenty-two boxes of books were delivered to AmeriTitle to become part of the Community Book Swap, and the rest went to Goodwill.

Thanks so much to all who donated or purchased and as always, to all of you who help us give homeless young men WINGS.

Allyson Pate
WINGS executive director
Hood River