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Make hats to help
Knitters, crocheters and those who sew: The chemotherapy patients in
this area need you.
Use your scrap yarn and materials to make hats to be given free to
your community’s cancer chemo patients. The love and kindness shown
these patients will show them someone does care. You can give these
patients renewed hope and love.
My sister-in-law started this project after her husband, my brother,
passed away with cancer. The project has skyrocketed! People from all
over, not just in the U.S.A., have been making hats, for free, for
chemo patients in their communities.
She has named the project “Chuck’s Hats For Chemo,” after our beloved
one.
She will send free patterns and information if you just e-mail her,
Ginny Hibbard, at mioakhaven@myredding.com
Not only will it make the person feel good who is receiving chemo and
needs a hat to keep his/her head warm, it will make you feel good for
doing something for others.
Let’s get the ball rolling! Make hats for your loved one and all those
people who need one.
Ailene Hibbard
Hood River
Cold war words
In mid-May a friend and neighbor received a letter from his “mom”
in the middle west with a news clip — a syndicated column from the
Washington Times, which proclaimed that the Latino immigration
reform street protests were Marxist inspired.
(“Are these your Mom’s views?” “You bet!”)
I was not surprised at the backlash from school administrators and
employers against Latino youth activities who enlivened North
American streets recently. (Standing among them I wondered what
North American youth were thinking/doing about environmental
degradation, about nuclear proliferation, about corruption at the
highest levels of government, about war — more wars, about the
suppression of dissent and the mobilization of youth for future
wars with the language of hate and fear — and of unreason.
We bombed the Germans (Axis) brand of Hitler Nazi fascism and then
tried the war criminals at Nuremburg — what are we going to do
(take action) against the insidious rise of fascism here at home?
Another witch hunt?
Don Shawe
Hood River
Managing U.S. fall
Remember when politicians spoke of great things, like great
societies, like higher education for more people, (15 million GIs
went through college on the GI Bill after World War II and the
Korean War) like exploration into unknown realms, like basic
research, like prosperity, like equity and equality, like a truly
clean environment to live in? These politicians came from both
dominant parties. Even though Barry Goldwater was quite the war
hawk, he was also a genuine conservationist.
Now the main topics on politician’s lips are fear of distant
peoples, security of our borders, the need for ever-new implements
of death, destruction and misery in order to bring peace,
never-ending war to bring peace (??) corporate global “free”
trade. How about understanding and compassion for distant peoples,
implements and actions for peace now!, “global fair and
ecologically sustainable” trade? We used to be proud of our long,
unguarded borders. Now there are moves to keep some people out and
some people in. Perhaps if the Native Americans had been able to
keep all of our ancestors out, this land we say we love would
truly be the home of the free and the brave.
Since we are living way beyond ecological sustainability, and it’s
impossible to have a healthy economy without a healthy
environment, politicians of today are reduced to managing the
collapse of the United States. They endeavor to keep our minds off
the obvious reality all around us by keeping us busy in fear.
Our beloved adopted home ground, the United States, is in deep
danger from within by people who freewheel in business all over
the planet, make alliances with whomever will serve their
selfishness, manufacture and trade weapons for evil all over the
planet.
I’m talking about sociopathic transnational corporations and
corporate individuals who move in and out of government. Don’t
take my word for anything. Do your own due diligence. This
information is readily available if you look beyond the corporate
media.
The good news is, out of our collapse we might know compassion;
that love and community is the way to live. We might develop a
national ethos for the common good rather than greed and
ignorance; ecological sustainability rather than extinction and
suicide; value of higher education, brightening all the people up
rather than dumbing everyone down; reverence for all species and
creation rather than mindless consumption.
All of this and a lot more positives are possible, but I’m not too
confident with the probability. Most current politicians don’t
appear to have a clue of the vision, much less the will to move
this way. Citizens need to become educated in the deep underlying
conditions and become engaged for change. We all need to work
together with people of greater curiosity, compassion,
intelligence and wisdom seeking political office.
We’ve got to reclaim citizens’ government sovereignty over private
transnational corporations. Without vision the people perish.
Keith Harding
Mount Hood
‘Music’ delights
“The Sound of Music” is a delightful production. The music is
great and everyone played their parts beautifully (especially the
kids). Also, what a great use of an old building! (Pine Grove
Grange Hall) If you’re looking for a fun and very enjoyable
evening, check out “The Sound of Music.” We did.
Mary Blumenthal, Sigrid Scully,
Clare Zumwalt
Parkdale
Never on Sunday
First a proposed business tax and now parking meters on Saturday.
Can Sundays be far behind? Of course, in a city that has a
penchant for picking our pockets, nothing should surprise us
anymore.
John Codino
Hood River
First Friday rudeness
Does the dog carrying his own leash in his mouth qualify as a
leashed dog?
Does anyone know if dogs really like to shop, especially on a hot
evening full of people at First Fridays? No water, no place to
potty (we wish), and others dogs challenging them for their space.
Does anyone enjoy having a strange dog sniff their private parts?
Please, no reply necessary.
Does having two of them at the same time on separate leashes
really make for a nice stroll? We saw one nip at the heels of one
young vendor and then the dogs proceeded to quarrel with each
other, which was not good for the business of either vendor.
Does a young teenager think it’s cool to tell a senior citizen to
get out of his way or he’ll kill her? We built this country, young
man, and when you can contribute something other than poor manners
and behavior, only then should you be allowed out of your house.
I’m sure we’ll hear from all the dog lovers out there, and all we
have to say is there are no rude dogs, just a few rude dog owners.
Perhaps you should be watching The Dog Whisperer rather than
writing to the paper in defense of your dog.
Gloria Clark, Murrieta, Calif.
Carol Reister, Hood River
Leilani Caldwell, Hood River
Bravo to ‘Sound’
Last night 10 in our family attended the spectacular performance
of “The Sound of Music,” produced by the new Hood River Valley
Playhouse. The founders, directors, actors and all those behind
the scene are to be commended for the professional and moving
performance of a musical that can be enjoyed by all ages.
It was a feast for the eyes, ears and the soul. The scenery, sets
and program were professional, beautiful and handsome. The
costumes were lovely and stylistically correct. All of the music
was a joy to listen to. The voices of Amber Brennan, who played
the part of Maria, and April Sampson, who played Liesl, were
breathtaking. The harmonization of the ensembles was amazing,
especially the ethereal sounds of the nuns. The children were
charming and captured our hearts. The live performance touches one
in a way that a movie cannot.
If you haven’t already attended one of these performances, I
encourage you to do so. You are in for a treat. Bravo, Bravo to
everyone involved!
Jeanine Jacobson
Odell
One movie to see
If you only see one movie this year, make it “An Inconvenient
Truth.” It is powerful, fact-based and actionable. Thanks to
Andrew (McElderry) for bringing this to our town.
Gordon Mayer
Hood River
Where does it end?
I read the July 5th article by RaeLynn Ricarte “Booze, Bombs,
Bullets …” with dismay, frustrations and even some anger. It is no
wonder our society struggles with so many social problems and
logjams in our legal system seeing the amount of dysfunctional
behavior people can engage in while suffering only minimal
consequences.
The scenario presented to us by Ms. Ricarte is not an isolated
incident in our community. Numerous articles have been written in
recent months in this newspaper describing the trials and
tribulations of other addicts and non-conformers to society’s
polite rules we call LAWS. We usually read of the same formula for
these people as to how they have come to a similar place in life
as the gentleman in Ms. Ricarte’s story: Difficult childhood,
small-time troubles with drugs and/or the law, followed by an
arrest of some sort with a slap on the hand. I suspect we
constantly remain optimistic that those traveling down this path
in life will “see the light” while suffering only little
inconvenience for their transgressions.
Unfortunately, this seems to work for a very small portion of
individuals, according to statistics. Our caring society continues
to bend over backwards with money, time and an ungodly amount of
compassion for individuals like the man in the article and
countless others who continue to flaunt their proverbial fingers
at us as a community and ignore our legal system. I find it hard
to believe that an adult of 38 years old cannot comprehend what
his probation entails.
I encourage our legal system to take a closer look at how we
punish offenders based on their age, significance of
transgression, and history attached to each incident. Based on
what I have read in the Hood River News, I consider the punishment
for the young man involved in the hazing incident at the high
school to be far more severe based on his intended actions than
those of this 38-year-old adult with repeated and multiple
offenses.
This community is a wonderful and relatively safe place to live.
If we cannot change our thinking about punishment for bad
behavior, we can expect not only to see many more of these stories
in the paper, we can enjoy a community with less safety and more
obstacles for our children and ourselves.
Steve Kaplan
Hood River
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