|
Thanks, foster parents
November is traditionally the month we give thanks for the many
blessings in our lives. We would like to take this opportunity to say
“Thank you” to our wonderful Next Door, Inc., foster parents in Hood
River, Klickitat, and Wasco counties. These wonderful folks work
behind the scenes, patiently and selflessly, sharing their homes and
their lives with teenagers who have very few other resources. On an
average day 6,400 kids in Oregon are in foster care. Our foster
parents provide safe and loving homes for teenagers in our community.
Their contribution makes it possible for the teens in our program to
acquire the help they need to repair the hurt. It also provides them
the opportunity to receive the tools they need to have a happier,
healthier future. Thank you to all our foster parents and to foster
parents everywhere! You are a blessing!
Becci Crane
Foster care certifier
The Next Door, Inc.
Faiths’ fatal flaw
While no expert on world religions, it seems to me that most
develop a “fatal flaw” when embedded too deeply in a nation’s
political culture. Koranic Islam, for example, in largest
perspective, is a majestic and compassionate faith. One cannot
help but admire its lofty tenets and the daily devotion it
inspires in its adherents. But Islam’s fatal flaw emerges when it
feels itself threatened or demeaned by Western religious and
secular values and moves to acquire political power in order to
defend itself. Take the concept of “jihad.” Jihad’s central,
scriptural meaning has more to do with maintaining personal virtue
and inner harmony than with perpetrating violence. Only when
driven by nationalistic fervor and the fear of being attacked does
it transfigure itself into various violent expressions of “holy
war.” Plunged into the charged atmosphere of international
intrigue and politics, a truly noble religion like Islam can spawn
a destructive fundamentalism capable of justifying an unspeakable
terrorism — thus becoming its own worst enemy. Lest we Christians
and Jews feel immune from this fatal flaw, we need only to
remember our own checkered histories. Essentially religions of
love, compassion and justice, we also have fostered bloody wars
and gross injustices when too closely allied with political power
and feeling threatened by the tenets and values of other
religions. Yet what has proved most destructive for all three of
our Abrahamic religions is the amazing blindness that this fatal
combination of factors engenders, a blindness to the stark
contradiction between our basic religious values and the national
politics that we confidently, but mistakenly, believe express
them. So it would seem that this fatal flaw within each of our
religious traditions can pose a greater threat than even the
threat of our most implacable foes. As the proverbial Pogo has
said, “We have seen the enemy, and he is us.”
David C. Duncombe
White Salmon
More input needed
This Tuesday morning I had the fascinating experience of attending
an intense, if sparsely attended, hearing in Parkdale on how CAT
(Hood River County Transportation District) may perhaps better
serve the transit needs of seniors, disabled persons, and
low-income persons. Among needs brought up were: public transit to
Portland and other Gorge locations, and evening in-county transit.
It was noted that transit is among the very lowest-funded items in
our county property tax, and that additional service would cost
money. It was noted that there are rideshare boards online,
carpool park-and-ride lots in the Bingen and Hood River areas, and
Amtrak and Greyhound service — albeit sometimes late and scheduled
to require expensive overnights in Portland — for those needing to
commute into Portland for specialized medical appointments, jobs,
etc., but some residents pointed out these options definitely fail
to meet the needs of many seniors or disabled persons. The meeting
facilitator, Amanda, from Mid-Columbia EDD, did a superb job; CAT
Executive Director Dan Schwanz excellently clarified CAT
procedures and the Parkdale Grange offered a welcoming facility.
All present expressed a wish that more Upper Valley residents,
especially Spanish-speaking residents, could have attended to
provide further insight into residents’ needs.
Paula Friedman
Transportation District Board member
Parkdale
Measure 37 is law
About land use planning: First the state insisted that all farms
and all farmers had to be dealt with identically, and codified
that assumption. Bad assumption. Then, finally, came Measure 37,
which again assumed that all farms and all farmers were in the
same boat. No better assumption than that of the planning
advocates. So the state, and Measure 37 authors, decided that the
only viable challenge to land use planning was the goal of
sub-division and development. VERY bad decision. This was largely
due to the grouping of house builders with land owners in the
campaign. Politics does indeed make for some strange bedfellows.
So, in the prosecution of our Measure 37 claim, we used
sub-divided land value as a basis to establish damage amount. It
is the only basis that the state can recognize so that is what we
use. In our case, division is the absolute last resort of action.
What we want to do is:
* Use our property in a way that will produce an income large enough to
justify the cost and labor necessary to maintain it;
* Find a use for it that does not materially alter or permanently degrade
the land;
* Keep the land in one undivided parcel;
* Excuse us from compulsory participation in this expletive-deleted
Mother-May-I game that is carried on ad infinitum ad nauseum in
our court house. Now, as of this time, that’s the way it’s going
to be. I care about my land. I am insulted by socialist politicos
who lump me into a group with cut-and-run developers. I am sorry
this has been such a worry for my good neighbors.
Jack Sheppard
Hood River
|
