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Seek out ‘Truth’
Tim Mayer is right on the mark (Our Readers Write, Dec. 6) criticizing
the gutless wonders running the National Science Teachers Association
for turning down an offer of 50,000 free DVDs of Al Gore’s “An
Inconvenient Truth” in favor of the junk science of the American
Petroleum Institute.
Fortunately for teachers, students, parents and other concerned
citizens of our county, the Hood River Library has the DVD. Check it
out!
George W. Earley
Mount Hood
Not ‘us vs. them’
First and foremost, please let us go on record as neighbors of the
project that:
We are not opposed to the proposed PUD as approved, and we do
believe in and support the American dream of home ownership!
The members of HOPE have seemingly influenced the thinking of the
very people they purport to defend, by convincing them that this
is an “us vs. them” scenario, “them” being the current homeowners
in the surrounding neighborhood. Several prospective recipients of
HOPE’s charity stated at the meeting that they “simply want a
place of their own, and they do not understand why the
neighborhood should be against that”.
If HOPE’s vision is truly to place these folks in one of their
subsidized homes, why have they taken four years from their
original proposal to get to this point (which is really no point
at all)? If they had acted with due diligence, and in the true
best interest of the people they claim to be helping, the project
could be finished, full of families preparing to enjoy the holiday
season, and the landscape recovering and maturing after the
construction.
By delaying over and over as they have, the project has become
economically unviable, and as such, they are grasping at straws to
try to make it work, when the entire infrastructure (or lack
thereof) of the plan is flawed.
The question remains, and begs an answer: Why, after all the time,
energy, and taxpayers’ dollars spent on the originally approved
application, are we back at the table discussing huge “amendments”
to the approved application? Have there been changes to the zoning
ordinances, or to the city’s stance on density that would change
the outcome of putting yet another proposal in front of the
Commission?
Rhetorical questions, perhaps, but ones that we feel need to be
aired, so that the citizens of our community may be informed.
Ed Holmer
Christie St. Martin
Hood River
Coming tug-of-war
In regard to Governor Kulongoski’s news release of Dec. 4, on his
2007-08 “Hope and Opportunity” Budget Plan:
I challenge you to find the word “jobs” in this plan, even one
time! Look for the term “private sector.” Not happening.
On the contrary, I can’t even count the number of “we’s” in here.
The governor’s “we” clearly means the state government. He is a
classic governor-with-a-state and the people are not to be a state
with a government. He will never “get it.”
I just hope our legislators do “get” it and show some discipline
and take the opportunity to run this state like a business not
like an unaccountable charity. His plan is a huge disincentive for
business and private family-wage job holders and seekers and is a
bonanza for state government and those who seek a state in which
to live where there is no need for personal initiative, risk
taking, responsibility or accountability. Just wait until the rest
of his tax plan and environmental restrictions are decreed.
When will he learn that all monies which are used to provide
services for our people come from private sector jobs?
Disincentivising these jobs and businesses in favor of more and
larger government programs is a guaranteed path to economic and
societal bankruptcy. True Oregonians know we have suffered through
the infancy of this mentality for 24 years. Now it is here and all
powerful. I ask the governor, let people grow, take risks, earn
and employ and our budget woes (including education costs) are
taken care of. I’m telling you all to grab hold of your wallets
because it’s going to be one hell of a tug-of-war.
Tim Smith
Harney County
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