Last month a former resident wrote and asked why Hood River lawns were brown. The answer can be found in two words, greed and green. Number one is greed, what the city of Hood River charges for water; and number two is green, what most lawns, mine included, won’t be because of number one.

At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, when food banks are being depleted and more and more people are turning to food stamps, Hood River, in its usual cavalier attitude, raises taxes. Now they’ll call them fees or charges, anything to avoid using the T word.

But as predicted in an earlier letter once a new tax comes online, another one enters the planning stage. Now no one making $70,000 or more can possibly relate to what it’s like trying to get by on Social Security and/or a fixed income. Even $5 a month less can raise havoc with a budget. On garbage days we have three separate individuals going from house to house looking for cans and bottles. An extra expense of $5 a month means they have to collect an additional 100 just to stay even.

Not very good PR for a city that claims to be world-class; which brings up the question of world-class what? Any government body that puts its city ahead of that city’s residents has its priorities out of whack.

But there is still one bright spot: We can all keep our heads above water because we can’t afford the water. Hood River, where it’s still all about money.

Medicare cuts

Associated Press writer Julie Hirschfield Davis, in a story in The New York Times Saturday, July 5, wrote about pending Medicare cuts.

A 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors went into effect July 1, but Medicare officials are holding off processing new claims, hoping that Congress will act within the next few weeks to restore the higher payments. Many health plans, including the government program covering military personnel, tie their payment rates to Medicare’s.

A measure to prevent these Medicare cuts passed the House but fell just one vote short of the 60 it needed to advance to the Senate, with most Republicans voting “no.” If it had passed, President Bush threatened to veto it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans a second vote on the measure as early as next week. Reid said in a statement that Republicans were choosing to “cut programs that help working families, seniors, and veterans in need of health care” to protect multinational companies that would benefit from extending the (expiring) tax cuts.

The way I read it, in a nutshell, Democrats want to raise taxes in order to reduce the deficit and provide benefits for ordinary people, and Republicans want to cut social programs and extend the tax cuts to benefit big business.

Working families, seniors, and military personnel — that covers most of us — do the math: Which program will hurt or benefit us (the majority) the most? Remember when you vote in November that you are not just voting for a president. Take a close look at your representative and senator’s voting record to see if he/she represents your interests and vote accordingly.

Headlines reveal

Read the bold headlines, listen to world news.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist.

People know growth hurts, and can name a dozen ways.

Hunger

Pollution

Traffic

Poverty

Crime

Homelessness

Running on empty (oil)

Ignorance

Disease

Water shortages

Over fishing

Wars

Underpopulation reduces the risks, and what got worse gets better.

Wolf cries

One hundred years ago, Hood River County had two industries: lumbering as its number-one and agriculture as number two. Fifty years later, it had three: lumber, number one; agriculture, number two; and tourism, number three. One hundred years later in terms of revenue: recreation/tourism number one; agriculture still number two; and lumbering is now number three.

In my opinion, the two “ol’timers” could work like “hand in glove.” While agriculture serves as an attractor of farm and other laborers, from other countries, lumbering could have served as the provider in part for our county/city governments and school’s resources via the general fund.

BUT no! Thanks be to the ambitions and progress of those following after the 1960-1980 hippie era, with zest to choke out our once-primary source by their environmental “wolf cries,” which served as a catalyst and caused these funds to evaporate — then holler “foul” when “BIG brother” won’t cough up.

Seems as though we can’t have our pie and eat it too! But we can go back to the good ol’ days of revenue and clear cuts, which after 20 years are a prettier green than they were previously. Just journey up to Mount St. Helens and see for yourself.

In summary, I see a county with two problems. One — A lack of understanding of reforestation by the environmental newcomers (1980 to date) who want to break something and then re-fix it. Two — A repeat of history dating back to 1843 when we overran the natives of that time and then set our form of government over them.