The Gnarl Ridge fire is not located “about 3 miles southwest of Cloud Cap Inn,” as reported on Aug. 13. That would put it high on Newton Clark Glacier! Its location is actually about 2 miles southeast of Tilly Jane campground.

The fire is burning an insect-ravaged forest entirely within the Mt. Hood Wilderness. Fires are part of the natural cycle that improves a forest’s health. So why is this fire being suppressed?

Because of millions of dollars spent fighting fires in remote areas, the Forest Service is out of money and can only pay salaries. What next? A shutdown of our national forests? No resources to protect communities that are threatened by wildfires?

Give love

What is the meaning of life? This age-old question has given many the cause to search for an answer.

With each friend or loved one that passes away, the answer becomes more clear.

Last month my friend Damien Winters died in a windsurfing accident.

This month Rodger Campbell, a fellow musician, passed on in the early morning hours of the day a benefit in his honor took place. Both were kind and gentle souls who touched the lives of those they met, who gave of themselves freely, and who will be missed by many.

Life goes on for the rest of us, and with it a responsibility to live the best we can, trying to make the lives of those around us better. My recent battle with breast cancer has given me the opportunity to search my heart for answers. What I found was this:

Each day is a beautiful gift.

The best time to do something you care about is now. Don’t wait for “someday.“

When you open up your heart to give, you are also open to receive.

Live each day in gratitude.

Love does not come from us, but through us. If heaven is a place we create, then I know that Damien is boarding on the river, Rodger is playing music, and someday I will be there too, singing and dancing, grateful to have been given this amazing journey through life.

At last it becomes so clear. What is the meaning of life? The answer is simple and pure: LOVE.

Support wilderness

Protection of clean drinking water and a vital wildlife travel corridor on the north side of Mount Hood and an end to the threat of residential development high on the mountain are what we citizens gain by passage of the Treasures wilderness bill.

Yes, it was great when Rep. Greg Walden wrote a bill specifically for us. But, folks, that didn’t pass. This bill which includes other wilderness expansions in other states may be less perfect, but our national government, when it moves, does so through compromise.

Our commissioners need to show their support for protection of clean drinking water and for their own extensive negotiations that produced the land trade agreement that protects that water recharge area by supporting this bill NOW.

Failure to act to support expansion of our Mt. Hood Wilderness before the Sept. 2 reconvening of congress may produce a legacy for this commission of lost opportunity that will be magnified in the years to come.

See ‘Miracle Worker’

I recently attended a dress rehearsal of Plays for Non-Profits’ summer play, “The Miracle Worker.”

The actors literally breathe life into this story of Helen Keller’s early life! It’s sad to say that this remarkable woman died 40 years ago, and many young people don’t know anything about her. Ms. Keller’s accomplishments, despite her blindness and deafness, continue to inspire people all over the world. If you’re like me, and saw the movie when you were young, here is a golden opportunity to relive this timeless story.

Did I mention that 80 percent of the proceeds benefit our own local miracle workers, nonprofit organizations like Start Making A Reader Today, The Next Door, Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation, and Columbia Center for the Arts?

If you have children, or friends who are looking for something special to do this weekend or next, take them to “The Miracle Worker” and do your part to keep Helen Keller’s memory alive!

Walden helps vets

Congressman Greg Walden’s continued support of our troops doesn’t receive a lot of attention from the media so I thought I’d write to folks to let know that he has authored a bill to ensure that veterans receive immediate emergency care when they most need it.

The Veterans Critical Access Act (House Resolution 6557) would prevent any man or woman who has served his or her country from being denied immediate hospitalization due to bed restrictions. Medicare currently imposes a 25-bed limit for patients in hospitals that are located in rural areas. Veterans seeking care, any for chronic injuries sustained in the battlefield, are forced to travel miles down the road to reach the next nearest hospital.

If approved, the Congressman’s bill would amend the Social Security Act so veterans are exempted from the Medicare bed limit. We owe those who have worn the uniform of our armed forces the best possible medical treatment. Mr. Walden has come up with one way to make sure our vets are well cared for and I urge supporters of the bill to let their voices be hears on Capitol Hill.

Our thanks to Congressman Walden.

Miracle of reading

Did you know? I didn’t and I should have known that SMART, Start Making A Reader Today, is totally funded through donations.

True, this program does not get school district funds, no state dollars, and is not a federal grant.

SMART is a successful volunteer reading program in our Hood River County schools. Each week elementary students read one-on-one with community-trained readers. It works.

That is why it is sooo… important to attend the Aug. 23 performance of “The Miracle Worker,” at the Columbia Center for the Arts. On that night 50 percent of the proceeds go to the SMART program. Support the miracle of reading.

Petition misleads

I feel the citizens of Cascade Locks are being misled with the initiative petition to amend our City Charter placing limits of private property obtained by condemnation.

On the face this sounds like a good idea but it is not. Our City Charter is flawed with outdated laws and I have been a staunch proponent to make these changes of which an ordinance review committee was formed recently by our mayor.

First and foremost our City Charter needs an overhaul before we can attempt to correct it and bring it into compliance with the law. This petition does nothing to resolve the problem with our City Charter. It only adds more unlawful material to it.

This petition is misleading the voters into thinking that the city can just condemn private property and transfer title of it to another private party. This petition is misleading the voters into believing that if the city proceeds with a condemnment proceeding that the property owner or their heirs are not allowed the retain title to the property.

Both of these assumptions are wrong as The Oregon Property Protection Act of 2000 and state law are in total opposition with what this petition is trying to mislead us into believing. This petition does not make changes to government condemnation for public needs but for condemnation due to a situation in which the public’s safety is at risk from harm. I am sure the drafter of this knew that the petition would be challenged by the state, county, city and utility companies.

This petition goes a step further and straps the city’s hands by forcing the city to hold onto condemned property and wait for the property owner to buy it back. For how long? This is not stated.

This petition further words it in such a way that the city will be left making all needed repairs to protect the public bring the property into compliance. Then, to add insult to injury, after the taxpayers have paid for all this just to let the property sit and rot until who knows when and we charge the owner of the property 3 percent interest or fair market value or market value (The drafter of the petition doesn’t even know) at the time it was condemned, which would be unconstitutional and viewed on as an unfair tax to the property owner.

I do not know if this is what the rest of the citizens of Cascade Locks want to spend their tax dollars on but I don’t. The solution is to redraft the City Charter bringing it into compliance with the law and bringing it before a vote by the people and then do the same with all other laws we have on the books. Vote No on the “Initiative Petition to Amend Charter: Limits Reconveyance Of Private Property Obtained By Condemnation” and make complaints to city council to bring our City Charter into compliance with the law.

Yes to wilderness

The Hood River County Commission needs to vote to support the current Mt. Hood Wilderness bill, called Oregon Treasures, at its Aug. 18 meeting.

To put this vote off a fourth time will most likely prevent passage of the bill this year and derail the land swap on the north side of Mount Hood.

The county has invested a year and a half in mediation to resolve this issue; don’t let that effort go down the drain. The commission needs to vote and vote YES on Monday.