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There is a lot of confusion over what multiple sclerosis is and is not. And as with so many issues that are not clearly understood, it is easy to form preconceptions that may unfairly stereotype those of us with the disease.

What are some of the common misconceptions? That we are helpless and cannot work. That we would get better if we just “worked at it” more. That we’re not really fatigued; just unmotivated.

Those who have any experience with MS learn very quickly that the above three things are almost never true and that every case of MS is different. That makes us much more “like” other people than different, and we hope that the events this spring and summer, including the Bike MS event in the Gorge July 31-Aug. 1 will help us all learn a little more about each other.

Your kind consideration to this matter is greatly appreciated.

Susan K. Johnson
NW Mission Team committee member
Hood River

Workers deserve respect

For the past three years I have worked in a restaurant and a grocery store. Working in such jobs has brought me joy, and, with the responsibilities of helping customers and giving them the best customer possible service, I’ve never regretted choosing such employment.

I enjoy the satisfaction of helping customers; it has always given me the feeling that I was doing something right, for once.

But I do make mistakes, I admit. I can’t remember exactly how many mistakes I’ve made while working in such jobs, but I can remember how many times I’ve been beaten down by words from unsatisfied customers.

I have had a customer come up and literally throw her food in my face. Another, different customer called me a lousy employee for not giving him his food fast enough.

These are only two examples of my being disrespected and mistreated. I also have watched many coworkers get yelled at by customers for someone else’s mistake.

But you know what? Mistakes happen, and the thing I don’t understand is why some people choose to resolve it in such a rude, arrogant way. It is sometimes difficult to please people, but when someone is willing to try, and a simple mistake occurs, an argumentative situation shouldn’t be the answer for either the worker or customer.

For new employees, the first day on the job is difficult, and customers need to understand the fact that we don’t know everything. So, the polite and kind way of handling this situation is to be patient and understand that we are trying our hardest to get things right, and not to make us feel bad about our service.

The satisfaction of customers is the main goal of grocery stores and restaurants, but the happiness an employee is also important.

Amanda Ayala
Hood River

Unbridled ideas

A health care plan with a public option is like a horse without a bridle.

However, the program that I favor is one managed by our government consisting of all of those Obama wants; providing that our government also inherits the movie industry — from filming to showing — whether by gallery, satellite or cable.

The monies from the second will finance the monies for the first, according to “Robin Hood.”

But, if government fails again, then consider Plan B, which comes after rebirth, death, then resurrection; for those who have filled that void.

Alan Winans
Hood River

Lady in red

As strange as it may sound, I had a kind of spiritual experience in Rosauers today.

I was hurrying to get to the 10-items-or-less cash register and there was this lady in a red coat moving casually along with her cart ahead of me, checking the lines to check out. Well, with my blue basket, I zoomed right by her on the left to get in line — yes, there is only one person ahead paying her bill! Then, I looked back.

There she was, right behind me, the lady in red, with a few items in her cart. We looked at each other; I apologized and asked her to go ahead. As she passed, she said, “You dropped your hat back there.” I looked, and there some distance back was my hat on the floor, the one my wife bought for me a few days ago.

Only 59 cents on sale at K-Mart, but it’s special — warm, a love gift. Boy, was I happy to get it! Are there lessons here? My wife says there are, and I think she’s right.

Larry Jones
Hood River

Business to support

I’m writing to voice my support for a small, Parkdale brewery operated by Dave Logsdon.

Dave is an asset to the Hood River valley and a significant member of our fragile business community. He has an international reputation for excellence and quality in research biology and practical production methods. His business model is very modest and would serve Hood River County’s image of smart, creative people creating world-class products in a world-class setting.

We need to cultivate businesses like Mr. Logsdon’s. If Hood River is going to continue to attract talented people who create jobs and much-needed tax revenues we need to be pro-business and Dave’s is an ideal fit for Parkdale.

His limited, high-quality production will have very little environmental impact beyond the existing fermentation already taking place at dozens of Parkdale homes and labs. But his reputation among brewers nationwide will garner a large amount of press and positive articles about Hood River and its great tradition of brewing excellence.

I look forward to serving my dinner guests another outstanding product produced in the amazing Hood River Valley.

Mike Caldwell
Stonehedge Gardens
Hood River

To the wind

I agree with Danny Jefferies’ letter to the editor (March 6) regarding properly locating industrial wind farms.

With growing concerns regarding the negative impacts to human health, wildlife, property values and scenic areas, state and federal agencies are beginning to recommend that industrial-scale wind farms be located in remote areas, away from population centers and not on ridge lines or mountain tops.

The Hood River County Commissioners’ proposal for an industrial wind farm located on top of Middle Mountain fails to meet any of these recommendations.

As the name implies, “Middle Mountain” is located directly in the middle of the Hood River Valley, right smack in the middle of the Mount Hood view-shed, and is right in the middle of the communities of Dee and Parkdale with close proximity to Odell and parts of Hood River.

Particularly concerning is that the county’s project will set a precedent, paving the way and opening the entire valley to industrial wind farming. Under such a scenario, in very short order, the Hood River Valley and its ridge tops could be covered with wind turbines the likes of which are now observed in places like Goldendale and Condon.

The pressure for industrial wind farming is upon us in the Hood River Valley. As proof, a pre-application meeting for an industrial wind farm was held with county officials Dec. 22, 2009. The applicant, Fir Mountain Development LLC, of Lake Oswego. is proposing to locate an industrial wind farm on the east hills ridge line off of Fir Mountain Road.

Given the above, the real focus of the county commission should now be on how to limit or prevent large-scale industrial wind farming rather than promoting it. Please write to the commissioners and express your views before the county commissioners throw the entire valley to the wind!

Greg Shepherd
Hood River

Tender ears

To the owners of the chocolate lab pup tied to a parking meter Saturday (on Third Street near Cascade): Four hours of loud blasting music scared that dog to bring terror in her eyes. You don’t deserve to own a dog.

Ellen Kelly Hixson
Hood River

Need better care

I have a friend that has run a woodworking business for the last 25 years. He has about 10 employees and has long covered part of the cost of their health insurance.

One of his longtime employees recently came down with cancer and needed surgery to remove the growths, and is in need of follow-up chemotherapy. You would think that with health insurance, all would be well, but not so.

You see, because of his illness and the resulting operation he was off work for several weeks and the insurance company now claims he is no longer a full-time employee and will not cover his chemo treatments.

What an ugly Catch-22 this private death panel we call an insurance company has come up with.

If this man returns to work and slaves long enough to once again qualify for insurance (assuming he can qualify with his now “pre-existing” condition) he may well have a reoccurrence before the insurance will pay for his chemo; and if he pays for his chemo himself he may well lose his house and life’s savings and end up bankrupt.

It is time that we corrected the health care system in this country.

About 50 percent of our nation’s health care cost are already covered by the government through single-payer health care systems we call Medicare and Medicaid and other plans.

These systems cover the old and the poor who are typically the most medically needy among us, while the health insurance industry tries its best to only insure the healthiest so that its execs can make their eight-figure profits.

The Republican solution to health care seems to be to make the present overpriced and ineffective system last as long as possible so that the most profit can be raked from it.

It seems that the only thing Republicans have found fit to bring to the table over the last year is a monkey wrench with which to jam the gears of government and make sure that nothing improves and that health care stays both expensive and ineffective. The American people need and deserve a better health care system.

Jim Denton
Mt. Hood

50-cent investment

I cannot remember a time when the public library was not a part of my life: Saturday afternoons spent browsing the shelves of the public library, Sundays spent curled up with a book, taking my own children to the library and experiencing the joys of reading together. I cannot imagine a life without public libraries.

I love watching families emerging from the library, arms laden with books, or the quiet respectful hush of people reading, studying, using the computers. I love knowing that at any time I can walk into the library and borrow a book or a movie or just spend time reading in a comfortable chair overlooking the river — no questions asked, no currency exchanged.

At first glance the proposed library tax seems like a lot of money. But when you do the math — let’s use John Brennan’s assessment (letters, March 6) as an example — it comes to just under 50 cents a day.

Fifty cents a day — the cost of an extra shot in your latte. Fifty cents a day — less than one beer or slice of pizza a week. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem so expensive.

Fifty cents a day for a place where anyone can borrow a book, check out a movie, or use the Internet? Fifty cents a day for a place where literacy can grow and thrive? Sounds like a bargain to me.

Anne Gehrig
Hood River

Just say no

I realize that I won’t be gaining any new friends among the parents in my daughter’s kindergarten classroom at Westside, nor do I want to offend Heather at the library for her awesome story-reading events that I have enjoyed with my daughter.

However, anyone that knows me knows that I speak my mind. And I must on this library tax issue. Just say no! It’s so unnecessary!

I remember in the early 1970s when my parents purchased a set of Encyclopedia Britannica for us four girls. Wow — how exciting it was for us to have study materials at home at the touch of our fingertips!

Times have changed, but we still have study materials available at home now in this great technological age of computers. Most of us own computers. And, most likely, even more than one. And if you don’t, our kids have access to computers at school.

I, personally, love having our beautiful library here in Hood River; we enjoy using it. But, a district? And more taxes to fund that district? I have to disagree.

I like the idea of having a “user fee” for library patrons. But, to spend additional hundreds of dollars from our hard-earned incomes to fund this library, I say no-no-no!

Thanks for allowing me to speak my mind.

Melanie Nickelsen
Hood River

More wind turbines

In the Hood River News, March 6, Danny Jeffries stated that wind turbines should not be placed in Hood River Valley because they don’t look good in Hood River Valley. Also, apparently, we as a city cannot afford them.

Mr. Jeffries urges further research into alternative energy sources. Let me be the first to start a hard, prolonged campaign for the use of wind turbines in the Hood River Valley.

Hood River Valley High School has a very small wind turbine that generates electricity that is put back into the grid that the school uses. It’s enough to power a day’s worth of electricity for a single room and save energy, even if it’s just a small amount.

If we had more wind turbines in the valley, it would lower our electricity bills, create jobs, generate publicity and, in the long run, help get us out of this recession that we are in. I’m not saying that we should cover the valley in wind turbines and put them smack downtown Hood River, but the proposal to put them on Gilhouley (Road) is an idea that I support.

I do not think these wind turbines will take away from the beauty of our valley. If you have seen these wind turbines in Umatilla and Sherman counties, yes, they are big, but it is also extraordinary to see these impressive, manmade wonders at work.

The first time I saw these wind turbines, I had the same response as seeing the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore for the first time.

Kyle Williams
Hood River

No on library tax

So Hood River County has a furlough in effect for our county sheriff’s deputies and dispatch workers, but everywhere you go all you see is Library YES signs.

Not only does this put every citizen’s well-being at jeopardy but seriously puts the well-being of our officers at risk. They don’t get paid enough for the job they do already and now as a county we are taking eight hours a week out of several families’ homes and affecting way more local lives than the library does.

Close the library or make it a fee-for-use, self-sufficient business. Or better yet, rather than a vote for a tax, let those who choose to vote yes pay a tax and have free use of the library and those of us who vote NO not be forced to pay a tax but rather be charged a fee if we choose to use the library.

I for one do not use the library and if I did I would rather pay for each use than be forced to pay yet another ridiculous tax.

And lastly I say, wake up, Hood River elected officials, and start saying yes to business growth rather than NO and if you want tourism to be our fiscal silver lining then figure out a way to make it pay!

Michael Sullivan
Hood River

Books, then wine

Our friend said, “A library is the core of a community with a future.” Exactly. And we will do all we can to help keep our wonderful Hood River County Library from closing; more than that, we will work to help it restore its former vitality. The proposed library district will provide the opportunity to do that.

Will it cost too much? We don’t think so. The proposed tax rate allows us to restore library services and capabilities — such as hours, books, professional staff — that have been cut during the last 10 years of library funding decline. That tax rate, in our view, is bottom-line essential if we are to have the excellent library our community deserves. In addition, we will get more for our money: local control.

We the taxpayers will own the library system; we will have more opportunity to secure accountability than we can expect of county or city government.

The issue for us is choice, not sacrifice; and here is one of the choices available to us: We enjoy wine with meals. Seventy cents per $1,000 assessed valuation on our property means giving up one bottle of wine a month. That in turn translates into a $6 bottle if our property is assessed at $100,000; a $12 bottle at $200,000; and an $18 bottle if our property is $300,000.

One bottle a month! Is that too much for us to trade to secure our children’s future? The heart of our community? We think not.

Save our library! Vote “yes” on Ballot Measure 14-37.

David Hupp, Lori King
Hood River

Bad health plan

After reading several sad and touching stories in last week’s paper people suggest that if we had Obama-care someone they know would have been better off. Sad to say, in no way, shape or form would Obama’s healthcare reform would have benefited them.

Obama’s plan is bad from page 1 to page 2,700 and must be stopped. Why should we take money away from our greatest generation and increase taxes for health care rationing, at best! This from a person who cannot afford health care himself!

There are too many problems with Obama’s plan to list, but his unwillingness to modify his plan or even listen is disturbing.

This bill was stopped cold at one time but they still want to force this horrible plan upon us.

Rob Robertson
The Dalles