Kudos to HRVHS

This week I have a son preparing to graduate from Hood River Valley High School. He is my second child to attend there and I wanted to write an open letter to express my thanks for the outstanding learning environment they have been a part of while attending school in this valley.

We moved to Hood River just over four years ago from a community where I had been highly involved in the large school district which included several high schools. I was concerned about the education they would receive (or not receive) due to our move. However, I could not have hand-picked or imagined the great experience they would have here and that experience is largely due to the staff at HRVHS.

Initially upon registering, then-co-principal Steve Fisk came to our rescue and went “outside the box” to tame my daughter’s tears and fears. Both children have crossed the paths of great teachers in the classroom as well, who were definitely life-builders. Please know this is not an all-inclusive list, but I need to name a few who stand out in my mind: Dave Case, Patty Rowan, Dave Fults, Mike Butcher, Troy Tactay, Coach Rich Hedges ...

Then there is no one like Bob Kadell when it comes to inspiring leadership and school morale. He has been a true mentor and the life and breath of all the activities on campus.

I feel deep and sincere gratitude to true educators who have gone above and beyond their job description. When a parent sends a child off to school for seven hours (plus) a day, they put great trust in those who help mold their minds and futures. I can only hope my youngest son has an opportunity to receive the same.

Thank you to HRVHS!

Don’t sell health

Daimler-Chrysler just sold off 80 percent of its Chrysler division for $1.35 billion, what physician-writer Atul Gawande calls “three pebbles and a piece of string.” Chrysler had $47 billion in revenue last year but is now worth less than a Cheesecake Factory.

Most of us have heard that health care is a real mess in the U.S., but think it is a problem we can worry about later, if and when we get sick or injured.

Things are not that easy. The reason Chrysler was given away is because it has $18 billion in health and pension liabilities. Its future is bleak because they have to add $1,500 to the price of each vehicle to cover health insurance, making it nearly impossible to compete with imports.

Chrysler goes under, the U.S. gets weaker, and sooner or later this hits your bank account, whether you are sick or not. The U.S. is the only first-world country that treats health care primarily as a business, selling private health insurance that denies care to the sick. Drug makers hawk obscenely priced drugs through television ads.

Our health care system is ranked the 19th-best and costs much more than any other country’s. This is not a functioning free-market system.

Do not believe cute ads placed by health insurers. Think. We need a nationalized, single-payer system like every other industrialized country enjoys. Look carefully at every candidate next election and vote only for those who pledge to remove the plague private health insurers, hospitals and drug makers have inflicted upon us.

Sense of shame

A story that RaeLynn Ricarte had to keep within her space limitations left out the most important part of the story of the Vioxx victims support bill in the Oregon legislature.

Two years ago, when the Republicans controlled things in Salem, a similar bill was bottled up in committee the last week of the session by Republican leader Karen Minnis of Gresham and her minion, a Republican committee chairman from Coos Bay.

I was given this information at the time by several members of her majority party who apologized to me for the shameful facts.

When I called Ms. Minnis’ office two years ago and spoke to her head barracuda, she didn’t deny it but mostly wanted to know who had told me the story. When I asked her how much money Ms. Minnis had received from pharmaceutical interests, she “declined to discuss it.” I believe the facts are probably still out there if anyone cares to investigate.

It was only because of the compliance of the Republicans in the interests of the drug companies that it was necessary to go at it again, this time adding another two years to the product liability statute of limitations.

It’s a good thing for us that Patty Smith is a Lincoln Republican who apparently came to that mostly shameless party through such stands as opposition to slavery.

Smoke at home

Senate Bill 571, approved by the Oregon Senate May 22 and sent to the House, will further restrict indoor public smoking when passed by the House and signed by the governor.

Included in the restrictions will be bars, bowling alleys, bingo halls and places of employment, with exceptions. When signed by the governor, the effective date will be January 2009. In my opinion it should be 2008 and a ban on public smoking. Smoking should be confined to consenting adults in the privacy of their homes.

Floral theft

I hope you are once again enjoying the flowers that you stole from five graves at Idlewild Cemetery just like you did last year.

You must have lots of lovely flowers on your deck and patio. I am sure your neighbors have noticed the beautiful new plants you have from Memorial Day weekend.

I took 11 pots of mixed flowers to the cemetery and five pots out of the 11 are missing. Really now, how can you get a good night’s sleep? I would hope not!

Anyone that takes flowers from my loved ones’ graves, I will gladly take you to one of the nurseries and help you pick out some flowers. If you go to the cemetery office I think Brian will even pay for them. Just return the flowers to the five graves that you helped yourself to, plus others that were taken.

It wasn’t just the flowers I took to the cemetery; who knows how many others were robbed? Do you know how much time and expense is involved in decorating graves? No, you don’t, and you don’t care!

However, please leave the dead at peace and remember, have a good night’s sleep!

Crossing dangers

As we all know, there frequently are traffic backups from the Hood River Bridge toll booth, extending at times as far as all the way up the exit 64 off-ramp and onto the exit 63 on-ramp.

This situation is undeniably extremely hazardous and has already resulted in more than one collision as cars exit Interstate 84 at high speeds and collide with other cars waiting on the off-ramp. My wife was hit in one such accident on Nov. 3, 2006.

It is no mystery that the toll booth and the delays that it causes are a major contributing factor, if not the sole cause, in this very hazardous situation. The port itself has acknowledged this fact and in a letter printed in The White Salmon Enterprise on Aug. 8, 2006, stated that “Limited suspensions of toll taking” would be initiated during these backups in an effort to clear traffic and mitigate the admitted hazard, and potentially save lives.

As a regularly commuting family, neither my wife nor I have ever seen this practice utilized. Furthermore, I have commented about this danger to one of the toll takers and his response was “I don’t care.” I replied that if someone were killed he would care and he said, “No, I won’t.”

So what’s up? Was the port just paying lip service to this dangerous situation and those of us who are threatened by and concerned about it?

Does someone have to die in an accident on the off-ramp in one of the port’s backups before this situation and its obvious risks to public safety are taken seriously? Is the revenue loss the port would incur from a “limited suspension of toll taking” worth more than public safety?

It seems doubtful whether the current “improvements” that the port is currently implementing will be of any help when one considers that a merge is being created that will probably further add to the already troublesome traffic flow issue. This whole situation has gotten out of hand and it is high time that ODOT took control of the situation and initiated steps to eliminate the admitted hazard and risk to human life caused by these traffic backups at the bridge, perhaps going as far as making the Hood River Bridge publicly owned, free of the traffic jamming toll booth entirely.

(It has been awhile since the writing of this letter and some traffic control changes have been made and the toll booth has been moved.

However these measures have failed to effect any reduction in the traffic jams that occur as a result of, I believe, the delay in traffic flow that is inherent in the toll-taking process. The port continues to refuse to waive tolls during peak traffic periods as has been suggested and therefore the issues raised in my original letter are still relevant. If you share my concerns please write the port and the O.D.O.T. and make your feelings known.)

Forum a ‘farce’

The May 30, 2007, Columbia River Gorge Commission workshop was designed to really “work” the public over. Many who attended were shocked to learn that they could not ask questions or make public comment. Any questions or comments were written and handed to a hired facilitator, Doug Zenn, who piled them in categories.

After hours of prearranged panel discussion — that excluded public input — this “gatekeeper” would lightly brush over one or two of the hundreds of comments and questions that people hoped might get serious consideration.

We were even told that the planned Broughton Resort was not the reason we were there, when this is exactly why everyone was there. That is what this proposed amendment addresses.

Most attendees could not stand five hours of this farce, and, feeling frustrated and disenfranchised, voted with their feet. There was the sickening feeling of being “railroaded,” as if all decisions regarding the Scenic Act Amendment had been already made behind closed doors. The meeting was set up to make it look like CRGC was seeking public input, while their handlers manipulated the public (at taxpayers expense!) to be quiet and swallow whatever they fed us.

True discussion regarding the amendment of the Scenic Act and the specific legalities in the planned Broughton resort could not even be aired or discussed in this atmosphere. Of course, that was their shameful intention.

I believe CRGC owes the public an apology for erecting such a wall, instead of seeking true constructive input.

I urge all stakeholders to attend the June 11 meeting and express their concerns.

Thanks from CAMBA

Columbia Area Mountain Bike Advocates (CAMBA) would like to thank the Hood River Garbage Service for supplying a 20-yard dumpster for the annual Post Canyon Clean up Day held June 2.

CAMBA would also like to thank Rosauers for keeping volunteers energized and hydrated by donating fresh doughnuts and water. And finally, high fives to all the volunteers who showed up to pick up trash and complete some trail work.

Nice going, we almost filled that thing.