My friend, Stan Harryman, and I want to express our heartfelt thanks to all the emergency services personnel who responded to the fire Saturday. To see the many jurisdictions working so well together gives a sense of security in face of potential and real dangerous situations. I have to give a special thank you to the law enforcement men who graciously understood the importance of rescuing our cat and allowing access to the house.

As importantly, thank you to the property owner who has begun to clear the land west of us. He had the foresight and care to create a fire line around Fox Hollow and to continuously water the property. I would like to think these actions helped slow the fire’s progress.

We all learned the importance of neighbors looking out for one another during this event. Accidents happen but it is the response that lasts a long time.

Protect W.S. River

I was pleased to see a guest column by Dave Thies, “president of Columbia Gorge Audubon Society,” in the Hood River News titled “Major Players must act now on White Salmon River plan.” All this time I thought that the Columbia Gorge Audubon Society, Theis’ organization, was defunct, because it has not been involved in any efforts to protect the White Salmon in many years.

Friends of the Columbia Gorge is the primary group responsible for enactment of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act, which designated eight miles of the Lower White Salmon River as a Wild and Scenic River in 1986. Friends also worked with American Rivers, Congressman Brian Baird, Senator Maria Cantwell and others to establish Wild and Scenic protection for twenty miles of the Upper White Salmon in 2005.

But passage of these laws do not guarantee that the White Salmon is fully protected. Thies accurately describes the need for action on the White Salmon River Corridor, which is threatened by inappropriate development and a new rezoning scheme by Klickitat County.

That is why Friends of the Columbia Gorge is working tirelessly with a coalition of other conservation groups including Friends of the White Salmon, Columbia Riverkeeper, American Rivers, American Whitewater, and the CRAG Law Center to challenge the proposed rezoning.

And for more than seven years we have been working with many of the same groups to remove Condit Dam and restore the free-flowing White Salmon River. Finally, for more than 15 years we have lobbied Congress for increased land purchases in the National Scenic Area to protect scenic landscapes, including along the White Salmon River.

I encourage Thies and anyone else who loves the White Salmon River to contact our office or the other groups listed above and learn how to get more involved in protecting the White Salmon. Our Hood River office telephone number is (541) 386-5268.

Cornelison works as a field representative for Friends of the Columbia Gorge in Hood River.

We need sanity

There are several facts missing from Cliff Mansfield’s letter of Aug. 4. First, two presidents withdrew the troops from Vietnam. Richard Nixon started troop removal and Gerald Ford finished it. Neither one was a Democrat.

The second is the current Republican president got us into these wars and he has, through his failed policies, brought us closer to another radical terrorist attack inside the U.S. Bush, in his zeal to attack Iraq, pulled critical resources out of Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban and other fanatic Muslims to regroup and expand terrorist training. He has encouraged Iran and other Muslim countries to fund these expansions.

To believe Democrats will ever shirk protection of the U.S. and its citizens is the real insanity. To believe all the lies promoted by the Bush administration and wealthy radical right Republicans is the real ignorance.

Yes, we Democrats want complete control of both houses of Congress and the presidency. We, and the world, need sanity in these places. We do not have it now. What would be the cost of these actions? One heck of a lot less in both life and money than what we have had for the last six years.

Worst of all, Bush and his cronies have shown Muslims that Democracy means killing and terror in their own countries, cities, streets, places of worship and homes.

Hood River

Keeper clarifies

Mr. C.H. Barker’s recent letter to the editor suggested that Columbia Riverkeeper supported the proposed UPC wind farm in the Sevenmile Hill/Wasco Butte area. Columbia Riverkeeper, however, has not taken any position on the proposed wind farm for the simple reason that the project does not have a direct connection to the Columbia River.

I did highlight in a letter The Dalles Chronicle published three months ago that the proposed Wasco PUD ballot measure to invest in a new coal power plant did not make sense in light of Wasco County’s abundant wind resources. I did not mention the UPC wind farm proposal by name, let alone say that Riverkeeper supported it. In fact, with the UPC wind project specifically in mind I even pointed out the reality that, “wind farms aren’t appropriate everywhere.”

Additionally, following my letter, I explained in multiple conversations with Mr. Barker’s wife, Jill Barker, that my letter was not meant to support the proposed wind project and, in fact, from a personal perspective I thought locating the wind farm in a place so close to homes would only create a bad name for wind power and did not make sense. I even offered to send a subsequent letter to the editor clarifying that Riverkeeper did not have a position on the proposed wind farm. After these conversations, it was both confusing and surprising to see the misleading reference in Mr. Barker’s letter to Riverkeeper’s position on the UPC wind project.

For the curious, my actual letter is posted at www.columbiariverkeeper.org.

Hood River

Surrender labels

Regarding Cliff Mansfield’s letter of Aug. 1:

Resorting to name calling regarding this complex and critical issue says a lot about you, Cliff.

Hood River

Fear-based rhetoric

Mr. Cliff Mansfield’s attempt to use partisanship, inaccurate information and fear to encourage us to promote the wars overseas is misguided. Unless you fail to observe any media information, Mr. Mansfield, you cannot help but acknowledge that many Republicans now oppose the war in part or in whole. So it is no longer a “to which party do you support?” debate.

Al-Queda does not, as you incorrectly stated, have a limited amount of resources. The bin Laden family alone is extremely wealthy and capable of continuing to supply money to the evil — yes, evil — extremists. It is also a fairly widely-held belief that a number of wealthy Arabs support these same efforts through discreet means from their personal coffers, likely originated in the same oil fields we defend to maintain crude prices. What we are stretching thin, Mr. Mansfield, is OUR resources.

As an intelligent American, I find it impossible to comprehend how other intelligent Americans like yourself fail to see the country-wide implications this war and these policies have had. The billions of dollars devoted to the war effort has resulted in, and will for years result in, severe lack of funding for school systems, teachers, personnel such as state police and firefighters (to protect us here), funding for national parks, libraries, maintenance of our roads and bridges (to prevent further Minnesota tragedies) and health care issues.

This scenario prevents hard-working middle-class families like mine from getting ahead because of insurance co-payments, subsidizing schools through tax measures and cartloads of school supplies and large taxes. My second-grader may need his own vehicle to get to school the first day to bring all the mandatory supplies on his list. Fear not, Mr. Mansfield, despite the surrender monkeys’ best attempts to stop protecting you, I can assure you with great confidence that you will be safe driving your large vehicle to the Espresso Lingo in Odell without fear of an al-Queda operative car bomb going off and causing you to spill your coffee.

Hood River

Lacking information

With Saturday’s wildfire raging upwind of your Hood River home, what’s a person supposed to do without information? A friend from Portland called me around 5:30 p.m., relaying news on TV that homes were being evacuated “from May Street to I-84.”

I rushed out of my house and saw thick smoke rising what appeared to me a short distance to the west. It smelled like being in the thick of a forest fire. I immediately tuned my radio to Gorge stations for updated information. Not a word. I called friends to see if they knew what was going on. No one answered.

I kept my battery-powered radio tuned to Gorge stations, hoping that they would give residents vital information. Nothing.

Having vivid recollection of the disastrous Oakland fire in 1991, I went into high gear, filling my car with irreplaceable things — like thousands of slides, hundreds of CDs and DVDs containing images and files, two hard drives, business and personal paper files, albums, a few framed paintings, letters, unpaid bills, checkbooks, tax records, stacks of original research material for a book project, and so on.

Finally, at 6:30 p.m., I saw a report on Portland‘s KGW-Channel 8 that showed the location of the fire along with Sheriff Wampler’s assessment.

So why weren’t there public service announcements on Gorge radio stations during the critical period of two hours (or so) after the fire was reported?

Doesn’t the city have a plan to inform residents in precisely this kind of emergency? What about a derailment of a tank car filled with toxic chemicals?

Do we have to drive to the scene to learn what’s going on? Let’s hope not.

Hood River

A no gambling list

Ten reasons why we need more gambling:

1. Government should promote vice, otherwise the police agencies could become idle.

2. Preying on people’s weaknesses and pleasure seeking is good, just like drug trafficking.

3. There are not enough starving and neglected children. Drunks and drug addicts can’t do all the harm. They need help!

4. Pathological gambling will give idle psychiatrists and addiction centers something to do.

5. Losers will be more dependent on the state and welfare, thus, better Democrats.

6. There is too much honest industry and hard-earned wealth.

7. Why should Tribal Gambling Casinos have exclusive rights to gambling? Are they racists?

8. How else can people have any retirement — unless they gamble away their savings?

9. All the fools born every minute have a birthright!

10. How can you get everything back from gambling unless you can keep gambling to get it back?

Cascade Locks

Thanks from PROD

PROD, an all volunteer, nonprofit organization, would like to thank Lisa of Gorge Dog and Jenni of Cascade Pet Camp, as well as all of the wonderful volunteers who came out to help with the seventh Annual Dog Wash.

Hood River Saturday Market managers were more than accommodating. The dog wash succeeded in sending 50 dogs home, clean and happy.

We would like to thank the community for coming out to support PROD — Promoting Responsible Ownership of Dogs — and for their generous donations to help us continue with spay/neuter financial assistance, education and Operation Outreach.

Hood River is a wonderful place to live. We are very grateful and appreciate all who participated in this annual event.