Letters to the Editor for Jan. 25

Can’t you stop criticizing the most qualified, experienced presidential candidate who ever ran for the office even now? When does the hate stop? Sadly, my guess is not for another four years.

Susan Lannak

Hood River

Congressman, be clear

An open letter to Rep. Greg Walden (R):

A true patriot loves his country more than personal power and a hunger for re-election. If you love your country and the people you represent, you will insist on transparency in the Trump administration, including:

Restoration of the federal government’s website on global climate change (www.whitehouse.gov/en-ergy/climate-change), which now says, “Sorry, the page you are looking for can’t be found;” that Trump release his tax returns, as well as a detailed and accurate medical report on his physical and mental health; that Trump respond to questions from members of the White House press corps whether he likes them or not; and that Trump genuinely separates himself from his businesses, not simply turn them over to his children. These are legitimate requests and most have been easily complied with over the last 50 years by previous presidents.

Republicans recently acquired everything they’ve always wanted: the presidency, the Senate, the House, the ability to appoint at least one justice to the Supreme Court and a majority of state legislatures. It’s now all in the Republicans’ court.

Rep. Walden, please show us that you and your party deserve this kind of power.

Tracie Hornung

Hood River

Questions for Walden

An open letter to Congressman Greg Walden:

Mr. Walden, your reported praise of the president’s new executive order to relax penalties and reduce enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions is ill-advised at best. In the Gorge, including your home town of Hood River, thousands may lose essential access to health insurance coverage, hence to needed care, if the ACA’s fundamentals, including the individual mandate, are removed or collapse. Moreover, your reported support of reversing Medicaid expansion, Children’s Health Insurance, and other programs vital to the health of your constituents and neighbors; if true, would be a tragedy and embarrassment to our district.

For some reason, you have ignored repeated requests for response from some of your constituents on these matters recently, including myself.

I hope you will now reply to me in a substantive and personal manner that I may share with others here. Most of all. I hope that you will use your leadership to change course and protect the health and wellbeing of those whom you represent, rather than push ahead to fulfill ill-informed campaign promises by a presidential candidate who has demonstrated no understanding of health care history, policy, or health economics.

Tina Castañares, MD

Odell

‘Alternative facts’

Teacher: “Johnny you said 2 plus 2 equals 5, but the correct answer is 2 plus 2 equals 4.”

Johnny: “But I’m using President Trump’s Theory of Alternative Facts.”

Ron Yamashita

Hood River

Save Morrison Park

I am not sure why anybody would consider rezoning five-plus acres of Morrison Park or any other park for housing. Morrison Park is located just north of Rotary Park and has the good fortune to be located a 10-minute walk to the Columbia River. Adjacent to The Columbia Area Transit transportation base off Wasco Street, it could easily become Hood River’s northern end of a linear Westside park connecting the planned Westside Community Trail to Rotary and Morrison Park. Morrison Park would also provide a perfectly located central bike / hike trail hub for other planned trails:

The Historic Columbia River Bike Trail to Portland.

A new extension of the Hood River Waterfront Trail connecting to The Hook, a short walk to the Columbia River from Morrison Park via an existing gravel road off Jamar Street.

I support affordable and subsidized housing and I support parks. Everyone I know in Hood River supports affordable and subsidized housing and parks. What we really need is more of all three. Let’s keep the parks we have as we simply have no land or money to replace them.

Please ask our planning department and city council to honor the comprehensive plan by supporting our existing parks without rezoning them for housing. Instead, they could concentrate their efforts on looking for a better solution, looking for locations to construct housing without eliminating our parks. Please attend the Feb. 21 Planning Commission meeting and speak to support the present open space zoning at Morrison Park.

Josh Sceva

Hood River

Gettysburg revisited

I leaned forward in my chair as I watched the television coverage of President Trump addressing a roomful of CIA employees. He stood in front of the wall of stars, each a nameless tombstone to an agent lost in battle. Here, I thought, surely here at this the Gettysburg of our nation’s intelligence community, I will hear again the spirit of those words, “The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

Instead I was met with a ramble that once again circled back to the size of his following, concluding, finally, with a whimsical reference that perhaps when he returned to the CIA a larger room could be provided to accommodate those who would come to hear him.

Robert White

Mt. Hood- Parkdale

Greed growing

Once upon a time we were primitive. We lived in tribal groups. All of our primitive cultures were run by and for adults. We did this by carefully coordinating our individual and group interactions with rites-of-passage among and between groups.

Every individual’s transition from birth to death was carefully demarked by a rite-of-passage. Children did not automatically become adults merely by getting older. Every childhood was carefully ended. People who emerged from the rite were expected to act like adults because they were treated as one. Tribal territory was equally respectfully regulated. People who blundered into another tribe’s territory were assumed to be up to no good, and the consequences could be severe. The proper points of entry were carefully demarked and the traveler was expected to enter only at these points after performing the appreciate rite.

Once upon a time, one of these cultures failed to end their children’s childhood, and the children got the upper hand. It was game over for the planet, and game on for the kids. They introduced a torrent of greed (a childish drive) that is still growing. Capitalism is the quintessentially childish scheme. Its bedrock assertion that nothing has any intrinsic value, so value can only be determined by the “magic” of the market place, is flagrantly ludicrous. Only a child would believe the value of an old growth forest is the lumber it could produce. Only a child would believe that teachers should make thousands while people who throw a ball around should make millions. Child abuse can only happen between two children, one of whom is in an adult body.

Adults, by definition, do not abuse children, or women for that matter. Now we are civilized. Now we have the NRA. Now we have a terrible infant president who put as many children as he could in positions of power. He wants more nuclear weapons … it is going to be a bumpy ride. It recently occurred to me that Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is the story of a rite of passage. If Ebeneezer Scrooge could become an adult so late in life, maybe there is hope for us.

David Warnock

Hood River

Walden watch

A representative is defined as a person chosen to act and speak on behalf of a wider group. I am part of that wider group. You were elected to represent 798,161 people from Oregon. Eleven percent, or approximately 89,000 of those constituents, currently have health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

You have promised to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare. You and your colleagues have said that your replacement will be better than the ACA. I say: Hooray! I am anxious to see you, or anyone, provide better healthcare to the uninsured and under-insured. I know that you have a great deal of influence in Washington now.

But I am also warning you: I am watching. What does “better” mean in the context of healthcare? It could mean that 1) more people will get coverage; 2) those who are already covered will get better coverage; 3) recipients’ costs will go down; or 4) the government’s costs will go down. Based on the hype, I expect all of these criteria to be met.

If people who currently have healthcare through the ACA lose coverage, get worse coverage, or have to pay more, then it is not better. You lied and you failed. Don’t repeal any parts of the ACA until you have the promised “better” replacement in place.

Good luck. I truly hope you can do it. I will be keeping a close eye on your progress.

Nan Noteboom

Hood River

Twist of Trump

Who knew that President Trump’s inauguration would be the source for learning academic language (that vocabulary that you need to know to pass the SAT and ACT)? “Hyperbole” is defined as “an exaggeration or extravagant statement.” The president’s example: “I looked out on that field, there were a million, a million and a half people.” An “oxymoron” is “a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.” Adviser Kellyanne Conway defended the president’s press secretary by stating that he had “alternative facts” regarding the size of the crowd at the inauguration.

I learned those words, and many more, without Trump’s help even though I went to public school for 13 years. Thanks to the teachers who worked tirelessly to educate me. How sad the president had this to say about American schools and their hardworking staff: It’s “an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge.”

Peggy Dills Kelter

Hood River

Will visit no more

Dear Hood River Residents,

I have enjoyed my time as a tourist in the Hood River and The Dalles area.

My family frequently enjoys watching the windsurfers and has stayed overnight several times to enjoy some hiking and relaxation. However, as I have informed Rep. Greg Walden’s office, I am no longer comfortable spending money in your county.

I do not want to support a district who has elected a leader who puts my health at risk by repealing the Affordable Care Act. Vacation is a luxury I may no longer be able to afford and may not be healthy enough to enjoy, if I cannot access coverage for my preexisting condition. I say this regretfully as I have always found the people of the Gorge to be welcoming and have enjoyed my time there immensely.

Katie Richley

Portland

Beauty in the ugliness

I’d like to share some gratitude from Tuesday during the ice storm: On my drive home up Highway 35, a man lost control of his car, crossed all lanes and almost hit me head on. To avoid him, I swerved and got stuck head first in a three-foot snowbank. Guy didn’t stop, just kept going. It was a bit upsetting to say the least. After some tears, I got out and started digging.

Within 10 minutes, three different guys stopped to help me, and despite some language differences, 20-degree weather, pelting ice and being utter strangers, we all worked together and freed my car so my dog and I could get home.

I’d like to send sincere and utter gratitude for these sweet people, this community and also for the universe giving me a solid example of how good my life really is, how I’m never really alone, how there are good people out there and that life is quite the adventure!

Sometimes it’s the ugliest moments that can renew your faith in beauty.

Adrienne Lee

Hood River

‘Jr. High Bully’

There is something wrong with this man.

Back in junior high school, there was a class bully who ran for freshman prom king. He got enough supporters to win a narrow victory, but at the actual prom there were very few classmates. But he saw a huge number of fellow freshmen when he took the throne. Next day, the school paper lamented the low turnout for the prom. Well, the king sent his supporters over to the paper and let them know that their accounts were wrong. And later sent out another supporter with an “alternative fact”account of how may classmates attended the prom.

I guess we have a junior high bully for a president.

Sorry junior high members, I don’t mean to degrade you!

But, really, there is something wrong with this man.

Tom Bottman

Hood River