Letters to the Editor for March 18

This is Caden Tubbs and I am writing to you about a concern about our crime safety.

There has been a lot of stolen items recently and people should do something about it. Let me tell you of some recent crimes:

1. My friend’s dad’s bike was stolen off of his porch and replaced with another stolen bike because it was “better.”

2. On the 10th of February, someone stole from a storage building, and multiple items were taken.

3. On the first of March, there was a man arrested for drunk driving.

These are only a small percentage of the crime going on right now. We need to take better care of our stuff and follow the laws.

Sincerely,

Caden Tubbs     

Hood River Middle School

Bike safety

I love bicyclists. I’d scrape the dust off my old bike if it weren’t for old hip and knee injuries. So, it was incredibly disconcerting to see some incredibly irresponsible bike riding March 12 approximately 3:15 p.m. at the intersection of 6th and State streets. You barreled southbound down the Sixth Street hill and made an illegal right turn onto eastbound State without stopping, at full speed, into a line of cars. Then without looking behind you at all, you cut right in front of the car in front of me before turning southbound onto Second.

Fortunately, all of us must have read about the innocent people getting hit by cars in the library crosswalk, as we were all going below the speed limit (which you were exceeding). And fortunately, you didn’t cause an accident, because as a witness I would have testified (truthfully) in a court of law exactly what I stated in this Letter to the Editor. So, to all the responsibly bicyclists out there (and that is most of you), I’ll love you even more if you call out irresponsible bicyclists for their dangerous behaviors.

Jeff Zipfel

The Dalles 

Thanks, Thomsen 

My thanks go to Chuck Thomsen, along with other Republicans, for the moral courage to block the severely harmful Cap and Trade bill that would seriously impact business’ very survival. It also would aversely affect people on limited income.

This issue, which impacts so many people, should be decided by voters in Oregon … not by Kate Brown, not a small number of people in Salem. And the bill would not benefit the climate!

Donald Rose     

Hood River

Harmful inaction

During the past several weeks, I have attended meetings where difficult decisions had to be made. Even though there were strong feelings on both sides of each issue, participants listened respectfully, used informed and reasoned arguments to defend their position, and eventually came to either consensus or compromise. This is democracy in action, and it has the power to bridge gaps, promote mutual respect, and allow meaningful action to take place for the good of the group. It’s the cornerstone of democracy, and it’s what we should expect from elected officials.

During the past several weeks, difficult decisions had to be made in the Oregon Legislature. Republican senators chose to walk away when things were not going their way. They chose departure and dereliction of duty over deliberation and discussion. This is democracy inaction, and it widens gaps, fuels partisanship, and prevents any action whatsoever from moving forward. It’s behavior unbecoming to elected officials who, by accepting public office, must represent all constituents regardless of party affiliation or personal bias.

Anne Gehrig  

Hood River  

‘Trump/CDC 2020’

In January of 2017 President Trump stated, “We have by far the highest IQ of any cabinet ever assembled.” I have no idea how many of these geniuses have been fired or quit. I do care about what has NOT happened over Trump’s three-plus years in office.

We are constantly reminded by President Trump how much he accomplished in his first 100 days in office. Somehow over three years, the topic of disease testing and management got lost in all the deregulation, tax cuts, bloviating, and tweets. This is a huge surprise to me since just last week, Trump bragged about his “natural ability” to understand diseases. He even questioned whether he should have gone into that field instead of becoming president.

Conspiracy theories now blame Europe, Obama, and basically every Democrat for the coronavirus pandemic. If Trump were an ordinary man, I would be grateful he is running out of people to blame. Then I remember how many times Sen. McCain was blamed by our president for events which occurred even after his death.

Maybe we should give Trump a shot at running the CDC?... It cannot get any worse given the way he represents us as president.

Steve Kaplan   

Hood River

Misinformation

In Hugh McMahan’s letter on March 11, he suggested that the recent tornado in Kentucky was evidence of “increasing frequency and extremes” because of climate change. That is misinformation of the highest order. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that the tornado in Kentucky or any other tornado occurred or was made worse because humans are burning fossil fuels. Your statement is nothing more than speculation and fear mongering. The letter goes on to claim that peer reviewed science “finds CO2 the highly likely cause.” Since when was science concerned with “highly likely” and what does that mean? There is no climate crisis. Stop the fear mongering and misinformation.

Also, I support Chuck Thomsen and all the other Republicans for walking out. Tax increases are supposed to originate in the House, and we were told the short legislative sessions were not for big policy changes like Carbon taxes. Democrats were trying to pull a fast one.

John Spaulding   

Mt. Hood-Parkdale

Not standing with Chuck

I stand with David Hupp, Stu Watson, Darrell Roberts, Steve Kaplan, Peyton Helm and Ruth Tsu; I do not stand with Chuck Thomsen.

As all these folks say in their letters (March 11), the behavior exhibited by Chuck Thomsen and his cohort was behavior that some of us learned in kindergarten to be inappropriate and ineffective. You can’t expect to play wallball if you take the ball away and leave the playground. Wait — maybe they really didn’t want to legislate anything?

Pat Evenson-Brady     

Hood River

‘Recall Chuck Thomsen’

On Jan. 14, 2019, Chuck Thomsen took the following oath of office as an Oregon state senator: “I, Chuck Thomsen, do solemnly swear, or affirm, that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Oregon, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of State Senator according to the best of my ability.” Last month, Chuck Thomsen shamefully failed to discharge his duties as State Senator by leaving his post at the capitol in order to deny Oregonians a quorum for a vote on the cap and invest climate bill. Because of his walkout, many other bills important to Oregonians were not addressed, resulting in a failed legislative session — at great cost to taxpayers. Thomsen’s violation of his oath of office strikes at the heart of our democracy, which only functions when elected officials show up to vote yes or no on legislation for the common good. He deserves to be recalled as Senator from District 26.

John F Christensen     

Corbett

Democracy

What is American Democracy? Well, it goes something like this: The first step of the American Democratic Process is that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, who are overwhelmingly male and white, get to use their money to buy the field of candidates, who are overwhelmingly male and white, that are going to kowtow to their economic interests, regardless of party.

The second step of the American Democratic Process is the one that gets the most lip-service: It’s important to vote; it’s your duty to vote; if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain. You’ve heard all the clichés. So we go to the polls to choose the candidate that we want most to be elected. Maybe. Or perhaps your polling places will be closed, or your ID gets rejected, or you were purged from voter rolls, or you have to stand in line for 13 hours, or you live in one of the United States’ territories which do not have statehood or voting rights but are still subject to the laws of the United States, or you are in prison.

Then, the third step of the American Democratic Process is that once the dust settles on the election, the super wealthy, who picked the field of candidates in the first place, send in an army of lobbyists to hand the candidates pre-written legislation to rubberstamp.

Then, if all else fails, the elected officials will simply walk off the job and hide in a cabin somewhere in Idaho, all the while drawing a salary paid for by tax dollars.

Combine this with gerrymandering, the electoral college, and the bicameral legislature, and you have a recipe for, at best, absolutely nothing getting done, and at worst, a capitulation to the wealthiest Americans.

There is, however, a solution, and that is the progressive agenda. That is Democratic Socialism. That is the movement behind Bernie Sanders. It is more than the man himself. The wealthy elites of the DNC can cheat Bernie again, but they will never stop progress towards a better world.

Benjamin Sheppard     

Hood River