Letters to the Editor for March 25

Delivering Meals on Wheels for the Hood River Valley Adult Center.

Kids out of the nest? Just hanging around the house with nothing to do? “Meals” delivery takes only about one to one-and-a-half hours per week. Kitchen staff at the center prepares the meals, ready for delivery to patrons on one of three routes — east Hood River, west Hood River and Odell. (I drive the Odell route on Fridays.)

You meet some very nice and appreciative neighbors and you feel needed as you interact with some of the nicest people in the valley.

Call 541-386-2060 and volunteer. You’ll be glad you did.

Marvin Turner

Hood River

Where Is Walden?

After spending nearly every vacation in the Gorge for the past 30 years, my husband and I moved to Hood River, and are now residents and constituents in Oregon’s Second congressional district.

We’re also 60 years old, retired early — in part to take better care of our health, and have individual insurance plans through the Providence Health Plan. We signed up with “pre-existing conditions.”

Before I knew that Greg Walden chairs the committee which had a key role in shaping the proposed replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), I wrote to Rep. Walden, telling him how our health and financial security depend on affordable health insurance. That was in January. I haven’t heard back.

In February, I called his DC and Bend offices. I followed Mr. Walden’s voicemail instructions and left my name, address, phone number and email address. He hasn’t called me back.

In early March, I went to his website where Mr. Walden encourages his constituents to “Contact Greg.” Alas, I did not pass the “I’m not a robot” test, and Mr. Walden’s website rejected my urgent plea to consider, with truthfulness to himself and some compassion for his constituents, the turmoil to our lives being caused by the proposed changes to the ACA.

Not to be discouraged, I turned my email into a letter and faxed it to his office. Still no word from Greg Walden.

Has anyone else seen or heard from Rep. Walden?

Mr. Walden, if you read your local paper, would you get in touch with me? I want to ask you how to find $2,500/month in our budget to cover health care costs (ditching my iPhone gets me less than $100 — we’re still $2,400/month short).

Looking for help and answers in Hood River.

Waltraud Scott

Hood River

Budget boost

There’s plenty of money for defense, medical, social programs, the arts, the EPA, NOAA, Meals on Wheels, etc., and still to be able to decrease the national debt.

All we have to do is get the one percent to pay back what they’ve stolen from us and stop gluttonous billionaires like Trump from gorging themselves like pigs at the public trough.

Jerry Giarraputo

Hood River

Dye and die

By now, I think almost everyone in Oregon, if not the entire continent, has realized smoking is bad. There are numerous reasons, like the fact that $1.54 billion annual healthcare costs are spent on smoking incidents and second-hand smoke kills, dogs, cats, birds, bunnies and over 50,000 people in the U.S. each year. The problem is smoking is addictive, with tempting chemicals such as nicotine and (wow!) hair dye. Smoking is a serious problem, but how can our country stop?

Kadin Mitchell

Hood River

Faux flexibility

Dear fellow District 2 voters,

Some details about Rep. Greg Walden’s health care proposal:

1) It will triple the number of uninsured in Oregon; 23,000 jobs are predicted to be cut (source: Oregon Health Authority and the Department of Consumer and Business Services/Oregonian).

2) When they say that Trumpcare lets people keep coverage but have flexibility, they mean that the states will have to pay for that coverage. In Oregon, our state budget would have to pay $2.6 billion to make up what Trumpcare cuts (source: Oregon Health Authority and the Department of Consumer and Business Services/Oregonian). Seen Oregon’s state budget lately? We cannot pay for this “flexibility.”

3) Obamacare expanded Medicaid, and District 2 benefited more than any other congressional District in the entire U.S.: 400,000 more people qualified for Medicaid, thanks to the ACA (census.gov). Walden said he would not “pull the rug out” from any Medicaid member, but his healthcare plan will do exactly that by reversing that Medicaid expansion.

Rural folks will be hit the hardest. So much for sticking up for ranchers. We waited and the count is in: three strikes.

Please join Indivisible Columbia Gorge at a town hall for Rep. Walden on Saturday, April 8 at Hood River Middle School from 4-5:30 p.m. to let your voice be heard.

Nan Noteboom

Odell

Take a step back

The American Health Care Act (AHCA) now being pushed through Congress is bad for rural Oregon. Rep. Walden’s work in crafting and supporting this replacement to the ACA is disappointing.

Under the AHCA, the Second District will lose over $500 million in annual health care revenues. Those dollars primarily benefit low income working families and individuals. Losing that money will mean fewer dollars flowing into local economies and fewer people with healthcare. By 2023, well over 100,000 people living in the district will lose the coverage they now get from Medicaid expansion.

Individuals buying coverage on the Oregon Heath Exchange will see their current subsidies replaced with much less generous tax credits that don’t compensate for the higher insurance costs and lower incomes of rural counties. A 60-year-old earning $30,000 and living in Grant County will see their premiums jump by over $8,200 a year. Older individuals and those with lower incomes will lose insurance because they can no longer afford it. The loss of insured patients and rising costs of uncompensated care will mean fewer rural doctors and healthcare workers and threaten the survival of rural hospitals.

The AHCA seems almost tailored to hurt Walden’s rural district with its older citizens, lower income working families and higher medical costs.

The driving force for these changes seems to have less to do with helping provide affordable healthcare than providing huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. It is hard to see how these changes benefit our rural district. I hope Congress will step back from the rush to pass this legislation.

Rick Davis

The Dalles

Protect water

March 22 is World Water Day. Named in 1993 by the United Nations, this day calls attention for water as a precious and limited resource. A different theme is emphasized each year. In 2016, “Better water, better jobs” highlighted how critical water is in creating jobs.

In 2017, “Why waste water?” calls for increased and safe recycling and reuse. Worldwide, a tapestry of events reflecting multiple perspectives, cultures and contexts, marks the day.

While we just recently moved to the upper valley, my wife and I have long marveled at its beauty. After a breathtaking snowy winter, we are looking forward to the upcoming seasons. Each season brings a unique relationship with water, whose annual balance makes this a resource-rich and distinctively fertile land. A prime producer of pears, apples, cherries and more, the valley exemplifies “better water, better jobs.”

But will it last?

Hood River County’s footprint on global climate change is small compared to large cities. But we contribute to and endure local effects of global change, and are not immune to increasing global demands for water. We will see changes in quantity and timing of rain and snow, affecting land production, natural resources, recreation and public health. And competing interests, within and outside the Columbia River basin, will challenge established uses of water. What we have today is not assured tomorrow.

Although we may not all want the same from water, we can easily agree that choices in managing this resource will determine the future of Hood River County. Wise local choices will also contribute by deed and example to the sustainability of the Pacific Northwest, our country, and humanity-at-large. With major changes afoot in Washington, D.C., perhaps at no other time has local wisdom been so necessary: Water is non-partisan and vital to each and all communities.

This March 22, dialogue will begin towards the United Nations International Decade for Action (2018-2028) on Water for Sustainable Development. Let’s toast to local wisdom as a catalyst for the decade ahead. And let’s find new individual and collective ways to ensure water aplenty, for our and future generations.

Antonio Baptista

Parkdale

Where is Walden on EPA?

Scott Pruitt, secretary of the EPA, does not have the interests of the EPA in mind. To the contrary, he has been actively working to remove regulations that help industries pollute the environment and communities. While Oklahoma’s attorney general, he sued the EPA to prevent standing rules about clean water and air.

He has accepted template language from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, an oil and gas lobby group, to oppose ozone limits and renewable fuel standards. We cannot assume that these partnerships and interests will stop now that Pruitt is head of the EPA. It appears he is in the back pocket of big oil and gas.

Pruitt is also firmly against the science that supports climate change.

During his confirmation hearing, Pruitt stated that he believes there is “tremendous disagreement” about the link between human activity and climate change, and that that he does not believe that it’s a primary contributor to global warming.

This is false, as there is not tremendous disagreement. The fact that the head of our EPA holds beliefs that are counter to science is troubling to say the least. His policies and actions will have consequences that reverberate throughout the whole of the country.

The House Energy and Commerce committee, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden, has a responsibility to the air quality and environmental health of the people in this country. While his committee doesn’t oversee the EPA, we should know if he stands by Pruitt’s ethics and beliefs.

Now, does Rep. Walden support the dismantling of the EPA? Does he feel there is too much overreach and not enough support to big oil and gas?

Does Rep. Walden agree with Pruitt or climate scientists? Oregonians have a long history with the land, air and water in trying to strike a balance between communities and corporations. From ranchers to farmers to loggers, we have an invested interest in supporting the EPA. Pruitt’s conflicts of interest could see him beholden to his former partners in energy at the cost of our livelihoods.

We need to know where Walden stands.

Michelle Hennebeck

The Dalles

Walden must exit

Our planet is rapidly warming. Science shows that mankind’s activities significantly affect this warming of our earth. If we make needed changes, we may have a chance at preserving life as we know it.

That’s not partisan; it’s reality. Donald Trump wants to do away with the EPA, to roll back efforts to limit quality controls on automobile exhaust as well as requirements for auto efficiency. He wants to burn coal. He wants to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord. He’s reversing efforts to develop clean energy and protect our environment.

All this is for short-term gains that primarily benefit corporations and make the rich richer. It’s not sustainable and it comes at a huge cost. I likely won’t bear the burden of this cost in my lifetime, but my children probably will and my grandchildren definitely will. So will yours.

How can you make a difference? Our locally elected U.S. Congressman, Greg Walden, supports Trump’s views on rolling back environmental protections. He doesn’t even mention the problem of global warming on his congressional website. His career pro-environmental voting record, according to the League Of Conservation Voters, is 3 percent.

Does that make you wonder even a little bit about where his priorities are and who he’s working for? In 2018, vote someone in to replace him who will stand up for our planet and our children’s children.

John Schwartz

The Dalles

Requiem for a library

Libraries epitomize individualized customer service. That sympathetic human touch during crucial information seeking is a hallmark of such places.

So it has been saddening to see our Mid-Columbia medical library, Planetree, close its doors in The Dalles at the Harding House.

The Internet is a mighty fine tool, but it fails in the realm of bed side manner.

Jim Tindall

Husum, Wash.

Don’t forget poor

As a psychologist who worked part time in Hood River, I saw many people whose lives were seriously disrupted by lack of health care. The Affordable Care Act gave people not only medical care, but also hope.

Greg Walden is central in crafting the proposed health insurance bill in the House that will radically change the ACA. This bill will have a severe effect on many of his constituents.

In 2016, over 29,000 people in Rep. Walden’s Congressional district received their healthcare through the ACA Marketplace; 105,000 people received healthcare through expanded Medicaid. For many of these people, insurance will not be available under Walden’s bill. The most extreme instances are frightening. According to Kaiser Family Foundation data, a 64-year-old living on $25,000 income a year in Hood River will pay over $3,000 more each year in insurance premiums than they do now under the ACA. They are lucky though, for that same person living in Pendleton would pay $8,100 more.

This bill has tax cuts, but almost all of them go to people making more than $200,000 a year. Those who benefit the most are millionaires who will get an average of $54,130 in tax cuts a year.

Obamacare needs to be fixed. But this plan will hurt too many of the people who Greg Walden represents, especially those who are older, poorer, or live in rural Oregon. Rep. Walden, please don’t forget these people.

Dr. Carol Greenough

Tualatin