Gone AWOL
Sen. Chuck Thomsen, I am so disappointed you have chosen to represent our district by shirking your duty to show up for work. You have opted for governance by no governance. Worse yet, you have joined your other AWOL colleagues, clearly demonstrating that Oregon Republicans will not willingly invest a single dime to face up to carbon reduction, the only hope to slow down this rapidly changing climate. Were the numerous concessions to you and your colleagues the Dems made on the carbon tax just a waste of time?
History will not treat you well, Sen. Thomsen. Your own grandchildren and their children living in a harsher, quieter world barreling towards us will look back and say you were in a responsible position to be a leader and you did nothing!
Chuck, please inform yourself of the current science. Maybe start with a Pacific Coast study partially funded by NOAA and published this January on effects increasing acidification level is having on Dungeness crab shell formation and receptor development: “Exoskeleton dissolution with mechanoreceptor damage in larval Dungeness crab related to severity of present-day ocean acidification vertical gradients” (Science Direct, published Jan. 22, 2020). Many other scientific observations document the increasing disruption to the ocean food change unchecked carbon emissions are causing.
Jeff Hunter
Hood River
Questions
The Covid19 virus was found in China on or before Dec 2019. Did you hear of it before February? Who went in and out of China in the interim?
The governor convened a commission to study the problem. The same day in Washington County, a person was announced ill with the virus. She worked at Forest Heights school; the school has shut down. How did she travel between the two, by public transit or auto? Did she stop anywhere? Will any students or staff become ill?
She’s in quarantine. Our president says this is a Democratic hoax. The president is prone to projection, exaggeration, obfuscation and lies; can he be trusted? The state epidemiologist, does he/she still exist?
Where is Chuck Thomsen? Chuck, will you spend time working on that issue? For reasons like this, you don’t go AWOL. Not a word from county health; does it exist anymore? We have a medical community; their silence is deafening. Are ventilators available? Are there quarantine facilities at Hood River hospital?
There’s been a death in the Seattle area, allegedly community transmission. Seattle has numerous airports and harbors. Are people being tested, given there are almost no test kits in the U.S.?
A person passed on in Kirkland, Wash. Also, in a Kirkland nursing facility, there are 50 others showing symptoms. We have similar facilities here. A concern is the homeless population. Many are vulnerable, don’t have insurance and move around — how does the political/medical community deal with that when they don’t do proper point counts to know where they are?
Is I-84 a vector for infection, and if tourism dies off, what happens to the Gorge economy? We’re already seeing a slowdown in worldwide production and shipping.
I’m not a medical professional, just concerned for our community’s safety and welfare as we move into the first pandemic since 1918.
Rob Brostoff
Cascade Locks
Sen. Chuck Thomsen, I am so disappointed you have chosen to represent our district by shirking your duty to show up for work. You have opted for governance by no governance. Worse yet, you have joined your other AWOL colleagues, clearly demonstrating that Oregon Republicans will not willingly invest a single dime to face up to carbon reduction, the only hope to slow down this rapidly changing climate. Were the numerous concessions to you and your colleagues the Dems made on the carbon tax just a waste of time?
History will not treat you well, Sen. Thomsen. Your own grandchildren and their children living in a harsher, quieter world barreling towards us will look back and say you were in a responsible position to be a leader and you did nothing!
Chuck, please inform yourself of the current science. Maybe start with a Pacific Coast study partially funded by NOAA and published this January on effects increasing acidification level is having on Dungeness crab shell formation and receptor development: “Exoskeleton dissolution with mechanoreceptor damage in larval Dungeness crab related to severity of present-day ocean acidification vertical gradients” (Science Direct, published Jan. 22, 2020). Many other scientific observations document the increasing disruption to the ocean food change unchecked carbon emissions are causing.
Jeff Hunter
Hood River
Questions
The Covid19 virus was found in China on or before Dec 2019. Did you hear of it before February? Who went in and out of China in the interim?
The governor convened a commission to study the problem. The same day in Washington County, a person was announced ill with the virus. She worked at Forest Heights school; the school has shut down. How did she travel between the two, by public transit or auto? Did she stop anywhere? Will any students or staff become ill?
She’s in quarantine. Our president says this is a Democratic hoax. The president is prone to projection, exaggeration, obfuscation and lies; can he be trusted? The state epidemiologist, does he/she still exist?
Where is Chuck Thomsen? Chuck, will you spend time working on that issue? For reasons like this, you don’t go AWOL. Not a word from county health; does it exist anymore? We have a medical community; their silence is deafening. Are ventilators available? Are there quarantine facilities at Hood River hospital?
There’s been a death in the Seattle area, allegedly community transmission. Seattle has numerous airports and harbors. Are people being tested, given there are almost no test kits in the U.S.?
A person passed on in Kirkland, Wash. Also, in a Kirkland nursing facility, there are 50 others showing symptoms. We have similar facilities here. A concern is the homeless population. Many are vulnerable, don’t have insurance and move around — how does the political/medical community deal with that when they don’t do proper point counts to know where they are?
Is I-84 a vector for infection, and if tourism dies off, what happens to the Gorge economy? We’re already seeing a slowdown in worldwide production and shipping.
I’m not a medical professional, just concerned for our community’s safety and welfare as we move into the first pandemic since 1918.
Rob Brostoff
Cascade Locks
Editor’s note: In the time between when this letter was submitted and the publication date, the Hood River County Health Department has sent out a press release with information about the coronavirus. (See story, A1, for details.) The CDC says last pandemic was in 2009, but calls the 1918 pandemic as the most severe in recent history.
‘Impeachment’
It is disturbing to hear and read “Trump survived impeachment.” This statement shows just how ignorant people can be. Trump did not “survive” impeachment. He is and always will be impeached. He will remain impeached throughout history. Only three presidents have been impeached. Trump is the latest. What the cowards in the senate failed to do was hold an honest and constituently demanded trial. They instead chose party ideology and politics, ahead of their oath, this country and its constitution. Their acquittal of Trump has no meaning or standing, other than to show their cowardness. It does not alter the fact he is impeached. It is a sad time when we can no longer trust portions of our government to uphold our laws and abide by our Constitution.
Gary Fields
Hood River
Election security
Russia has already launched covert social media campaigns to attack our 2020 election, using disinformation campaigns meant to divide Americans. At the same time, last month’s Senate Intelligence Committee report warned that the federal government was “not well-postured” to counter Russian election interference. Additionally, cybersecurity experts warn that our election infrastructure remains vulnerable to attempts to hack election websites, voter registration rolls, voting machines, and reporting systems.
Sen. Ron Wyden, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said, “What we will see in terms of foreign interference in 2020 is going to make 2016 look like small potatoes.”
There have been multiple bipartisan bills aimed at strengthening election security and countering foreign election interference (SAFE, SHEILD, and DETER acts), but Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have repeatedly blocked these.
Congress must significantly increase investments to safeguarding our election security, including upgrading voting machines, requiring backup paper ballots, making contingency plans to mitigate the damage if and when attacks occur, and conducting post-election audits to confirm that election results are valid.
Every American voter deserves to feel confident that their vote will be counted and protected from cyberattacks. Please keep up the demand to beef up U.S. election security, in repeated calls and letters to our Sens. Merkley and Wyden, and to Rep. Walden.
Lara Dunn
Hood River
Stay on the job
It is hard to believe that our elected official, Sen. Chuck Thomsen, has walked out of the State Legislature with his Republican colleagues, leaving all of Oregon at risk in many areas. There is a great deal of important work that has now ground to a halt, including proposals to help these legislators’ own districts.
Thomsen with his colleagues have turned their backs on program initiatives and funding for:
Elected officials should be doing their job and not blaming their walk-out on others. If, as an employee, I was a no-show at work, I would be fired. What example are these walk-outs setting for our students who believe that our elected representatives should do their job?
Fran Finney
Odell
Open letter to Chuck
I have seen your signs in a few yards in the county, but sorry Charlie, Americans cannot stand with you when you crawl on your belly, cowering before democracy. You are the person who throws the chess board to the floor if it appears you will not win the game. Well, Lady Liberty is kicking at you to get you out from under her skirts. She doesn’t want obstructionism from democracy’s bit players. This isn’t communist Russia where the few dictate to the many. This is about Oregonians trying to do something about pollution. Come out of hiding and carry out your sworn responsibilities.
You may lose in this vote, but by continuing to welsh on your oath, you lose a lot more by again revealing your true character, and as your constituents again take the measure of you as a man.
John Wood
Hood River
Circus act
Oregon Republican state senators have turned the legislature into a circus. Unfortunately, we have seen this act before. This is the bit where they pile into their clown car and hide in plain sight. An unclever ruse that obstructs anything from happening. Eleven people holding the rest of the state hostage. Fortunately, there are ways to resolve this recently habitual problem. The first solution is that there could be a rule change that would enact consequential penalties for elected officials who fail to show up for their jobs. The legislature could also change the rules for the number of lawmakers needed for a quorum. Or lastly, the voters can take matters into their own hands and hold these pretend senators to account for their dereliction. Our local boy, Chuck Thomsen, is one of these do-nothings, but also one of the most vulnerable to losing his seat in 2022. In 2018, Chuck won his seat by only 209 votes of 58,735 total votes cast. He is now out of touch more than ever with his constituents. If his seat was to switch parties or went to someone who actually believed in governing, the recurring walk out charade would be over. There are important issues that need the attention of our elected officials and I am loathed to see this circus repeat itself the next time this group of clowns refuses to go to work.
Adam Mims
Hood River
Similar challenges
When I was young, in many places in our country, the air was so dirty, breathing it was the same as smoking cigarettes and our rivers so foul they were catching on fire. Acting on the best science at hand, we enacted laws to change things. The polluters whose short term financial interests would be adversely affected by those laws loudly told us that we would starve in cold darkness as a result. They were wrong. Our air got cleaner our waterways healthier and we prospered. Now we face a similar challenge in global warming, and as large as the challenge is, we can still avoid its most dire consequences. To do so, we must accept and use the best scientific information at hand. Denying the problem exists and running away from it recklessly gambles away our children’s future.
Ben Seagraves
White Salmon
‘Impeachment’
It is disturbing to hear and read “Trump survived impeachment.” This statement shows just how ignorant people can be. Trump did not “survive” impeachment. He is and always will be impeached. He will remain impeached throughout history. Only three presidents have been impeached. Trump is the latest. What the cowards in the senate failed to do was hold an honest and constituently demanded trial. They instead chose party ideology and politics, ahead of their oath, this country and its constitution. Their acquittal of Trump has no meaning or standing, other than to show their cowardness. It does not alter the fact he is impeached. It is a sad time when we can no longer trust portions of our government to uphold our laws and abide by our Constitution.
Gary Fields
Hood River
Election security
Russia has already launched covert social media campaigns to attack our 2020 election, using disinformation campaigns meant to divide Americans. At the same time, last month’s Senate Intelligence Committee report warned that the federal government was “not well-postured” to counter Russian election interference. Additionally, cybersecurity experts warn that our election infrastructure remains vulnerable to attempts to hack election websites, voter registration rolls, voting machines, and reporting systems.
Sen. Ron Wyden, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said, “What we will see in terms of foreign interference in 2020 is going to make 2016 look like small potatoes.”
There have been multiple bipartisan bills aimed at strengthening election security and countering foreign election interference (SAFE, SHEILD, and DETER acts), but Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have repeatedly blocked these.
Congress must significantly increase investments to safeguarding our election security, including upgrading voting machines, requiring backup paper ballots, making contingency plans to mitigate the damage if and when attacks occur, and conducting post-election audits to confirm that election results are valid.
Every American voter deserves to feel confident that their vote will be counted and protected from cyberattacks. Please keep up the demand to beef up U.S. election security, in repeated calls and letters to our Sens. Merkley and Wyden, and to Rep. Walden.
Lara Dunn
Hood River
Stay on the job
It is hard to believe that our elected official, Sen. Chuck Thomsen, has walked out of the State Legislature with his Republican colleagues, leaving all of Oregon at risk in many areas. There is a great deal of important work that has now ground to a halt, including proposals to help these legislators’ own districts.
Thomsen with his colleagues have turned their backs on program initiatives and funding for:
- Flood recovery in Umatilla County
- Mental health care
- Homeless shelters (including our own warming shelter here in Thomsen’s district)
- Child abuse prevention and treatment
- Search and rescue through county sheriffs’ offices (including our search and rescue funding crisis around Mount Hood)
- Wildfire management
- NORCOR services
- Climate legislation
Elected officials should be doing their job and not blaming their walk-out on others. If, as an employee, I was a no-show at work, I would be fired. What example are these walk-outs setting for our students who believe that our elected representatives should do their job?
Fran Finney
Odell
Open letter to Chuck
I have seen your signs in a few yards in the county, but sorry Charlie, Americans cannot stand with you when you crawl on your belly, cowering before democracy. You are the person who throws the chess board to the floor if it appears you will not win the game. Well, Lady Liberty is kicking at you to get you out from under her skirts. She doesn’t want obstructionism from democracy’s bit players. This isn’t communist Russia where the few dictate to the many. This is about Oregonians trying to do something about pollution. Come out of hiding and carry out your sworn responsibilities.
You may lose in this vote, but by continuing to welsh on your oath, you lose a lot more by again revealing your true character, and as your constituents again take the measure of you as a man.
John Wood
Hood River
Circus act
Oregon Republican state senators have turned the legislature into a circus. Unfortunately, we have seen this act before. This is the bit where they pile into their clown car and hide in plain sight. An unclever ruse that obstructs anything from happening. Eleven people holding the rest of the state hostage. Fortunately, there are ways to resolve this recently habitual problem. The first solution is that there could be a rule change that would enact consequential penalties for elected officials who fail to show up for their jobs. The legislature could also change the rules for the number of lawmakers needed for a quorum. Or lastly, the voters can take matters into their own hands and hold these pretend senators to account for their dereliction. Our local boy, Chuck Thomsen, is one of these do-nothings, but also one of the most vulnerable to losing his seat in 2022. In 2018, Chuck won his seat by only 209 votes of 58,735 total votes cast. He is now out of touch more than ever with his constituents. If his seat was to switch parties or went to someone who actually believed in governing, the recurring walk out charade would be over. There are important issues that need the attention of our elected officials and I am loathed to see this circus repeat itself the next time this group of clowns refuses to go to work.
Adam Mims
Hood River
Similar challenges
When I was young, in many places in our country, the air was so dirty, breathing it was the same as smoking cigarettes and our rivers so foul they were catching on fire. Acting on the best science at hand, we enacted laws to change things. The polluters whose short term financial interests would be adversely affected by those laws loudly told us that we would starve in cold darkness as a result. They were wrong. Our air got cleaner our waterways healthier and we prospered. Now we face a similar challenge in global warming, and as large as the challenge is, we can still avoid its most dire consequences. To do so, we must accept and use the best scientific information at hand. Denying the problem exists and running away from it recklessly gambles away our children’s future.
Ben Seagraves
White Salmon
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