'David and Goliath'
Dear citizens of The Dalles, I have lived here more than 50 years. I grew up in Sherman County. The Dalles was the BIG shopping center we visited regularly.
As a young person, I saw The Dalles as a successful, exciting place. I even shopped for my wedding china here. I know, that dates me! I love this town, but I am so sad and disturbed by what it has become. Our schools are old, shopping is very limited and activities for youth are almost non-existent.
Sherman County has beautiful schools, thanks, in large part, to the windmill money. The Dalles has nothing to show for Google, other than torn up streets, as they get what they need for their latest expansion. They say they have 200 jobs! What are they?
This is a multi-billion-dollar business that got in by paying no taxes! Taxes that would fund all new schools in The Dalles! And the local citizens' taxes keep going up! I don't know what can be done; we are like David and Goliath. You know how that story ended.
Bonnie Shupe
The Dalles
Thanks firefighters and taxpayers
In this summer filled with forest fires, I also want to add my thanks to all those who go and fight the forest fires. They have both the physical and psychological stamina that I don’t have and I so appreciate all of their efforts to keep our communities safe. But I also want to thank everyone who pays taxes. Because if we didn’t have a federal budget that spends $3 billion a year on fighting forest fires, in addition to state and local funds, we’d be in a real mess. What — hold a bake sale when you see a fire break out to raise funds? Make each homeowner in the path of the fire pay up in the middle of a crisis?
No. We have decided as a country we are in this together and we pay our taxes so that when a disaster hits — anywhere — we have the resources to send help. We share the responsibility of keeping each other safe. We even share that with other nations such as Canada and Australia who have sent firefighters here in our time of need, and we have sent people there when they needed help.
Yes, the firefighters themselves are doing amazing work in a dangerous setting and deserve our thanks. But don’t forget that some of those taxes you pay are what help to keep them fed and supplied with trucks and planes and fire fighting gear. Could WE do more? Absolutely. Let’s all be in this together and not only support firefighters when they are here, but let’s urge our lawmakers to support them with adequate budgets for the years to come.
We can argue about how our forests got to be the way they are, but when you see the smoke and hear the flames you just want someone to help. Bottom line, when it comes time to pay my taxes again, while I may grumble some, I’ll also be very thankful for the people and programs that those tax monies fund to protect our communities.
Leanne Hogie,
USDA/FAS retired
Hood River
Self-destruction
I have been fascinated by the history and experiment of the United States and its democracy as a republic, so much so, that I entered college as a political science major. In my very first class, my political science professor stated that the day would come when the U.S. would self-destruct. This was September 1965. There are no words as to my reaction. Those who pay attention to historical events know about the 1960s. I dropped my political science courses and changed my major to elementary education.
Here we are today in a country of division and anger. I will refer to the U.S. Constitution, which I read over and over, bought retired Justice Breyers' book on how to read the Constitution and I give handouts of pocket copies of the Constitution as stocking stuffers and to students as often as possible. There are seven articles to the Constitution and the first three form our government. Article I is Legislative, Article II is executive and Article III is judicial.
It is the responsibility of the elected officials to Congress to fulfill their responsibilities under Article I to "We the People" who elected them. I now refer to SBMCC24166, the Border Act sponsored by Republican Sen. Lankford and co-sponsored by Independent Sen. Sinema and Democrat Sen. Murphy. I did not read this bill of 400 plus pages, but I read the table of contents. I ask you all to search MCC24166 and also read the table of contents. It's a fantastic bill which does many good things about U.S. border policies. However, Donald Trump went to the Republicans in Congress and told them to scrap the bill so he could campaign on border issues to blame the Democrats for failures at the U.S. border. The Republican Congress people obeyed Donald Trump and pitched MCC24166 to the curb and went to the dark side of Trump's demands.
Article I and Congress failed their elected duties to "We the People" and honored what a dictator want-to-be told them to do. Be aware my fellow Americans of a possible self-destruction of our USA.
Catherine Peck
Hood River
Project 2025
Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation's playbook for the next Trump administration, if Trump wins the presidency. Their plan for immigration will be devastating and harmful to families and communities alike. For example, one plan set to take place would be the elimination of visas for victims of crimes and human trafficking, people who would otherwise help police investigate and arrest the perpetrators (thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-dhs-immigration). Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security would no longer prioritize renewing the status of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, or Dreamers, those young people who came here with their parents and received deferred status so that they could go to school, find work, and contribute to their communities, with the goal of gaining full citizenship. They would now be at risk for deportation to countries many no longer know, their only home being the United States (msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/project-2025-what-know-trump-president-second-term-rcna160465). We can agree that our immigration system needs repair, but when a bipartisan group of legislators came up with a strong plan for the border, including increased staffing for processing asylum applications and emergency authority to close the border if crossings reached 4,000 daily over a one week span, Trump told Republicans to vote "no" on it, keeping it a continuing campaign issue. In conclusion, Project 2025's plan for immigrants is the opposite of humane and thoughtful, and will upend the lives of good people who only want to make life better for their families.
April George
White Salmon
Ends justify means
Besides being a psychopath and pathologic liar, Donald Trump — the fake bone-spur draft dodger — is a traitor. He once again denigrated the sacrifices of veterans and Medal of Honor recipients compared to the sycophants like Rush Limbaugh he gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to. That MAGA Republicans still support this miscreant is astounding.
But apparently MAGA Republicans — mostly Christofacsists who wish to impose their conservative religious beliefs on the rest of society, and their manipulating ruling-class millionaire-billionaire sponsors who want an even more powerful oligarchy of the rich unencumbered by democracy, through taxes and regulations on business, Project 2025 — couldn’t care less their candidate is a convicted criminal and sexual assaulter, a thief of top secret classified government documents, and leader of an attempted coup to overturn a legitimate presidential election he decisively lost. For them, the ends justify the means.
Trump has now called Kamala Harris a “full communist” for a plan to level the economic plying field by imposing regulations on corporate price gouging. I guess tax cuts for the already insanely rich and well-off corporations is the only kind of economic charity he knows. At the same time, Trump exchanges “love letters” with Kim Jong Un of communist North Korea, applauded Russian oligarch and dictator Vladimir Putin for his “genius” invasion of Ukraine, and praised Putin for the “great” prisoner exchange recently achieved by Biden and our allies in Europe.
No doubt Trump needs to curry even more favor with Putin — he will need another prisoner exchange from Putin to get him out of jail once he loses this November’s election.
Bob Yoesle
Goldendale
Kudos
Kudos to journalist Flora Gibson. Their writings were about bird life and now a wonderful article about an artist. Their talent is a gift to our area. With gratitude,
Lark Lennox
The Dalles
Waiting
The Democrats have replaced their senile candidate, what's taking the Republicans so long?
Adrian Fields
Hood River
Commented