Church?
Some church ministers will turn some churches into courthouses!
Judging, instead of ministering. Disabled veterans, as me, need a lot of support, not a lot of judging.
Steve Cochenour, disabled veteran
The Dalles
Err on the side of caution
If you haven’t had the chance to watch the Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up” yet, I would highly recommend it as required viewing for all of humanity.
As I watched it, I felt like I was viewing us on so many levels. The words “Err on the side of caution” came to mind.
The movie has humanity careening towards its demise, as many believe is now our reality, while many others disagree. We are faced with choices that may still be able to change our course and yet there is such resistance to that change.
When the stakes are so high, what stops us from erring on the side of caution? Not enough love? A dear friend sent me these sage words from the Dalai Lama; they speak mountains about what is needed to change our plight, so I will share them here:
“We can reject everything else: Religion, ideology, all received wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion. This, then, is my true religion, my simple faith. In this sense, there is no need for temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no doctrine, or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple. The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are: Ultimately, these are all we need.”
If we choose to live by these words in the deepest sense, we can save ourselves.
Sarah Bellinson
Hood River
Speak truth
As I write this on Jan. 6, 2022, I am remembering the horror with which I watched insurrectionists invade our Capitol one year ago, some of them literally hunting for Vice President Mike Pence and certain members of Congress. They did this because they didn’t like the outcome of the 2020 election, and they were egged on by a sore loser named Donald Trump.
It turns out that Trump was much worse than a sore loser. As more and more evidence comes to light, it is increasingly clear that he was a seditionist, trying with every tool at his disposal to stay in power against the will of the people.
And our congressman, Cliff Bentz, tried to help him. Hours after the insurrectionists brutally attacked the Capitol police officers who defended Bentz and his colleagues, Bentz sided with the insurrectionists by voting to decertify the election.
Even now, as a majority of Republican voters still erroneously believe the election was stolen from Trump, Bentz refuses to set the record straight. I know that he knows the election was not stolen. He personally told me and a group of progressives in a Zoom meeting shortly after he was elected.
Apparently, he is willing to acknowledge this fact privately to progressive constituents, but his continuing refusal to publicly tell his conservative constituents the truth can only be described as political cowardice.
I call on Rep. Bentz to admit he was wrong to vote against certifying the election, as his colleague Tom Rice (R-SC) recently did, and admit publicly that President Biden won a free and fair election.
Bentz can help stop the effort to undermine our democracy if he chooses.
I’m not asking Bentz to side with Democrats. I’m asking him to side with sensible, honorable Republicans, like Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger, Jamie Herrera Beutler, former president Bush, and many others who care enough about this country to tell voters the truth.
That’s what real leaders do.
Deborah Ferrer
The Dalles
Run for Something
One year ago, on Jan. 6, 2020, we saw how fragile our democracy truly is. Now there are more metal detectors and a larger security presence on Capitol Hill. But we need a lot more than that to protect what we value.
The threads of our democracy are most fragile at the places closest to us — school boards, city councils, county commissions, election administration offices, county health boards.
Ideas advanced and decisions made at these local levels affect our lives very directly. Together with thousands of other towns in the country, they form the fabric or our democracy, or lack thereof.
What to do? Organize. Run for something. Vote. Repeat. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
Rhonda Starling
Mosier
Bullwhip days
Schooling for me started in 1945, public school ended in 1960, and during that time and the time I spent in college, I never heard of CRT (Critical Race Theory). I did hear plenty of racial slurs directed toward others.
During the FDR administration, people of Japanese descent were interned in camps, including a constitutional scholar from Hood River. Also during FDR’s administration, Jim Crow and “separate but equal” were alive and well, as was segregated federal housing.
There were articles in the Oregonian regarding racial slurs thrown at visiting teams from Portland when playing football at Roseburg.
Racism in its various forms is alive and well whether people want to admit it or not. Letters last week point it out, although not directly.
It’s nearly impossible to understand what slavery’s effect was on mostly African Americans. In the 1930s, the last of the slaves were interviewed by WPA workers and they told their story in a book called “Bullwhip days.” It’s an oral history given by the last of the slaves. Did you ever hear of it? Probably not, it’s done from an African American (Black) perspective. It should be read in high school or college, but I never ran across it in either.
It will surprise and amaze anyone who reads it. You will lose some of your culturally developed ideas about slavery. It can be found at used book stores, and sometimes at Amazon.
Rob Brostoff
Cascade Locks
Thank you for the care
On behalf of the family of Dennis Radford, we’d like to express our deepest gratitude for the excellent care and support he received during his illness.
Dr. Maile Anslinger, thank you for the many years of exceptional care you provided for Dennis; your kindness and professionalism are so appreciated.
Hearts of Hospice, we are grateful for all the care and support your team provided not just to Dennis but to our family during this very difficult time.
The Springs Memory Care, we are thankful to each and every one of you for care and kindness you had shown Dennis and our family during his stay in your facility.
Carrie Roderick Morris/ The Radford Family
The Dalles
Dear Cliff Bentz
Open Letter to Representative Cliff Bentz:
Do you still believe in democracy? I do.
I still believe that what America stands for, freedom, self-determination, a melting pot of ideas and people who come together to create the community they want to live in and not suffer under the authoritarian rule of a king or despot.
I hope you still believe in that ideal as well.
While I know you initially supported the lie that Joe Biden did not win in a free and fair election, I hope that you have paid attention to all of the evidence that has been publicly presented and that you now regret your part in spreading the lies of your party leadership.
Serena Smith
The Dalles
A Life and a Lesson
The day after Christmas, the spirit of the universe was briefly dimmed. Desmond Tutu, Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, died at the age of 90.
He is best remembered for leading the nonviolent struggle against apartheid in his home country. His most polite entreaty of the white establishment was, “All we are asking you to do is to recognize that we are humans, too.”
Multiple parallels can be drawn to this diminutive man’s approach to changing his world, an approach that could be applied in some shape or form in almost any country. For the United States of America, I would draw a non-obvious parallel. We’re currently as divided a nation as we’ve ever been, and we could apply Tutu’s plea as follows.
If I inhabit the left of the political spectrum, I should recognize the other side as mostly well-meaning humans with a different point of view. Likewise, if I’m on the right, I should recognize the left as mostly well-meaning humans with a different point of view.
And if I’m in the center with serious reservations about both sides, I should recognize that both yearn for a world that is different and better and compliant with their point of view.
Maybe by recognizing the general humanity of all sides we can begin again to talk to each other in a civil manner.
The Economist commented about Tutu that, “for all the horrors he saw and heard of, he was certain that human beings were made by goodness, for goodness. Everyone could repent. Many could forgive.” Most of us want to believe that Tutu was right. And so, it’s time to pull back from the brink, sheathe our weapons and, for a change, listen to the other side with an intensity that might actually cause us to change our minds — a little.
Doug Roof
Hood River
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