Calling all snow shoveling angels
I love snow. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, I would tunnel through the plow’s epic snow drifts followed by a hot chocolate and rosy cheeks. As an adult, I love taking peaceful walks or skiing through a city blanketed and noise proofed with snow. And I’m a professional sledder.
However, my love of winter has been replaced with anxiety when snow is forecasted. Historically, Hood River’s sidewalks bear the brunt of snow events, becoming impassable, icy and obstructed, evident by our most recent storms. I am an able bodied and athletic person and I cannot walk from my house to school, groceries, downtown or a friend’s house without encountering ankle twisting, hip breaking or life-threatening injuries from icy sidewalks with uneven, post holing terrain or hugging shoulders of busy streets like Cascade, Oak, Ninth and 12th.
The other night, I had a horrible interaction with someone driving who came within inches of me in the street. I reflexively defended myself by hitting his truck with my hand and he stopped and called me a profane name after I asked him to give me space because I was scared. Again, I am able bodied and had this experience. Imagine the horrors of a senior, kid or mobility challenged person.
These interactions, friction and walking as a public health nightmare are like a third world country and avoidable. The city needs to enforce municipal code 13.20.010, requiring and fining owners on priority walking routes while reminding us ahead of snow events that shoveling early and daily is the best practice. The city should create a fund to help clear the sidewalks of low income and disabled residents, as well.
Lastly, to do our part, I’d like to provide a solution to bond our community over sidewalk clearing: The Snow Shoveling Angels. I created a simple Google Sheet (bit.ly/3rjR6jF) that residents can use to say they need help, want to borrow a tool or have the ability to help, whether volunteer or hired.
I invite everyone to contribute to a truly strong and equitable community through clear sidewalks.
Megan Ramey,
Hood River
Keep sidewalks clear of snow
The sidewalk conditions during snowstorms have been an issue since I moved here in 2008. I believe we have a very willing and able community to help resolve this problem. Citizens just need to be made aware there is an ordinance in place, requiring folks to shovel outside their residence and or business. I also think something that would be helpful is having the city launch a proactive approach in their outreach. Let’s help our neighbors and ourselves be able to get around during the bouts of “snowpocalypse.” Just yesterday I saw a man in a wheelchair waiting for a truck to pull out onto Cascade Avenue. The gentlemen had no place to go, aside from the road and the snowbanks bellowing out from the snow clobbered sidewalks. This made him invisible to the driver. An hour later I saw a kid trip while trying to maneuver post-holing through over a foot of snow on the sidewalk. This is one example of why we need to clear our sidewalks. There are children that walk to/from school and many members of the community that choose to walk to where they want to go. Not to mention get outside safely, for exercise and fresh air. Part of the problem is the pattern. Snow clobbered sidewalks everywhere, it has become the norm. This needs to change and I have great faith in our community. We just need a little proactive ad campaign. Folks that have the ability to get outside and shovel their sidewalk, be nice, knock on your neighbor’s door and ask if they need help shoveling their sidewalk Sidewalks are a safe means of getting where you need to go when driving is sketchy. Together, we can create a synergy for change. I have faith in our community and we just need to make a few changes to instill a call to action. If you know a home is vacant because it’s a vacation rental or up for sale, track down the owner or realtor and let them know you could use some help on your street. A team effort is key.
Heather Pola
Hood River
‘Truly heroic’
I’ve lived in Hood River County for more than 40 years. My two sons attended the Hood River public schools and graduated from Hood River Valley High School. I now have grandchildren in elementary school. I believe that the COVID-19 pandemic presents the greatest challenge that our schools have faced in my lifetime. This powerful foe has already taken more than 800,000 lives in this country, more than the combined losses of World War II and the Korea and Vietnam Wars. It is a wily and persistent virus, and demands a nimble and vigilant response from all members of our community.
I’ve seen our school board and district staff members marshal a truly heroic response to this pandemic. In the early days when school closures were required to give us time to learn about the virus and develop vaccines, they put in long hours to establish a plan. In a relatively short amount of time, online learning options were put in place. The community should deeply appreciate the 180 degree pivot that was required, and the amount of time our school personnel put into their mission to continue to educate our kids.
Now that effective vaccines and other mitigation strategies have allowed students and teachers to go back to the classroom, I am consistently impressed by the dedication and quality that district staff bring to a challenging environment. Students returned to the classroom with vastly different experiences and skill levels following a year of online learning. Teachers spend long hours preparing lesson plans and individualizing their approach to each student’s needs.
Perhaps most importantly, I see an environment where students feel safe and secure, even in the midst of anxiety surrounding the pandemic. Students cannot learn when they have feelings of fear and anxiety. In addition to bringing students up to speed academically, our schools are doing a fantastic job of teaching respect, inclusiveness, and equity that are essential to our kids’ future contributions to a global society. I commend the board, the administration, and all of the school district staff for their dedication and accomplishments throughout the pandemic.
Marilyn Smith
Hood River
Consider Doug White
To our conservative-leaning friends: Perhaps you’re among those who’ve been waiting for the extremists to fade from Republican party prominence, and it pains you to see that the opposite is happening. You can’t help but ask yourselves: Can America afford to cede power to today’s iteration of the Republican party?
Perhaps this year you can consider voting Democrat. In Washington State’s 4th Congressional District, we have a well-qualified, moderate candidate. His name is Doug White. He’s both a farmer and a restaurateur. If you look at his website (www.dougwhite4congress.us), you’ll find the following priorities: Water, immigration, infrastructure, community safety, healthcare, housing, and the economy.
Doug White does not have to pledge allegiance to a failed businessman with reprehensible morals. He’s focused on issues that matter for all of us now and for future generations.
Perhaps you miss the traditional Republican party. I certainly do. Maybe the only way we can get it back is for this current version to lose.
Rick George
White Salmon
Use reason
I am concerned how some politicians and political groups use fear and paranoia as a method to control their constituents. Rumors and media are driving false claims of government plots to control, and secret plans to take your rights away. Some people are so willing to accept these claims as fact. The saddest part is that these believers won’t even take the time to look at available information to determine whether it is true.
Most of us can read. Most of us can use reason to determine facts. Most of us would look at a flat tire and recognize that it is flat and not a government conspiracy to take away my rights to drive a car.
Research claims, read differing opinions, look up information beyond social media or what your tin hat wearing neighbor tells you. Education is the pathway out of division and intolerance that our country is currently in. The tire is flat. We aren’t going anywhere unless we recognize this fact. We must work together to accept this fact. I remain optimistic we can do this.
Barbara Beattie
White Salmon
Against Klippert
Washington state was in the national headlines this past week, but not for a good reason. Three far-right MAGA Republican lawmakers attended MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s three-day “Cyber Symposium” in August 2021, all at taxpayers’ expense.
Washington taxpayers paid $4,361 for their flights to Sioux Falls, S.D., and hotels. State Reps. Robert Sutherland (R-Granite Falls), Vicki Kraft, (R-Vancouver), and Brad Klippert (R-Kennewick) requested and received expense reimbursements from the Legislature for the trip. This was a patent misappropriation of state funds.
The conference was a joke, offering lots of QAnon conspiracies, but no proof that President Joe Biden didn’t defeat Trump by more than 7 million votes in 2020.
Klippert has stoked doubts about the 2020 election, claiming widespread fraud and irregularities around the nation and in Washington, even as he touted his own reelection win last fall. Klippert believes Washington’s 2020 election was stolen, claims refuted by Washington state’s Republican Secretary of State.
Klippert wants a “forensic audit” of the 2020 presidential election costing $3-6 million, but he also wants to reduce state expenditures. He opposes voting by mail, even though it is popular, convenient, increases voter turnout and provides a paper trail for any recounts. Klippert wants to return to in-person voting.
Brad Klippert is currently running to become the next congressman for our district. With redistricting, Klickitat County will now be in the 4th Congressional District that includes the following counties: Benton, Yakima, Grant, Douglas and Okanogan. It also includes Pasco and Othello. Brad Klippert is one of five candidates who want to replace Rep. Dan Newhouse, who voted to impeach President Trump.
Klippert opposes the “Morning After Pill,” but it is OK if teenage girls get an abortion later on. He opposes any vaccine or mask mandates, even for healthcare workers.
Klippert works as a school resource officer, but since he refuses to get vaccinated or wear a mask, he cannot greet students each morning. Kids will be surprised to learn there is a strange man watching them on multiple TV sets in a little room.
“COVID is a hoax!” said 680,000 dead Americans.
Rob Chandler
Sunnyside
Finger pointing
I don’t understand the finger pointing. Are not both party members human beings who breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2, a gas that destroys our solar shield? Don’t both party members use paper products and lumber from harvested trees that clean our air? Don’t both consume food every single day, which requires limited water and fertilizer resources? This daily eating, does it not produce a nasty solid waste from both? Point the finger? Each thinks they are better? How?
It’s beyond understanding how one gang honestly accuses the other for all the wrongs, failings, devastation and eventual demise of our environment while “eating” and consuming all that one may buy or steal.
Say every American Republican gangster disappeared right now? Would climate change cease? Would oil drilling and coal mining stop? Would our air and water become perfectly clean? Would the 300,000 people added to the world population every single day diminish?
What if every American Democrat gangster disappeared? Would the nation’s financial situation be resolved? Would we really have a fair tax system and less government? Would America’s so called “immorality” be cleaned up since the nation would only have good “moral” citizens?
I don’t understand, as intelligent as political gangsters claim to be, how come you do not see it? Why are you pointing the finger at each other for the plight we are in when our biological human functions are the problem? A problem political gangs will never fix.
Is it ignorance or cowardliness that prevents gangsters from admitting that our plight originates from the simple fact that human beings must consume? Consume what? Everything that lives and breathes could be consumed. Perfect party laws or legislation will not hold off this devastating consuming fact. Pretending your party has the perfect answer is strange.
The eventual fix will be completed by those who educate and enlighten their minds now with the necessary wisdom, knowledge and understanding which are the real tools that will contribute to the fix. Party gang mentality is children arguing in the playground. Contact me when you grow up.
Gary Fischer
The Dalles
Pioneer
The wood is warm beneath my bare feet, the surface of old oak burnished dark gold from 100 years or so of life in our home. Oak, cut and milled from old growth timber that surrounds our property, joined together by groups of pioneers, skills passed down with cooperation and unity resulting in the beautiful floor I travel over now. Generations of families carving a life from the timber harvest in the Pacific Northwest. Escape from oppression and the lure of freedom in America made its mark on the people of the community.
We have lost that pioneer spirit of cooperation in the decisions made in Congress and the presidency, resulting in a deeply divided nation. Roll up your sleeves, reach across the aisle, and take time to talk and consider. It is time to craft a result that will last a lifetime, we should be able to look upon the finished product with pride and enjoy the beauty in the bipartisan craftsmanship.
The pioneers will continue the work to guide America to a nation built and decided by all citizens and carry forward the lessons learned in this ever-changing country.
Sheilah Nelson
Hood River
Commented