Eagle Country: Hood River photographer Stephen Datnoff captured these eagles recently on Highway 14 in Klickitat County. Looking to spot eagles yourself? The 15th annual Eagle Watch takes place at The Dalles Dam Visitor Center Jan. 25 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free. The visitor center is open Monday through Friday in January from 9 a.m. to noon. Â
Eagle Country: Hood River photographer Stephen Datnoff captured these eagles recently on Highway 14 in Klickitat County. Looking to spot eagles yourself? The 15th annual Eagle Watch takes place at The Dalles Dam Visitor Center Jan. 25 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free. The visitor center is open Monday through Friday in January from 9 a.m. to noon. Â
Friends and neighbors, my husband and I are entering our fifth year of residing in this beautiful state, transplanted from upper Michigan, another beautiful state. In the interest of decreasing the divisiveness of politics upon the peaceful views I enjoy driving between Mount Hood and Hood River each day, would anybody be interested in a local ruling about political signage being allowed up one month before an election and required to be removed by a month after? Or is there an ordinance already in place and not enforced? In my more than 70 years, I have not been assailed by such signs and flags flying for years and years as is currently the case. Bring peace back to our landscape, please!
Marny Weting
Mt. Hood-Parkdale
Editor's Note: Election signs and political flags aren't typically regulated by Hood River County on private land, according to the county's community development department. One exception would be within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, where election signs are required to be removed within 30 days of the election and flagpoles are restricted in height.
Tariffs
If Donald Trump places tariffs on all our imports, two things could happen: One, the costs of imported good will skyrocket, and two, U.S. exports will plummet because every single trading partner will place tariffs on all our exports. What a brilliant businessman Trump is — NOT!
Gary Fields
Hood River
Â
'Burn it down'
Men who feel left out and left behind are struggling not just to find good jobs but are struggling to find purpose and respect, drowning in a hostile sea of social values informing the Progressive political view. But the last election was not just about wokeness, nor education or lack of it, nor was it only about toxic masculinity, men hating women. Many men are truly powerless and hating it that no one in traditional politics sees their concerns. The "Let’s burn it all down" message of the Trump campaign resonated among male voters in every county, urban and rural, across America.
Decades ago, Ross Perot was right about the impacts of globalism on American jobs; we did nothing. Bernie Sanders was right to fear big money in politics and the impact of the growing gap between rich and poor; we didn’t get it. Trump tapped into a perfect storm of rage over real grievances too long unaddressed. The power of grievance cuts a deep groove in the human psyche, replacing reason with raw emotion. All of us are being exploited by profit motivated media, online news, podcasts and social media entities which are providing a steady diet of entertainment and lies pretending to be news and truth. Democracy, which requires both truth and reason, has proven ill matched to the times — a slow analog system failing to perform in the wilderness of the digital age. Perhaps we deserve Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Who cares that big lies are normalized? Loyalty is the only measure of competence in government and all access to wealth and power is transactional, this for that. I hope those who voted for Trump have the guts to own the results of their choice down the road. Simply burning down our broken bureaucratic institutions will not fix things; a grievance is not a solution to a problem; a concept of a plan is not policy, nor is it practical legislation. Will the looming failure to actually fix any problems even be noticed in the whirlwind of tariffs, deportations and international diplomatic chaos Trump has promised?
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.