Polar Plunge Parade: Bagpiper Gus Baer, center, leads plungers on a half mile walk from the Gorges Beer Company brewery on WaNaPa Street to the Marine Park beach for Cascade Locks’ annual New Year’s Day polar plunge into the Columbia River. Travis Preece, owner of Gorges Beer Company, started the event five years ago as a way to foster community.
Helen H. Richardson photo / special to Columbia Gorge News
Polar Plunge Parade: Bagpiper Gus Baer, center, leads plungers on a half mile walk from the Gorges Beer Company brewery on WaNaPa Street to the Marine Park beach for Cascade Locks’ annual New Year’s Day polar plunge into the Columbia River. Travis Preece, owner of Gorges Beer Company, started the event five years ago as a way to foster community.
Helen H. Richardson photo / special to Columbia Gorge News
Thank you for your article about Cardinal Glass (“Cardinal Glass sets sustainability benchmark, Hood River plant follows suit,” Dec. 31, 2025). I have long wondered about this business since seeing their billboard in The Dalles, and the article was informative and enlightening. What a great asset to the community! If I were starting out as a young person seeking work, I would definitely consider Cardinal Glass for their product, their concern for the environment, and their care for their employees. And no, I’ve never had any contact with Cardinal Glass whatsoever. Their story is inspiring. Nicely done.
Anne Kanter
Lyle
Dictator Trump
We all, or most, have seen or heard about the countries that had or have the bad or worst dictators from the past to the present. Starting with Stalin, Hitler, Ho Chi Minh, and now the enemy within, Trump.
As a disabled veteran, I have seen what the followers of dictators do. ICE? Trump only loves himself and family. Trump: Civil War II.
The weapons I used in Vietnam are the weapons I use now, both physical and verbal. That also includes Columbia Gorge News. I’ve been writing my letters, the right I have the freedom to do, before Trump and his army of ICE agents takes our rights away. That’s what you would call Civil War II.
Steve Cochenour
The Dalles
Pool strengthens area’s livability
Did you know that a person’s community can have a major impact on their health and wellbeing? It’s well known that “Place Matters.” Where we live, work and play will have a direct impact on how healthy we are.
From a Public Health perspective, Klickitat County 2024 Healthy Youth Survey results offer us a window into how our kids compare to their state peers. One example of recent data results shows that our eighth and 10th grade students indicate a lower neighborhood connection as well as being less active than peers across the state. These indicators may not seem earth shattering, but could be one of the issues that limit the future health and success of kids today.
The White Salmon Valley Pool project is one of the projects that will improve the livability of our area. The benefits are many: Swimming lessons, fun activities for all, water aerobics classes, jobs, community connection and so many others.
Healthy People 2030 focus on ways organizations, businesses, schools, and residents can help build healthier communities. Increasing access to physical activity and community connection are some that are listed. We can all jump in and help build the pool. All donations matter, big and small alike.
We all play an important role in helping children and adolescents stay healthy. Join us and donate today! Check it out at www.whitesalmonvalleypool.org.
Jane Palmer
White Salmon
Sound of silence
We bomb Nigeria and, according to several news sources, the president says, “Hit them on Christmas Day. It will be a Christmas present.” That’s a heck of a way to honor the birth of the Prince of Peace. Where is the public outcry from the church?
Janet Holen
White Salmon
‘Walks like a duck’ rule
I just received the recent Klickitat PUD newsletter. On the front cover is a picture of the employees. Nice bunch, I’m thinking. Hard-working, competent, customer-service-oriented, decently paid. Grid well-maintained, thoughtful and sensible plans about where the PUD goes from here.
And I vote for the board. Very cool. Over the years, I have realized how very much this connects to the above.
This would be compared to California, where electrical utilities are run more for the benefit of a few super-rich people, not everyone else. The result is poor service, poor grid development and maintenance, and more catastrophic fires. A great strength of our country is the relative autonomy and initiative of our businesses. Rah rah! But there is a point where a super-corporation gets so big that it is government in effect, I think.
So here’s my question. Why don’t I get to vote for the boards of the super-corporations, too many of which presently are run by people more concerned about their yacht payments than about people?
We could call it the “Walks Like A Duck Rule.” If a super-corporation is so big that it is government in effect, then it is government. Totalitarian government, frankly. I’d say let’s vote for the boards of the top 200 or so super-corporations and banks. This would help solve a whole lot of problems, in particular the excessive concentration of wealth, which is tearing our country apart. Presently the super-rich are hogging all the dough, while the rest of us get more and more angry and resentful about it.
History shows, over and over and over, that eventually we hunt down the super-rich as they hide desperately in damp culverts, Russia in the early 20th century being an example. But I’d prefer to avoid that.
Commented