Your Voice: Nov. 4, 2026

I treasure our independent newspaper.

Joy Ingalls

Hood River

New venue

Greetings to music and dog lovers. For the past 16 years, I have held an annual event that has become known as “The Dog concert.”

For 13 years, the concert was held in December, and for the last three years, it was the “Howl-O-Ween” concert to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve. This year, the concert will be held on Dec. 19. The venue has changed, as I was fired from my job as a musician at Riverside Community Church; thus, the space there is no longer available. Valley Christian Church is our new location, and I’m very excited to see you all there to celebrate our love of music, dogs and the beginning of the holiday season. The concert will be held at 5 p.m., and more information will come your way in a couple of weeks. Thank you for supporting the concert and its beneficiary, the Rogue Detection Team. Remember to bring your four legged friend(s)!

Diana Beterbide

Hood River

Literacy matters

The ability to read and write shapes a person’s career and life. Literacy provides an individual with the foundation needed for full participation in a democratic society. Reading proficiency — the ability to decode the words on the page fluently enough to also think critically about the contents — is required to navigate through many aspects of modern life and enables us to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, national data indicates that only 40% of adults have strong reading and comprehension skills, while 28% of adults have difficulty with the reading required to complete everyday tasks. Literacy matters, so we must all do what we can to ensure that children and youth gain the skills needed to read proficiently.

Practice leads to proficiency. A child who has regular access to a variety of books has more opportunities to practice reading skills and to find books of interest that inspire a love of reading. We champion literacy when we take opportunities to read to and with the children and youth in our lives. We promote literacy by supporting and visiting our community and school libraries and by participating in SMART or other reading programs in public schools. And, we can support service organizations and programs that provide children and youth with books to keep as their own. Books for Kids Columbia Gorge, booksforkidscg.org, is a local non-profit that does just that in Hood River, Wasco, Klickitat and Skamania counties. Funds raised are distributed as book awards that teachers can use to purchase books that fit the skill level and interests of their students. These books provide a resource for curriculum activities and family literacy events before becoming the property of students and their families. Please consider donating to Books for Kids Columbia Gorge, or finding other ways to support literacy development at home and in our communities.

Karen Stafford

Lyle

‘The new dams’

While the dams gave us extraordinary progress, they also caused irreparable harm. The dams on our Columbia River cost us the decimation of Celilo Falls and an altered ecosystem for fish. We are still studying the impact and have spent millions of dollars amending these actions. We  have since written laws to help remedy some of these costs to our ecosystem. However, the current administration sees these laws as obstacles. President Trump defunded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which promoted the study of the environment. He also terminated the Endangered Species Act and defunded the National Weather Service.

There is a reason for oversight and laws. We need a healthy river. We could be headed to a situation like the Colorado River, with decades of water disputes affecting millions and the water gone.

I say no to underwater power lines and to data centers. We must stop this pressing instinct to build, to destroy and to move faster without consideration of our precious resources. The Cascade Renewable Transmission Project is to place high-voltage direct current power transmission line underneath the Columbia River. This is done by carving a trench 10-15 feet deep into the riverbed from The Dalles to Portland, or for 100 miles.

In September, Columbia River Keeper and the Yakama Nation took the Goldendale Pumped Storage Project to court over the decimation of the Pushpum area in Klickitat. Pushpum is a sacred mountain where native people gather roots and have ceremonies. Specific roots have grown there for thousands of years. The judge ordered that more environmental studies need to be conducted to justify the decimation of the land for a water storage facility.

We cannot get these revered places back. Let’s take the time to study the issues and move forward responsibly so that our costs are not extreme and irreconcilable.

Lark Lennox

The Dalles