Your Voice: Nov. 5, 2025

Thank you to Jamie Hanshaw, director of Providence Senior Village, for her expertise and equipment to help us pull it off without a hitch. Thank you to all of the courageous participants who took the time “to walk in another person’s shoes.” And special gratitude to the many volunteers who helped create the profoundly moving experience of the Virtual Dementia Tour in The Dalles. There are plans to repeat it in March in Hood River.

Please watch for it and participate as you are able.

Colleen Ballinger

Wasco County Dementia Friendly Steering Committee

Disingenuous

Christine Drazan recently announced her candidacy for governor of the State of Oregon, just one week after being appointed to the Oregon State Senate seat held by Daniel Bonham. When asked a question as to a possible interest in running a statewide campaign, Ms. Drazan ignored the request and focused her response on how she would work hard to represent the constituents in her district.

Ms. Drazan’s announcement reflects a disingenuous maneuver to financially benefit her campaign for governor. As a state senator, she can engage in fundraising activities during the next legislative session. Contrary to her stated intent, Ms. Drazan will be focused upon her gubernatorial campaign, and not on representing the residents in her district.

Ms. Drazan’s extremist views and agenda have been previously rejected, and the voters in Oregon should reject her second attempt to achieve her extremist agenda.

Gene Parker

Chair, Wasco County Democratic Party

Entitled

Well, it seems that we now have our very own version of Marie Antoinette. He squats in the oval office brandishing golden pictures of his $300 million ballroom while he ignores hungry American children. He can apparently raise and personally provide millions of dollars for self-glorification, but if you’re struggling to feed your family with soaring grocery prices and possibly even no job (approximately 300,000 federal workers have been put out of work thanks to Trump) you can go fly a kite. He is the most entitled, privileged Karen of all. And the Republican Party and Supreme Court are in lockstep behind him.

Kathleen Evinger

Hood River

Bentz failing

Congressman Cliff Bentz and the GOP have attempted to extort Democrats with a political Sophie’s Choice: “Give up affordable healthcare for millions of Americans or we’ll take food assistance away from millions of Americans.”

This inhumane, and probably illegal, suspension of benefits, though commanded by Trump, has the fingerprints of Stephen Miller all over it. The cruelty is the point.

And Bentz is going along with it.

According to the USDA, the government spends about $8 billion per month on SNAP benefits for low-income people throughout the U.S. If you think America can’t afford that bill, consider how readily the Trump Administration gave $40 billion to bail out Argentina’s floundering economy just two weeks ago. Coincidentally (or not), this bailout greatly benefits friends of the president and his treasury secretary, uber-wealthy fund managers who are major holders of Argentine debts.

And Bentz is going along with it.

While thousands of his constituents are working without paychecks or losing their jobs during this unnecessary Trump shutdown, Bentz has enjoyed an extra month-long paid vacation. Why? So Speaker Mike Johnson can continue to avoid swearing in duly elected Arizona Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva and prevent her from casting the deciding vote to release the Epstein files.

And Bentz is going along with it.

Fed up with Bentz’s failures? You can do two important things this week:

First, call Bentz’s office (202-225-6730) and tell him to stop going along with Trump’s inhumane, illegal, and self-serving actions.

Second, come and meet the four Democratic candidates who have filed to run for Bentz’s seat in 2026. On Sunday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. at the Mid-Columbia Senior Center, Wasco County Democrats are hosting a meet and greet for Dawn Rasmussen, Patty Snow, Rebecca Mueller, and Mary Doyle. We don’t need to put up with Bentz for another term. We deserve better. Show up and show your support for these candidates who, unlike Bentz, aren’t afraid to answer your questions and listen to your concerns.

Debi Ferrer

The Dalles

Blurring facts

“We Are Immigrants-Somos Immigrantes.” I see that sign and have to scratch my head, wondering, are all those putting up that sign immigrants from a foreign country?

The Oct. 15 Columbia Gorge News article statement “that we are all immigrants with the exception of Native Americans” is inaccurate. An immigrant, according to the dictionary, “is a foreigner who enters a country to settle there.” I am not an immigrant; I was born here. My children are not immigrants. My wife is a foreigner, a legal resident and an immigrant.

My grandparents were immigrants. All of us, including the Native Americans, have immigrant history, just depends how far back one chooses to look. DNA studies link Native Americans to Asia back to the last Ice Age. Now one could argue that since countries did not exist at that time, that does not count. I am OK with that; however. tribes and tribal territory existed, should that count?

I understand the intent, support for the immigrant community, but let’s be clear on what you are claiming when you are tugging the emotional strings and blurring the facts to make your point.

Steve Nybroten

White Salmon

Help the poor

In 1972 as a young professor, I began to note the first stage of failure of post World War II economic fairness and the growing wealth gap between rich and poor. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Republican Big, Beautiful Bill plunges the poorest 50% of Americans deeper into poverty while both accelerating the concentration of wealth at the top and increasing our national debt.

If instead you properly tax the rich to erase the debt while supporting the poor, the tax on the rich is so small that their lifestyle and investment opportunities would be unaffected. Money spent to help the poor, a practice considered heinous in the U.S., has proven to be very cost effective in other western countries, producing increased wealth for all. If you help, rather than cripple, the poor, they will spend it all on surviving and the able-bodied poor also become more economically productive. Their spending on food, housing, healthcare, and education will generate increased economic opportunity for small business, decrease health care costs because of better preventive care, and produce large savings from decreased crime and violence. A better educated population will increase our global competitiveness.

Government service from public servants is both cheaper and more effective than having those services provided by contractors. Indeed, a core problem today is that in the name of economy, for-profit contractors now deliver many government and education services (at inflated cost). Do you care about providing employment opportunities in rural areas? If so, you should be supporting intelligent development of solar and wind power. Environmental protection is also very cost effective. You should care about education — both of our future scientists and engineers and our mechanics and builders. What will happen if a destructive event strikes your community now that we have cut preparedness funding? Like, Jesus, you should care for other humans regardless of skin color, sex, or sexual orientation. You should protect the plants and the animals that make our lives both possible and beautiful. Having dominion over the earth does not mean domination. Jesus also spoke out against corruption. Now it is our time to do so.

Michael Beug

White Salmon

Stand up

Thanks for the wonderful article in the Spokesman Review Monday, Oct. 27, about Lupe and Rosa Reyna. This is an immigrant couple with roots south of our border who have worked hard for years, trying to improve their lives here in the United States. They are among the millions who have been inspired by the Constitution and Bill of Rights that form our standards from years ago. They are also similar to others whom President Trump is ordering ICE to pick up and deport. We were told “only criminals” would be sent back to their countries of origin, but we are hearing all the time of innocent, hard-working people being picked up and separated from loved ones without due process.

We need Reps. Michael Baumgartner and Dan Newhouse to stand up against this violation of human rights and our U.S. laws. Where are their voices? And why don’t they gather other U.S. House representatives to stop this horror?

Roz Luther

Spokane

Former Gorge resident

‘Felonies’

Building the Coward and Thief (C & T) Memorial Ball Room is either misappropriation of federal funds, extortion, accepting bribery, or both extortion and bribery. All are felonies. What would you expect from a felon?

Article 1, section 9, [7] is: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law …”

Congress has appropriated no money for the modification to the White House. If razing and construction is with federal money, it is misappropriation with penalties of 10 years in prison, fines, and reimbursement.

People can donate money to the U. S. government, and it all goes into the U. S. Treasury. The Rockefellers have donated huge sums to national parks, including the Great Smokey Mountains, Tetons, Acadia, Shenandoah, and others. Congressional acts accepted these gifts with legislation into the treasury.

The C & T hosted as many tech executives as could fit into the State Dining Room on Sept. 5 while they nauseatingly paid homage (“Big Tech elite lavish praise on Trump at White House dinner,” Axios, Sept. 4). On Oct. 25, he hosted 37 CEOs specifically donating money to the C & T Memorial Ball Room (“Meet all 37 White House ballroom donors funding the $300 million build, including Silicon Valley tech giants, crypto bros and the Lutnicks,” Fortune, Oct. 26). He has settled frivolous lawsuits to obtain huge graft with ABC, CBS, Washington Post, and others. All these monies outside the Treasury! He brags about the audacious and fallacious transparency. It will take a bevy of legal scholars to distinguish the extortion from the bribes.

This supplants Congress and destroys the constitutional checks and balances. This bypasses the Federal Procurement Policy Act. Where is the request for bids posted on SAM.gov? Does this monstrosity conform to the International Building Code (IBC)? Are all the materials made in USA? This combination of laying waste to the physical plant and the constitutional structure of our country is a horrific nightmare.

This consortium could build a tram from Llao Rock to Wizard Island. After all, such a contraption would offer a unique view of Crater Lake. It would raise enough revenue to pay for the U. S. Park Service management of the park. Why not knock down the Washington Monument and replace it with a 1,000-foot Trump Tower?

Terry Armentrout

The Dalles

Republican choice

In the Oct. 29 “Filibuster” letter, the writer states, “The budget they are voting on was previously approved by Democrats … Democrats deliberately set up the ACA subsidies with a ‘drop dead’ date to limit the cost estimate by the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) and to provide a campaign issue for the 2026 midterms … Republicans are not responsible for this shutdown.”

Contrary to this letter, The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act was opposed by Democrats because it added nearly $3 trillion (CBO estimate) to the national debt. The bill avoided the 60-vote Senate filibuster rule by Republican use of a budget reconciliation process that only required a simple majority to pass. To avoid a government shutdown in July, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer added his vote on July 1, 2025, creating a 50-50 tie that was broken by Vice President JD Vance. The Republican bill permanently extended the budget-busting tax cuts for corporations and the rich, a tax cut passed in 2017 during Trump’s first term and set to expire at the end of 2025.

The drop-dead date was to conceal the budget-busting effects of the massive tax cut for the rich. Republicans chose the much more expensive route of extending the massive tax cuts for the rich while opposing any form of affordable care for our citizens at the low end of the economic scale. It was a Republican choice, and they did not make a single compromise in ramming through Trump’s bill. This is not government. It is dictatorship.

Ann Beug

Husum