Your voice: Oct. 29, 2025

I spoke with dozens of attendees, and their patriotism was not performative — it was deeply felt, quietly resolute, and unmistakably sincere. Their reverence for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the dignity of their fellow citizens compelled them to leave behind weekend routines and recreational comforts to stand together in defense of our First Amendment rights — rights that feel increasingly imperiled.

The crowd was a living mosaic of America: elders in wheelchairs, toddlers in strollers, teenagers in sloganed shirts, and adults in whimsical hats and fun costumes. They came from every walk of life — teachers, veterans, nurses, clerks, government workers, children, and yes, even dogs. They sang, they laughed, they waved at honking cars whose drivers offered cheers of solidarity. The atmosphere was one of joyful resistance and shared purpose.

I am deeply proud of our community — of its courage, its grace, and its unwavering commitment to peaceful protest. On that day, democracy didn’t just endure — it danced in the streets.

Kathy Clark

The Dalles

Good job

I’m just writing to say how much I appreciate seeing Martin Gibson’s articles in the paper. They provide a critical perspective on nature that is often missing in the broader understanding of where we live and with whom. Bioregional realities matter. Keep on publishing!

Elona Trogub

Hood River

Letters

Mike Goodpaster asked “Do Hood ‘Riveranians’ accept conservative letters to the editor?” (Your Voice, Oct. 15). Columbia Gorge News responded that letters on all topics are accepted. I hope this will encourage conservatives to submit letters because I am interested in what they have to say.

Janet Holen

White Salmon

Filibuster

And now for a brief respite from the “Trump is worse than Hitler and is destroying Democracy!” letters.

The “Filibuster Rule” requires 60 votes to pass legislation in the Senate. All but one Republican voted to keep the government open. All but three Democrats voted to shut it down. The budget they are voting on was previously approved by Democrats (“Blackburn: Democrats voting against previously supported funding,” WBBJ 7, Oct. 22).

They now demand $1.5 trillion in additional deficit spending, most to make the temporary COVID era “Affordable” Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies permanent (“‘This is on them’: As shutdown continues, Oregon members of Congress point fingers over health care,” Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oct. 20). To quote Democratic Senator John Fetterman: “It’s a sad day for our nation … I would like to have a conversation about extending tax credits for healthcare, but my vote was for our country over my party. I would remind everybody this was designed by the Democratic Party to expire at the end of the year. They were not something taken away by Republicans.”

He is referring to the fact Democrats deliberately set up the ACA subsidies with a “drop dead” date to limit the cost estimate by the CBO and to provide a campaign issue for the 2026 midterms (“How Affordable Care Act subsidies became a sticking point in the government shutdown,” ABC News, Oct. 11). Schumer has said, “This gets better for us every day it continues.” Republicans are NOT responsible for this shutdown.

You may now resume reading (or skipping past) the “Trump is worse than Hitler and is destroying Democracy!” letters, editorials and “news” articles. Stay strong.

Steve Hudson

The Dalles

Fiscal responsibility

So there’s no money for health care, but the government bought two private jets for $172 million for the use of Kristi Noem and other top Dept of Homeland Security officials. (New York Times, 10/19/25) Add to this to the expense of nighttime helicopter flights to monitor costumed protestors at the Portland ICE building. Fiscal responsibility?

Marilyn Wall

Hood River

Ebike safety

I would like to thank the Hood River Police for educating youth and parents that, in order to operate an electric bike, one needs to be 16 years old. All of us car drivers know how essential it is to know and to follow the “rules of the road” in order to be safe and not get hurt in an accident. We all know that practice and experience helps keep us safe. We also know that kids do not always choose safety first. Thank you for helping to keep our kids safe!

Nancy Johanson Paul

Hood River

Firearm safety

I would like to thank Lynne Allen for her letter in “Your Voice” on Oct. 15, bringing awareness to the importance of firearm safety. The Dalles Rifle and Pistol Club (TDRPC) has been in The Dalles since 1937 with the objective of encouraging organized rifle and pistol shooting among the citizens of the Columbia Gorge area, emphasizing safe firearm handling. TDRPC has worked with The Dalles Senior Center since 1986. With the help of Walt Erikson and TDRPC, the senior center was able to put a basement in their building, and we have held classes on firearm safety there ever since.

TDRPC has also worked with Columbia Gorge Community College (CGCC) to offer courses on firearm safety so that you can safely handle and store firearms in your home. The following classes are currently available at CGCC quarterly:

• NRA Home Firearm Safety Class (a non-shooting class)

• NRA Pistol Safety Course

• NRA Basics of Rifle Shooting

To register for upcoming classes, go to cgcc.edu. For more information, please call Tim Sipe, 541-993-8777; or Kevin MacIntyre, 541-993-1081; or see tdrpc.org for more information about the club and its upcoming classes.

Timothy Sipe

 The Dalles

Open corruption

The race towards authoritarianism and a depressing lack of pushback from Republican leaders is wrecking our country. Corruption runs deep.

Symbolic of this rank corruption lies in ruin. “The People’s House,” the East Wing of the White House, was suddenly demolished without approval or consultation with the National Capital Planning Commission or the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The kick to our collective gut is that the planned 90,000-square- foot gilded ballroom will be funded by billionaire donors, a list that includes Apple, Amazon, and Meta Platforms, effectively buying access to the president (Rebecca Schneid, Connor Greene, “Who is paying for Trump’s 250-million-dollar ballroom — and what they might get in return,” Time, Oct. 23, 2025).

The Department of Justice seeks to destroy Trump’s political enemies. Attorney General Pam Bondi is a Trump loyalist who represented him during his first impeachment trial. Trump publicly demanded that Bondi go after former FBI director James Comey, Attorney General of New York Letitia James, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

They are now indicted. There will be more.

Finally, Trump demands the Justice Department pay him $230 million dollars in compensation for past federal investigations. It will likely be approved. When asked if Mr. Blanche, current Deputy Attorney General and Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, and Mr. Woodward, chief of the department’s civil division who represented Trump aides, would recuse themselves from a decision, the response from a DOJ spokesperson was, “In any circumstance, all officials at the DOJ follow the guidance of career ethics officials.”

In July, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the agency’s top ethics advisor, giving Trump loyalists free reign to do as they choose (Devlin Barrett, Tyler Pager, “Trump said to demand Justice Department Pay him 230 million dollars for past cases,” New York Times, Oct. 21, 2025).

Channel your outrage by calling your representatives and demanding that they use their powers to end the blatant corruption infecting our government.

April George

White Salmon

Trump dump

The president is an enthusiastic user of fake imagery, posting flattering images of himself as a Jedi knight, a lion tamer, a king, and the pope. During the No Kings protest, he posted an AI-generated video in which he pilots a fighter jet that discharges excrement on protesters.

The video may have been intended to mock, but it unwittingly provided a very apt symbol of this president’s treatment of the American public. He is dumping on all of us.

The administration has cut $5.5 billion in funding for research by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. The cuts threaten our health and quality of life as well as America’s role as a leader in science, technology, and innovation.

The Department of Energy has cut more than $8 billion for clean energy and battery manufacturing projects. These are some of the most readily available, inexpensive options for energy generation and storage and the cuts will surely lead to higher energy costs for everyone.

There have been substantial layoffs and funding cuts to other federal agencies and programs that will affect services and resources we all value as well.

The One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB) will cut almost $1.2 trillion in Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP benefits over the next 10 years. The cuts will primarily affect lower-income families, children, and people with disabilities. The bill’s supporters, concerned about political blowback, cynically delayed many of the cuts until after the 2026 midterms or the 2028 presidential election.

Meanwhile, the OBBB gives ICE $75 billion for detention and deportation efforts and Homeland Security $50 billion for border wall construction. The expanded tax cuts in the OBBB mostly benefit corporations and the wealthiest Americans while adding $3.4 trillion to our national debt. And Trump, through cryptocurrency deals, extortionist lawsuits, and his hawking of bibles, gold watches, and memecoins, has seen his net worth increase by $3 billion in the first year of his presidency, according to Forbes magazine.

In response to our fighter-pilot King and his excrement-dropping jet — let’s counter with a royal flush.

Tim Mayer

Hood River