Bentz’s mindset?
Thank you for your report on Rep. Bentz’s visit to The Dalles Rotary Club (“Bentz promotes Big Beautiful Bill at Rotary meeting,” Columbia Gorge News, Aug. 27).
I was struck by his answer to a constituent’s request not to bend the knee so much to Trump, and to maintain Congress as a co-equal branch of government: “Since there are 221 of us and we have four votes to spare …” he began.
Two hundred and twenty-one? There are 435 voting seats in the House of Representatives. According to pressgallery.house.gov, there are 219 Republicans, 212 Democrats, and four vacancies right now (three of them were held by Democrats who died). Is Bentz openly advertising his mindset that 212 of the people’s duly elected representatives do not count? That they are not part of the body that makes our laws? That like Trump he no longer even tries to find common ground?
Jennifer Ouzounian
Hood River
Another mass shooting
Dear Representative Bentz,
We as a society must do SOMETHING to change a culture that offers unlimited accessibility to weapons in this country and brushes off the deaths of schoolchildren in favor of the gun lobby.
We must do SOMETHING to address the mental health crisis among our population, and especially our young people. Something is terribly wrong when school, church, and shopping center shootings become regular events on the evening news.
Congressman Bentz, you must do SOMETHING. I’m sure the founding fathers in writing the 2nd Amendment never envisioned a nation where our children are deemed expendable while gun activists and our representatives in Congress clear the way for shooting after shooting. We can’t continually throw up our hands and do NOTHING. This country has a history of ingenuity in solving problems; surely intelligent people can come up with a plan that preserves the original intent of the 2nd Amendment, yet also protects innocent people from rampant gun violence.
If we as individuals and as a society and if those we elected to govern us made every decision with the intention of creating the best future for the children of this country, we’d probably get pretty close to always doing the right thing. But when the motivations are money, power, and revenge, everything is just plain WRONG and the next generations will pay the price.
Amy Kaser
The Dalles
The inhumanity of it all
I thought when I heard ICE had arrested all six workers at a carwash, leaving the owner without anyone, I had heard the worst case. And then ICE was arresting people who were showing up at immigration court for their appointments. And then I heard ICE was waiting outside of an elementary school and arrested several fathers who were there to pick up their children. And now, in Washington on the frontline of a fire, ICE has shown up and arrested two firefighters ... who were doing what they are trained to do: protect people’s property and lives.
So much for their only going after the gang members and criminals. This is so much BS. ICE has quotas and they just don’t care what families they destroy. And our illustrious president doesn’t care as well.
I wish we knew how to stop this. It’s totally inhumane.
Gary Rains
Parkdale
See ‘Book of Will’
Everybody knows the name William Shakespeare, that he wrote some of the most famous plays in the English language, and contributed — or at least popularized — words that otherwise would have been lost to time. “To be, or not to be;” “friends, Romans and countrymen, lend me your ears;” and “all the world’s a stage,” are some of the most well known utterances in the history of the language.
But have you ever considered how close we came to losing all the bard’s work, how close he came to being swallowed up and forgotten by history, or of the steps that were taken to preserve the man’s work after his death? This is the subject of Columbia Center for the Art’s production of “The Book of Will,” which followed the creation of the first folio of Shakespeare’s plays. The play is about history, preservation and legacy.
Please support local theater! Book of Will opens Sept. 12. Tickets are online at columbiaarts.org.
Benjamin Sheppard
Hood River
Editor’s Note: Benjamin Sheppard is not affiliated with Sheppard’s Orchard and Vineyard Equipment.
Dictatorship
On Aug. 25, Trump made his first concentrated efforts towards moving to a dictatorship (“Trump’s plan to create Guard units to quell civil unrest alarms experts,” ABC News, Aug. 25). He is doing this, in part, in order to move attention from the Epstein files. His name has to be in those files many times or else they would have been cleared. I think any person who is listed as best friends, as Trump and Epstein were, would have their name in the records.
Notice that all the cities selected by Trump are from Democratic states. This is a continued effort to decrease voting in areas that he has not won. In other words, look for a lot of efforts to limit voting in the next presidential election, if there is another election.
A little check of past Trump statements. He stated, in his campaign against Hilary Clinton, that only dumb people paid taxes. His records showed, at that time, that he had not paid taxes in 18 years. With his “Great Big Bill,” he will get more money because of his tax cuts for the very rich. He has also stated that he thinks that only dumb people are in the military. He evaded the military by claiming bone spurs. These spurs have not affected his actions at any other time. Now, he is in charge of our national military and acts like a dictator by moving soldiers throughout our nation with no congressional approval.
In summation: Allowing a single person the power to move OUR military within our nation in order to enforce his actions will only result in a dictatorship. Do not vote Republican unless Congress stops following the leader.
Leonard Hickman
Hood River
Coup underway
I am trying to learn a little history. I would say that coup attempts such as that underway presently in the United States too often result eventually in various military and other armed groups coming down on one side or other. Then too often they commence to killing each other, with civilians caught in the crossfire.
In our current situation, we need courageous public figures who will call upon members of the National Guard, the military and other armed government employees and contractors to decide if they intend to uphold their oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, which must include their responsibility to disobey illegal orders. Or if they support the interests of a narcissistic dictator thug and his servants.
I’ll guess this dividing into opposed groups will come down to those, on one hand, who think it is OK to do enforcement while unidentified and wearing masks, as in Nazi Germany. And on the other hand, the vast majorities in the National Guard, the military, and other armed government employees and contractors who think most definitely this is not a good idea.
Jerrold Richards
Lyle
Crime
When I got in the car this morning (Aug. 27), the first thing I heard on the radio was news of a mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. Two dead, 17 wounded, hundreds traumatized. The image of kindergartners shepherded to safety by their teacher especially hurt me as a retired educator. There was a time I felt we could tell children that school was a safe place. That’s so clearly untrue.
In the face of brutal violence and murders like this, it’s especially galling that Trump is sending national forces into cities whose crime rate has fallen to the lowest level in 30 years. Instead of inventing reasons to invade our cities with troops, perhaps our president could focus on actual solutions to this crippling issue that plays itself out every week in our country.
I wish fervently that Trump were more concerned about the actual wellbeing of children and all citizens rather than creating theatrics to attempt to boost low polling numbers.
Shannon Perry
Hood River
Spokane-Nine
As we recently honored John Lewis with nationwide rallies/protests on the fifth anniversary of his death July 17, and local rallies/protests July 18, we have nine good examples of the “Good Trouble” he advocated — that is, nine Spokanites part of the June 11 protest at Spokane’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office who were charged on July 15 for their acts of non-violent civil disobedience that was the story of John Lewis’s life.
Will the actions of the “Spokane-Nine” become the national model for what’s necessary to stop President Donald Trump’s extremely cruel, hateful, and racist deportation agenda?
Such selfless, dedicated action as non-violent civil disobedience, possibly leading to jail time, may be necessary because this horrible Trump deportation agenda is illegal (lacking due process); loyally supported by most congressional Republicans, particularly Washington state’s Republican U.S. “Representatives” Michael Baumgartner and Dan Newhouse; very costly (e.g., $170.7 billion added by the misnomer “One Big Beautiful Bill” for deportation purposes); and brutally executed by Trump’s masked secret police force (ICE).
Norm Luther
Spokane
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