Your voice: Letters to the editor

Short end of paper?
Combining our newspapers is a very sad situation, but I do appreciate the fact that we are all having to deal with financial issues in this time of COVID-19. I am wondering if we, Wasco County, will get the short end of the paper with little news for us. Just looking at the editorial page is enough to question this array of affairs.
I supported the walk out of our Republicans from the state legislature. They were trying to allow the citizens of Oregon to vote on the Cap and Trade Bill. Governor Brown has decided she is doing it her way and has done an Executive Order. Is this legal? I highly doubt it. Now, when we are in a crisis mode, she is going to raise our taxes through the Cap and Trade as soon as it is enacted.
It is time for the Republican Party to take back the Senate and the House, so we do not have Governor Brown dictating to Oregon.
Darlien France
Dufur

Swift for Wasco County
We are all feeling the impact of the Coronavirus crisis. This is one of the most profound events of our lifetime. As I am writing this on April 5, 27 Oregonians have died and more than 1,000 have tested positive. Across the nation, more than 9,600 have died and more than 330,000 have tested positive. And by the time you are reading this it will be much worse.
Now, more than ever we need to support and invest in our public health department in order to protect Wasco County’s seniors, children, and people with preexisting health challenges.
That is why it is so disturbing that Steve Kramer, in his role as a Wasco County Commissioner, has reduced funding to the North Central Public Health District over the past several years resulting in layoffs and struggles at the district. Despite the threat of public health emergencies, Mr. Kramer even tried to withdraw Wasco County from the public health district entirely, which would have left our citizens without any frontline public health defense against outbreaks or natural disasters. His attempt to leave the district — without any public hearing — resulted in a massive lawsuit which cost us taxpayers over $125,000 in legal fees alone.
We need to protect our citizens from current and future health crises and reject Mr. Kramer’s misguided, wasteful, closed-door attacks on our public health system.
We need new, transparent leadership on the Wasco County Commission to stand up and fight to keep our community safe and healthy. That’s why I will be voting for Marcus Swift for Wasco County Commissioner in the May Primary Election.
Please join me in supporting someone who will support us!
Deborah Ferrer
The Dalles

Not with Thomsen
I DO NOT stand with Chuck Thomsen. You swore an oath upon accepting your office. On the Secretary of State’s website is a signed facsimile of your official oath. I quote:
“I, Chuck Thomsen, do solemnly swear, or affirm, that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Oregon, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of Oregon State Senator according to the best of my ability.”
I read through that several times, and I don’t see any reference to “...only work on issues I support” or “... unless I don’t want to.” Based on your behavior in the last legislative session, I can only assume one of two things — either you are unable to discharge your duties as your oath requires, or you lied.
Regardless of which is true, the only honorable action open to you is to resign. Give up your seat to someone who will do the job.
Tony Sims
Hood River
Thomsen faces consequences
It’s ironic to me, to see the yard signs that say, “I stand with Chuck Thomsen.” To be accurate those signs should say, “I’d run away with Chuck Thomsen.” And does he really “represent us,” as other signs read. In the 2018 election, he “won” by the slimmest of margins, 209 votes out of almost 60,000 cast. I guess the 26,263 of us who voted for Chrissy Reitz don’t get his ear.
I’m sure Mr. Thomsen is a great guy, loves his family and is community-minded. But that doesn’t give him the right to subvert the will of the entire state of Oregon who voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. As the Trump supporters repeatedly say, “Elections have consequences.”
Guy Tauscher
Hood River
Thanks to the News
I’m writing to express my deep appreciation and strong support of the Hood River News and its staff. I hope that all of us who value the paper will bolster the efforts of publisher and new owner Chelsea Marr to keep it going.
I moved to Hood River from Vancouver, Wash., only a year and half ago. The Hood River News has been an invaluable resource for helping me learn about my new community. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine living here without the flow of information provided by the local paper.
This community, and the world at large, has entered what may be a prolonged period of hardship unlike anything that most of us have experienced. As the crisis of COVID-19 continues to unfold, the immeasurable value of professional journalism and informed reporting becomes clearer with each passing day. Where would the world be right now if the only information we could access was self-serving blather that gushes from special-interest websites and infotainment broadcasts? Where would New York City be without the first-class reporting of the Times? What would become of Hood River without the News to inform us?
Richard Iverson
Hood River
Subscribe now
I’m really glad I can write this letter to the editor. Unlike many people in small (and even large) communities in this country, we still have local newspapers to write to.
In my earlier years, I was a reporter for small town newspapers. I learned firsthand how important it is for the papers to be able to rely on the stable cash flow that comes from paid subscriptions and advertising. I was also lucky to surround myself with reporters who were passionate about getting the story right (and upset when they didn’t). They worked long hours and sometimes took heat from unhappy readers, with no illusions their career would ever make them rich.
But reporters’ stories are ingredients in the glue that holds communities together. It’s harder to stay in your own bubble and perceive someone else as simply the “other” when you discover that Joe Blow or Jane Doe, who holds far different political views from your own, is also the person who regularly volunteers to help others, or is the fantastic actor in a local play, or is a humble community philanthropist. You usually don’t get that information in the rantings and ravings of social media. You get it from your local newspaper.
And in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic the need to receive vital community information to keep us safe and healthy is, of course, the most glaring and recent example of the crucial role our small town newspapers play.
So I encourage any of you reading this who haven’t subscribed to your local paper to do so now — to make sure you keep it.
Tracie Hornung
Parkdale
Behind the masks
Is anyone in charge in this country at all?
Forbes Magazine reports that on a single recent day alone close to 300 million N95 mask that were in long-term storage in US warehouses were sold to foreign buyers for export. These masks were badly needed in our own hospitals and by our own citizens yet the Trump-Kushner team allowed them to be sold and exported, along with hundreds of millions of additional masks that were sold on other days. The Trump-Kushner team is obviously putting American last and may well be getting unbelievable financial gains for this. Even if they are getting only 10-cents a mask by allowing these sales and shipments, they may have made several hundred million dollars since the start of the epidemic, a dollar a mask would have put their reapings into the billions.
All the while Trump is coming down on 3M for not making enough of the very same masks that the Trump-Kushner team is allowing to be exported in massive quantities.
Hood River’s own Greg Walden recently sent out an email bragging about all he and the Republicans were doing to fight this pandemic, including sourcing additional mask, but there was not a word in his email on why since the pandemic has started the Trump-Kushner team have allowed billions of masks to be exported.
Greg, do you support the foreign sale of these masks? If not why is this still going on? As someone close to the President are your hands deep in some pocket as well? As I said in my first sentence, “Is anyone in charge in this country at all?”
Jim Denton
Odell
Thank grocery workers
There are people in our community that should be recognized:
When you go out to the grocery store or retail store for needed supplies, don’t forget to tell your cashier and bagger thank you. Just like our wonderful medical personnel, these people increase their chance of exposure to coronavirus every day they go to work and they don’t have personal protective equipment like most of the medical employees. These people make it possible for us to buy food and other needed supplies during this difficult time.
Leslie Morgan
Hood River
Compliance critical
I have a grave concern about how the Stay at Home policy is being enforced in our local community. Currently, most small businesses in our town are closed under this policy. Obviously there is great concern that this closure could have a devastating effect on many of these small, locally owned businesses. I totally understand that these harsh measures are necessary to help stop the spread of this virus.
My issue is that it appears that our local big retailer, Wal-Mart, is being allowed to continue operating under a whole different set of rules, actually a complete lack of rules. A drive through downtown Hood River reveals what could best be described as a ghost town. A drive by Wal-Mart reveals a parking lot full of cars and a parade of people buying anything from groceries to flowers. While Wal-Mart does sell essential items such as groceries and pharmaceuticals, I fail to see how they are allowed to stock all the non-essential things, such as flowers, garden supplies, toys, TVs, etc., that other businesses have been told they can’t sell at this time. This is creating a completely unfair business environment where our small businesses are potentially being driven out of business while the big box store will likely have their best month ever because they are the only deal in town. It also is creating a coronavirus breeding ground by allowing Wal-Mart to cram as many people as they want into their store.
I walked through the store yesterday just to observe what their COVID-19 practices looked like and as far as I could see it amounted to a few signs on the floor. I didn’t see anyone cleaning carts, check stands, doors. What I did see was a lot of people in a confined space breaking every rule that the CDC says is critical in preventing the spread of this disease. This is completely irresponsible on Wal-Mart’s part and needs to stop.
Please make Wal-Mart conform to the same rules we are requiring our small, local businesses to adhere to.
Robert Wymore
Hood River
COVID and co-version
Why are there no COVID-19 tests being done? We’re told there are no nasal swabs, but do you believe we can’t build nasal swabs as quickly as ear swabs or toothpicks? Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are preparing to send out swabs and do tests in at least the Puget Sound area, but our federal government can’t do the same? I’d like to see the inventory lists from our national stockpiles for PPE’s, ventilators, working or not; yes, your government has nonworking vents in it’s inventory, also inventories of test kits. I’d like to see them from at least FEMA, DHS, the DOD, and any other federal stockpiles. Are we allowing sales of equipment from U.S. companies to overseas entities forcing our states to compete with other governments? By the way, there are multiple government labs capable of interpreting tests. Fort Detrick builds and sold designer weaponized chemicals, viruses and bacterial weapons, even to Sadam years back. A book could be written on bio weapons that were being researched there, think Ebola, anthrax and smallpox for starters.
The U.S. Roosevelt has 90 sick sailors, (Covid) on board and the captain, who acted as a whistle-blower, might be punished for pointing it out. If COVID-19 gets into our fleets, we will loose a huge portion of our naval abilities. On our nuclear subs, crews hot bunk, a bunk is used by three different sailors, each getting a share of the 24 available hours, the spread of the virus into our fleets would be devastating for naval response. At the same time, the president is sending Coast Guard cutters and possibly naval ships to interdict drugs in the Caribbean, putting those sailors and our coasts at risk.
Why isn’t our county health department more forthcoming about where two victims of the virus reside in our county? Are they trying to protect the two at the expense of the other 25,000? And why did I get the run around from Cascade Locks government in regard to the same? The victims of this virus need to be assured that they will get their meds and food while under quarantine, but the rest of us need to be able to protect ourselves. We also need to be able to at least trust our local officials since we’re getting near zero help from the feds.
Rob Brostoff
Cascade Locks