Established
in 1937
Letters to the Editor
(Editor's Note: Views and commentary, including statements made as fact, are strictly those of the letter-writers.)
* * *
Typed, double-spaced letters written solely to this newspaper
are considered for publication. Hand-written letters that are
double-spaced and legible also can be considered.
Cards of thanks are not accepted as letters.
* * *‘Goodbye to my SOFCU friends & family’
From Vicki Gill
Cave JunctionI will be taking a job with First American Title Co. Monday, Oct. 17 after eight years with SOFCU Community Credit Union.
I want to say goodbye to all the members I may not have personally gotten to talk to prior to my leaving. I will miss all of you.
One of the hardest things about moving on is leaving all of you that I have helped and personally gotten to know through the years.
I feel as though I’m leaving home for the first time. I have grown with SOFCU, being only 29 when I started working there.
I want everyone to know that they will be in good hands. You might see some new faces, but everyone is there to help you and provide the best customer service they can. SOFCU has been a great place to work, and I have enjoyed working there.
Also, I want to thank my staff for being such a fun team to work with. You are all great, and I will truly miss you.
Hopefully you will still invite me to some of those awesome potlucks. I will miss Lisa’s crock-pot enchiladas and chocolate cake, and Laree’s homemade cheesecakes. They’re the best.
Take care, goodbye, and God bless.
(Editor’s Note: A fee was paid for the preceding.)
About DeFazio
From Ted Fitzgerald
BrookingsPeter DeFazio is no friend of the Oregon farmer and rancher.
DeFazio claims he voted against reforming the ESA because he didn’t want to have to pay farmers and ranchers too much when the federal government puts them out of business. How much is too much?
The ESA hasn’t saved anything to far -- it has only denied hard-working Americans the right to make a living on their land. It’s shameful that our representative works so hard to destroy our local economy.
Helping artists
From Mark Rehmar
O’BrienSeveral Illinois Valley galleries and shops are cooperating in an effort to raise funds to assist artists and craftpersons affected by Hurricane “Katrina.”
The area devastated by the hurricane is an area that, much like Southern Oregon, is home to numerous craft artists. While no specific information is yet available on losses, undoubtedly many artists suffered severe damage, if not total loss, of their homes and studios.
Fortunately, there exists an organization which specifically addresses the needs of craft artists who have suffered such losses. The Craft Emergency Relief Fund, or CERF, was formed several years ago, and offers grants and interest-free loans to help artists bridge the period in which they re-establish themselves.
When catastrophe strikes, craft artists often find themselves lacking the assistance others may receive. Being self-employed, they cannot receive unemployment. Furthermore, they are not looking for employment, only to be able to rebuild the space and equipment needed to resume their career.
Coming just when most craftspeople are beginning to produce for the holiday season, the timing of “Katrina” makes it even worse.
While many, if not most, who are able to have already donated to their favorite organization for hurricane relief, a small group of Illinois Valley craft artist and gallery owners have organized a campaign to ask art lovers of the valley to make a small additional donation to CERF.
Containers to collect donations can be found at the following Illinois Valley locations: Blue Moon Café, Taylor’s Country Store, Pizza Pit, Changes Art and Energy Gallery, A Creative Space, Special Productions, Abiding In the Vine, Gravel Gertie’s Antiques, BeBe’s Art for Everyone, Rising Suns, Time Capsule, Jefferson State Financial Group, and Cabin Chemistry. This collection will continue until the Second Friday Art Walk Oct. 14.
Donations to CERF are tax-deductible. Checks should be made out to CERF’s, and 100 percent of all of the funds collected will be forwarded to CERF with a letter indicating that these contributions were raised from art lovers in the Illinois Valley of Southern Oregon.
For more information about CERF, or to make electronic donations, you can go to the CERF website at craftemergency.org
BLM, N.W. Forest Plan
From Dorothea Hover-Kramer
Cave JunctionRight on the heels of last month’s protested timber sales, including the sale of 2.9 million board feet from mostly old-growth trees on BLM land in Selma, the BLM announces that it is seeking to revise the Northwest Forest Plan during the next three years.
We can be assured of one thing only: the revisions are not likely to be favorable to our environment, scenery, or local economics unless we speak up.
However, BLM is seeking public comments for its “scoping” to know public opinion with a deadline of Oct. 21. I strongly urge all who care about our surrounding to write to BLM, Oregon/Washington State Office; Attn: Western Oregon Planning Revision (OR 930.1); P.O. Box 2965; Portland, OR 97208. Or contact BLM at
orwopr@or.blm.gov.In its publication “Plan Revisions News,” available by request from BLM, it is stated that individuals may ask for confidentiality in their letters regarding their names and addresses, under the Freedom of Information Act, by stating so prominently at the beginning of any correspondence.
But each of us has to be willing to state our opinion and what we want in terms of recreation, local employment opportunities, tourism, and quality of life. As always, names and addresses must be included to assure that the writer is a concerned resident.
I also strongly urge those who wish to mention the Natural Selection Alternative (NSA) proposed by the South Deer Project and approved by BLM for a test plot within the Selma area. This is the only alternative ever considered by BLM to the usual methods of cutting and burning it claims will “reduce density of trees and prevent wildfire.”
The NSA would allow selective logging of dead and dying trees while preserving the natural canopy or larger, older trees that actually helps to protect communities from wildfire destruction.
‘Hillary conditioning’
From Marvin D. Sprinkle
Cave JunctionThe words “condition, conditioning” and “conditioner” refer to the act of putting something in shape like athletes conditioning their bodies to perform in a sport.
Or someone putting their mind in a condition to remember something of necessity. Using conditioner on your hair to bring it under control. Ads everywhere for “Say No to Drugs” “Don’t Drink and Drive” and RAP music condoning violence are all conditioning. So what’s the point?
In the first year that “Slick” Willie Clinton ran for president there was a woman running on the Democratic ticket for president. She didn’t get far, but she did get some recognition.
There never has been a woman in the position of president of the United States. Why? Simply because the minds of the populous are conditioned in not accepting this point of fact.
It has been bandied about that Hillary Clinton may run for president of the USA at the next election. If you were Hillary Clinton, who is high up in the politics of the Liberal Democrats and wanted to run for president of the USA, what means would you use to recondition people’s minds to be more acceptable to having a woman president?
Get the Liberal members of your party together and come up with a working plan. Like maybe a weekly TV program showing a woman as the president. Like the one airing on ABC right now titled “Commander In Chief.” Even if the program bombed it would be there for at least one season as a conditioner to take the edges off being unacceptable. Wouldn’t it?
Another Liberal president is unacceptable. Norman Thomas said, “The American people will never knowingly accept socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened.”
Believe you me it is happening at a pretty fast rate right now. In fact, too fast.
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