Established
in 1937
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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 and/or Website 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.
* * *She feels developer insulted community
From Mara Carnes
Cave JunctionI saw developer Larry Osborn’s recent comment and could not help but be insulted at it. He said, “I don’t think anyone can argue that Cave Junction is not a very pretty place to live.” (Source: “Daily Courier” 12/16/05).
I must take exception to that remark. From someone who admits he only recently stepped foot in our fair town two years ago now, I think he’s blinded by his typical Californian views.
I have lived in Cave Junction for many, many years. I attended IVHS and now am a local business owner myself.
Cave Junction is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I need only look out my window at the green mountains, or drive five minutes to see the most gorgeous river in Southern Oregon. Out town is full of character. You can drive the “strip” and marvel at the individual building personalities.
Why would anyone change this? Would they prefer a town like they’d find in California where there is no personality and everything matches? Sounds awfully boring to me.
The people of Cave Junction are one of the main reasons many people who leave the valley always return. We have a group of some of the best people I have ever met. This town pulls together to help each other out, and most of us who have been around awhile know each other.
I find it disheartening that developers like Osborn are pushing gated communities. Does he think so lowly of us locals that he feels people need gates to separate themselves from us?
While Osborn is busily exploiting our town, why does he feel the need to also insult us? Why is money more important than people to him? Not a single one of his developments are priced in a range that any average local citizen could afford.
If our city council didn’t have their noses pressed up against his backside, maybe they wouldn’t be blind to this fact. Maybe it doesn’t bother them to be insulted like he has done, bit it sure bothers me.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Osborn and talking face to face. I really don’t think he is a bad person. I just am astounded at his comments. I think Cave Junction is beautiful. It’s sad that he cannot see it, too.
Good Samaritans, angels at her crash
From Olivia Taylor-Young
Cave JunctionBy the grace of God and some guardian angels, I am writing this with nothing more than aching muscles and assorted ugly bruises.
On Dec. 14 my car hit a patch of black ice on Hay’s Hill. Careening across Hwy. 199, it slammed into the opposite embankment, spun and struck the slope twice again before coming to rest on the middle of the lane for northbound traffic.
Prior to the accident, there was a steady stream of vehicles in both directions. My first set of guardian angels apparently put a “heavenly hold” on oncoming traffic; in that few moments were wasn’t any.
The second set of angels, more Earthbound and visible, came in the form of Illinois Valley firefighters and some other Good Samaritans.
Once the car stopped spinning, as I unsnapped my safety belt and unlocked my door, my first recollection is of a man running toward me yelling, “Don’t move. Don’t move.” I cannot remember his name; however, I clearly recall him saying that he is an I.V. firefighter.
I believe that at least some of the other Good Samaritans were I.V. firefighters as well. In any event, several people immediately pulled over to offer aid.
With precision teamwork, they halted traffic in both directions, gave emergency first aid, kept me calm and awake, and assured me that help was on the way.
The American Medical Response paramedics, who were there in a matter of minutes, were also totally professional and deeply considerate. They immobilized my neck and back to mitigate possible spinal cord injury; yet also indulged the seemingly irrational concerns of someone in trauma.
In this case, that meant assuring me that the Christmas presents in my car’s trunk were perfectly safe. In addition, one paramedic even dialed my husband and let me tell him personally that, while I was en route to Three Rivers in an ambulance, I was nevertheless conscious and coherent.
The following day, when my husband saw the car, he said that the sight was almost more frightening than the original phone call, and that my relatively unscathed condition was, indeed, a miracle.
I am eternally grateful to those who stopped to help. A confluence of events may have put me in the wrong place at the wrong time -- black ice is black ice -- but it put these guardian angels in the right place at the right time. They helped turn a potentially terrible situation into the best it could be under the circumstances.
I appreciate each and every one for coming to my aid; for giving us the chance to celebrate another wedding anniversary the following day; and for allowing our family and other loved ones to have a happy holiday season filled with appreciation of the gifts of life and of each other.
I hope that their lives will be filled with people as awesome as themselves.
‘Crimes committed; rights violated by judges’
From Ronald Raymond Karczewski ©
Cave JunctionHow do I know the above? I'm just one such “living, breathing, flesh-and-blood, sentient, natural man/victim” of their criminal fraud.
Our courts are legal fictions. They have jurisdiction only over other legal fictions. I am not a legal fiction. Keep this in mind. Very important.
I am the Cave Junction man who underwent two hunger strikes totaling 55 days; was thrown out of JoCo Jail at the curb of Three Rivers Hospital, near death, because I protested being
unlawfully tried as a paper terrorist for my right to hold public officials accountable for their crimes.I challenged the courts/prosecution to produce anyone who under oath or affidavit claimed that I had committed a crime. They did not. Would not. Could not.
Throughout my unlawful arrest, being held hostage for 128 days of incarceration and some 20 court appearances, I repeatedly challenged the court/prosecution to prove they had jurisdiction over this non-fiction, living, breathing man. They did not. Would not. Could not.
Under U.S. law, when challenge to jurisdiction is made to our present Maritime Law Administrative courts, which require contract, consent, or waiver of rights by the accused to
grant them jurisdiction, all court proceedings must halt and jurisdiction be proven, in writing, by the court before proceeding further.To this very writing, three-plus years afterwards, the Josephine County courts and prosecutors have not and will not prove jurisdiction. Why?
Will justice or police state tyranny be our JoCo
legacy? We should demand that our courts answer the questions they have so doggedly evaded.Illinois Valley elk to be eliminated
From Sandy Raymond
Cave JunctionHave you phoned the Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) to complain of elk eating your roses or of other property damage?
If you made that complaint, you did it prior to 1994 and were persistent enough in your complaints through 2003 to have the elk in Illinois Valley designated as an “EDA.”
If you don’t know what an EDA is, it’s perhaps time to learn PDQ or the ELK will be MIA. No, not missing in action -- I’m referring to Missing In the Area of the Illinois Valley.
For those unaware, Illinois Valley is comprised of two designated hunting units divided by Redwood Hwy. The Chetco Unit lies on the west side and the Applegate on the east. In the Chetco Unit there is an early and late hunting season for which you must enter a drawing to receive a Harvest Tag, which, if successful, allows you to hunt for one bull elk in this unit.
A disabled hunter, possessing a Permanent Disability Permit (PDP), is now also limited to one bull elk in this unit. The Applegate Unit boundary follows U.S. 199 from California to I-5, and then south through Medford, Ashland and again the California border.
The Applegate Unit is also subject to an early and late hunt. However, the distinction is that they are open hunts. Although designated a Bull Elk Only Hunt, a drawing isn't involved; the hunter merely purchases a tag for the hunt of their choice. The distinction for this unit is that the PDP holder is allowed to harvest one elk. The definition of one elk is: Bull, Cow or Calf; more commonly referred to as a “Hair Tag.”
Until perhaps four years ago, to my knowledge, there were no elk in Illinois Valley, and now there appear to be three small groups. That these few animals have migrated to the valley, from either the Onion Mountain (Chetco) or Williams (Applegate) area is unimportant. What is important is that there are once again elk in Illinois Valley.
On Nov. 10, I wrote ODFW questioning the wisdom of a potentially devastating elk hunting program for Illinois Valley as outlined in the 2005 Hunting Synopsis. To my letter of concern I received a reply via email from Peter Test, ODFW, Deer/Elk Cervid Holding & Propagation Unit, whereupon I was advised that our valley had, in 1994, been designated an “Elk De-emphasis Area.”
This method of management was designed to maintain only a low population or to eliminate them altogether, and should I have further question or comment that I should direct them to our local game biologist, Mark Vargas.
On approximately Dec. 7, I contacted Vargas and briefly explained the situation facing Illinois Valley elk. Vargas explained that the valley’s EDA status had been brought about due to direct complaints from valley residents, specifically the residents of Selma and O’Brien.
Upon questioning the validity of those claims, Vargas explained that ODFW had in reality adopted the EDA policy due to the anticipation of future complaints based on the projected increase in residential (people) population. At the suggestion of creating a West Applegate, as currently used for Controlled Deer Tags, I was simply encouraged to contact ODFW with my complaint.
On Dec. 9, I contacted Test to perhaps clarify issues from my previous letters. He and I discussed the Illinois Valley elk population and that they were in existence only due to being on private lands closed to hunting. Also, that at present, current hunting regulations subjected them to not only two open hunting seasons, but seasons which also included the proverbial “Hair Tag.”
Our discussion also included the division of the Applegate Unit, converting the unit to a Bull Only drawing and the temporary elimination of the PDP due to the limited number of animals.
These changes would potentially meet the needs of Medford and Ashland, as well as those of Illinois Valley. Test said that my suggestions would not meet the current Management Goals as set forth for the Applegate Unit and that ODFW does not split hunting units.
Contrary to this information however, there exists a division to the Applegate Unit. ODFW long ago created the “West Applegate Unit” for controlled deer hunts, and it seems a simple matter to allow the inclusion of elk into this unit.
To be or not to be. This should be the choice of Illinois Valley residents regarding the re-establishment of elk in the valley.
The ODFW bureaucrats are at present under the veil of legislative license, electing to eliminate elk in the Applegate Unit. Whether this is being done in the interest of the commercial enterprises of Medford or Ashland is unimportant.
What is important is that without representation or comment the results will directly affect Illinois Valley.
People can phone or write ODFW and be heard.
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