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.
* * *Layed-off librarian feels she was lied to
From Jennifer Berubee
Cave JunctionI just wanted to make sure the citizens of Josephine County know that I did not quit my job as Senior Library Specialist of the Illinois Valley Branch. It has broken my heart to say good-bye.
My position was reduced from full time in 2003, to 30 hours. With this last go-round of cuts imposed upon us when the board of county commissioners hacked the library system budget in half, my position was reduced.
Most people would say, “OK, go and look for a second job.” Well, you try to find a job when you tell your prospective employer that you have a young daughter; you can’t work Saturdays because you are a Seventh-day Adventist; and can’t work two other days during the week because of another job.
Believe me, I tried.
One employer wouldn’t bother to call me back. Another posted the job opening in the paper the day after the interview. Two more have promised to call “if something opens up,” and I have heard nothing.
The reason I am writing is because I have been denied unemployment benefits after serving the county for eight years. I do not hold my former library manager at fault in any way.
However, I was led to believe from what AFSCME told me, as well as from what the General Services manager had reported to Cessa Vichi, that I was considered a layoff if I said “No” to the 15 hours offered me at the library. “Layoff” should mean I can receive unemployment, right?
No, I guess I was supposed to gratefully take what I was being offered since I was just a greedy county employee, anyway.
I feel used and lied to, and my morale is low. I can’t even get too excited about job hunting right now, after this experience I have been through.
I think it is a shame that I worked in the same place for eight years and have nothing to show for it. This probably means not a thing to anyone reading, but I needed to express this.
Gay Californians not problem-solver
From Alan Laurie
Cave JunctionThis is a response to the letter headed, “Happy neighbors can solve problems” from by T.A. Allan in the Aug. 2 issue of “Illinois Valley News.”
Every week I read with interest the vast array of letters you publish. It is always mind-expanding to learn about opposing views on the wide range of topics your readers write about. Often I have considered contributing my own point of view on some of the subjects addressed. Now I am compelled to.
Allan has suggested an idea for helping our local economy by offering the concept of importing gay men from California to fill the new housing developments that he suggests would otherwise remain empty.
Allen’s proposal seems careless, indeed reckless, to me. Is he aware of the controversy surrounding Larry
Goynes’ desire to open a strip club called Sugars? I have lived in big cities. Apparently Allen has not.He doesn't realize that the “happy” newcomers he wants to welcome with widely open arms will surely be the cause of a new, but similar, controversy like Sugars. I refer to the inexplicable craving that gay men have to live within walking distance of a disco bar.
Do we need the hellish sounds of disco music assaulting us as we stroll or skip along our peaceful sidewalks?
He points out that gay men wouldn’t come with the baggage of children or grandchildren. That may be true, but when they move in, there goes the neighborhood; for they do seem to have a way of multiplying.
And this brings me to the second and perhaps most important point that Allen fails to address. Statistics show that if these gay Californians were to invade our happy community, no decent law-abiding citizen would be able to appear in public wearing white after Labor Day without being subjected to boo’s and hisses.
Perhaps Allen would be happier solving community economic problems if he lived in San Francisco.
Adopt-A-Duck sans IVHS disturbs him
From Fred Ball
SelmaAfter reading the Adopt-A-Duck advertisements in the Grants Pass “Daily Courier” by the Grants Pass Rotary Club, I realized that although the benefits from this endeavor are pledged to the Josephine County High School athletic program, the only school not represented in the ad is Illinois Valley High School.
I questioned the Sterling Bank folks in Cave Junction, as it was one of the participants in the duck sales. They, in turn, questioned a representative of the Rotary Club, who advised that IVHS would not be receiving proceeds since it did not need it.
As a resident of the Illinois Valley for more than 35 years, and a volunteer at all valley schools, I do not understand this. Our education and athletic programs are as financially challenged as any Josephine County school, and should not be excluded.
Should the Rotary Club maintain this view, I will encourage valley residents and businesses to consider withdrawing support from the Adopt-A-Duck program.
DeFazio criticized on Progressive Caucus
From Jan Mornarich
RoseburgIn July 23, 2006 issue of the Roseburg “News Review” stating the many caucuses our Congressman Peter DeFazio belongs to, I was curious to find how many and just what they were all about.
I was especially interested in the fact that our congressman was a co-founder of the radical Progressive Caucus. It also stated that he “marched alongside radical protesters” in Seattle during the 1999 WTO conference.
He spent the week marching with union, environmental and other leftwing, anti-globalist, anti-business protesters in Seattle. During subsequent protests, he blamed international corporations and financiers for the problems in developing countries. DeFazio could be called the “favorite lawmaker of the lawless.” That is exactly what it said.
The left-wing Americans for Democratic Action has rated DeFazio’s voting record as 95-100 percent to the Left. He consistently opposes free trade agreements such as NAFTA and GATT. He voted against the use of force in Iraq and against allowing oil drilling on 20 acres of the 1.2 million-acre Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), thus maintaining U.S. dependence on Mideast oil.
One can’t help but wonder if he really has concerns about the 4th District that he represents. This information is available to anyone who has a computer.
‘There is a season and it is now’
From William Schneider
Cave JunctionI came away a bit moved to say the least. I refer to the Wednesday, Aug. 2 meeting at the county building to discuss BLM’s proposals for our area and the reasons why so many people are against them.
To tell the truth, I’m a bit embarrassed by how little I know about a place where I have lived for 36 or so years. Fortunately, there are some folks I know and trust, and can, by listening, learn from.
Not only people’s personal reasons, but I also can learn from and heed the science that flatly states the dangers of what we do or don’t do.
There were folks who also brought it to our attention that there are many logging families, some for generations, who have depended on the industry for a livelihood or for survival, economically speaking. They are people who directly or indirectly make it possible for the rest of us to buy or build homes and use lumber for any number of reasons to make our lives more comfortable.
An industry is changing radically, and radical adjustments are necessary to accommodate these changes. We should consider how to replace the income of those we would seek to put out of work, or help with the transition from logging to some other occupation. Like it or not, this reality is fast coming upon us.
If common sense is to prevail, it’s “No” to the status quo. I was nearly made ill when I heard something about 15 trees per acre were in BLM’s mind a safe and tidy forest. Or maybe I hallucinated that. I was almost ill anyway from such a hallucination.
Anyway, my own feelings were expressed so many times by what people had to say, including from the tourist trap to New York City considerations, and anyway what streets are all these thousands of potential automobiles going to drive on in what was once a small country town of Cave Junction? Man, it’s dangerous in the parking lots.
It’s our home, it’s our planet, it’s our species, and it is our future. There is a season, and it is now.
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