Letters to the Editor
From our weekly issue dated November 28, 2007
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‘Not so funny,’ he says
From James Guthrie
Cave Junction
This letter is for Illinois Valley High School administrators, IVHS staff, IVHS students, parents, law officials, friends and family.
I am writing this to say, “I am sorry.”
I know now that a bomb threat is not a joke. I didn’t do it as a threat.
On Nov. 15, when I had written, “There is a bomb” on that envelope, I was goofing off with my friends. I never meant for it to go any further than that. But it did, and I am very sorry.
I am not responsible for any of the other “threats.”
Measure 49 disappointment
From Tim Norman
Cave Junction
I’ve got to say that I’m a little disappointed. With all the “No on 49” signs posted around the valley, you would think I would’ve gotten a response from my letter I wrote prior to the Nov. 6 election.
Either no one reads these anymore. Or, is it possible no one had a decent rebuttal? That seems funny since so many people felt so strongly about this issue. Could it be that the misinformation was exposed, and therefore these supporters have no foundation?
It’s all moot now since the measure passed. This is due mostly to our fellow Oregonians to the north, but the fact remains, it is now law. Those who opposed the measure can take heart. Land developers have tons of money. They already have lawyers working on it as I write this.
A loop hole will be exposed eventually. It is only a matter of time. There will be subdivisions and strip malls. I only ask developers to take this “lull” and reflect on what is being accomplished by letting our small rural towns become suburbs and eventually cities.
First, people should ask why they came here in the first place. Then, why did they leave wherever it was they came from? Was the purpose of coming here only about making money? The reason I came here was documented in my previous letter, but I’ll summarize by saying that I wanted to live a simple life.
At one time, everyone here did. I’m appealing to the people who came here with their only intention to try to make their fortune. I’d like to beg them to let us have this place. We were happy here, once. We were poor, but OK with it.
There are things way more important than money. People here realized that once. Those who have to chase the almighty dollar should go to Idaho. Or Nevada. Those people would embrace them. They are screaming for development.
Those who have been here and want all this development should realize that there is a whole big world out there. Heck, they can get what they’re looking for only 23 miles north of here.
I want our little town left alone.
‘WOPR, taxes not the issues’
From Kelpie Wilson
Cave Junction
The Oregon Taxpayers Association, a pro-corporate group based in Tigard, has accused Josephine County Commissioner Dave Toler of being “pro-tax” because he opposes the preferred alternative of BLM’s Western Forest Plan Revision (WOPR).
This alternative would nearly triple logging levels and remove protections for old-growth forests and streams.
Commissioner Jim Raffenburg also accuses Toler of being “pro-tax,” warning that without the logging increase, “…your taxes will go up or you will have no public services.”
BLM undertook the WOPR in response to a timber industry complaint that the agency was not offering the timber sale volumes projected under the Northwest Forest Plan. It was implemented in response to a judge’s legal ruling that excessive logging was driving forest-dependent species like the spotted owl to extinction. The legal ruling still stands. and the courts are unlikely to allow BLM’s WOPR to go forward.
Toler has pointed this out to his fellow commissioners and called for Oregon counties to stop looking backward to the days of unsustainable high-volume logging and flush county timber receipts – days that can never come again. But instead of facing reality, and working for creative solutions to the county’s fiscal woes, the Oregon Taxpayers Association and its local allies prefer to shoot the messenger.
Sadly, reality today indicates that protecting old-growth forests is more important than ever. When the Northwest Forest Plan was crafted in the early 1990s, the big environmental concerns were the loss of species like the spotted owl, the degradation of salmon spawning streams and the effects on municipal drinking water sources.
Now, in 2007, we have new worries: fire and global warming.
Biologist Pepper Trail has closely examined the fire analysis section of the 1,600-page WOPR planning document, and he has discovered that BLM’s preferred management alternatives would push thousands of acres of forest into a “high-fire severity” category.
Because Preferred Alternative Two relies on clear-cutting and re-growth in even-aged plantations, it also would transfer thousands of acres into a “low-fire resiliency” category. Unlike old, wet forests with thick-barked trees, young plantations have zero resistance to fire.
All that Raffenburg and his allies can think about is the money that cutting those old-growth trees would bring. They are not thinking about the cost to defend homes now surrounded by highly flammable tree plantations.
Residents of Oregon forest-dependent counties also should consider this: global warming means that our local forests now have greater value as carbon storehouses than as sources of timber.
Approximately a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from land clearing and deforestation -- more than from the entire transportation sector.
Even in forests that have been only selectively logged rather than clear-cut, it can take decades before new growth attains the same carbon-absorbing ability as the forest it replaced. And it is not just the trunks and branches. Much of the carbon storage is in the complex forest soils that are disturbed by logging.
Federal action on global warming is inevitable. If it is done right, we will build a new green economy with jobs in renewable energy, energy-efficiency retrofitting, land restoration and forest fire prevention. As a forest-dependent community, our Josephine County commissioners should be leading the way to this bright green future.
‘War and Rumors of War’
From Jim Finley
Grants Pass
Fifty-eight thousand gave their all/Only to have their names etched on a wall.
While politicians spoke of the fall of a domino/Many objected and chanted, “Hell no, we won’t go.”
The elite deferred and found refuge in the Guard/But the lowly had no out and simply burned their card.
How can we ever justify thousands to die?/Based completely on a political lie.
Will we ever do this again?/If we do, it will surely be a sin.
History does repeat, we cannot deny/Again the politicians deceived us and dispatched thousands more to die.
We destroyed a nation and the world knew we were wrong/Yet our politicians kept singing the same old song.
When will this madness ever end?/I fear never since this is how it’s always been.
Visitor ‘Welcome’ sign
From John Woodward & Linda Corey-Woodward
As we travel Redwood Hwy. between Grants Pass and the California border, we pass several well-designed, attractive signs.
Two which come to mind are the new Illinois Valley Soil & Water Conservation District sign atop Hay’s Hill, and the “Welcome to Cave Junction” sign at the south end of Cave Junction.
So, we cannot help but notice the “Welcome to the Illinois Valley” billboard eyesore near Hay’s Hill, which is faded and was damaged by a pickup truck accident more than a year ago. It has needed repair or replacement for a long time.
What kind of message does the current state of the “Welcome” sign say to visitors to our beautiful valley? Are we proud of our valley or not?
Rumor has it that several thousand dollars have been collected by Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce. The money was raised through fund-raisers and donations designated specifically for this purpose.
To date, we valley residents have no news regarding this long-overdue project. Shouldn’t our chamber keep us informed about progress, and even to request our input about something that reflects our business community and our community at large?
Don’t we have a say? After all, we the people ultimately pay the bill.
Cougar applause
From Tom Scaffin
Grants Pass
The Skyline Conference football champion Illinois Valley Cougars deserve congratulations. As a former Cougar footballer, (Class of ‘83) and one who endured seasons that were less than successful in the win-loss column, it makes me proud to see the success of this team in winning the Skyline title.
Coach Bob Thornhill deserves a lot of credit for molding a championship team in a community where support for the team could have been stronger.
Being out in the community I reside in now, Grants Pass and Medford, it was great to hear the conversations among the sports fans talking about I.V. being a powerhouse to contend with.
The games I had the opportunity to watch had I.V. winning in blow-outs, and the team members handled themselves with class, and style.
It made this alum very proud. I.V. footballers and Thornhill did a great job becoming 10-0 Skyline Conference champions. Sounds good to me.
Body armor; tax/grants
From Paul Grad
Cave Junction
I had intended this letter to deal with one issue: the provision of protective body armor for police through HR 3304 -- a bill introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas.
But an I.V. News Blog entry by Josiah Dean (a newspaper staffer) criticized several of my comments on the online edition of the Noose without quoting my name, so I feel I must primarily use this letter to respond to those criticisms and clarify the issues.
However, the more pressing issue is the help that Paul’s bill would give our police in protecting themselves against the extremely lethal weapons they are up against nowadays. It would provide an alteration to the IRS Code to permit peace officers to purchase their own body armor, and receive the entire cost as a dollar-for-dollar tax credit against their federal income tax liabilities.
This would de facto provide them with both armor, since Congress has shirked its responsibility and is so obsessed with passing its frivolous and wasteful earmarks, that it can’t seem to think about the safety of the officer on the beat. I think that’s disgusting.
Deputy Sheriff Denis Wise, president of the American Federation of Police, has said, “I urge all police officers and concerned citizens to contact their congressmen and ask them to support Rep. Paul’s bill.” I strongly agree.
Now to the newly formed I.V. News Blog where I was criticized for comments I made on the grant to build the small business center in Kerby, asserting that grants are theft. Grants are taxes, and Frank Chodorov, a famous Libertarian economist and theorist, wrote a book, Taxation is Theft. It’s obviously true, but taxes are obviously necessary to have any government at all. The question is: What is the least immoral way of taxing?
And that issue needs to be debated by the people. But saying that taxes (or grants, which are the same thing) are theft is not outlandish, but a debatable statement. What people forget when they think of government programs that sound, and many times are, useful, is the harm done to the people who are taxed.
They could have used those funds to better themselves and their families, and the damage done to them is exactly equal to the good done, if any, by the federal program, if not greater. (Frederic Bastiat pointed that out in the 1850s.) Many times these programs are a complete wreck and waste of money. I find it ironic that this grant confiscates wealth by force from small businessmen to promote the virtues of small business.
However, as a pro-free market capitalist, I obviously think this program is better than most if we’re going to have any government programs. And we know that Oregon sends far more taxes to the federal government than it gets back.
But the immorality of taxing for things not in the Constitution, and the fact that government is allowed to commit this immorality, directly contradicts the rights guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. And to destroy the rule of law in America is suicide for our Republic.
Dean also criticizes my saying that we’d have all the money we’d need to run JoCo if we didn’t have 700 military bases around the world, and asks what has that to do with our county and its government, which he says I called socialist?
Well, firstly, if we weren’t wasting $350 billion a year of our $500 billion military budget defending wealthy nations like Japan, Korea and the EU, and we took 1/80th of just one of those billions, we'd have the $12 million it takes to run our county without tax increases or massive logging.
We also have 700 other bases around the world, sucking up our wealth. That’s why we don’t have the money we need in JoCo; not because people are chintzy when it comes to paying taxes.
And notice I said in my comment that we were run by corporate socialists, not just socialists, since many people claim to be capitalists, but are receiving socialist corporate welfare. Our public land resources are sold for well under their intrinsic market value by BLM, a federal agency.
The state of Oregon taxes corporations at a far lower rate on income taxes than individuals, which is another form of socialist corporate welfare. The recent flap in town, where people’s property not adjacent to a road improvement project are taxed arbitrarily by the state for a benefit that accrues to the developers, is another example.
I also believe that the $70k salaries (guess $60k wasn’t enough) of the county commissioners before benefits smacks of old Russian Communist elitism, where the government apparatchiks lived like kings while the workers slaved to keep them. Most folks in JoCo probably don’t make much more than $20k to $30k per year. To pay the commissioners $70k to $80k is elitist, and again, what I feel is theft by taxation.
I’m glad that Dean has the guts to criticize my views because cordial public
debate in the press strengthens the Republic.
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