(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.

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I.V. Lions appreciated
From James R. Johnson
Cave Junction

I recently had reconstructive surgery on my right ankle. The Illinois Valley Lions Club loaned me a roll-about cart, which helped so much. The kindness of the club and its members is greatly appreciated.

Industrial park grounded
From Jim Lombardo
O’Brien

The idea of an Illinois Valley Industrial Park at the airport had to come from someone who knows nothing about business.

Why would anyone want to start a business on a small lot with no water or electricity? The largest private employer in Illinois Valley, Fire Mountain Gems, moved to the city of Grants Pass for simple business reasons. Five minutes from I-5, not one hour by truck. And with all the water, electric and parking needed.

There are places along 199 (Redwood Hwy.) that would be better by far. Just ask at any real estate office.

Alex Grossi, airports director, said, “All we need is one new business to come in and then it will take off.” What he doesn’t know is they are grounded.

Putting down roots
From Susan Chapp
Cave Junction

Our community is so fine, turning out year after year to get those tree seedlings in the ground on the Forestry Action Committee Volunteer Day.

I just want to add to the coverage (Illinois Valley News, March 5) of the event, as well as the 50-plus community members who showed up to plant trees in the rain; and the dozen businesses who contributed food for the potluck feast. And more than 16 individual community members also contributed wonderful food for the hungry planters.

Spiraling community spirit
From Lisa Widner
Selma

Community: What great joy to see the Selma Center at full capacity all day long Saturday, March 1. And better yet, to know that the fullness was due to the Spiral Living Center’s free Skills Exchange/Potluck.

I was thrilled with expert workshops, local/organic foods, professional information sharing, and extraordinary child-care. My heart was warmed and soul inspired by the show of community support at this event. (More, please.)

Rumor has it that there are dances yet to come to the Selma Center; more kids events, and perhaps next school year we’ll see a home school co-operative as well?

I hope that Selma’s community embraces all these wonderful events.

Pledge of Allegiance stance
From Catherine Austin
Cave Junction

During a recent Illinois Valley High School pride assembly, my daughter, a junior, chose not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. Vice Principal Patty Dickens-Turk, requested that everyone stand, and stated that anyone who was not standing was thereby showing disrespect to everyone else.

After the assembly, Ed Faircloth, the school librarian and a former mayor of Cave Junction, suggested that my daughter move to Canada because she had refused to stand. My daughter’s position is that she is more concerned with being a conscious human being in the world that we share than with being blindly and exclusively American.

My daughter has maintained a 4.0 grade-point average and has received academic praise from her teachers. Outside school, she has learned about the propaganda and conditioning used on the public by government and corporate mainstream media, and the egregious gutting of our Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution is a far more precious thing than the Pledge of Allegiance or the flag.

Our freedom, liberty, and security are in the Constitution. Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither.” Thomas Jefferson said, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” My daughter has noted that freedom is a great concept as long as people don’t insist on actualizing it. She compares not standing up for the pledge to flying the flag upside-down -- a distress signal that is often misinterpreted.

Our country is being run by a ruthless and greedy band of criminals, to whom our Constitution is nothing but a worthless piece of paper with meaningless concepts that they wish to get out of the way.

The problem is that we are being herded like a pack of lemmings into an economic, moral, and quality-of-life abyss. I do not say that lightly. Blind and unquestioning obedience is totally un-American.

Whoever said  that “war is good for the economy” needs to get their head examined. Using government provided data, the unconstitutional Iraq invasion and occupation alone (with no end in sight), costs taxpayers $275 million per day, or at a current five-year total, a half trillion dollars.

The expense to Josephine County is currently at $68 million. That is debt that must somehow be paid; debt that not even our grandchildren will be able to pay off. For one war and only one cost. The fascist corporate criminals who control the White House say that the United States needs to “liberate” Iraq.  Some liberation. The only ones I’ve see celebrating are oil companies like Exxon Mobil, with their record-breaking yearly profits for 2007 at $40.6 billion.

Operation Iraqi Liberation truly is “O.I.L.” Like all wars, they are not started to be won. They are to be sustained indefinitely to maximize corporate profits.

When considering the warnings that abound throughout history, such as, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag,” and, “Fascism should be more properly called Corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” It is worth noting the stark contrast to the liberal rugged individualism that our founding fathers wrote about.

They cautioned about enemies foreign and domestic, and as the current administration has amassed an excessive amount of power in the executive branch, through presidential directives, signing statements, executive orders and secrecy, we need to remember that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Goose-stepping with magnetic ribbons and U.S. flags made in China on cars; listening to hate-speech on the TV and radio; and mindlessly reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with misplaced or foolish pride has cooked the American goose that once laid the golden egg, and it’s now well-done.

I would caution Dickens-Turk to see how her calling my daughter’s action “disrespectful” in front of the student body most likely will irresponsibly color the minds of the students. An apology should be considered.