(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.

How safe is Cave Junction?
From Holger T. Sommer
Merlin

A city that cannot provide basic levels of services and security for its citizens must not increase its jurisdiction through annexations.   

Urban services and facilities like water, sewer, road, fire and police  protection are mandatory for “civilized” communities.

By allowing ambitious developments far larger than Cave Junction’s infrastructure can absorb, coupled with canceling the contract for 
additional police protection, the Cave Junction City Council is  responsible for exposing all CJ residents and visitors to potential crime and personal risk.

Specifically, I hold the city council responsible for Tom Green's fate. Have we already forgotten what horrible death the former mayor and humanitarian suffered on Dec. 10, 2007, when he was beaten to death near his house in broad daylight by the same adolescent he tried to help?

The warnings had been there days earlier, and with a proper urban-level police protection, I believe Tom’s life could have been saved.

Now Cave Junction wants to grow even larger with the same inadequate level  of police protection.  In the recent Amendment to the Findings for the Annexation of 25627 Redwood Hwy., the council decided that the 
city limits are adequately protected by “patrol coverage by the  Josephine County Sheriff and Oregon State Police.”

The mayor and council members now contradict this in discussions with the sheriff, proposing to arm the citizens of Cave Junction; and by changing Ordinances 5.16.010 and 5.16.025 to allow rent-a-cops within the city limits.

These recent discussions and statements expose the hypocritical culture widely present in all local government. The city  needs a moratorium on all new development and annexations until the town’s basic services can support them.

Selma Farmers Market
From Marilyn Mooshie
Selma

The Farmers Market at Selma Community Center opened Sunday, June 1 for this summer season. It will be open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., through the end of September.

Featured are locally grown produce, much of it organic, plus homemade products, artwork, and edibles from our certified kitchen. Those with extra produce from their gardens can consider selling it at the market. 

In these topsy-turvy economic times, one of the easiest steps we can take to further sustainability is to shop locally for the nutritious produce grown in our own valley. Keep your dollars local.

What’s with those bums?
From Anthony Sanchez
Cave Junction

I’ve lived in Illinois Valley for four years now, and I’m well aware that the region is prospering due to the influx of “move-in” money.

I’m a bit at odds as to how the area can tolerate and actually “encourage” the number of bums and pan-handlers. It has evolved to the point that I will no longer do any business in town, as the “regular” bums are making it a habit of trying to mooch any type of money or otherwise from me.  It has become extremely revolting.

The local businesses are being vandalized (I’ve seen them shoplifting from Shop Smart and Radio Shack), yet there is no law enforcement to contact.

This is a problem that the Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce as an entity has to address. Is it going to protect the commerce of this city or just sit on its laurels and do nothing? I would imagine, as with any commerce-driven entity, that it would attempt to protect its domain and take action.

Patrol the streets, drive off the bums, talk to the church entities that are encouraging them to continue their self- (and community) destructive behavior.

Who wants to eat at a restaurant where you have to smell and see some hobo
before and after dinner? The same goes for grocery shopping, novelty shopping, art shopping, city services administration.  Might as well go to the larger cities of Grants Pass and Medford, where at least you don’t get a dose of some freak with bad body odor hanging around your vehicle or begging for change.

Unless you are blind or sedated you know that I am correct.

The chamber should save the town, and do what it is trusted to do. Drive the plague out of this town and protect the commerce that supports its position and the town in general. It should do something. Nothing is nothing.

(Editor’s Note: The preceding letter originally was submitted to Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce).

Why ‘liberal’ fear?
From Josiah Dean
Cave Junction

I am writing in response to Nancy Hook’s letter to the editor in the May 28 issue of Illinois Valley News.

Hook, who did not mention her skin color, quoted extensively from a New York Sun columnist, whose skin color was apparently important enough to mention. But that’s not the point, is it?

Hook fears a “liberal” in the White House.  Blackwell (did I mention he’s
black?) is quoted, “Because the truth is that Obama is the single-most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate.” I assume he is parroting the self-appointed experts at National Review who made this pronouncement for 2007.

In a strange coincidence, the Review named John Kerry (who is not black) the “single-most liberal senator in the entire U. S. Senate” in 2003. Could National Review have some agenda here?

What does liberal vs. conservative mean, anyway? Is a balanced budget a measure of conservative government? Then Bill Clinton (a white man, though he’s been quoted as saying he was the first black president), with years of balanced budgets was more conservative than George W. Bush (another nonblack person) and the current deficient spending.

Is bigger and more intrusive government a liberal thing? Again, George W.
Bush and the Republican Congress get credit for that. It implemented the largest increase in government in my lifetime when it created the Dept. of Homeland Security. DHS is the third-largest Cabinet department in our federal government (Defense and Veterans Affairs -- both growing departments -- make the top two.)

The so-called conservative administration and Congress also allowed NSA to snoop into our phone calls whenever they want. Did someone mention “Big Brother on steroids?” Whose paycheck is paying for all this? That’s right: our kids.

On a side note, anyone who begins a sentence with, “the truth is” always makes me wonder why it is necessary to qualify the truthfulness of a particular statement. Does that mean comments that do not begin, “the truth is” are not truthful?

Blackwell (ooh, “black” is even in his name) is worried about changes in our foreign policy. As though our current status as a war-mongering, torturing occupier could get any worse. Maybe I am naïve, but I was against invading Iraq and believe that talking, even with nasty people, is not a bad thing.

I am looking forward to McCain trying to justify his support of the Bush imperialism in a debate.

What does Blackwell mean by “strongest health-care system in the world?” Our system is generally recognized as taking the greatest portion of GDP in the world (up to twice spent in counties like Canada and the UK.) However, according to the World Health Organization, the U.S. health system ranks 37 out of 191 nations in performance. Just above Slovenia and that bastion of economic success, Cuba. 

And does Blackwell really want to talk about our economy? With home foreclosures the highest in a generation; food and fuel prices ever increasing; and the dollar tumbling on the world markets, I cannot imagine anyone thinking that a change from this is a bad idea.

Next Blackwell brings in that old “T” word. Taxes always ring loudly in these parts don’t they? Well, now that big government is not a liberal thing, let’s take a look at the mess we in which we find ourselves.

We’ve had tax cuts for the rich for the last seven years, the deficit and debt are at historic levels and the economy is still in the tank. And when exactly did the “voodoo economics” of the ’80s become sound economic policy? If we simply let the tax breaks for Bush’s cronies expire, we’d be in better shape.

To close, Hook (I am not sure if she was still quoting Blackwell at this point) actually brought up the prospect that Obama is the antichrist. What the ? If you are a true believer of this “out of this world” idea then I am thinking that you would vote for Obama. That way you will get to Heaven sooner. 

In the meantime, I’ll take my chances here on the planet and will consider my vote by looking at which candidate I feel will make the world a better place: more peaceful and equitable. Frankly, a third-Bush-term of John McCain does not represent the America that I was proud of as I was growing up.

By the way, I am a white guy -- not that that matters or anything.

Guilt by association
From Dave Korrell
Cave Junction

This is to address my comment concerning the IVHS wrestling team.

I realize that the whole team was not involved. But let’s face it, the whole team, including coach Jay Miller know who was. There may have been football players or even pep band members involved, but none of them left a state champion medallion behind as a calling card.

I have supported the wrestling program since I returned to the valley more than four years ago, and was a state champion wrestler myself in high school. But I never used my training to tackle and hold someone while four of my friends kicked him in the head. I do not blame Miller or the wrestling team for the attack.

However, denouncing the violence and working with authorities to prosecute the guilty parties would have been a more appropriate response than trying to shift the blame.

I would like all the wrestlers and the families of those not involved to know that I am sorry if my comments have hurt them in any way. It was wrong of me to implicate the whole team.

Miller should step up, tell what he knows, and punish the guilty for the sake of the innocent. As a coach he has great influence over the development of our youth. He should use that influence to guide them down the right path. To a degree, their future is in his hands.