(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.

‘Cut the crap’
From Neil White
Cave Junction

It has been brought to my attention, and that of others, that feces are being dumped all over Cave Junction.

To my knowledge, this is a serious health hazard to the members of the community. Someone should look into this problem.

‘Food for thought’
From Steve Lyons
Cave Junction

1. Holger Sommer is concerned with growth and safety in the city of Cave Junction, as reflected in his letters to editors. Maybe he should stay in Merlin and mind his own business, and he probably will be safe.

2. I wonder if the folks clamoring to prosecute the young men in the Red Garter fracas would feel the same if their kids had been involved. Maybe providing them some citizenship education and having them perform community service would go further than ruining lives. Sincere apologies would be nice too.

3. Due to negative comments, the Cave Junction City Council tossed a proposed ordinance to require heads of households to keep guns. Don’t worry; many of us already are armed.

4. Cave Junction resident Barry Snitkin sent a letter to the Grants Pass newspaper about Rep. Walden siding with Big Oil Rep. DeFazio who crafted a bill, parts of which he knew would doom it, thus making his opponents look bad. By the way, consider that our county and others are in financial straits due to the lawsuits by “environmental” groups that have closed the forests to logging.

Snitken, a friend of county Commissioner Dave Toler, is a founder of the Takilma-based Siskiyou Project, which I feel is an eco-terrorist organization. We can thank them and their cronies for the tax proposals, which would be permanent, that we’ll vote on soon.

5. Lastly, those worried about overpopulation can relax; we’re due for a pandemic, so the demand for oil, gas, food and lumber will be quite reduced. It’s natural. Like being in-between two ice ages.

Also, I wonder if the county commission candidates in the Nov. 4 election are willing to sue the federal government to resume the county payments? It’s simply just-compensation for the actions by Dave, Barry and friends. It’s not welfare.

These opinions are mine alone and not of any organization or business I may belong to.

‘Questions for city’
From Carol Dickson
Cave Junction

I was pleased to see that the Cave Junction City Council listened to those of us who spoke in opposition to an ordinance mandating that city residents/business owners carry firearms, but I am still confused about the qualifications of those handling financial matters for the city. 

Am I the only one who was shocked when it was announced in January by Illinois Valley News that the city had lost $500,000 of a grant (that it had already paid) because it didn’t follow through on the grant requirements? That’s a big chunk of change. More recently we had a front page Illinois Valley News headline that Laurel Cemetery Association had a $50,000 water bill. 

The city was adamant that the water was delivered (possibly through a broken pipe) and the money was owed. When asked why the city didn’t question that much water missing, the comment was that it was thought people were watering their lawns. What? It’s been such a cold and wet spring, who would have been watering their lawns to that extent?

When the cemetery association insisted that it didn’t have corpses floating away and no lush green lawn, now it comes out that there was a problem with the computer and the bill is only $4,500. So why did the city say it was thought people were watering their lawns when there really wasn’t $50,000 worth of water missing in the first place, right? 

Did the computer make a mistake on only one water bill? Maybe the bill should be checked again, and it will be $450.  I wonder why people vote “No” on money issues?

‘The measure of success’
From Tim Norman
Cave Junction

I am writing to try to shed light on a different perspective concerning the measure of success. There are those who feel that success is measured by how much money and material things one has acquired in a lifetime.

Another point of view, which happens to be the one I believe, is that success is achieved by one’s contribution to society and the world around them. Upon examination, these two points of view are contradictory. Where one concentrates on the good for the individual, the other concentrates on the good for the community, the country, and the world.

We see consequences of the individualism all around us. From physicians scaring patients into unnecessary surgeries, in which the patient often suffers more after the procedure than before, due (in part) to the astronomical bill; to those destroying our planet and quality of life for nothing other than personal gain and lying about their motives. I’m sorry, but when someone lists the reason for wiping out an entire mountainside of trees as, “I’m just trying to feed my family,” yet drives away in a $60,000 truck, I have a problem with their explanation.

And what are the explanations for wars being started for special interest, to our local property being bought just to be subdivided and developed, thereby increasing our population, straining our already tight infrastructure, and basically changing our way of life all so one person can turn a huge profit. When these points were brought up during a recent discussion about the present state of gas prices, one unbelievable response was, “Don’t bash a guy for trying to accomplish the American dream!”

The oil companies are just trying to make a living. I guess $18 billion is just squeaking by. Because these people think it is more important to become the next billionaires, we all suffer. From medical bills that put entire families on the street, to gas prices that increase the cost of everything we do, the consequences of individualism are all around us.

Examples of unselfish behavior are all around us, too. However, we just have to look, recognize and acknowledge them: That coach for your kid’s Little League team, who doesn’t get paid a dime, yet puts in the same amount of time as a part-time job. The volunteer firefighters who will enter a burning house while everyone else is running out, putting their lives in jeopardy to save a stranger’s life and property for a whopping $6 a call.

Ask these people their definition of success and, for most, their answer would be quite contrary to the individualist. Success to me is the look on the face of a kid after he struck out his first batter with a slider pitch that we were working on for a month, or someone saying, “Thank you” for saving their house. I think if everyone in the community, the state, the country operated more in the mindset like these individuals and less like the selfish money grabbing people illustrated earlier, our country would go back to being the most prosperous in the world.

The rest of the world would speak of the United States in a tone of hope rather than hatred and fear as they do now. Let’s think more progressively here. If any believe in the Bible and Armageddon, the time is coming where we will have to rely on each other more than ever. We are told that the meek shall inherit the Earth.

There is nothing in the Bible stating anything resembling words that the one with the most money wins. “Forget the lust of the rich man’s gold. All that you need is in your soul.” (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Simple Kind of Man)