Letters to the Editor
From our weekly issue dated October 21, 2009
(Editor’s Note: Views and commentary, including statements made as fact, are strictly those of the letter-writers.)
Typed, double-spaced letters are considered for publication. Hand-written letters that are double-spaced and legible also can be considered. “Thank you” submissions are not accepted as letters.
Brown background
From Mary Brown (candidate’s wife)
Grants Pass
Consider candidate Jack Brown’s heritage. A real estate developer and builder, Jack’s grandfather moved his family from California to Josephine County in 1934 during the Great Depression. Jack’s father lived and worked his whole life here, becoming a respected USPS mail carrier and well-known piano tuner.
Born in 1948, Jack grew up in Josephine County. He attended Fruitdale and Jerome Prairie Elementary schools; then New Hope Christian School, graduating with honors in 1966. He continued his education for a year at Prairie Bible Institute in Canada, subsequently becoming a self-taught student of history, government, and current events.
He worked bucking hay in his youth, then was employed by M&Y Lumber Co. of Selma, Grants Pass Molding Co., Rough & Ready Lumber Co. of Cave Junction, and finally Spalding & Son of Grants Pass, where he worked as a saw filer. In 1979 Jack started moonlighting as Auto Doc, a mobile auto repair business that turned full time by 1980.
Marrying in 1970, Jack and I raised and home-schooled our two children. We have four grandchildren living in Josephine County and one in Canada.
Jack believes that the purpose of man is to honor and revere our Almighty Creator and Savior. This compelled him to be involved in several local churches during the years, currently attending both Blessed Hope Fellowship in Wilderville and Wonder Bible Chapel.
God-fearing candidate
From Kurt Ramme
Grants Pass
My religious beliefs are simple: God’s law as given in the Ten Commandments.
I read the words and apply them to my actions through the understanding and meaning of the words. For example, stealing, or accepting something that was stolen, is wrong, per God’s law. It makes no difference what was stolen or the value.
This is not a Sunday School lesson; I do have a point or two to make. How about murder (killing)? God’s law prohibits it, right or wrong? Right, good. I ask why our local pastors don’t preach and stand against abortion. How about our elected officials?
I know a candidate who also lives by God’s law: Jack Brown, seeking a Josephine County Commissioner position in 2010. He is a God-fearing man who has been very active in each of the area churches that he has attended through the years: Grants Pass Mennonite Church, Provolt Community Church, Wonder Bible Church, Foots Creek Chapel, Redwood Country Church and Blessed Hope Fellowship. He currently attends both Wonder Bible Chapel and Blessed Hope Fellowship.
He has given more than 40 years to our area churches in one way or another. If asked about that, he will talk to you.
Confusion understandable
From Gregory D. Anderson
Cave Junction
It is understandable why Nicole Resenbrink (Letters to the Editor, Illinois Valley News, Oct. 7, 2009) is confused “by so many working people’s position against health reform,” because the liberal/progressive media avoid or skew the information she and millions of others receive in their daily lives.
Truth is, almost everyone is in favor of health-care reform; it is the government-run health care (public option) most people are against. The simple fact that government has never ever run any program efficiently is enough to make any clear thinker wary. If the government can’t run a railroad (Amtrak) or a financial institution (Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac) without massive waste and corruption, why would any sensible person trust an unknown bureaucrat in a huge government agency to care about our health or that of our loved ones?
Resenbrink works for an agency that has health insurance. However, the company has changed providers several times, and seemingly the prices go up while benefits go down. Government restrictions on free enterprise and government failure to establish reasonable regulations is partially responsible. Let me explain. Competition in a country built on free enterprise is the most-effective way to get the best product or service to the consumer for the least amount of money. Artificial standards established by any other means is neither more effective nor less expensive or efficient.
Take Medicare for example. When Congress proposed Medicare, it (like today) gave an “estimate of cost.” The real cost was 900 percent more than what Congress had told the voters it would be. More recently, Congress promised to save us money and reduce our “carbon footprint” by forcing us to use corn ethanol. Congressmen were successful in spending billions of our hard-earned dollars for reduced gas mileage, overall increase in our carbon footprint, and substantial increases in the prices of everything from chickens to bread.
This is not an exception: This always happens when government thinks it is smarter than consumers. If Congress had allowed us to import ethanol from Brazil we could have saved billions of dollars. Why did Congress prevent this savings? Because it gets big money for campaigns when it passes laws, and wastes taxpayer money by giving it to special interests for these programs.
The reason I give these examples is because anyone who believes our politicians are really looking after the voters’ interests are living in a fool’s paradise. Did anyone believe our president when he promised transparency and a few days to read the bills? Did you believe him when he promised to go through the bills “line by line” to eliminate wasteful spending of taxpayer money? Was this before or after the 9,000 earmarks he approved by signing the bill?
Resenbrink’s recently laid-off son and college-attending daughter are without insurance. If government would allow health insurance companies to compete across state lines and to customize policies to the needs of the people and not the “requirements” of the graft-taking politicians to protect special interests we could reduce insurance costs. By the way, the government health-care programs all require our children to pay for the care of old folks. Should young people be saddled with all these costs because the government says so?
Resenbrink’s 77-year-old father was taken by ambulance to a hospital, but then felt fine and wanted to go home, but was asked to stay the night. Was this the fault of the hospital? No, because Congress refuses to do anything about the legal lottery run by the trial lawyers.
Doctors and hospitals are forced to cover every possible problem by ordering tests and procedures not necessarily needed. Keeping the patient in the hospital overnight is an example. So the trial lawyers are calling the shots. If we had a cap of damages nationally like some states, it would be a huge drop in health costs. But the trial lawyers are right in there with the teachers unions and SEIU for the top three givers of big bucks to the Democrat Party. Do you think the Congress should pass laws to benefit the voters or the big unions? This also applies to the cost of drugs.
The public outcry Resenbrink refers to has nothing to do with personal feelings against our president. The outcry is because most clear thinkers realize this is not about health care at all. The president and this Democrat-controlled Congress don’t give a whit about our health, but they are concerned about the power and control they will have over the American people. The public outcry is also against this insane spending and borrowing.
They are against the most malignant taxation of all, the inflation caused by 24/7 printing of money.
(Editor’s Note: A fee was paid for the preceding due to its length).
Frustrated with JCSO
From Shaun Murphy
Cave Junction
On a recent Sunday I was out of town when my phone rang at 4:30 a.m., and my wife said that an uninsured minor driving drunk plowed through our fence.
Not wanting this to go unreported I tell her, “I’ll call you back, I’m calling the police.” I call the non-emergency line — no answer. I see another number and dial it, but discover I’ve reached the Grants Pass Police.
I felt embarrassed, and asked for the correct number. I’m told that, “It wouldn’t do any good if I did; you need to call Josephine County Sheriff’s Office, and they are closed Sundays.”
A few days later I call the sheriff’s office and ask to have someone come to make a report. I’m told that the officer for our area doesn’t come on until 4 p.m. Sometime after 4 he calls, leaving a message. It appears he won’t be coming out, it’s a civil matter. Really? Since when was a drunk driver -- OK, an underage, uninsured drunk driver -- a civil matter? I’m confused now, so I call the sheriff’s office next morning.
I’m told, “Well, if we don’t witness the accident at the time it occurs we can’t do anything about it; now it becomes a civil matter.” “You weren't open on Sunday to come out, though.”
“Well, I’m not sure what to tell you,” I’m told. “You need to deal with it through insurance from this point. Any time two people are in an accident it becomes a civil matter.”
And I’m told that because he’s uninsured, I will have to sue him.
I’m feeling aggravated, and advise that I’m not so much concerned with the money end, I’m concerned that he was drunk and wrecked a car without insurance.
“I’m sorry but there would be no way for us to prove it was him, or if he was even there without physically being there at the time of the incident.” I can tell that her patience is running out.
“I can prove he was there. I have two witnesses. I have the license plate from his vehicle. I have half the vehicle’s body parts still strewn across my property, and I know where the wrecked car is parked.”
“I’m sorry, sir, we have done all we are going to do; it is a civil matter from this point on.”
So here’s the question: Is this simply a case that is outside their jurisdiction or is it a case not worth their time financially? It seems to me that the Police Blotter has more traffic stops then anything else these days. Are we being punished for repeatedly voting down measures that they continue to put on the ballot?
With unsatisfied citizens living up and down our street, and crimes that are quite solvable not being taken under wing, even with most of the footwork being done for the police, I believe we have a real problem with our sheriff and deputies.
From Sept. 24 through Oct. 8 there were 59 moving violations that resulted in a citation, as reported by this newspaper. If the average amount of money the county receives from citations paid was $250, that would total $14,750 for just the time period mentioned. Imagine for a whole year.
There is money coming in, but where is it going if it never goes toward a problem that doesn’t have a financial benefit for the department in the end?
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