Time to refocus dollars for cancer research
To the Editor:
In this day and age, almost everyone knows someone who has died from cancer. It is the second leading cause of death in this country taking an American life every minute of every day. Yet with this killer disease running rampant through our society, federal funding has been cut for research into a cure over the last decade. With over $10 billion a month being spent on the war in Iraq, it’s hard not to make the connection that this, in part, is one of the major the reasons cancer cure research funding is steadily being reduced.
It’s time to refocus our attention on finding a cure for cancer and to provide the federal dollars necessary to make it happen.
Eric Olsen
Goldendale
Freedom for and freedom from religion
To the Editor,
In response to the Aug. 28 editorial, I have no problem when a candidate for political office believes that God has motivated them to run for political office. It’s when they publicly broadcast this to the voters and use God’s endorsement to further their campaign for office that I grow leery.
In a recent election for a local position in Klickitat County, one of the candidates told me and some others God had wanted him to run. This candidate did rather poorly in the vote count, which leads me to believe either his God was a very weak deity or that he actually did not read the mind of God correctly.
As for voting for a candidate who belongs to one’s own church, that is a very poor standard to base a decision on. I am sure that among the members of every church in Goldendale there are many differing opinions on an array of very important issues. Single-payer health care, for instance. Some support the idea and some detest the idea. On the war and occupation of Iraq, some think this was and is wrong or a mistake and some applaud. These are the issues that are important for voters. Those who claim to read the mind of God on these and other issues may be mistaken.
Separation of church and state gives our citizens the freedom to choose a particular religion or no religion at all. It gives us freedom for religion and freedom from religion. That is the difference between theocracy and secularism.
Robert Seborer
Goldendale
Forest policies should begin at ground level
To the Editor:
The Cold Springs Fire on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest has cost taxpayers $11 million to date and destroyed 8,000 acres of varying habitats, including irreplaceable legacy Ponderosa Pines - wildlife and riparian habitat. There’s got to be a better way.
During the 1980s, the forest planning effort for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (GPNF) involved a large cross section of the public and GPNF resource managers. The plan was constructed by people who knew the forest and its needs. This plan was never really implemented as lawsuits and the Northern Spotted owl shut the forest down.
President Clinton attempted to solve this problem with the well-intended 1993 forestry summit, which brought together renowned specialists who were cloistered in downtown Portland and told to write a plan for Pacific Northwest forests over a few short weeks. The results were unfortunately predictable, and enormously harmful.
Because they did not have on the ground knowledge, large swaths of Old Growth Ponderosa Pine forest overstocked with White Fir, were wrongly designated as Spotted owl habitat on the southeast slopes of Mt. Adams. These forests are unsustainable and insects predictably invaded the White Fir and began doing what they do: killing large areas of trees, creating equally large areas of extreme fire hazard.
The Gifford Pinchot forest managers were restrained from doing the treatments necessary to correct the problem and today we have 8,000 acres of scorched habitat adjacent to vast areas of dead trees just waiting to burn.
This is what happens when local land management professionals are replaced by theoreticians locked in a room with other governmental agencies and no responsibility for the consequences.
The solution is simple: remove politicians, courts and environmentalists from federal land management and return it to professional federal land managers.
Frank Backus
SDS Lumber Company
I vote only pro-life
To the Editor,
Everyone reading this can say they were born. Before birth we were alive in our mother’s womb, our life beginning at conception. Who we are began at conception, our DNA, the color of our eyes, our unique fingerprints, our gender and everything else that makes us who we are was set in motion. Our United States citizenship began at conception.
Every life has a beginning and by reason, using all available scientifically proven knowledge in harmony with the natural progression of life, we can trace that life back to conception. This is the fact of the matter since the creation of man. Do not be misled by recent political movements that have managed to change the intent of our constitution by establishing a law which allows one U.S. citizen to end the life of another U.S. citizen. Our Founding Fathers clearly stated every citizen has the right to the pursuit of happiness; there is no pursuit without life.
The pro-choice law allows a woman to end the life of another woman - after all, half of the babies aborted are women. Aborted women therefore are denied the very pro-choice rights this law claims to provide. They themselves are the victims. Unwanted pregnancies do occur but death by abortion is not the solution. Adoption is a beautiful alternative, and the mother does not have to live with a lifetime of regret for having aborted her child. Yes, it really is a child, not a choice.
I must therefore vote only for pro-life candidates and I urge you to do the same because a candidate who cannot be trusted to protect the life of our most vulnerable citizens cannot be trusted with anything else. Choose life; your mother did.
Max Bugler
Goldendale
The Mayor’s contract shouldn’t be renewed
To the Editor,
This is in response to talk this week that Lorraine Reynolds’ contract is not being renewed.
My opinion: I think Larry Bellamy and The Mayor (as she seems to think of herself) should not have their contracts renewed. Mr. Bellamy appears to be a “yes man” and Ms. Mayor doesn’t like to be contradicted, no matter if the public is right or not.
I hope we all remember this when the next elections come up.
No, I can’t vote because I live in the county. However, I don’t understand why, since my address is still Goldendale, and I have to abide by Goldendale’s rules even though I have a business in town.
Ms. Reynolds did a fine job bringing events to town and monies to some businesses. I thought that was her job. She will be missed.
Joyce McKay
Goldendale |
