Letters to the Editor
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:34 AM PDT
A cure to the country’s problems?
Editor,
I think I have figured out a way to cure most of the problems in this once great country.
First of all, we can send all of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Antarctica to start a subsistence farm, raising bananas and coconuts. We could send all of the liberal politicians in Washington D.C., along to furnish the hot air for the project.
I realize there would be some danger of melting the polar ice caps, but getting some common sense back into the government is worth a certain amount of risk.
Wake up America, before it’s too late.
W.D. Kennedy
Huntington
Trucks drivers should be given a break
Editor,
Fall is in the air, harvest is in full swing and it’s time for us all to remember what runs our local economy. This is a farming community. Throughout the harvest, farmers utilize many different types of heavy equipment to get their crops out of the ground and transported to wherever they are processed. Tractors with implements, semis, large farm trucks — all of these are needed during this time of year.
A woman recently walked into the weigh house at Ore-Ida and complained about onions falling off the trucks.
She said it was a danger to other drivers, and she had spoken to the Idaho State Police about it. She also made the comment to the driver of the truck she had followed that she hadn’t “actually seen an onion fall off his truck.”
I’ve lived in this area for most of my life, and I have to say that I have never felt threatened by an onion falling from a harvest truck. About the only time the onions fall off these trucks is when they are turning a sharp corner.
And anyone with a little common sense knows that any big truck, full of onions or not, needs a little extra room to corner. If you’re driving close enough for an onion to fall on your car from a truck turning a corner, you are the bad driver. You need to remember not to tailgate or drive in a truck’s blind spot. That’s just common knowledge and it applies to all trucks, not just onion trucks. These trucks are usually driving pretty slowly because the onions weigh many tons. They’re doing the best they can in traffic. But with loads of many thousands of pounds, they are not going to be able to stop on a dime.
So give these drivers a break. Give them some extra room. Don’t cut in front of them and then stop at a red light. Don’t tailgate and honk because you’re in a hurry and the truck isn’t going fast enough. And if you see an onion or two fall off the truck, don’t whine about it. Grab the unsquashed “road-kill” onions, take them home, make onions rings for your family and be thankful for the freebies.
Gaileen White
Ontario
Government should work with industry
Editor,
The tale of a moving van: While driving north on I-84 last Friday, I came up upon a car with Michigan license plates. Musing to myself that I don’t often see license plates from that state in this area I glanced at the driver as I passed by. He was a young man of about upper high school- or early college-age.
The thought came to mind that he must heading off to college. Eugene, Corvallis, Portland, Seattle?
Yet the next vehicle I came upon was a mini-van with the state license plates with a mom-like person driving it. She must be helping him move to college, I thought to myself.
But the very next vehicle in line was a moving van with a dad-like person driving it.
Then it occurred to me they were not moving him to college but instead moving to find a new job and a new life.
See, Michigan has the highest rate of unemployment in the nation, about 1 1/2 times our own state’s level. Job’s are hard to come by there, and many of the better jobs no longer exist, in part because governmental regulations have dampened or eliminated jobs.
The reason for telling this story is I was headed toward the Ash Grove cement plant near Durkee, the one that has been in the news because of the mercury that is released because of the process used to make cement.
The plant claims to have put in technology that greatly reduces the amount of mercury released, yet the government has instituted even stricter standards that must now be met, standards Ash Grove says it cannot meet and therefore may be forced to have to close the plant down.
It appears to me that if a person did not ranch or farm in Durkee there are few other jobs available other than as a cook or waitress at the Redneck Café. And, there are few other businesses from which the state might receive tax revenue. It would seem to me, in the current economic climate the government — our government — should be more interested in preserving and increasing jobs, not in destroying them.
Isn’t this the point in time when our government should partner with industries to help them find ways to meet new regulations rather than simply passing “do or die” legislation that kills jobs rather than preserve them or create new ones?
I know the Ash Grove plant in Durkee is a long ways from Salem and Washington D.C., but isn’t this exactly the reason why we vote for people who will represent our district?
And shouldn’t they be making the case for us? Because in doing so they would be making a case for the people who work in these enterprises - often the very people who voted for them?
How many times have we read, heard or experienced a new piece of government legislation that handicapped or eliminated jobs, businesses or even the creation of these?
Isn’t it about time as voters we called our government representatives to voice our concern about what is happening because the next “Ash Grove” may very well be the one where you and I work at?
Bill Williams
Ontario
Demand personal
responsibility be
restored in America
Editor,
I was privileged to be raised in a finer America, when family was the unchallenged foundation of the nation; when self reliance sustained the family and personal responsibility energized the community; when discipline and competence dominated the school environment, sending into the community youngsters who’d mastered the legitimate curriculum materials of the day; when the teachings of the church nurtured a compelling sense of morality among the citizens and officialdom of a great nation; before God was driven out of the schools and our civil institutions; when national and state legislatures still listened to the voice of the voters and the courts still adhered to do letter of the Constitution.
A self-governing nation cannot prosper, nor even survive, without citizens responsible for their own well-being and who demand from government that it govern, not manage.
We have to demand that personal responsibility — the essence of liberty — be restored to us before we lose the capacity to do so.
The greatest nation on earth must not be diminished by disruptive policy proposals introduced by persons of transient popularity.
Harry Neuwirth
Salem
Argus should be more responsible
Editor,
In reference to, “No light at the end of the drug war tunnel,” article dated Sept. 24, the first sentence of this article states “based on capitalism.”
Does every article in the Argus have to be related in a political fashion?
What is capitalism? Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.
Under capitalism, the state is separated from economics (production and trade), just like the state is separated from religion.
Capitalism is the system of laissez faire. It is the system of political freedom. Illegal drugs are a crime, same as burglary and murder. I guess the Argus is advocating another form of governance.
The article I referred to was not an editorial, therefore, it should have contained only the facts without a personal socialist/capitalist bias. Possibly a more appropriate word could have been used, based on journalists having a command of the English language.
I would ask that a local newspaper behave in a more responsible manner toward the readers who still have subscriptions, freedom of thought and political freedom.
Shall we begin chanting “Long live Fidel?”
Judy Bassett
Ontario
Antonio the correct winner on Design Star
A lot of Antonio bashing has been going on since he won HGTV’s Design Star.
Originality and personality count — color splash wannabes don’t.
Ann Gillette
Ontario
