Letters to the Editor 07/05/2006

To the Editor:

I would like to thank everyone who attended the Ugandan Orphan Choir’s performance at Chapel in the Pines in Camp Sherman last Sunday. AOET (Action for Empowerment) is an organization that is worthy of our respect and support.

I was fortunate to go to Uganda this past January and was moved by their determination, optimism, and vision for the future of the kids in their care as well as all of sub-Saharan Africa. Their model of sustainability, vocational training, and targeted education struck a profound chord with me personally.

Sam Tushabe, the director of AOET (a 35-year-old orphan himself), has personally and dramatically impacted the lives of over 2,600 orphans (and counting). And with the moral, spiritual, and financial support of caring people worldwide, AOET is making a tangible difference in a region where the suffering is almost beyond comprehension. Many of us have heard of the plight of AIDS and civil war victims of sub-Saharan Africa — well, here is an immediate chance to get involved in a very direct way.

Sam and AOET would like to invite all Central Oregonians to see their singing and dancing performance at Sisters Coffee Co. on Thursday, July 6, from 5 to 6 p.m. We know that all the people attending the quilt show will be impressed and inspired by what these young people are doing. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed — and you may just come away with a newfound respect and hope for what Africans are doing for Africa.

For more information on their vision and programs, you can view their Web site at http://www.orphaneducation.org.

Christian Carmichael

s s s

To The Editor:

Again regarding the beautiful brown bear, now deceased.

Because we trust and admire local naturalist and author, Jim Anderson. He may have decided or even been invited to put an acceptable face on an event that had already occurred.

I was, however, more impressed by the thoughtful letters recently published in The Nugget which do not concur with the steps taken.

Jim writes on page 44 of The Nugget (June 7, 2006): “Because of miscommunications, ODFW didn’t know about the bear until it was almost too late to start the ball rolling to get capture equipment out to Sisters to trap the bear and move it away.”

Perhaps the nonchalant attitude attributed to a young bear, who may have had no reason to fear humans, was shared by those deciding his fate.

What a wonderful lesson in conservation could have been produced for the public and the schools, following Rick Gerath’s photo, by filming the capture and release of this youngster into a distant and less frequented area of the forest.

I am convinced that unless our planning, communication and response tactics are greatly improved, people will be reluctant to report large animal sightings, resulting in an uninformed community and a greater potential for the very type of dangerous encounters the authorities seek to avoid.

Anita Kirkaldy

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To the Editor:

Response to Lorene Richardson: Heaven forbid! The gays are coming for my kids! We should not stop with a ban on gay marriage. We obviously need to ban gay people altogether! Our children are not safe from the gays in our schools who are trying to convert them into homosexuals even as we speak!

Bigotry is ugly. When the Germans, during the 1930s and 1940s, decided that homosexuality was wrong, they passed laws declaring that homosexual relationships were unnatural and punishable by imprisonment. This led to the eventual extermination of hundreds of thousands of gay people. It is the hallmark of oppression to attack the minority, the weak and the friendless first.

Just because the majority agrees with you doesn’t make you right. There was a time when a majority of Americans approved of slavery, racial discrimination and segregation laws.

Until the mid 20th century the majority of states had laws citing fundamental Christian values that defined marriage as being only between a man and a woman of the same race. The judges who struck down these laws were derided by many as activists bent on the destruction of traditional marriage. They were thought to be out of step with the common sense philosophy of the average citizen.

Pointing out that your view is based on bigotry is not intolerance. Being tolerant only requires that you be allowed to speak your mind and live in peace, not that you be allowed to force your view on others through the law or the Constitution.

Pointing out and fighting bigotry when you see it is the responsibility of every freedom-loving American. At work, at school, on the streets and in the public square - prejudice and bigotry flourish when unchallenged, but wither and die when called by name.

Peter Bearzi

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To the Editor:

Lorene Richardson’s letter in last week’s Nugget continues to promote misleading statements as truth and remains comfortably blind to the broader ethical implications of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

First of all, Richardson does not now speak for the majority of citizens, although that may have sadly been the case a couple years ago. According to the latest polls (cited in the June 29, 2006 issue of Rolling Stone), the number of Americans who now support a constitutional ban on gay marriage has dwindled to 42 percent.

Scientific research concludes that sexual orientation is an innate preference determined by genetic makeup and not, as Richardson would have us believe, caused by some phantom campaign by militant homosexuals hell-bent on indoctrinating heterosexual youth. And, by the way, watching Brokeback Mountain won’t make you turn gay, either.

The current crusade by the religious right to ban same-sex marriage by writing discrimination into the U.S. Constitution reminds us of the Republican party’s equally shameful attempt during the 1960s to uphold state bans on marriage between blacks and whites.

But regardless of how anyone may feel toward a specific minority — whether blacks, Jews, the elderly, people with disabilities or gays — our forefathers never intended the protections bestowed by the Constitution to be selectively applied to one group and not the other. On the contrary, the promise of “liberty and justice for all” is the essence of what being an American is all about.

Michael Cooper

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To the Editor:

I firmly believe every person should have equal opportunities to do what they believe in whether others agree with it or not.

Why isn’t it okay for two grown women or men to lead a happy life with a family? And true, they cannot reproduce, but there’s a little thing called adoption, and that I might add, would help a lot of poor children that were “naturally conceived” and whom have no families among this over-populated world.

A family consisting of same-sex parents are, without a doubt, just as capable of raising a healthy, happy family together as much as a man and woman. Ms. Richardson speaks of homosexuals like they are ravenous animals with AIDS…but who one ends up with in the hands of love, is completely inevitable.

Homosexuals, just like any other person, deserve just as much of a right to marriage and most importantly justice. Have we forgotten that old, famous phrase “all men are created equal,” that obviously hasn’t been too much of an impact in past and recent years?

This “one man-one woman” non-sense is nothing short of prejudice. You might as well say you hate black people because they are black, or hate someone for practicing witchcraft, being Irish.

To say homosexuals lead an unhealthy and un-natural lifestyle is not only an ignorant opinion but speaks alone of infinite intolerance. And haven’t we had enough intolerance over the generations? Just give everyone a break, love everyone for being brave enough to live in the skin they were born in and just relax.

Laura Pierce

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To the Editor

The recent controversy regarding migrants from across the border has caused me to respond with the following:

Just because people come from another culture doesn’t make them bad people. Remember we all had to come from someplace else to be here. While it is difficult to accept the impact on our neighborhoods, social services, property values and job market, the answer is not to deny them access to our fine land.

I know they talk funny and look different but let’s be realistic, building a wall across the border and making up discriminatory laws WILL NOT stop all the Californians from moving to Central Oregon.

Michael DeLaRosa.

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To the Editor:

I realize summer is the time for garage sales and garage sale signs, but, folks when the sale is over the signs should come down off of the sign posts.

Don’t leave them up for an indefinite period and expect someone else to take them down! That’s called eye pollution. Polluting the scenery with old garage sale signs is not why we all moved to this area in the first place. Let’s all be good citizens of the countryside and do your part by taking down signs as soon as the event is over.

Diana Raske Lovgren

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To the Editor:

On September 1, 1996, the current Federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour was signed into law. The Republican controlled Congress has seen to it that there has been no increase in the minimum wage in the past nine years.

The Senate just defeated a bill to raise the minimum wage again. During that same period of time, Congress voted itself eight pay raises. (Actually Congress doesn’t vote on its own pay raises. A “government” commission recommends the pay hikes every year and Congress can only vote NOT to take the raise. It has only done that once in the last nine years. Don’t you wish you got an automatic pay raise every year with the only proviso being that you would have to formally decline it in order not to get it?)

Article I of the Constitution defines the qualifications to be a Representative or a Senator. To be a Representative you must have “… attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States …” and “ … when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.” It’s a little tougher to become a Senator, you must have “… attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States …” and “ … when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”

Since the job of Representative or Senator requires no qualifications or prior experience doing anything other than reaching a certain age and inhabiting a state, why aren’t these minimum wage jobs? Why doesn’t every worker have the right to a living wage job with, at minimum, the same benefits package as their elected representatives?

Dean Billing