Letters to the Editor 5/29/24

Wolf response

To the Editor:

I’ll repeat: “I’m not anti-wolf nor a wolf hater.” I simply stated the wolves that were brought down out of Canada and transplanted into Yellowstone shouldn’t be introduced or brought here because we already have, or at least had, a remnant of our original Oregon wolves present in the Three Sisters Wilderness and adjacent areas that weren’t killed off in the ’40s. I found out another local saw a large dark wolf over 20 years ago too, so that’s another confirmed sighting. Why didn’t the ODFW believe earlier wolf sightings and do something about it?

The largest recorded timber wolf was 175 pounds, but seasoned observers in the field reported bigger ones they estimated weighed close to 200 pounds, which is much bigger than average. We used to have buffalo in the Harney Basin until about 1800 and they were smaller than ones on the Great Plains. I mentioned the smaller-sized black bears we used to have here, yet those bears and buffalo would all have the same DNA within their species, but DNA alone doesn’t indicate larger or smaller sized variants in species which exists so I’m not being “unscientific” or misleading. Point is, the wolves we had here were somewhat smaller.

Wendy Von Kalinowski’s comment “wolves are poor hunters” is laughable, and I can state unequivocally that the rancher, who found the four deer killed in his field, was there the previous day, so its not a “half truth” as she wishfully stated, as the deer were not “sick or already dead,” but were killed and eaten the night before. I could show her the exact spot where they were cornered along a high fence and killed with hair all over the ground.

Would that we could have kept our original strain of wolves, but it may be too late for that now, which is tragic.

Where’s the concern or outrage over that?

Steve Allely

What America deserves

To the Editor:

My answer to Mr. Braun’s question: What in the world did America do to deserve President Biden? You all voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020! Joe Biden was probably looking forward to retiring when Trump decided to run (amazingly right about the time he was going to be indicted several times), and Biden, realizing that he had the best chance of beating him, threw his hat in the ring. If the Donald hadn’t decided the only way he could get out of the numerous court cases against him was to be President and pardon himself, and if his cult followers had decided to move on from this loser instead of doubling down on stupidity, you probably wouldn’t have Joe Biden to complain about. If the Democrats, in the meantime, had put up a candidate who could win the national election for sure, then you wouldn’t have Joe Biden to complain about. Joe Biden has proven to be a very effective president in spite of the resistance he’s gotten and seems to be going about the nation’s business instead of giving enormous tax cuts to the richest amongst us, separating children from their parents, and wondering if injecting disinfectant into our veins will cure Covid.

Donald Trump is arguably the worst President in American history according to nearly every Presidential historian you can think of (and that’s saying something — we’ve had several real doozies). I’m not going to list the reasons for saying that here, there’s not enough room and already there have been numerous books written on the subject. Of course, you have to actually read those books. The fact that people still fall for his con will never cease to amaze me. I get that the right wing base is sick of the left making fun of them, being better educated, caring about the planet, and worst of all, practicing Jesus’ teachings better than they do without even declaring themselves Christians. However, this is no excuse to even consider a long time con artist, woman hating, truly racist, narcissist to run the most powerful country in the world just because you’re pissed at Liberals. Jesus wouldn’t have turned oppressed people away at the border, banned books that tried to help young people figure out their place in life and society, He wouldn’t have chanted “Jews will not replace us!” (Charlottesville) on one hand, and then praise Israel for trying to exterminate a people whose land they took. At least the Jesus I learned about in Sunday school wouldn’t have acted that way.

A few points about Jan Pray’s letter: Are we better off then we were 3-1/2 years ago? Three-and-a-half years ago we were in the middle of a pandemic that had already killed hundreds of thousands of people here and in the rest of the world. Trump’s response to the pandemic was criticized by scientists all over the world and may have contributed to many of those deaths by inaction and false information. So, there’s that. Donald Trump became the third president in history to be impeached although he wasn’t convicted by the Republican senate, Donald Trump, after laying the ground work of sewing doubt about the election even before it took place, refused to concede to Joe Biden after what was considered the safest election in American history. The Big Lie. That was all around three-and-a-half years ago.

Trump was not respected or feared by world leaders, he was laughed at by world leaders. Putin didn’t invade Ukraine until after Trump was unelected because he was getting everything he wanted from Trump without having to go to war. He was going to invade Ukraine no matter what but hoped he could do it without Ukraine being supplied with weapons by the U.S. When Biden got elected, Putin knew he had to do it the old-fashioned way.

The war in Gaza lays at the feet of Hamas and Netanyahu. Hamas is the end product of years of oppression from Israel’s policies. If you keep kicking a dog, he will eventually turn on you. No excuse for what they did. Netanyahu is an ultra-right wing war hawk who was just looking for a reason to go into Gaza and kill as many people as he can get away with. There are many questions about his prior knowledge of the Hamas attack.

In the Bible it talks about not worshiping false idols. How can you possibly say that someone who sells cards (not even real ones) depicting him in various hero outfits and then rewards the biggest buyers of those cards by giving them dinner and cut up pieces of his coat and tie does not consider himself an idol.

Bruce Campbell

Change or get worse

To the Editor:

In response to your letter, Brad Earl, I would like to make something perfectly clear: This last weekend was Memorial Day weekend. In 1968, I fought in the Vietnam War with the 5th Infantry Division. My base camp was called Camp Nancy which was 3 miles from North Vietnam. I had seen many of my friends die.They were part of the over 58,000 men and women who spilled their blood in the fight against communism. Now I find out that we have communist politicians right here in America, in our White House.

You said that in response to Jan Pray’s opinion that you wanted to get things correct. Well, let me correct you. Here are 10 points that Joe Biden has done so far in three and a half years and if we don’t change things we won’t even have a country to speak of.

1. War in Ukraine and Israel and looming war with China over Taiwan.

2. The humiliating and deadly retreat from Afghanistan.

3. Sky high inflation and rising energy costs.

4. Out of control crime.

5. A full scale invasion on our southern border.

6. A government weaponized against Christians, conservatives, and parents.

7. A war on girls’ sports.

8. An escalating spiritual and cultural war on our traditional values.

9. The fentanyl crisis.

10. A growing child sex trafficking crisis.

So here are a few things that you can sit down and think about, and if we don’t change things, it’s going to get a lot worse.

May God Bless America,

George J. Paschalson