Letters to the Editor

I read the article "Beware Parking Ticket Racket" from the September 25th issue. I decided to do some research of my own because I did not believe everything the gentlemen had stated. From the information and facts I had found it seems that he is just a pissed off person with a valid ticket and does not want to pay a measly $25. I went to the "permit only lot" to see the signs. The signs are bigger than what was stated in the article and the signs clearly read "Parking by Permit Only Violators Will Be Ticketed." Yes, this is a private lot and the owners had decided to contract Municipal Parking Services to monitor their lot. MPS has several agents watching lots around Bend.
People have been taking advantage of parking in the lot behind Midtown for several years. MPS put four signs on the lot requested by the owner. I had talked with one of the agents from MPS and he stated that he told this gentleman that he could call the owner of the lot to try to have the ticket voided. If the owner did not void the ticket then MPS could not do anything about it. The agent at MPS never said "there was nothing I could do about it". The gentleman was not telling the whole truth about what had been said. The owners of the private lots have sole jurisdiction on voiding the tickets. MPS is not responsible in any way for voiding tickets.

I accepted the request of the BendFilm board to be the Executive Director in November 2007. So that we would not have to close our doors, I came on board for no salary for two months - which was my choice. At all times, I have attempted to honor the mission of BendFilm, which is to celebrate the passionate voice of the independent filmmaker. Anyone who thinks my 'agenda' was anything different than that doesn't know me. I love film. I love filmmakers. I love BendFilm. At all times I worked towards honoring that mission. I worked solely towards honoring the funds sponsors gave, and to honor the work the filmmakers created, which at times is simply extraordinary.

We're not sure who penned this week's top letter, maybe Ms. Manners, but we can't help but agree.

Soviet Leader Vladmir Lenin said, "A lie told often enough becomes the truth". Unfortunately, sometimes once is enough. Accordingly, this letter is a response to the 10/24/08 letter by Steve Stambaugh wherein he states the ridership of BAT "is declining….down to one person per mile".

That claim is as far opposite from facts as the claim that, "the Holocaust never happened." The facts are that BAT ridership is constantly increasing to the extent that sometimes there remains only standing room.
Transportation is not a luxury; it is a necessity. During World War II, of which I am a veteran, General Patton and Rommel spent as much time racing for sources of fuel (necessary to keep their tanks rolling) as they did fighting each other.
Within the limitation of 400 words, I cannot state all the advantages of a public transit system for Bend and thus voting YES for measure 9-60. For one thing, thriving businesses are absolute necessities for a thriving economy. And what is necessary for a business to thrive? Customers. Regardless of its goods or services or location, a business (any business) must have customers. And the more customers, the more that business thrives.

I believe the health, perhaps even survival, of our nation depends on three issues: the economy, energy and our relationships with foreign nations.
America is weakened. Our economy is stumbling, our infrastructure is crumbling and we are militarily over-extended. I support Barack Obama because I believe we must change direction, significantly. We've been on a "Borrow and Spend" free-for-all. Our nation now has an unprecedented $9 trillion national debt. We must change direction.
Our economic crisis is worsened by our precarious energy situation. America now imports 70% of our oil. McCain's response calls for more domestic drilling. I give Obama credit for telling the difficult truth on this issue: America consumes 25% of the world's oil but we have only 3% of the world's oil reserves. We cannot drill our way out of dependence on foreign oil. To regain independence we must aggressively develop renewable energy options. Obama's energy plan is spot on.

One opportunity the Obama campaign is missing (and they seem to be doing just fine without me) is that they're not posing the question, "Did John McCain put his country or his election first when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate?" We all know the answer: he chose her because he thought it would help him get the Hillary defectors and the ultra-conservative voters who weren't thrilled about him. But I'm sure that whether it was best for the country never entered his mind.

Nothing has done more to alienate voters from the democratic process than the lack of clear choices and substantive debate. Local elections in particular tend to ignore the most important issues in favor of well-intentioned but meaningless platitudes. With so many pressing issues facing our community, I refuse to allow another election pass us by in a blur of don't-worry-be-happy bromides. Though The Source apparently feels that my candidacy is hardly worth mentioning, this is precisely why I am running for City Council Seat 2.
Watch my opponents' slick television ads or listen to their feel-good rhetoric, and you would never know that Bend is in the midst of a major economic crisis. Property prices have plummeted in our community, foreclosures are on the rise and families are finding themselves owing more money on their mortgage than their house is now worth. Having brought Bend to this unhappy condition by fueling ever more unsustainable housing growth, our local leaders now refuse to even acknowledge that families are struggling. We can't allow local leadership to serve the needs of real estate developers while ignoring the long-term health of our community.

"Where the heart is without fear, and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow, domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sands of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let our country awake."
by Rabindranath Tagore, one of India's great poet laureates, the recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1917, and friend of Mahatma Gandhi.

Retiring 18 years ago as a former science teacher and school librarian for 22 years, I escaped the "No Child Left Behind" education wrecker. I have been around many, many, teachers every day of my wonderful career. And I am still in awe of all the talented, concerned professionals I spent 23 years with. To name a few - Jack Ensworth who embraced every child, instilling an awe and wonderment for learning and exploration of all life, human and otherwise. Clayton Smith, who in his kindly and gentleman's way inspired his students with reading, learning and calligraphy, a gift they can use forever. Cherie Crane, who gave the gifts of knowledge, art and elegance to all of her students. Florence Bradley, small but mighty in her teaching skills. And I could go on and on about all of the exceptional teaching staff here.
In today's schools, the No Child Left Behind Program can eliminate the beauty of learning with a lockstep obedient emphasis on never-ending (like the war) test-taking. A child's intuitive and sensitive appreciation of discovery and finding out can be totally crushed by testing, testing and more testing. Tests should be merely another tool in education, not the be-all and end-all of schooling! Children learn in their own way and constant testing can destroy all that is inspiring for children to learn and develop. School is not a military assembly line to enforce non-democratic authoritarian objectives such as complete obedience, and uniformity of all students and teachers.

In a previous editorial I pointed out that fewer than four out of every 1,000 Bend residents ride the bus each day, and that number is declining on a yearly basis, even as oil prices increase. In fact, Bend Area Transit's numbers indicate that ridership is now down to one person per mile. Thus, even the claim that BAT is good for the environment is simply not credible. The problem is ridership on the current system. It's got to be increased, or this system as it currently exists just doesn't make any sense.
Here, I'd like to examine the costs of the transit system. We find that not only is the system very underutilized, it is also very expensive. The city and BAT have not properly laid the groundwork for a new tax district.