Letters to the Editor

Today I read the official announcement of the opening of Trader Joe's on March 28. This exciting, quite longed for and overdue event is finally coming to Bend.
I have been a fan of Trader Joe for so many years that it dates me. I know there are many other fans chomping at the bit, hearing it discussed at the gym, in the grocery store, and almost any place people gather… "Have you heard yet when Trader Joe's is opening? Oh, you don't know about Trader Joe? Let me tell you"

I recently sent this e-mail to NBC, parent company of MSNBC:
I have a philosophical issue concerning your showing of the recent Democratic presidential debate.
In my home town, Bend, Oregon, the only way to watch this debate was to subscribe to a premium cable package. This seems to be counter to the way democracy is intended to work.

In the article "Whose Playground" (Feb. 21, 2008) author H. Bruce Miller and those interviewed failed to mention the benefits of the groomed ski trails at Meissner Sno-Park that hundreds of Central Oregonians enjoy every week. Dale Neubauer of Wild Wilderness complained, "If you go up there and you have a busload or 50 or 60 kids unloading for practice your experience has been changed and you need to go somewhere else." This is in reference to a local high school ski team.

As Bonhoeffer wrote in what was later published as ETHICS, "At such a time as this it is easy for the tyrannical despiser of men to exploit the baseness of the human heart, nurturing it and calling it by other names. Fear he calls responsibility. Desire he calls keenness. Irresolution becomes solidarity.
Brutality becomes masterfulness, Human weaknesses are played upon with unchaste seductiveness, so that meanness and baseness are reproduced and multiplied ever anew. The vilest contempt for mankind goes about its sinister business with the holiest of protestations of devotion to the human cause."
With this present administration we see a similar attempt to turn "values" upside-down. A supposed concern for human life masks use of torture, denial of Geneva Convention relevance, and starting war without justifying evidence. A supposed dedication to freedom and the establishment of it in other countries hides the despising of the same freedom. U.S. government-established secret prisons in other countries, wire/cell-tapping without prior warrants and use of force to "establish democracy" transforms freedom into a joke. Fear becomes a tool for maintaining power. Those who oppose the leader's decisions become unpatriotic, unrealistic, and unwilling to "stay the course." Corporate powers link hands with leadership to deny or subvert attempts to avoid environmental disaster.

The Feb. 14th Source Weekly has an opinion page with a letter written by Philip H. Randall of Bend. It is his opinion that military recruiters should stay in the recruiting stations and should not be allowed to be on school campuses.
I agree with Mr. Randall that we do have the right as citizens to disagree and protest the government when we disagree and stand up to the administration when they act so arrogantly and secretly as the Bush administration has done.

In your Feb. 14 edition regarding Juniper Ridge, you sound like a clone of The Bulletin: "The city also needs a master plan to proceed with the development of Juniper Ridge, and everyone seems to agree that the Cooper Robertson plan is an excellent one." If you think everyone is on board with this plan, you better get out more and talk to people. Everyone I know thinks the Juniper Ridge plan stinks, would create sprawl, and is a financial sinkhole.
The city did not survey the public on what they wanted for this parcel but instead imposed their idea of what could bring in the most revenue to bail them out of their current financial mess. This financial mess was caused by sprawling development in the first place without charging developers enough system development charges during the boom of the past 20 years. Now with the boom finally busting, the city has increased SDC fees. However, we are in the red for hundreds of million dollars for street, water, sewer, storm drain, and school infrastructure needs, not to mention money for basic maintenance. Yet my property tax bill has money going away from the existing city limits to Juniper Ridge. The original justification for Juniper Ridge was we needed more industrial land, yet very little of this project is planned for industrial uses. Redmond has plenty of industrial sites not far down the road from Juniper Ridge where the current vacancy rate is over 17%. The public strongly opposed sprawl during the Juniper Ridge public comment process, yet this message seems to have gotten lost somehow.

 At Wanoga Sno-Park last week I noticed a dad in a sponsored Lycra outfit with his child at the sled hill. Because I was on my way to ski with my dog on the other side of the parking lot I wasn't quite able to get a fix on the sponsor, but it appeared to be the Mattel/Crayola Factory Team.

Harmless? ("Cinders Everywhere," The Bulletin, Feb. 22) The cover article claimed "experts" say they're harmless; however I strongly disagree. The "experts" cited in the article were a local doctor and police officer. Hardly a deep body of research to conclude that a product distributed ubiquitously across the landscape is harmless.
Cinders may not be harmless to the many who drive around in their enclosed boxes of steel, but they do cause harm. Bicycle commuters must navigate the cinders on the road and breathe in the dust from the parade of autos passing by. Additionally, the pulverized dust from cinders severely damages bicycle parts. Regular commuters find the bearings in their wheels fully disintegrated from the dust, requiring costly replacement. Runners and walkers must take great care with almost every step. A slip on cinders is just as bad as ice.

As a general internist in Portland for 30 years, I often treat a patient with needs that require the expertise of a consultant. When faced with the question of where the patient should be referred, among the important criteria we discuss are the facility's patient safety record and its insurance coverage in case the medical staff commits an act of negligence.
While the tram ride is beautiful and the multimillion-dollar riverfront development and new buildings on the hillside are state of the art, I don't recommend OHSU to my patients. That's because OHSU receives special privileges and unfair competitive advantages enjoyed by no other medical center in Oregon – placing business over patient care and safety.

On Feb. 4, 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story in which the following was stated:
"Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of rail cars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees."