Opinion

For shame, Eric Flowers! Asking at the end of your article on foreclosures if anybody has a match is dangerously inflammatory. While it maybe true that if every foreclosee burned down his house, the banks would very quickly stop foreclosing and start mortgage modifications instead, arson is against the law and carries heavy prison sentences, whereas selling subprime mortgages and bundling them or selling second mortgages to folks who can't pay for them is evidently perfectly legal and carry no such penalties, however immoral such actions may be.

When I read the inanities of Bachmann and other right-wing crazies, I wonder why the 2012 election is so important. The right wing now follows the Mayan calendar and accepts the end of the world, the Apocalypse, as December 21, 2012.

Over the past few weeks I have read with much dismay, the opinions put forth that our president is either worthless or spending too much. Those are not the exact words but they convey the overall tone. First and foremost, I moved here to Bend because of my love for Central Oregon, but what I don't love are the undertones of hate and a disbelief in our current president to be able to get people back to work.
Let's talk about spending. How much was spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which were started by President Bush? Trillions. But that's ok, right? Spend. Spend. Spend. How much was spent on the world's greatest scam called the housing bubble? Hundreds of billions. But that's ok, right? Spend. Spend. Spend. And how much did Mr. Bush spend on TARP? Over $700 billion. Again, that's ok, right?

I heartily endorse the plan to elect our mayor, which appeared in the Source recently. I am glad to see this interest by some council members after the flabby excuses for not electing our mayor made by an ad hoc committee. The mayor should be elected by the citizens, as befits a town that has grown almost to city size. After all, the city council changed its status from commission to council in the '80s. Why not the mayoral position now?
As the city has grown, so have our problems – in size, number and complexity. Wouldn't giving the mayor more authority or responsibility be a help? The city manager runs the city day to day. The mayor would be in charge of the ideas that guide our way into the future. The current way of choosing a mayor only makes the person “first among equals,” but does not confer any special duties.

Sirs,
I feel the need to respond to some letters from the last issue. I applauded Mr. Gerard's efforts to preserve the grammatical integrity of the English language, but must point out to him the error of his ways. I don't imagine he consulted Mr. Webster before he wrote to you, or he would have found that the plural form of medium is not media, but mediums. Media, as used to refer collectively to news producing entities, is, ironically, a singular noun, which results in constant grammatical errors by people who think it should be obviously plural and so mistakenly use the plural verb form in conjunction with it, which is highly annoying to some (like me). Shame on the Source for allowing Mr. Gerard to get away unchallenged for his criticism of your lack of grammatical prowess.