BAT is No Frill

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.