Code Pink Is On Target

This week's letter of the week comes from Bill Bodden who takes issue with notion that people don't have the right to protest outside military recruiting offices. The First Amendment thanks you Bill and so does the Source. As a token of our gratitude were picking up the tab for dinner tonight. You can pick up your $25 gift certificate for Dinner's Ready at our office, 704 NW Georgia, anytime during business hours.
 
To put it in polite terms, Stephanie Bearse (Feb. 28) chose the wrong target when she criticized war critics in Bend. She objected to Code Pink picketing the recruiting offices where ill-informed young people go to join the military and possibly participate in the fighting in Iraq. The recruiters may be doing their duty and may not lie, but they won't volunteer the whole and sordid truth. They won't tell applicants this is an illegal war or that they may have to fight in it with defective or insufficient armor and supplies. Nor will they tell young women they will be at increased risk of being raped.

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.