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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Here are some Thanksgiving leftovers, courtesy of a
friend of mine, Roan McClure.
*What did the mama turkey say to her naughty son?
“If your papa could see you now, he'd turn over in his
gravy!”
*Asked to write a composition titled, “What I’m thankful
for on Thanksgiving,” one little boy wrote, “I am thankful
that I’m not a turkey.”
*What was Tom the Turkey’s excuse for not coming
over for Thanksgiving dinner? “I'm already stuffed.”
*A woman was picking through the frozen turkeys at a
grocery store, but couldn’t find one big enough for her fam-
ily. She asked a stock clerk, “Do these turkeys get any big-
ger?” The stock clerk answered, “No ma’am, they’re dead.”
*A son-in-law wanted to play a joke on his mother-in-
law, so he took a small Cornish game hen and put it inside
the Thanksgiving turkey before they roasted it. When they
served the bird, he stuck the fork inside and pulled out the
fully cooked Cornish game hen. When his mother-in-law
saw it, she cried out, “Oh no, you cooked a pregnant tur-
key,” and fainted.
Jefferson Baroque Orchestra & Chorus
Margret Gries, harpsichord & director
Saturday, December 1st, 8 p.m.
Newman Methodist Church, 6th & B Streets, Grants Pass
Tickets: $16 reg, $12 students, at Music 4 Kids, Grants Pass;
The Book Exchange, Cave Junction; at the door,
or phone (541) 592-2681
Home Mortgage Solutions
We make loans work for you!
315 S. Redwood Ave.
5 9 2 -4 6 4 6
Call for an appointment.
Specializing in Honest & Fair loans.
We work hard to get the best deal
possible from all lenders.
Purc ha se s or Re fina nc e s
Const ruc t ion Loa ns
M a nufa c t ure d H om e s
We do it a ll...for le ss!
Ask a bout t he Ore gon Bond progra m ,
it just m ight w ork for you.
St e ve Elliot t
6 5 9 -2 1 4 2
Cave Junction
Wednesday, Nov. 28
Nastiness later- snow,
sleet & freezing rain
High--50 Low--27
Thursday, Nov. 29
Clouds during the day
High--46 Low--25
Friday, Nov. 30
Morning clouds and
wind then cold
High--42 Low--22
Saturday, Dec. 1
More sun and rather
frosty
High--39 Low--22
Sunday, Dec. 2
Increasing clouds and
continued chilly
High--40 Low--26
Monday, Dec. 3
Overcast with showers
anon
High--49 Low--42
Tuesday, Dec. 4
Increasing rain
High--47 Low--36
St e ve Wa re
6 6 0 -8 8 5 2
Following are the high-and-
low temperatures, and rainfall,
recorded in O’Brien
by Cheryl & Harry Johnson.
*Fri., Nov. 16 57 - 51 0.83
*Sat., Nov. 17 58 - 54 1.18
*Sun., Nov. 18 59 - 47 1.06
*Mon., Nov. 19 49 - 33 0.47
*Tue., Nov. 20 45 - 33
*Wed., Nov. 21 49 - 29
*Thurs., Nov. 22 44 - 27
Following are the high-and-
low temperatures, and rainfall,
recorded in Cave Junction at
Builders Coop.
*Fri., Nov. 16 54 - 50 0.66
*Sat., Nov. 17 57 - 52 1.01
*Sun., Nov. 18 59 - 45 1.02
*Mon., Nov. 19 51 - 32 0.44
*Tue., Nov. 20 46 - 32 0.01
*Wed., Nov. 21 52 - 27
*Thurs., Nov. 22 52 - 27 0.01
illinois-valley-news.com
Illinois Valley News
www.illinois-valley-news.com
An Independent Weekly Newspaper Co-owned and published by
Robert R. (AKA Bob or El Jefe), Editor and Jan Rodriguez
Entered as second class matter June 11, 1937 at Post Office as Official Newspaper for
Josephine County and Josephine County Three Rivers School District, published at
321 S. Redwood Hwy., Cave Junction, OR 97523
Periodicals postage paid at Cave Junction, OR 97523
Post Office Box 1370 USPS 258-820
Telephone (541) 592-2541, FAX (541) 592-4330
Email: newsroom1@frontiernet.net or newsdesk@illinois-valley-news.com
Volume 70, No. 37
Staff: Michelle Binker, Zina Booth, Josiah Dean, Jennifer Newsted
Millie Watkins, and Tina Grow
Member: Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association
DEADLINES:
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POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to
P.O. Box 1370, Cave Junction OR 97523
(Editor’s Note: Views and
commentary, including state-
ments made as fact, are strictly
those of the letter-writers.)
* * *
Typed, double-spaced let-
ters written solely to this news-
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are double-spaced and legible
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‘Thank you’ submissions
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* * *
‘Not so funny,’ he says
From James Guthrie
Cave Junction
This letter is for Illinois
Valley High School adminis-
trators, IVHS staff, IVHS
students, parents, law offi-
cials, friends and family.
I am writing this to say,
“I am sorry.”
I know now that a bomb
threat is not a joke. I didn’t do
it as a threat.
On Nov. 15, when I had
written, “There is a bomb” on
that envelope, I was goofing
off with my friends. I never
meant for it to go any further
than that. But it did, and I am
very sorry.
I am not responsible for
any of the other “threats.”
Measure 49 disappointment
From Tim Norman
Cave Junction
I’ve got to say that I’m a
little disappointed. With all
the “No on 49” signs posted
around the valley, you would
think I would’ve gotten a
response from my letter I
wrote prior to the Nov. 6
election.
Either no one reads these
anymore. Or, is it possible no
one had a decent rebuttal?
That seems funny since so
many people felt so strongly
about this issue. Could it be
that the misinformation was
exposed, and therefore these
supporters have no founda-
tion?
It’s all moot now since
the measure passed. This is
due mostly to our fellow Ore-
gonians to the north, but the
fact remains, it is now law.
Those who opposed the
measure can take heart. Land
developers have tons of
money. They already have
lawyers working on it as I
write this.
A loop hole will be ex-
posed eventually. It is only a
matter of time. There will be
subdivisions and strip malls. I
only ask developers to take
this “lull” and reflect on what
is being accomplished by
letting our small rural towns
become suburbs and eventu-
ally cities.
First, people should ask
why they came here in the
first place. Then, why did
they leave wherever it was
they came from? Was the
purpose of coming here only
about making money? The
reason I came here was docu-
mented in my previous letter,
but I’ll summarize by saying
that I wanted to live a simple
life.
At one time, everyone
here did. I’m appealing to the
people who came here with
their only intention to try to
make their fortune. I’d like to
beg them to let us have this
place. We were happy here,
once. We were poor, but OK
with it.
There are things way
more important than money.
People here realized that
once. Those who have to
chase the almighty dollar
should go to Idaho. Or Ne-
vada. Those people would
embrace them. They are
screaming for development.
Those who have been
here and want all this devel-
Does someone’s drinking
bother you?
Al-Anon can help.
www.OregonAl-Anon.org
New Cave Junction meeting:
Friends of Lois
Wednesdays, 7 p.m.,
I.V. Senior Center
520 W. River St.
opment should realize that
there is a whole big world out
there. Heck, they can get
what they’re looking for only
23 miles north of here.
I want our little town left
alone.
‘WOPR, taxes not the issues’
From Kelpie Wilson
Cave Junction
The Oregon Taxpayers
Association, a pro-corporate
group based in Tigard, has
accused Josephine County
Commissioner Dave Toler of
being “pro-tax” because he
opposes the preferred alterna-
tive of BLM’s Western Forest
Plan Revision (WOPR).
This alternative would
nearly triple logging levels
and remove protections for
old-growth forests and
streams.
Commissioner Jim Raf-
fenburg also accuses Toler of
being “pro-tax,” warning that
without the logging increase,
“…your taxes will go up or
you will have no public ser-
vices.”
BLM undertook the
WOPR in response to a tim-
ber industry complaint that
the agency was not offering
the timber sale volumes pro-
jected under the Northwest
Forest Plan. It was imple-
mented in response to a
judge’s legal ruling that ex-
cessive logging was driving
forest-dependent species like
the spotted owl to extinction.
The legal ruling still stands.
and the courts are unlikely to
allow BLM’s WOPR to go
forward.
Toler has pointed this out
to his fellow commissioners
and called for Oregon coun-
ties to stop looking backward
to the days of unsustainable
high-volume logging and
flush county timber receipts –
days that can never come
again. But instead of facing
reality, and working for crea-
tive solutions to the county’s
fiscal woes, the Oregon Tax-
payers Association and its
local allies prefer to shoot the
messenger.
Sadly, reality today indi-
cates that protecting old-
growth forests is more impor-
tant than ever. When the
Northwest Forest Plan was
crafted in the early 1990s, the
big environmental concerns
were the loss of species like
the spotted owl, the degrada-
tion of salmon spawning
streams and the effects on
municipal drinking water
sources.
Now, in 2007, we have
new worries: fire and global
warming.
Biologist Pepper Trail
has closely examined the fire
analysis section of the 1,600-
page WOPR planning docu-
ment, and he has discovered
that BLM’s preferred man-
agement alternatives would
push thousands of acres of
forest into a “high-fire sever-
ity” category.
Because Preferred Alter-
native Two relies on clear-
cutting and re-growth in
even-aged plantations, it also
would transfer thousands of
acres into a “low-fire resil-
iency” category. Unlike old,
wet forests with thick-barked
trees, young plantations have
zero resistance to fire.
All that Raffenburg and
his allies can think about is
the money that cutting those
old-growth trees would bring.
They are not thinking about
the cost to defend homes now
surrounded by highly flam-
mable tree plantations.
Residents of Oregon for-
est-dependent counties also
should consider this: global
warming means that our local
forests now have greater
value as carbon storehouses
than as sources of timber.
Approximately a fifth of
greenhouse gas emissions
worldwide come from land
clearing and deforestation --
more than from the entire
transportation sector.
Even in forests that have
been only selectively logged
rather than clear-cut, it can
take decades before new
growth attains the same car-
bon-absorbing ability as the
forest it replaced. And it is
not just the trunks and
branches. Much of the carbon
storage is in the complex for-
est soils that are disturbed by
logging.
Federal action on global
warming is inevitable. If it is
done right, we will build a
new green economy with jobs
in renewable energy, energy-
efficiency retrofitting, land
restoration and forest fire
prevention. As a forest-
dependent community, our
Josephine County commis-
sioners should be leading the
way to this bright green fu-
ture.
‘War and Rumors of War’
From Jim Finley
Grants Pass
Fifty-eight thousand gave
their all/Only to have their
names etched on a wall.
While politicians spoke
of the fall of a domino/Many
objected and chanted, “Hell
no, we won’t go.”
The elite deferred and
found refuge in the Guard/
But the lowly had no out and
simply burned their card.
How can we ever justify
thousands to die?/Based com-
pletely on a political lie.
Will we ever do this
again?/If we do, it will surely
be a sin.
History does repeat, we
cannot deny/Again the politi-
cians deceived us and dis-
patched thousands more to die.
We destroyed a nation
and the world knew we were
wrong/Yet our politicians
(Continued on page 3)