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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Cats don’t necessarily rule our household, but they
make a great and hairy attempt. I can tell about the latter
because of the furry remnants that they leave behind on
our bed and furniture.
We still have Jellirabbit, Bubba Big Foot and Flint East-
wood in the house. They are, in order, a Jellicle (black-
and-white), a Siamese (typical markings and beautiful blue
eyes), and a Bombay (all black with yellow eyes). Interest-
ing trio these felines, who seem to get along. Mostly.
However, Jelli has usurped Bubba as alpha cat. Flinty
doesn’t care who’s in charge, as long as he’s pretty much
left alone. And when the two other guys fight in their catty
ways, Flinty cries. That’s right, he yowls and comes to us
for comfort. He is a pacifist kitty.
As for the two contenders for the throne, let’s just say
that they agree to disagree. Unfortunately, Jelli continually
stalks Bubba, which causes no end of difficulties around
the rancho. Periodically we’ll hear hissing, running feet … I
mean paws … and the chase is on. We have tried some
herbal remedies, and they work. Mostly.
But our tuxedo cat is truly intimidating. Just his staring
will cause the Siamese to leap off the bed via his four six-
toed paws, or wherever he’s trying to take a stand. Actu-
ally, they’ve both reverted to kitty ambushes. One will hide
just outside a door, and when the other guy leaves the
room, the bushwacker will pounce. This is followed imme-
diately by a frantic chase, hissing and batting at each other
as though they’re going to disembowel one another.
Our two outside fur snakes continue to be Maui, who is
Bubba’s mom, and Deckster, who is a gray-and-white fluffy
guy with a pleasant face and personality to match. Maui is
mellowing in her “old age,” as Jan rescued her in mid-2002
during the Biscuit Fire. We don’t know how old she was
then, but she was pregnant. Despite mellowing she still
can be a bit of a terror if she doesn’t like something.
Oh yeah, there also are two or three other kitties who
come around for handouts. Don’t know their names, but
we enjoy being friends. Mostly.
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Illinois Valley News
www.illinois-valley-news.com
An Independent Weekly Newspaper
Co-publishers: Bob & Jan Rodriguez
Editor-in-Chief: Michelle Binker
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
P.O. Box 1370 USPS 258-820
Telephone (541) 592-2541, FAX (541) 592-4330
Email: newsroom1@frontiernet.net or newsdesk@illinois-valley-news.com
Volume 72, No. 4
Staff: Zina Booth, Brenda Encinas, Scott Jorgensen and Millie Watkins
Advertising sales: Kenny Hix
Website design and maintenance by Ashgrove Visual Arts
Member: Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association
(Editor’s Note: Views
and commentary, including
statements made as fact, are
strictly those of the letter-
writers.)
* * *
Typed, double-spaced
letters are considered for
publication. Hand-written
letters that are double-
spaced and legible also can
be considered. “Thank you”
submissions are not ac-
cepted as letters.
‘Open I.V. Library’
From Andrea King and
Linda Naydol
Cave Junction
The library will reopen in
Cave Junction when 400 Illi-
nois Valley residents sub-
scribe at the $100 level, or
when 1,000 of us subscribe at
the $40 level. Such a commit-
ment will have almost no
effect on an individual
budget; less than $10 or $4
per month, respectively.
Reopening all libraries in
the county has been the goal
of Josephine Community
Libraries Inc. (JCLI) since its
formation in 2007. The sys-
tem’s base, the Grants Pass
Library, opened last Decem-
ber and has established tech-
nical support for branch li-
braries when their communi-
ties offer financial and ener-
getic commitment.
The adventure of JCLI’s
existence is exceptional in the
world of libraries. It is a vol-
unteer-run nonprofit organi-
zation whose sole purpose is
to open and maintain commu-
nity libraries throughout its
home county.
To participate in re-
establishing the I.V. Branch
Library, people can mail a
check with a note that it
comes from I.V., to Josephine
Community Libraries, P.O.
Box 1684, Grants Pass OR
97528; complete the auto-
matic monthly payment form
on josephinelibrary.org, or
phone 592-3289.
Beware ‘green-washing’
From Shannon Wilson
Selma
The residents of Takilma,
Selma, O’Brien, and the en-
tire Illinois Valley should pay
special attention to the so-
called “fire fuels” reduction
projects being touted as resto-
ration.
The Rogue-Siskiyou
National Forest’s real man-
date remains the production
of tree fiber from native for-
ests and future tree planta-
tions. The timber industry and
the emerging “forest biomass
energy industry” still hold the
U.S. Forest Service and BLM
captive to their whims.
Just because the forest
service and BLM are propos-
ing to use some good folks to
do the job does not mean that
this will benefit the ecosys-
tem (community) and biodi-
versity.
Earlier this year I wit-
nessed the pre-commercial
thinning of the replanted
Longwood Fire Complex just
outside of Takilma. This is
just the continuing subjuga-
tion of the native biodiverse
forests struggling to re-
establish itself. By eliminat-
ing the naturally seeded spe-
cies the forest service and
BLM are perpetuating the
industrial tree farm model.
In fact they are perpetuat-
ing the subjugation tactics
that have been used on Native
American people and native
species for more than 500
years.
Real fire fuels reduction
would be most effective
within a few hundred feet of
homes. Real restoration
would not reduce biodiversity
and the populations of native
species, but would increase
them upon every acre treated.
Real restoration would re-
move hundreds of miles of
eroding and failing forest
roads. Real restoration would
not degrade nor compact soils
and mycorrizial relationships
within the forests.
The subjugation of the
forests in your own backyards
may get painted in “green-
wash.” Be watchful.
Solutions at hand
From Bruce Jackson
Cave Junction
There is something artifi-
cial or disconnected about our
current financial crisis. The
crisis is in the system that has
facilitated the accumulation
of massive wealth by some
and a challenge to survive by
most.
The problem is more
abstract than what can be
fixed by all of us merely
working harder.
There is the growing
factor of public awareness.
It’s not that people are better
educated, or that the general
public has a better under-
standing of economics and
politics than before. In some
ways apathy has won, and
most people feel helpless to
affect the systems of wealth
and government.
But something else is
emerging in the awareness
and consciousness of a grow-
ing number of people. Ironi-
cally, it may be the very op-
pression and threat of disaster
that serves to awaken us to
real solutions.
To start with, we must
realize there are many per-
spectives to view our current
situation.
If we begin to dissect the
system with the intent to fix
it, we run into a quagmire of
complexity that would put us
safely asleep if we study it
long and hard enough. Instead
we need to think a little more
like Thoreau, who described
economics of two men. One
worked to earn the money for
train fare while the other be-
gan walking.
Both ways have validity,
but result in very different
experiences. Starting over is
not really an option that most
of us would care for, as the
system for all its evils has
produced some remarkable
conveniences that keep us
careening down the highways
at high speed to our next ap-
pointment. Indeed the very
system that threatens to de-
stroy us is helping us all to
live more comfortably in
many ways.
So the system works in
some ways, but remains fa-
tally flawed. The world now
at this critical juncture has a
rare opportunity to transform.
Unfortunately, real change in
this world requires the un-
comfortable breakdown of
the very system we depend
upon to live. I am not an ad-
vocate for anarchy nor is any
effort needed to bring down a
system that is consuming
itself at an alarming rate.
How long the agony can
be prolonged by printing
more money and assigning it
to our collective indebtedness
is yet to be seen, but I pro-
pose that we use our remain-
ing time to make our own
positive effect on this world.
I believe we must look
past the economics to the real
solutions and the real prob-
lems that face us. In order for
us to have food, shelter, cloth-
ing, health care, education,
and the agricultural, manufac-
turing, and service ability to
produce the essential and de-
sired stuff that we have come
to depend upon, we must give
something for it.
What have we to give?
We have only our lives, our
energy, our creative innova-
tion. Our heart and souls are
our true treasures. And so we
live in a world of two reali-
ties; our flesh and blood and
living soul reality, and our
existence as a legal entity
with a number.
We cannot return to the
land like the communes of
the ’70s attempted. We can-
not live in isolation from the
rest of the world that makes
our shoes and cars and com-
puters. The glory of our pre-
sent system is that we can
pull into a service station or a
grocery store and fill our tank
or shopping cart with the
swipe of a card. The power
lines keep our TVs and com-
puters powered while we
contemplate organic garden-
ing and spiritual awakening.
So what can we do while
the economy threatens the
balance of so many? Our di-
rection begins by simply
keeping in touch with that
question. What resources do
we have within our reach?
What kindness can we do to
relieve the suffering of oth-
ers? What good ideas can we
implement? How can we
build something new? How
can we create the kind of
community that we would
like to live in?
How can we live full,
healthy and productive lives?
May the celebration of
resurrection this year be our
true willingness to be made
new in heart and mind as we
trust in our highest inspira-
tion, and then find its purest
expression in our lives.
Resources counter bullying
From Sue Lily
Cave Junction
Our middle school has
been celebrating a “Day of
Respect” for several years,
but it’s a continual process.
An April 4, 2009 article in the
New York Times by Winnie
Hu on the subject of bullying
included the following links,
for those who wish to help
improve communication in
our town and county:
Knowledge Is Power
Program; Second Step: Roots
of Empathy; National Forum
to Accelerate Middle-Grades
Reform; Character Education
Partnership; Thomas B. Ford-
ham Institute; Parent Teacher
Association.
Even smugness is a form
of bullying.
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