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About Columbia Gorge news. (The Dalles, OR) 2020-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2021)
Columbia Gorge News www.columbiagorgenews.com Wednesday,January13,2021 5 OPINION of people in other states. To try to deny the very principle of democra- cy, that we listen to the voice of the Continued from page 4 people and we let the voters choose our leaders. Democracy doesn’t mean your candidate always wins. Sometimes widespread loss of faith by many you win, and sometimes you lose. Americans in the 2020 election — including many in my district,” after But real Americans accept the truth having acted earlier to create loss of and work together, to keep our nation strong, while agreeing to faith in the election. The last thing we need right now debate and disagree honorably, to keep our nation growing. is another person (old white male I don’t expect a liberal like me or other) in a leadership position to get elected to represent The needlessly sowing discord and Dalles in Washington, D.C.; we are distrust in our communities and our country. We have much work to a moderate to conservative rural town, and there’s a lot to like about do to restore faith in America and in each other. We need our elected that. And we are also people of prin- ciples. Democrat or Republican, representatives to be part of the I think we should be represented solution, not part of the problem. by a patriot, a person of integrity, This week you were an embar- someone with the courage to stand rassment to Oregonians and an affront to our democracy, which has up for what is right and fight against what is wrong. Is Cliff Bentz the been pelted to near-death by the current administration. Please join best Wasco County can do? I think I know my neighbors here well us in trying to come together and enough to say no. make our country whole. Cliff Bentz isn’t worthy of us. We Bonnie New Hood River can, and at the next election we should, do much better. Rhiannon Griffin Yesterday, our representative to The Dalles Congress of Oregon’s 2nd district, Cliff Bentz, voted with the conspir- acy theorists who objected to the Wednesday Jan. 6, 2021, will go results of Pennsylvania’s presiden- down as one of the saddest and tial election of Nov. 6. His vote came most embarrassing days in U.S. AFTER supporters of those con- history. On Wednesday, acting spiracy theories formed a mob that President Trump incited a violent violently overran the Capitol. Said riot at the US Capitol, failed to mob was in Washington protesting immediately tell the rioters to go the election precisely because of the home once violence and law-break- disingenuous spreading of said con- ing occurred, failed to call in the spiracy theories, which prior to Jan. National Guard as soon as violence 6, Mr. Bentz had openly supported started, or suggested anyone who and taken part himself in spreading. broke the law face criminal charges. Mr. Bentz made opportunistic The words spoken by the president use of these ridiculous conspiracy and the actions that resulted meet theories and seeing the real conse- the legal definitions of treason, quences of his behavior, chose to sedition, and insurrection as well double down. as a coup attempt under US code Recall Cliff Bentz. 18 chapter 115 sections 2381, 2383, Nicholas Eby and 2384. I am not a lawyer, but Hood River I can read as well as anyone who wishes to look this up. I do not believe anyone still I am a proud liberal and I usually supporting Donald Trump will ever be convinced that he is not fit for vote Democrat. I didn’t always public office, or is even a decent hu- agree with Greg Walden. I wasn’t man being. That fact is something always happy with him. But I was we cannot change as Americans. never ashamed of him. On Jan. 6, Cliff Bentz stood up on The people and those in elected the side of the traitors who invaded office do have an opportunity to take dramatic, legal action to rid our nation’s Capitol building, who our country of the president and attacked our seat of government prevent him from ever running for and threatened it with violence for political office again. It is time we the first time since 1812. And for what? To try to deny the lawful votes stop speaking of radicalized, violent LETTERS Recall Bentz Treason Bentz not worthy Todd Carpenter ■ By Owner, Last Stop Saloon rhetoric and actions as outliers of “a few bad people.” We are seeing a powerful, dangerous movement which must be halted as soon as humanly possible. Steve Kaplan Hood River Denounce Bentz On Wednesday, January 6, a mob egged on on by a populist, megalomaniac president stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and attempted to take members of Congress hostage. A few hours after that, our representative in Congress, Mr. Cliff Bentz, voted to support Trump’s attempted coup. I know that many of my conservative friends supported Mr. Bentz. I ask you now to denounce Mr. Bentz and his vote to support insurrec- tion. Our allegiance must be to the constitution and the law, not to a individual. Greg Chiodo Ashland Get a spine, Mr. Bentz What a tough time to enter Congress. Right off, you have to opine on mob rule. A week into the job, Oregon’s new 2nd Dist. Rep. Cliff Bentz joins dissident GOP members in voting against certifying election results from Pennsylvania. In a public statement on his web site, Bentz said, “My goal was to protect the integrity of our elections and to prompt all states to uphold election laws as determined by their state legislatures.” The thing is, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court threw out a lower court’s order preventing the state from certifying election results. The Supreme Court said the lawsuit challenging ballots had been filed long after the deadline for challeng- es to the state’s mail-in voting law (bit.ly/3s6gLvO). So, does Mr. Bentz believe deadlines don’t matter? Or does he believe post-election complaints about mail-in voting should be permitted — if, and only if, they pre- vent his preferred candidate from winning? If Bentz doesn’t like mail-in bal- lots, maybe he would like to forfeit his own victory on Nov. 3, because Oregon’s mail-in ballots helped his supporters elect him? It sounds like Mr. Bentz entered Congress at the wrong time — when a tide of illogic rallied to the defense of a seditious insurrectionist. I’ll cut Mr. Bentz some slack. He’s new. Still trying to figure out what size big boy pants he needs. Or if he qualifies. Throwing out legitimately cast (or mailed) ballots just because you don’t like the results is about as undemocratic as can be. After the riot at the capitol, Bentz told The Oregonian that he didn’t know if “stolen” was the right way to think about the election, or “whether it’s constitutional.” Here’s a question for Bentz: If Biden’s vic- tory was stolen from Trump, maybe Bentz’s victory was stolen from Alex Spenser? I don’t think so. I voted for Spenser. But I also think Bentz won, fair and square (with mail-in ballots). So did Biden. Please, Mr. Bentz, get a spine and get to work for all of us in Dist. 2. Stu Watson Hood River God bless America My first instinct was to write a let- ter to the editor in anger over what is happening in our country; crime and violence is up, our government is imploding from within, we are lit- erally coming apart at the seams, we blame our political parties, federal and state leaders. But we have no one to blame but ourselves! We, the people, have allowed this to happen. Over the years we’ve become so lax in our faith and moral standards and become a society where any- Representative Bentz introduced thing and everything goes, our lead- himself on the national stage in the ers were able to remove God from worst possible manner by support- our schools, businesses, courts, government declaring separation ing the unfounded objections to certifying the votes cast by almost 7 of church and state. Some churches have turned their backs on God for million Pennsylvanians. the same reasons. While clouding his decision in A Democrat opened a session language around changes to voting procedures, this farce is just part of with prayer to every God as listed by each culture then ended it with an a misguided attempt to overturn Amen and a woman. Does he not the free and fair elections for one reason only: Trump’s desire to stay realize that Amen is not a pronoun but the words, “Let it be so?” In in power. finding ourselves to be politically In supporting this, Mr. Bentz correct, we’ve lowered our iden- must be held accountable for tity to pronouns. Our morals are spreading misinformation and fleeing the scene and God has been answer for his role in legitimizing replaced by political correctness, the attacks on the U.S. Capitol. We secularism and multiculturalism. witnessed this week that violent extremists attacked the Capitol, re- We have been told that God is dead and His teachings do not count sulting in the death of five individ- uals. These violent acts were based for so long, society is beginning to believe it! on the provenly false narratives Civility has turned to attacks and around the election results and the hatred, which the media and lead- last-minute efforts to prevent the certification of votes. I am ashamed ers on both sides support. We ap- point leaders who believe in killing of such representation. Instead, we should have a representative — the unborn and call it choice. Our identity to the Almighty Creator has Republican or Democrat — who been lost, which therefore makes us understands the values and ideals of democracy and the freedoms that no different from any other country or belief. Crime, violence, redirect- come with those. Patrick Hiller ed morals, is lost because we’ve Hood River made everything about us! God is out! In 1956 Russia’s Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev said, “We Proudly floating below the I-95 will take America without firing a bridge on the River Charles in shot. We do not have to invade the Boston harbor sits a ship nick- U.S. We will destroy you from within named “Old Ironsides”, the USS Constitution, the world’s old- est commissioned war ship is a SeeLETTERS,page6 three-masted heavy frigate. Ashamed of Bentz Fitting fate There is a gap in Oregon between the haves and the have nots world come to American to live and thrive freely. I believe that those rights On the front of our build- and values are being threat- ing is a very large American ened. Our government has flag. When I see it and think throttled business unfairly about what it represents to and created a double stan- me, I get emotional. It is hag- dard that they have applied gard but it is there and has across different business been there since March 2020. sectors based on a set of The beliefs that guide me are criteria in the name of health to treat people the way I want and safety. Even though the to be treated, mutual respect, Centers for Disease Control honest communication, and has outlined safe practic- helping others in my com- es for all businesses, our munity. I do not always live government has not allowed up to these values, but I try us to apply them equally my best. Anyone who knows regardless of the type of me knows that they can call business. It was just recently me out when they do not reported in Washington that see me exemplifying those a Costco in Yakima Valley values. had 150 COVID-19 cases but I do not claim to know remained open because they everything about our govern- complied with uniform best ment; I do not claim to know practices established by the the constitution well. I just CDC. work hard and keep pushing We talked with our to provide for my family, employees after this last friends, and community. It two-week freeze. When we is what my mom and dad opened back up for takeout taught me. and patio service, we asked They also taught me that them how things were going. we have the right of freedom What we heard was they were of speech and expression; struggling at best and/or we have a right to gather to couch surfing or homeless at exchange ideas and create worst. Some are severely de- community and we have a pressed or anxious, some are responsibility to help others if angry, some are just waiting we can. They taught me that to see what happens next and those ideas and core values shrugging it off like they are combined are what makes used to being kicked in the the United States stand out gut so much it is just better among other countries. It is to roll with it. I am painting why people from all over the an ugly picture here, but it is Dr. Cullen’s the truth. There is a gap in the world between the haves and the have nots. There is a gap between those that make the decisions and those that are victims of those decisions. These consequences may be unintentional, but they are there, and we need to recognize them and here in Oregon, specifically in The Dalles, we need to do some- thing about it. We do not have to wait for the govern- ment to come up with a plan. As small business owners, entrepreneurs, free thinkers, and problem solvers, we can come together and make things happen. I can tell you this about our employees, we feel they are family and we want to do everything we can for them. Also, regardless of how they feel about the situation they put on their best face and they work. They want to work. They want the same opportunities as the people making the decisions the “haves” have gotten. They want to be free to work and provide for their families the only way they know how. Some of these people are single parents who work two jobs, both usually for minimum wage to make ends meet. When you take away one of those jobs, they simply cannot make it. We could roll up our doors and we did. We thought we were giving all our employees the best chance for aid when we laid them off, all 45 of them across three businesses in March. When we heard they were struggling, we de- cided to open back up. After all, we would be paying most of the overhead anyway if we wanted to open again when things get back to normal in a couple months. We are not doing any of this for political reasons. We are not doing this for money. You can ask any open small business how much money they have made this last year and you will hear loud, sar- castic laughter. We are open from the heart, following CDC guidelines protecting the health and safety of our employees and our custom- ers by sanitizing everything, constant hand washing, and wearing masks. We do this because of our core values and because this is small town USA where anything is Call your locally owned independent mortgage broker today. LOOK 17 $ Kramer Keegan Ku Benjamin Ku for Global Studies: as the Algebra 1 Student of the Week: Keegan comes to class every Regardless of the struggles present day in the distance learning attitude format, Benjamin has with a positive and works shown not resilience and determination in his hard, only improving himself, math studies. Thank you Ben for all your but classmates as well. hard fellow work and excellent communication! Congratulations possible and taking care of government agencies, your family and neighbor is understand our rights and the best thing that anyone responsibilities, and help our can do. local community. The Wasco County Business owners are Business Alliance was cre- scared; every single one of ated with these core values them is in a different situa- and, dare I say, radical ideas tion and some have made in mind. Our goal is to first different decisions than we focus on the economic have, but they are not doing vitality of Wasco County. Our so lightly. They all have the intention is to share informa- same concerns we have. tion, foster communication Concerns for their family, and strategize on how to friends, teams, and the com- work with other entities to munity. They see not only the build a strong economy and end to their life’s work, but community in Wasco County. the community they created Short term, we are doing with employees and custom- what we can to understand ers disappear. options available for all busi- It is time to apply the same nesses regardless of business careful CDC rules across sector to open and stay open all businesses so that our safely for our customers and communities can live and employees during the pan- thrive. It is simply time to demic. We are also gathering Open Oregon. Let’s do this information on how other #TheDalles. businesses are doing the same across Oregon to build both short term and long- term strategies to message Mid-Columbia Marketplace Mid-Columbia Marketplace Advertise for Student of the week a week Benjamin Ku Kramer, TDHS Keegan Ku, TDHS Columbia View Dental Ron Kurahara Mike Ellsworth Lorena Salgado James Nygren 541-296-5677 | Se habla español 541-490-4077 541-490-2832 541-806-0107 541-892-8808 nmls 38028 nmls 114033 nmls 1216376 nmls 1691008 11 3rd Street, Suite 101, Hood River 1915 E. 19th Street | The Dalles Victor Cullen, DDS She has strong yardarms and stands ready to do her duty once again ever since 1797. A fitting fate for those convicted of insurrection, sedition and treason in the takeover of our political holy of holies, the U.S. Capitol building. Robert Brostoff Cascade Locks 541-436-4706 Company Nmls #1851593 hoodrivermortgage.com The Mid-Columbia Marketplace EVERY WEDNESDAY Call, text or email Niki at 503-866-9874 or nikip@gorgenews. com
