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Wednesday,April21,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
OPINION
The opinions expressed in the letters below are “your voice,” and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Columbia Gorge News, its staff, publisher or advertisers.
YOUR VOICE
Support Nelson
You know him, you love him …
and if you don’t, you should.
John Nelson is running for Board
Director for North Wasco County
School Board, Zone 4.
He’s been on the board for
eight years and wants to continue
working toward some goals the
board has set. He knows the issues
like the back of his hand. He is
thoughtful and open and wants to
make sure our schools are safe and
equitable for all our students. He is
an educator by trade, a hard worker
by history, and lives by the Golden
Rule.
So, unless you have the time
and energy and want to run for
this position yourself … how about
letting John continue to work for us?
(Thanks to John and all the other
board members who have given so
much to our community.)
If you live in Zone 4, vote for John
Nelson for Board Director, North
Wasco County School District.
Thanks.
Widge Johnson
The Dalles
Vote John Willer
Summer Visitors
Mike is a degreed engineer with
45 years of experience in develop-
ing and managing huge infrastruc-
ture projects, including bridges,
airports, and seaports. A primary
concern for Mike is the urgency
to replace the Hood River bridge
over the Columbia River. Recent
downgrading of weight limits
underscores the ongoing deterio-
ration of this essential structure. He
further understands the interplay of
bridge financing options and issues
of bridge toll revenues and their
impacts on the rest of the port’s
financial responsibilities: Airport,
waterfront recreation, marina, and
industrial development.
Mike’s experience enables him
to ask important questions to deal
with these issues. He has unparal-
leled expertise in budgeting, plan-
ning and scheduling, performance
and risk management of such a
large project. In my opinion, Mike
is uniquely qualified for the work
facing the port. He has written a
series of statements about his views
on Port issues. I encourage readers
to review them at mikefoxhoodriver.
com.
The experience and background
Mike offers is a stroke of good
fortune for our community and
the Port to help deal appropriately
with the challenges ahead. He is a
tremendous asset and the right per-
son at this critical time for the job. I
hope you will join me in voting for
Mike Fox as Port Commissioner for
the 3rd District, Port of Hood River.
Dale Hill
Mt. Hood-Parkdale
Please cast your vote for John
Willer, for Position 3, Port of The
Dalles.
John Willer is invested in The
Dalles. He came here about 20 years
ago, started an ophalmology prac-
tice, and now employs more than
50 people in three very successful
businesses.
John Willer is all about economic
development, and will be a great fit,
for Port of The Dalles Commission.
Please cast your vote for John
Local readers and national politi-
Willer.
cians seem really worried about the
Mike Courtney lack of excitement being generated
The Dalles in President Biden’s White House.
I guess I do not understand where
they are coming from.
Would it be better if Biden slept
Our region is lucky to have
with a porn star while married to
Columbia Gorge Community
College as an asset for our students his third wife? What if Biden tweet-
and industry. During this May's
ed bullying messages to a young
election, Wasco County voters will
environmentally active woman
have a chance to select new mem-
not even old enough to drive in the
U.S.? Maybe he should have private
bers to its board of directors, and I
meetings with the former head of
am writing to express my support
the KGB and functional dictator of
for Nate Stice.
Russia paid for by your tax dollars?
I grew up with Nate just east
How about if he starts to hang out
of here in Umatilla County, and I
with child sex traffickers?
have always known him to be an
I feel pretty old saying that Boring
active and engaged member of his
Biden is just fine by me.
community. It was a fun surprise
Steve Kaplan
to reconnect with Nate a couple of
Hood River
years ago at Safeway in The Dalles,
a city we are both proud to call our
home.
Even though I once beat Nate in
I would encourage everyone in
a race for student body president of zone No. 4 to vote for John Nelson,
our high school, I can say without
who is running for reelection to
reservation that Nate will be a great the North Wasco County School
board member for CGCC. He spent board. John is not only a wonderful
years working in higher education
and kind person, he is a long time
for the state's second-best universi- resident and dedicated advocate for
this community.
ty, the University of Oregon. (With
He spent much of his working
the first best, of course, being my
alma mater Oregon State University. career as a teacher here locally, and
since retiring he has not stopped
Go Beavs!)
I know him to be a person in our volunteering and giving everything
he can to serve. He is currently the
community that works to build
chairman of the school board and
bridges and help solve complex
under his leadership our school
problems.
He will be a great addition to the district is managing to open back
up, even though we don't have the
already great leadership at CGCC,
best facilities for our students.
and I hope you'll join me in voting
One thing I want you to know
for him this May.
Jose Aparicio about John is that if he takes on a
The Dalles project, like school board, he takes
the job seriously and does the
work needed. As a leader, he works
to make sure that all the people
involved are supported and work
The Hood River Port Commission cooperatively together. I trust him
to be thoughtful and respectful and
is currently facing some of the
dedicated to our students, and I can
most significant challenges in its
think of no finer person to lead our
history. Electing Mike Fox to the
District 3 Port Commission vacancy school board.
Please vote for John Nelson,
is a prudent choice and wonderful
opportunity to provide outstanding Board Director, North Wasco
County School District, Zone 4.
leadership with an extensive base
Serena Smith
of experience ideally suited to these
The Dalles
challenges.
I have known Mike as a neighbor
and friend for the past few years.
We share some similar experiences
Mitch McConnell has to have
in our careers, both having lived
the homeliest face in Congress. It is
and worked overseas and worked in unfortunate he has this face, but it is
administrative arenas. We both de- even sadder he has two of them. His
signed and worked on building our recent rants threatening CEOs and
corporations for having the audaci-
own homes. We also enjoy spend-
ty to take action against Georgia for
ing time together in recreational
opportunities. I have come to know it’s voter suppression law smacks of
Mike’s background and understand duplicity.
He championed the Supreme
well his particular qualities which
make him very well suited for a port Court Citizens United ruling giving
corporations First Amendment
commission position.
Boring Biden
Support Nate Stice
Support Nelson
Fox for port
commission
Two-Faced
White pelicans preen on rocks near The Dalles Bridge. The summer residents are common in the area most years.
Photo courtesy Gary Elkinton
rights, i.e. classifying them as
people. Now that these “people”
are actively participating in pol-
itics he threatens them with dire
consequences.
How much more duplict can he
get?
Gary Fields
Hood River
Too many
Ah spring at last! Longer days
filled with welcome, warmer
temperatures, daffodils and tulips
waving their pretty heads, and the
scent of lilacs wafting on the gentle
breeze.
A darker side of spring’s delights,
however, surfaces again with the
arrival of unwanted kittens and
puppies. Due to the cruel, irrespon-
sible behavior of their humans,
many beautiful, trusting, dependent
animal babies will be unwelcome
and unwanted. Instead of being
rightfully greeted with love and
kindness, many will be murdered,
abused, or callously dumped to die
slow, painful, needless deaths.
This tragic, never-ending saga
can be stopped by kind, caring
people who adopt needy, helpless,
deserving animals. Kind hearts and
hands can overrule cruelty and
irresponsibility. How? Visit our local
animal shelter where you can buy
love! Gaze into the liquid, longing
eyes of your next best friend. Look
forward to the comfort and content-
ment of having a purring, warm,
cat in your lap. Be grateful for your
new furry, non-toxic mouse catcher.
Befriend a homeless pet, offering
shelter and kindness, followed by
spaying or neutering.
Our animal shelters are over-
crowded and the need is great,
especially in the spring. No
beautiful animal should be killed
simply because it’s homeless, its
cruel owners moved away and left
it behind, or no one cares. Be the
difference! If each household in
The Dalles adopted a homeless pet
and offered unconditional love (like
the animals do), this sad epidemic
could be cured.
Other ways to make a differ-
ence include reporting animal
cruelty. No trusting, helpless dog
or cat should be some sick soul’s
punching bag. Donate dollars to
make a difference to Home at Last,
Fur-Footed Rescue, or Columbia
Gorge Cat Rescue. These folks care,
do a thankless task, and deserve our
support.
Together, we can overrule animal
cruelty and irresponsibility, and
bring hope and help to animals who
so desperately continue to wait for
love and kindness. Thank you.
Karen Saunders
The Dalles
Social
programming
There is a regular contributor to
this newspaper who likes to talk
up capitalism and degrade social-
ism. I wonder if this individual has
stopped to contemplate the reality
that under a strictly capitalist, prof-
it-driven economy, services that
they enjoy, such as the Hood River
Valley Adult Center, would not exist.
I don’t get paid to deliver meals
on wheels, I do it because food
security is a human right. I have the
means, and therefore the responsi-
bility, to act.
This really sums up the difference
between a socialist like myself,
and a conservative, Christian,
Republican, capitalist like ... this
individual: I will continue to deliver
food to his house every Wednesday
and Thursday morning as long
as he needs food, because it’s the
right thing to do, even though this
individual is going to vote for and
support, with his money, politi-
cians that are going to cut spending
to services like meals on wheels.
People like Donald Trump.
Do you believe that it is a society’s
duty to protect and take care of its
elderly people when their economic
productivity and output is dimin-
ished? That’s socialism, baby!
Capitalism has indeed lifted
millions (not billions) out of poverty
in the global north, while exporting
that damage to the global south and
east. Seeing as how global capital-
ism is sending us hurdling towards
ecological collapse, this individual
might be the last generation to not
live in abject poverty. The next time
you look at your grandchildren, just
shrug and say, “Well, we got ours.”
I’m sure they’ll understand.
Benjamin Sheppard
Hood River
Benjamin Sheppard is a social
worker.
to build and expand a local small
business. So does Marcus Swift,
which is why I’m supporting him
for Port of The Dalles Commission,
Position 3, in this May 2021
election.
Marcus Swift has invested his
life savings in building a local small
business in our community. He
loves this community and is deeply
invested in its growth and success.
He loves The Dalles so much, that in
2020 alone, he provided more than
$20,000 in free or low-cost legal
services to local residents. When
Marcus isn’t busy solving com-
plex issues for local families and
small business owners, he can be
found serving in a variety of roles,
including on the Wasco County
Planning Commission and as vice
president of the Mid-Columbia Bar
Association.
Marcus has extensive experience
in public policy, including eco-
nomic development, which makes
him a perfect fit for this position.
He knows we need to build and
expand our local small businesses,
create new good paying jobs in the
area, and revitalize downtown The
Dalles.
Marcus Swift is dedicated to
moving The Dalles forward in a
way that works for everyone — with
transparency, accountability, and
fiscal responsibility. That’s why I’m
supporting Marcus Swift for Port of
The Dalles, Position 3.
Steve Light
The Dalles
Support Swift
Just before Christmas in 2019, my
children and I were almost evicted
from our apartment in The Dalles
by a big landlord from Portland. I
was terrified. With no affordable
rental units available in the area
Columbia Gorge Community
and nowhere else to turn, we faced
College is governed by a Board of
Education. Wasco County residents certain homelessness.
Then I called Marcus Swift.
will have chance to select several
Marcus stood up to the Portland
of their representatives during this
landlord and saved our Christmas.
May’s election.
It’s a clear example of the type of
I am writing to express support
courage and values he will bring
for my friend, Nate Stice, and ask
serving on the Port of The Dalles
for you to vote for Nate this may. I
first met Nate when I sold him and Commission, Position 3.
Marcus Swift invested his life
Carrie their home in The Dalles,
savings to start a small business in
and I have had the chance to work
with him over the years on econom- The Dalles. He and his partner have
ic development and housing in our built a life together in the commu-
community.
nity and are saving to purchase their
Through this work and our
first home. Since 2018, Marcus has
friendship, I know that Nate is
worked to solve complex problems
someone who cares about people
for families and businesses in our
and our community, and I know
community. In 2020 alone, Marcus
Nate to be someone who works
provided more than $20,000 in free
or low-cost legal services to resi-
hard — whether he is refinishing
hard wood floors in whatever home dents of Wasco County.
he and Carrie are renovating at the
He also serves in numerous
moment or helping to work with
volunteer positions in our commu-
local leaders to address community nity, including the Wasco County
needs.
Planning Commission. Every day he
For these reasons, I ask you to
works to move our community for-
join me in supporting Nate Stice
ward for everyone who lives here.
during this May's election.
Marcus Swift will work to create
Nan Wimmers and expand local businesses,
The Dalles attract new, good paying jobs, and
revitalize downtown The Dalles.
His experience in building a small
As a small business owner in
Wasco County, I know what it takes
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
Vote Stice for
CGCC Board
Swift support
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