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About The Hood River news. (Hood River, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 2015)
A4 V IEWPOINT Hood River News, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 O ur readers write JOE PETSHOW Publisher/President, Eagle Newspapers, Inc. CHELSEA MARR General Manager JODY THOMPSON Advertising Manager DICK NAFSINGER Publisher, Emeritus (1933-2011) TOM LANCTOT Past President, Eagle Newspapers, Inc. KIRBY NEUMANN-REA Editor TONY METHVIN Columbia Gorge Press Manager DAVID MARVIN Production Manager Subscription $42 per year in Hood River trade area. $68 outside trade area. NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION Printed on OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION recycled paper. Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County Published Every Wednesday & Saturday by Hood River News, P.O. Box 390, Hood River, Oregon 97031 • (541) 386-1234 • FAX 386-6796 Member of the Associated Press Profound Play ‘Madwoman’ at HRVHS closes this weekend, deserves an audience W hat are you hiding from me?” “Nothing, Countess. It is you who are hiding.” So goes a key scene in “The Madwoman of Chaillot” on stage for a final weekend at Hood River Valley High School. “Madwoman” is a chance to see talented young actors movingly interpret a “past” world that is altogether cur- rent. The words of playwright Jean Girardoux rattle like familiar echoes, and the Countess stands in for any- one with eyes cloudy but capable of clarity. The Ragpicker (Jasper Krehbiel) tells the Countess, “The world has changed since the time you knew.” (He is wiser and nobler than his title might suggest). “Even the people are different. No one is involved with anyone else any more. The world is no longer beautiful. No one is happy.” The Countess (Delaney Barbour), who is not so “mad” as the play title suggests, sheds tears but asks, “This is true? The world is not beautiful? The world is not happy? Why wasn’t I told?” “Because you’ve been dreaming a long time, Count- ess. And nobody wanted to disturb you. Today, the world is full of faceless people. People who look back at you with gelatine eyes. Once you stop dreaming, you can see them quite clearly. They were here today.” She asks, “But who are these people? What do they do?” “They do nothing, Countess. They feel nothing, make nothing, give nothing. The poets, the jugglers, the inno- cents, all are disappearing. The world’s been taken over by the pimps. The rest of us are finished. They want to make us all like them.” But the Countess will have none of it, and what be- comes of the posers and thieves of the world is both hi- larious and how director Rachel Harry and her back- stage and onstage crews carry out the comeuppance is a credit to their skill and understanding the context of this funny, touching, challenging story. Just two shows remain (details on page B3), two chances to see veteran seniors in their final HRVHS per- formances and upcoming underclassmen with the de- gree of talent that has been the hallmark of Hood River Valley’s drama and music productions for many years. This is not a dated play about odd characters in frilly period garb hanging out in a kitschy Paris café. The sets feel real, the settings seem current, and the statements about speaking truth to power are perhaps more rele- vant today than when Girardoux wrote them in the 1940s. Bravo to director Harry and her students and adult supporters for an outstanding production. Blessed Hood River Hood River County is blessed with a preponderance of special, unique and extraordinarily beautiful places: the north side of Mt. Hood, the Hood River Valley, Lost Lake and Panorama Point among them. Punchbowl Falls is another one of these very special places. It deserves to remain a destination for us and future generations to enjoy and mar- vel at, as it was for our forefathers. I hope the Hood River County Com- missioners will take the long view and make Punchbowl Falls part of the public trust and ownership. Peter Cornelison Hood River Growth and goodness I had the pleasure of attending the Hearts of Gold Gala last weekend and left with a heart of gratitude and the realization that I was in a room filled with people with hearts of gold. I felt compelled to express it publicly. Brandi Sheppard and Susan Frost, thank you for your hard work in organizing an amazing event! Thank you to Don Benton and Dr. Paul Hamada, the recipients of this year’s awards, for your count- less acts of kindness, generosity, public service, and years of service in so many ways to our community. I am honored to call PHRMH my place of employment for over 20 years. I have had the pleasure of watching the hospital grow and pro- vide exceptional care to our commu- nity. Our Oncology and Infusion Clinic is the recipient of the funds raised this year and appropriately named the Don Benton Fund. The money will be used to expand cancer services here in the gorge. Thank you to our CEO Ed Freysinger for believing in this program and push- ing for its growth. Alice Facteau, dedicated and very special volunteer at the hospital, generously donated $3,000 to get the fund off the ground. Thank you Alice! A huge thank you to a community donor that gave $20,000 to the fund. Dr. Jeff Menashe, Dr. Christine Lin, and Dr. Rui Li, thank you for your stellar services in our community and dedication to its people as you drive the gorge weekly to provide top notch care. Thank you Rachel Thompson, Clinical Nurse Manager of Infusion and Oncology, and Elke Geiger, De- partment Manager, and the entire team that cares for people holistical- ly and with excellence. So many great plans and ideas are about to be put into action, all to en- hance the already exceptional care available to cancer patients and their families. What an exciting time for our community! Thank you to all who choose Providence. We know you have a choice, feel vulner- able, trust us and we are honored to care for you and be a part of your journey. Carrie Kennedy, RN Hood River ‘Common Core Cluster’ Parents, you may have heard about the new upcoming Common Core “Smarter Balanced” Tests for grades 3-12. CC, originally a well- intentioned effort to raise educa- tional standards, has instead mor- phed into testing, not learning. Parents should be aware: 1) Oregon expects more than 65 percent of children to fail the test. 2) This year, your child’s scores won’t be used for grade or place- ment. 3) CC was blindly adopted by Oregon & rubberstamped locally; HRCSD Board claims they “didn’t get a vote” on CC. However, there’s supposed to be local curriculum control. 4) Local/state teachers unions are opposed to the CC; it aims to tie teacher evaluation/compensation with tests. Some teachers are con- cerned with developmentally inap- propriate tests, like 5th graders suddenly expected to know compli- cated high school math concepts. 5) The test robs valuable class- room time — estimated at 10-20 hours, not including “practice tests.” Teachers are scrambling with requirements, knowing the majority of kids will fail. 6) If just 6 percent of local chil- dren “Opt Out,” the results are in- validated. (State requires 95 per- cent participation.) 7) Parents can “Opt Out” of the test. Contact school in writing stat- ing “Religious” (which to me, in- cludes moral convictions) or “Dis- ability” exemption. 8) Opting Out” is the ONLY way you can protest this unproven test. The Smarter Balanced test is neither “smarter,” nor “balanced.” It’s being pushed on teachers, using our kids as guinea pigs. The winners are the federal govern- ment/ big testing, curriculum com- panies. Steve Gates spent $170 mil- lion to manipulate the government to impose CC. His company, Pear- son, contracted for state curricu- lum/ testing, stands to make $1 bil- lion on the deal. Put in farmer terms, “To grow a pig, you feed it more — you don’t weigh it more.” If you want a child to learn more, you don’t test it more. If you’ re unhappy with the HRCSD, budget woes to curricu- lum, run for school board. Four seats are open; March 19 is the ap- plication deadline. Support teach- ers and kids, not government bu- reaucracies, administrators, and big businesses. For more information on opting out, go to OptOutOregon.org. For practice test, go to sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/. Kris Wilhelm Hood River YOUNG VOICES ‘I trained hard and was prepared for this moment’ By PAYTON RIGERT When I walked out of the warm-up room to the mat, I knew I was ready for the restling is the competition. I trained hard world’s oldest with my teammates all sea- sport and is a son and was prepared for test of the deter- this moment. mination and My adrenaline rose up as toughness of its competitors. I stepped onto the mat for Last Friday and Saturday, I my finals match. I had wres- competed in the Women’s tled this girl two weeks be- State Wrestling Champi- fore at the District Qualifier onships at the Memorial Col- and had pinned her in the iseum. Nothing compares to third round after a grueling the feeling of stepping out on battle. I knew that didn’t the mat in front of crowds of mean that I would beat her people. The competition may Photo by Adam Lapierre again, and I had to leave my start on the mat, but before you can wrestle, you need an PAYTON RIGERT accepts coach Trent Kroll’s congratula- all on the mat. This was my chance to prove, to myself, tions after winning at state. opponent. The sport of that all the extra work had women’s wrestling has been been worth it. growing exponentially in the last few years. The match started and I took her down for two It is amazing to look around and see the number of points in the last minute of the first round. Then I women who are competing now compared to my fresh- went for the pin. I have this goal that once my oppo- man year. The women are from all over the state and a nent is on their back, there is no way they are getting lot of them are the only woman on their high school up. In the last 15 seconds, I had her on her back, but team. A lot of people wonder what it’s like to compete the referee wasn’t calling it. I repositioned myself in a sport that is male dominated. I think that by look- ing at the girls who are competing on teams where they and just as the time ran out and the buzzer sounded, are the only girl gives you the answer. Teams are about the referee called out, “Pin!” I had won my second Women’s State Wrestling Championship. I ran to my family and should not be about gender. I believe that coaches. All the work had been worth it. the women who are wrestling now are the pioneers for I love the sport of wrestling and I love that fact future generations where there are just as many that more women each day are getting involved. I women wrestling as men. think that everyone should be given equal opportuni- For me, my team has always been there for me, no matter what, and I have never felt uncomfortable. My ty to find something they are passionate about. This teammates are the people who understand the feeling sport has taught me the meaning of hard work, but it has also taught me that the rewards are sweeter. of going through a hard practice or what it means to The parts I remember best, after my finals match, win or lose a match. I like to think about the sport as a true test of endurance and metal ability. It’s hard to are the moments afterwards. My coaches, teammates, family, and friends were all congratulating me on a come back from a loss. You are the only person out there, with everyone watching, and it’s literally a test job well done. In those moments, I realized that these of your strength, speed, and smarts against one other are the people who are always going to be there for me. My time at the Memorial Coliseum and as a mem- person. The key word there being “one.” There’s no ber of the Hood River Valley Wrestling Team is time I half-way or stand in the back, it’s all on you. That’s wouldn’t trade for anything. why training and being prepared is so important. News intern W Photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea ‘RAGPICKER’ Jasper Krehbiel discovers a 100-mark note. The Pres- ident soon takes it from him, but the treasure of “The Madwoman of Chaillot” is something anyone can find for themselves, by this weekend. W HERE TO WRITE President — Barack Obama, White House, 1600 Pennsylva- nia Ave., Washington D.C., 20500 E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov U.S. Senators — Jeff Merkley, SDB-40B, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753; E-mail: oregon@merkley.senate.gov; Ron Wyden, 717 Hart Office Build- ing, Washington D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Web address: www.senate.gov/member/or/wyden/general/ 2nd Congressional District Representative — Greg Walden, 14 N. Central Ave., Suite 112, Medford, OR 97504. Phone: 541-776-4646; E-mail: www.walden.house.gov/contactgreg Governor — John Kitzhaber, 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR 97310. Phone: 503-378-3111; E-mail: www.governor.state.or.us/email.htm
