A4 Wednesday, January 1, 2020
HOOD RIVER NEWS | Hood River, Ore.
hoodrivernews.com
OPINION
Our Readers Write
A look back
Stats and themes of
Our Readers Write 2019
L
etters to the Editor submissions were down all
around in 2019. We received 639 letters from 379
writers this year. Contrast that to 2018, when the
News received 865 letters by 476 different writers —
that’s 226 fewer letters and 97 fewer writers this year.
The most prolific month for letters this year was October with
78, although both May and July came in at a very close second
with 77. The fewest letters came in February and December,
both with a mere 31; September was next lowest at 43. Steve
Kaplan wrote 33 letters this year, the most from any one per-
son. Coming in second was Benjamin Sheppard with 20. Close
behind was David Warnock with 18; Bill Davis and Gary Fields
both wrote 16 letters.
Now, the reoccurring themes: President Donald Trump
had 16 letters this year in support of his administration; topics
covered the border wall, his State of the Union address and the
Mueller report exonerating him from wrongdoing. But Trump
additionally was the topic of 86 letters against various aspects of
his administration, including his relationship with Russia, his
stance on climate, dealings with Iran, treatment of immigrants
and acceptance of white nationalism — among others.
Rep. Greg Walden received five letters in support of his work
and another 23 against his policies and stances, including his
support of President Trump, conditions for immigrants at the
border, his high rating by the National Rifle Association and his
stance on healthcare. He had another eight letters that asked
for specific answers on topics ranging from Trump to forestry
practice — or urging constituents to call Walden to ask for an-
swers — and two praising his support of the Bridge of the Gods
proposed bike lane.
Politics in general was a popular topic: There were 78 of those
in total, ranging from gun control (six in favor, one opposed) to
various House and Senate bills both nationally and at the state
levels. The June walkout in the Oregon Senate by Republicans
saw 15 letters against Sen. Chuck Thomsen’s participation in the
walkout, with four letters written in favor of the move.
Climate change was also a big topic, with 22 letters sup-
porting climate legislation and/or striking students, and eight
dismissing the threat.
Locally, both the May and November elections were hot top-
ics on the letters page. Candidates received a total of 27 letters
of support in the May port, parks and school board races. In
November, there were 30 letters of support for Measure 14-67,
the Protect our Parks charter amendment, and 22 against; the
measure ultimately passed.
Affordable housing and the Morrison Park issue were two
linked topics for letters to the editor this year. There were 17 let-
ters in favor of keeping Morrison Park a park, with seven on the
pro-development side. Six more agreed that affordable housing
was needed, regardless of where it is placed.
The Hood River County School District’s HEALTH Media club
at the middle school level wrote 12 total letters urging county
residents not to smoke (two) or drink and drive (seven). They
also penned three letters detailing fun, healthy things to do in
the summer months.
We also keep track of all the letters we receive regarding the
Hood River News. We had 15 total regarding the newspaper,
mostly negative (12) — that we need to focus on investigative
journalism, that we are biased towards the left and that we are
more propaganda than news. Three of those were from people
unhappy with our editorial cartoon choices; one letter writer ad-
ditionally expressed disappointment that we publish viewpoints,
cartoons or letters, from those who oppose the president.
It’s hard to put every letter into a neat category. We had 164 let-
ters that fell into the “other” slot — meaning we’d get one or two
on a certain subject. These letters ranged from Hood River Reads
event listings to support of local theater productions and from
CASA training events and garden tour routes. There were also
letters against increasing noise at the airport, as well as against
Pacific Power’s plan to cut power on windy days as a forest fire
prevention measure.
The News thanks all who have written letters this year and in
past years. Letters form a vital role in the efforts of this and any
newspaper to present an open forum for diverse viewpoints. We
appreciate the time and effort it takes to express those views.
Keep them coming again in 2020. We’ll be keeping a list.
— Trisha Walker
Christian
oppression
World history has offered
untold incidences of the op-
pressive and murderous tac-
tics of Christianity over the
last 2100 years — we all know
about the dark ages, genocide
of natives in North and South
America and many more ex-
amples of persecution.
Some Christians tell me
that they are changing, now
the religion is one of love,
healing the hearts of people
and spreading god’s love. I
have tried to be patient when
Christians passed laws against
my gay friends or persecuted
women needing to make med-
ical decisions with their bod-
ies, or even childishly refused
to make cakes for sinners. I
listened to their “logic” that it
is oppression to not be able to
oppress gays or women. I tried
to give them the benefit of the
doubt that maybe they are try-
ing to make the world a better
place with their biblical based
ideas at least in their minds
and hearts.
But now that I see Chris-
tians have become such fer-
vent supporters of an im-
moral commander in chief, I
realize Christians have made
no progress whatsoever. To
be honest, it is a relief for
me to know what is really
in their hearts. I now realize
that just as when they per-
secuted “witches,” destroyed
Egyptian temples, persecuted
Jews, killed Native American
“heathens,” and burned ancient
Mayan writings, to name a few
examples, that they will still to
this day in 10 minutes revert
to their murderous oppression.
They love a president that has
actually broken many of the 10
commandment laws and, in
fact, continues on an ongoing
basis without remorse of any
kind.
I now realize they are not
interested in biblical penance
and salvation but the oppres-
sive implementation of their
ancient ideology. I can see no
behavior or fruits of an eternal
christian god of love but the
tribal hatred of an ancient
tribe. To me, Christians are not
being oppressed, as they love
to whine about, but are actually
the oppressor and now must be
placed in the dangerous cate-
gory of a belief system that will
oppress all non-Christians and
destroy American democracy if
given the ...
Ken Earle
Hood River
Editor’s note: This letter was
submitted through the newspa-
per website and automatically
cut off at 350 words. (See letters
policy, page A5.)
Safety at 13th
and Belmont
I submit on behalf of the
Hood River City Council their
Photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea
RUNNER CROSSES 13th Street at Belmont, where ODOT
changed pedestrian access in summer 2019.
2020 New Year resolution:
Whereas: One of the prime
responsibilities of the City is
public safety; and
Whereas: One of the most
dangerous traffic intersections
is 13th and Belmont; and
Whereas: Traffic use is rap-
idly growing both along 13th
and along Belmont; and
Whereas: The posted speed
limit of 25 mph is much too
fast; and
Whereas: The 13th/Belmont
intersection seriously lacks
adequate traffic safety con-
trols; and
Whereas: The intersection is
dangerous for all pedestrians,
with or without baby carriages
or wheelchairs; and
Whereas: An increasing
number of drivers travel four
blocks or more out of the way
to avoid the dangerous inter-
section, thus adding unneces-
sary carbon emissions; and
Whereas: The City acknowl-
edges that three public agen-
cies share responsibility for
13th/Tucker Road along its
entirety;
Now, therefore, be it re-
solved: The City of Hood River
will do anything necessary to
fix this intersection to make
it one of the safest in the city,
such actions to be taken im-
mediately, and unilaterally if
necessary.
David Hupp
Hood River
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
May ‘20 keep us from decade distorters and other Riff Raft
By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News editor
The most surprising thing
about the last month of 2019
is that we have not seen more
“end of decade” coverage in
the media.
Sure, we’ve seen a few “10
top trends of the decade” and
other such listicles but I think
most people, editors included,
get that the new decade starts a
year from now. Sure, it’s fun to
jump-start it at the nice round
“2020” number, but let’s wait
365 days.
Hah — 366! Almost got ya
there, eh? The’ 20 fun includes
Leap Year Status, after all.
Buster and Buddy Bear at
Ninth and State streets say it
well with their new sign this
week: “May we all have good
vision in 2020.”
As to addressing the decade
distortion, I can’t put it any
better than our good friend
and Entertainment writer Jim
Drake, who wrote: “The ‘First
Decade’ of ‘people keeping
track of decades with calen-
dars’ consisted of the years
‘1’ through “10.” The ‘Second
Decade’ consisted of the years
‘11’ through ‘20.’ Due to many
people erroneously saying that
2019 is ‘the last year to do
something for the last time in
this decade,’ I say: No. We still
need to go through 2020 to
get to the next decade. And I
believe the Farmer’s Almanac
agrees.”
Perhaps society learned
not to overreact to these “0”
dometer years back in 1999.
Remember Y2K and the fairy
dust that settled out of that dire
situation? I worked for a school
district in Washington during
that time and the last two
months of 1999 was daily panic
mode. We might have started a
radio station and blared: “THIS
IS Y2K! All Y2K, all the time!”
■
Let me start the final year of
the Twen-teens decade with
my list of band names inspired
by a year’s reading. I make
sense of each year by collect-
ing phrases I hear or read and
re-imagining them as band
names and album and song
titles.
(We’ll probably run out of
room in print, so find the rest of
this at hoodrivernews.com ...)
Join me in this random rec-
itation, this hymnal of hybrid
ideas:
Mr. Haha Jones — A Tru-
man Capote character — and
Magic Winch Not Available
(from a TV car ad).
Invisible Zeroes — A spur
of the moment original conun-
drum from my wife, Lorre, and
My Gray Cells Are Red Hot — a
reference I wrote down but
cannot remember.
Riff Raft, from a canoe team
name I read (or Rift Raff?)
doing A Blow of Dice Will Never
Abolish Chance (a Stephen
Mallarme poem).
The Hapsburg Lips (a
genetic mutation common
among 19th century European
royals) and their new album
Mascots of Internal Divisions,
(composer Robert Schumann’s
term for the multiple ways his
mind operated).
Lorenzo Nevermind and
Bad Spill at the Balloon Found-
ry — Two cartoon references:
Garfield and Rubes.
The Courtesy Loners —
Definitely a country band (got
that idea waiting for my car
to get fixed) would have to do
Whiskey, Steriods and Softball
(from a book title I saw — no,
did not read). They would be a
great double bill with ...
The Expired Pirates (it was
an auto-correct when I tried
to type “expired plates”) and A
Rattlesnake, Powdered Urani-
um and Kentucky Whiskey in
My Dodge — A headline about
an Oklahoma traffic stop ...