A4 Wednesday, February 12, 2020
HOOD RIVER NEWS | Hood River, Ore.
hoodrivernews.com
OPINION
Our Readers Write
‘The Four
Agreements’
This January seemed un-
usually long and dark to me.
Walking the dogs in the morn-
ing and evening with my head-
lamp and their flashing neck-
laces lost its novelty for me a
few weeks ago as personal and
national controversy took over
my thoughts.
In the midst of my angst,
I remembered to pull out a
little book that a wise friend
turned me on to: “The Four
Agreements” by Don Miguel
Ruiz. The subtitle is “A Practical
Guide to Personal Freedom.”
Its timely messages are: Be im-
peccable with your word; don’t
take anything personally; don’t
make assumptions; and always
do your best.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Not so much. “Black magi-
cians,” as he calls them, are
everywhere, nationally as well
as closer to home: From nar-
cissistic bullies to a seeming-
ly friendly acquaintance that
suddenly turns sour, it’s easy
to feel personally targeted.
“The Four Agreements” can
help to liberate you from this
depressing predicament. It can
help you to manage the per-
vasive fear that these people
feed to you every day, and to
block those people’s spread of
personal poison — anger, jeal-
ousy, envy and hate.
So, I would suggest to you to
read and live the suggestions
brought to us by Don Miguel
Ruiz.
It’s a lot of work and a life-
time of practice, but it will
change your life and the lives
of those around you.
Peace to you. Peace to the
dogs.
Diana Beterbide
Hood River
podcasts that could be used
for Earth Month, click on the
“Share Earth Month Ideas”
link.
We are holding the next or-
ganizing meeting at the Hood
River Library Meeting Room,
downstairs, this Saturday, Feb.
15 from 3-4:30 p.m.
Please show up to volunteer
or to share potential events
or ideas. We will also be dis-
cussing Earth Month at our
monthly CGCAN potluck and
meeting at Riverside Church in
Hood River on Monday Feb. 17
from 6-8 p.m.
You are welcome to come to
April 22 will be the 50th either meeting.
Peter Cornelison
anniversary of Earth Day. For
2020, Columbia Gorge Climate
Hood River
Action Network (CGCAN) is
joining with others to celebrate
our Earth and the Columbia
River Gorge, not just for a day
or even a week, but for the en-
The United States is a De-
tire month of April.
mocracy, it’s form of govern-
Using the Gorge Happi- ment is a is a Republic. We
ness Month concept (www. still have both. But thanks to
gorgehappiness.org), we will Trump, his administration and
list earth centered events and today’s Republicans our coun-
shareable ideas from through- try is now become just another
out the Gorge on our website Banana Republic.
for the month of April.
It saddens me to see this
The goal is to celebrate, great country fall so low over
honor and show our love for a single regressive political
the Earth and build commu- ideology.
Gary Fields
nity.
Hood River
To list events, go to www.
CGCAN.org and click on the
“List Earth Month Events”
link. To share ideas, media or
Earth Month
‘Our Country’
‘Reps, make
ERA happen’
As we know all too well,
women continue to face dis-
crimination on the basis of sex.
Finally, a long-overdue consti-
tutional treatment for this per-
vasive illness is within reach —
the Equal Rights Amendment.
Virginia recently became the
38th state to ratify the ERA,
crossing the three-fourths
threshold of support required
of states for the amendment to
become law.
When the ERA passed
Congress in 1972, lawmakers
attached a 1977 ratification
deadline to it, which they later
extended to 1982.
Removing that deadline is
the final obstacle to accept-
ing the ERA as part of the US
Constitution. HJ Res. 79 has
been introduced in Congress
to do just that. It is heading to
the House for consideration
and, hopefully, passage — at
long last.
It is hard to imagine in 2020
that any legislator would vote
against finally passing the ERA.
How could an elected official
really vote to continue unequal
pay, workplace harassment,
pregnancy discrimination, do-
mestic violence, and limit-
ed access to comprehensive
healthcare for 51 percent of
his/her constituents? I encour-
age all Oregonians to write to
your U.S. Representative and
encourage him to vote YES on
HJ Res. 79, the ERA bill that is
coming before them.
Hopefully your represen-
tative in the House will make
history happen with the ERA.
Daniel Fritz
Mosier
’I will fight the president’s reckless budget proposal’
By JEFF MERKLEY
Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff
Merkley issued the following
statement after President Don-
ald Trump released his pro-
posed fiscal year 2021 budget:
■
At Donald Trump’s events,
he talks and talks and talks
but never listens. If he did
a town hall in every county
in Oregon every year, like I
do, and actually listened to
people, maybe his budget
wouldn’t make life worse for
people in all the ways they’re
already most worried about.
When I talk to folks, I hear
concerns about the cost of
health care and pharmaceu-
tical drugs.
This budget would cause
millions of people to lose
health care coverage, with
massive cuts to Medicare,
Medicaid, and the Children’s
Health Insurance Program —
all while Americans are suf-
fering from ever-increasing
drug and health care costs.
Just as perplexing: In the
midst of the global coronavi-
rus outbreak, the president
wants to cut the Centers for
Disease Control budget.
In rural communities, the
economy is still pretty pre-
carious. Yet just as rural com-
munities are beginning to be
connected with broadband
internet — vital for growing
opportunity in rural educa-
tion and economies — the
president wants to eliminate
$50 million from the program.
In another gut-punch to rural
economies, his budget elim-
inates the $46 million Rural
Business Program grants.
afford for housing and people
are sleeping under overpass-
es and on medians. But the
president wants to decrease
affordable housing funding
by more than 15 percent and
slash support for rural hous-
ing by $92 million. He would
eliminate housing programs
that are critically important
to Oregon communities — in-
cluding the rental assistance,
low-income housing con-
struction, and Community
Development Block Grants
that I fought to increase in the
2020 budget.
Not even hungry children
were spared: The president
proposes eliminating the pro-
Millions of Oregonians are grams that make sure kids
paying more than they can get fed during the summer
‘This budget ...
turns a blind
eye to the real
issues that real
Oregonians and
Americans are
facing.’
months and get breakfast
during the school year, and
further cuts food assistance
for families by $181 billion
over 10 years.
Somehow, this president
who fancies himself a billion-
aire and has spent nearly a
third of his presidency hang-
ing around with rich people
at country clubs, could find
enough money to give the
super-rich and giant corpo-
rations a trillion dollars in tax
breaks.
But working families across
Oregon, and especially in
rural communities, are hang-
ing on by the fingertips, and
President Trump, instead of
giving a hand up, is stomping
on their fingers.
Budgets are a statement
of values. Our job in govern-
ment should be making sure
every person who works hard
can get ahead. Instead, this
budget does the opposite,
turning a blind eye to the real
issues that real Oregonians
and Americans are facing.
The rich and powerful are
doing just fine; the last thing
we should be doing is stack-
ing the deck even more in
their favor.
I will do everything I can to
fight the president’s reckless
proposal and make sure we’re
investing in our people, our
communities, and our future.
ON THE AGENDA
These are the regular meeting p.m., Hood River City Hall Coun-
times of governing bodies for cil Chambers, 211 Second St.,
these agencies:
second and fourth Mondays of
the month.
Cascade Locks
Hood River Soil and Water
Cascade Locks City Coun- Conservation District Board of
cil, 7 p.m., City Hall Council Directors meeting, 4 p.m., OSU
Chambers, 140 W. WaNaPa St., Extension Service Building, 2990
second and fourth Mondays of Experiment Station Road, first
Thursday of the month.
the month.
Hood River Valley Parks
Cascade Locks Planning Com-
mission, 7 p.m., City Hall Council and Recreation District, 6 p.m.,
Chambers, 140 W. WaNaPa St., Aquatic Center, 1601 May St.,
third Wednesday of the month.
second Thursday of the month.
Cascade Locks Port Commis- Place subject to change.
Urban Renewal Agency meet-
sion, 6 p.m., City Hall Council
Chambers, 140 W. WaNaPa St., ing — second Monday of each
first and third Thursdays of the month 6 p.m .
month.
Urban Renewal Advisory
Committee — third Thursday of
Hood River
the month 5:30 p.m.
Both meet at City Hall, Second
City of Hood River Planning
Commission meeting, 5:30 p.m., and State streets.
Citizens may learn more about
Hood River City Hall Council
Chambers, 211 Second St., gen- city meeting updates by singing
erally the first and third Mondays up up for Hood River Connect at:
ci.hood-river.or.us/connect.
of the month. Place and dates
subject to change.
Hood River Port Commission, Hood River County
5 p.m., 1000 E. Port Marina Drive,
Hood River County Board of
board room, first and third Tues- Commissioners regular session,
days of the month.
6 p.m., work sessions start at
Hood River City Council, 6 4 p.m., 601 State St., first floor
conference room, third Monday
of the month. Time subject to
change.
Library District Board meet-
ing, 7 p.m., 502 State St., con-
ference room, third Tuesday of
the month.
Hood River County Plan-
ning Commission meeting, 5:30
p.m., 601 State St., first floor,
generally second and fourth
Wednesdays of the month.
Hood River County Water
Planning Group, 2 p.m., 601
State St., first floor conference
room, generally first Wednes-
day of the month.
Hood River County School
Board, 6:30 p.m., meets at
schools and district facilities
on a rotating schedule (visit ho-
odriver.k12.or.us for location),
second and fourth Wednesdays
of the month unless school
vacations or other holidays in-
terrupt the schedule.
Hood River County Trans-
portation District, 9 a.m., Hood
River County Transportation
District Board Room, 224
Wasco Loop, second Wednes-
day of the month.
It’s not too soon to be asking:
Do you need a Real ID?
Something big is happen-
ing Oct. 1 of this year, notes
Oregon D epar tment of
Driver and Motor Vehicles
Services in a press release:
If you aren’t paying atten-
tion, it might mean missing
your flight out of PDX or any
other airport across the U.S.
On that date, the Trans-
portation Security Admin-
istration, or TSA, begins
requiring a new type of
identification to board a
commercial aircraft. The
new ID must be compliant
with something called the
Real ID Act. It’s designed to
keep us safer in the air, but
if you try to board an air-
craft using your current Or-
egon driver license starting
in October — it won’t work.
That’s because the current
Oregon driver license is not
Real ID compliant.
Oregon DMV will begin
offering a Real ID option on
July 6. To fulfill the demand
of nearly one million Orego-
nians who will want the Real
ID option, DMV would have
to issue 32 licenses a second
every business day from July
to October.
That’s just not possible.
If you don’t have a Real
‘If you aren’t paying
attention, it might
mean missing your
flight out of PDX or
any other airport
across the U.S.’
ID compliant form of ID at
the airport, TSA will put you
through an alternate identi-
ty verification process that
could take an hour or more,
and you could miss your
flight.
There is an answer for
Oregonians : Obtain and
use a passport or passport
card. The cost of getting a
new passport card is rough-
ly equal to that of getting a
replacement license with
the Real ID option — and
you can apply now at one
of over 76 acceptance sites
across Oregon. To find out
more, visit www.Oregon.gov/
REALID.
By the way, Washingto-
nians already have the op-
tion of getting a Real ID com-
pliant driver license. If you
are a Washington resident,
go to id2020wa.com to find
out more.