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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2002)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, July 4, 2002 A lt 5T/W & Fon TH6- ............. ÎÂ 3 Cc D y j My D a My] he ***4 'on »»'f ! is that TME Uproar unnecessary “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. ” This is how school children learned and recited the Pledge of Allegiance before and during World War II. It is how the “Greatest Generation” recited the pledge. In 1954, following the excesses of the McCarthy era (when loyal citizens could lose their jobs and their rep utations based on allegations of “sympathy” toward people who were alleged to be communists), the Unit ed States was seeking an acceptable way to expound on the difference between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., the difference between democracy and communism. One suggestion, endorsed by President Dwight Eisen hower and approved by Congress, was to add the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. There have been other changes to the pledge. The original didn’t include the name of the country, it was a pledge “to the flag,” so the words “of the United States of America” were added. During the American Civil War, the word “indivisible” was added. The recent challenge to the pledge was based on the first amendment to the Constitution, that Congress “ ...shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” It’s easy to say that “under God” doesn’t force any one to be religious, but reciting the pledge in public schools obviously establishes religion as an element in the classroom. There are at least 40 million people in the U.S. who have alternative belief systems. They have not set out to destroy the foundations of our democracy. They just don’t believe in “God” and don’t want the government establishing that concept in their children. They are part of the minority that delegates to the Constitutional Convention were concerned about. Freedom of...or from...religion was considered vitally important by our founders. That is why it was included in the very first amendment, along with freedom of speech and free dom of assembly. Whether the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Ap pellate Court decision that the pledge is unconstitu tional with the inclusion of “under God,” is not terribly important. What is important is understanding the ba sis of the challenge. That is our heritage. Ô ATTLé /é /h /J of Ike Says.. . By Dale Webb, member Nehalem Valley Chapter Izaak Walton League Summer is off to a great start! The w eather has been dry and warm, which should be good for local game bird populations. Deer and elk offspring should also benefit from the nice weather. The species that will not benefit from an extended dry spell will be our fish populations. I have been working with the City of Vernonia to implement a water curtailment plan for years that are abnormally dry and would have a major impact on local fish stocks. The reason for water curtailments is that, as water levels become crit ically low, fish are stressed by warm water tem peratures, disease, predators and overcrowding. While the City of Vernonia is still using only about 20 percent of its water rights in Rock Creek, it is socially irresponsible to continue un limited water usage while natural resources with er on the vine. Can anyone really argue that a clean car, sidewalk or green grass is more im portant than all the living organisms in our cher ished streams? Data show that drought condi tions occur about 30 percent of the time, with most (68 percent) stream droughts during the months of September and October. Of these drought periods, only 37 percent were longer than 20 days, with extreme drought conditions occuring about six-percent of the time. While the criteria for implementing water curtailment are still undetermined, most water restrictions would occur for only short durations of time of up to two weeks in most instances even under an aggres sive plan. Only very extreme conditions would require curtailment of all outside watering. The plan is still a work in progress and a public hear ing will be announced in the future. One point to remember is that our actions have an impact for 90 miles downstream. Unfortunately, we may be experiencing a drought year again; the Nehalem River is currently flowing at about 66 percent of normal for this time of year. Speaking of fish, I recently had an interesting conversation with a local fisherman who insists that you can keep trout caught in local streams. I told him to read the synopsis more carefully. I also looked up the fishing regulations on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website and, in black and white, it reads that fishing for trout in streams from Neskowin Creek north is catch and release ONLY. This information is found on the Northwest Zone page under gener al regulations for streams/rivers, not lakes! Un fortunately this person told me that his friend had called ODF&W to clarify this issue and was told that if there wasn’t a special exception by indi vidual stream in the pages following the general regulations then he could keep trout from the streams. Wrong! Personally, I think there should be a consumptive fishery in the Nehalem sys tem, but I would not advise anyone to do so. On the hunting front, the issues remain the same. ODF&W is cutting antlerless tag numbers in the Trask and Alsea units, but they are not cut ting any in the Wilson, Scappoose and Saddle Mountain units. I sent an e-mail expressing my outrage to ODF&W in Portland. I ended up with Please see page 3
