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The INDEPENDENT, July 4, 2002
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“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.
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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