The independent., December 05, 2002, Page 2, Image 2

Page 2
The INDEPENDENT, December 5, 2002
n.INDEPENDENT
Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published twice
monthly, on the first and third Thursdays of each month,
by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725 Bridge Street, Ver­
nonia, OR 97064, as a free newspaper. Editors and Pub­
lishers, Dirk & Noni Andersen. Phone/Fax: 503-429-
9410, e-mail: noni@ vernonia.com
It’s time to wake up
and smell the mold
No, the mold in Washington Grade School isn’t what
we need to worry about, it isn’t toxic and it is being
cleaned up successfully.
The mold we need to start examining, with great dili­
gence, is the stuff that’s growing between our ears and
is clogging all the passages that allow oxygen to get to
our brains. You’ll know whether you have a serious
case of mold if you start hyperventilating at the sight or
sound of that little three-letter word “tax.”
In the real world, we know that taxes pay for really
big things that most of us couldn’t afford on our own. In
the dreamworld of brain mold, we delude ourselves
into thinking that everything would still be taken care of
if we didn’t have to pay taxes, so we elect every candi­
date who promises lower taxes, then get mad at some­
one else when the promises don’t pan out. That is
delusional.
Brain mold is curable if you’re willing to work at it, but
it’s not easy. It requires you to start scraping that mold
off so you can think.
Then you have to start asking yourself questions
like: “Why do we approve spending $50 billion on a
few stealth planes (that everyone can see), when we
won’t spend $2 billion on our crumbling schools? ”
“Why do we allow Congress to accept a 3.5 percent
pay raise when Social Security recipients will get a
“cost of living” increase of 1.4 percent?”
“Why do we elect congressmen who won’t extend
unemployment benefits to working people, but will al­
low U.S. corporations to “go offshore” and evade taxes
here?”
Yes, brain mold makes folks delusional, allowing
them to feel good about wasting money on those who
don’t need it, while harming ordinary folks.
And, yes, it is hard to get rid of. In addition to scrap­
ing the mold off your brain, sometimes it is even nec­
essary to turn off the television!
If you fear the cure is worse than the illness, here’s
a question that may keep you awake at night:
“Why does Scotty Pippen qualify for more in farm
subsidies than most people earn in a year of hard
work?”
Think about it...if you dare.
Ike Says. . .
By Dale Webb, member
Nehalem Valley Chapter Izaak Walton League
Bull elk season is over
for this year and, for many
of us, it was a dry year.
Both the weather and the
elk did not cooperate. My
partners and I had a good
hunt, though. Any day
spent elk hunting is a high­
light of my year. Because
of the mild weather this year, elk have not been
forced to feed as much as in prior years, so they
weren’t moving around as much, either. This
makes them harder to find because they don’t
leave tracks and don’t make any noise, which
helps a hunter locate the elk before they locate
you. I jumped a lot of elk before I even knew they
were around. I had the safety off a couple of
times, but things just did not go my way. The
freezer will just have to be content with the deer
that’s in it. There were elk taken this year so it
will be interesting to see how the final harvest
numbers come out.
Local gating issues caused some stir, with
hunters being unable to scout gated areas the
day before either the first season or the second
season. Olympic Resource Management said
things went well on their end and they didn’t
have any problems. I hope next year, though,
they will not schedule a school tour during the
elk season. Hunters were forced to give up a day
of elk season, on ORM land, because they
closed it to hunters on the last day of the second
season. I am still a little puzzled about the clo­
sure reasoning since hunting is safer than the
occupation of logging. I suppose it is all about
appearances and, again, confirms the feelings
that hunters are getting from the logging com ­
munity, that we are more of a nuisance than a
partner in wildlife management.
The continued dry weather is starting to be­
come a problem. While Chinook salmon were
able to get up the Nehalem and spawn this year,
currently, low flows are hampering Coho salmon
in their efforts to return home. We also need nor­
mal rainfall to continue to recharge our ground
water supply so we will not have low water con­
ditions next summer. On this note, the Upper
Nehalem River Watershed Council received a
grant to install a new stream gauge on Rock
Creek. It should be installed by next sum mer and
will give all the resource users a better handle
with which to manage this precious resource.
Many of you have seen the news reports on
the West Nile Virus and the scare it has created
nationwide. We were fortunate that this virus did
not spread into Oregon this year. This has given
us more time to prepare for the eventual spread
into our state in the coming year. News reports
have been talking mainly about the effects of the
virus on human populations and our associated
pets. Here are a few facts about the W est Nile
Virus.
W est Nile Virus disease is a mosquito-borne
infection that can cause mild flu-like illness or
severe encephalitis. Only about one percent of
the people bitten by an infected mosquito will de­
velop flu-like symptoms. Only 10-15 percent of
these people will develop a more serious case of
encephalitis. Far more people die from the flu
virus than from W est Nile Virus. O nly a small
Please see page 20