Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2003)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, April 17, 2003 The 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, Vernonia, OR 97064, as a free newspaper. Publishers, Dirk & Noni An dersen. Editor, Noni Andersen. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410, e-mail: noni@vernonia.com Display Advertising, Clark Mc- Gaugh, 503-429-9410, e-mail: clark@vernonia.com ................ ................. ............. —..................... ........................................ War keeps attention away from economy While America has been distracted, sitting in front of the television and watching the war against Iraq as though it were a sporting contest, the economy has continued to fall into a deeper hole. Some 2.4 million jobs have been lost since George Bush took office, 600,000 of them since November. Factory orders dropped 1.5 percent in February, the steepest drop in five months. MWA. 7 7 <ç> Unemployment rose in March as 108,000 jobs dis appeared, 1,200 of them in Oregon. The increase in unemployment wasn’t large because of the number of people have been out of work so long that their bene fits are long gone and they no longer count - even as Letters statistics. Is this all the fault of the president? No, but it is his Logging practices do water. We, members of the Up per Nehalem Watershed Coun responsibility to use his position to help the people of affect water quality cil, would welcome a represen this country. tative from the city at our meet To The Editor: Here is how he proposes to help. ings. It is true that logging is not According to the Center on Budget and Policy Prior Respectfully, new to the Rock Creek Basin. Dennis A. Nelson ities, the Bush administration and his lackeys in the The entire watershed has been Vernonia House have proposed a budget that offers the wealthy logged once. Some of it is be another $1.4 trillion in tax cuts while demanding that ing logged for the third time. cuts be made elsewhere (must be fiscally responsible, Propaganda justifies What is NOT true is any right?). suggestion that logging never and promotes war Those cuts would come from programs that provide has, and never will have, nega food stamps, school lunches, health care for the poor tive effects on water quality. To the Editor: Primarily, I want to thank you and the disabled, temporary assistance to needy fami This denial of reality is refuted lies, student loans and, unbelievably, even veterans’ by common sense and exten for your informative and accu rate accounting of our current sive scientific research. benefits. It is also true that forest administration’s policy, product Under the House plan, $265 billion would have to be and resulting harm to the Amer cut from entitlement programs over ten years, about practices have been changing. Riparian zones and wetlands ican people in your March 20 $165 billion from programs that assist low-income are receiving more protection. editorial. How shocking to see Americans. Logging roads are being engi the compared similarity of the To quote another Republican president: neered with water quality and Nazi Reichsmarshal Herman “These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people." —Abraham Lincoln, January, 1837 So, when your job is gone and you can’t pay the rent or the utilities, just wrap yourself in the flag. The current crop of Republicans thinks that’s enough to keep you warm. Who profits? Who pays for it? fish passage a priority. Loggers are being educated. Collaborative groups like our watershed council are actively involved in assessment, moni toring and enhancement proj ects. These efforts have been rewarded with cleaner water and more fish in our streams. It is appropriate that the city of Vernonia become more inter ested in it’s source of drinking Goering’s ideology to our own propaganda promoted by U.S. mass media today. As a grandmother, I remem ber World War II. I know that many Americans do not. But that war was gruesome, as are all wars. Old military persons try to glorify it continually in or der to justify their participation. It is indeed sad. They really are heroes for putting their lives on the line. The sad part is that they don’t understand how they were, and are, manipulated to do that. They don’t understand the primary reasons their govern ment had and why they were convinced to make such choices. I wrote a poem. It is with an guish that I feel the need to share it at this time. War is for killing and dying. Its proponents are simply lying; Through games More wealth More cheers More fame! And their couch-potato quarter back wearing chaps and a cowboy hat calls for escalated absurdity with gutless stupidity and Immoral exploitive implying, for brainwashing rhetoric, Thrusting those IN THE THICK OF IT, the INNOCENT, BRAVE and DENYING! WAR IS FOR KILLING AND DY ING! It’s proponents are simply lying! Nancy Phillips Vernonia
