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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2003)
The INDEPENDENT, April 17. 2003 office providing law enforce ment support. We have firmly established that it is Firefight ers who like donuts! To the Editor: Paul Epier, Vernonia Fire I would like to thank every District Chief kept the volun one that participated in our teers on track by offering train QuakeEx drill. ing information. Chief Epier Thanks to Terri Nelson and also worked with his Fire Sci Christine Purvee for writing ence Class from Vernonia High some great incident scenarios. School. I would especially like Terri created the broken water to thank the students for their and gas lines, animals running participation. They are: Justin loose, buildings collapsing and Campbell, Torie Clement, Chris landslides, while Christine pro Driver, Robbie Fetherston, vided our victims and medical Travis Gwin, Marcus Kintz, emergencies. Lisa Orth, the Nathan Riley, Jeremy Ruby, Bo Vernonia Red Cross Coordina Rumbolz and Jessica Sook. tor, worked to organized hospi These students are now a part tal sites and keep track of the of the response team. They wounded. Christine Purvee and know what goes on and how Chad Saunders, both of important their help will be. MetroWest, worked at the High My personal thanks to all the School with the Health class participants for adding action to creating a life like disaster what was to be a paperwork ex triage scene. ercise. When I was City Coun A huge thank you to all the cilor, my primary response to participants from the Vernonia an emergency would have Volunteer Firefighters Associa been to ensure the safety of my tion, the Vernonia Volunteer family and wait for evacuation Ambulance Association and the orders. As the Mayor, my re Metro West staff. Without your sponsibilities are much more participation we would have involved. Without all of you had a quiet afternoon of paper there to make this a realistic shuffling instead of the dynam drill, I would not have learned ic event we experienced. nearly as much. Your participa Working as incident response tion was invaluable to me! and triage at the High School Thank you, everyone! no doubt made a positive im Sincerely, pression on the student you Cindy Ball, Mayor worked with. ( My apologies for City of Vernonia not listing your names; there were so many of you coming Impressed with work and going throughout the day that if I tried to name names I of Vernonia Cares know I would miss some of you. You know who you were, To the Editor: THANK YOU!) Recently I visited the local Norm Roberts, Vernonia Am food bank (Vernonia Cares) ateur Radio Klub (VARK), sat at and was really impressed with the radio for the entire drill, tire the hard work and dedication of lessly sending requests, alerts the volunteers staffing the facil and updates between the city ity. and the county Incident Com Something that I did not mand centers. know was that cash donations Robyn Bassett, Vernonia can be so much more effective Public Works Director, rotated in providing food for distribu her staff throughout the day; tion. They can purchase food thanks to Scott Rethwill, Jeff from the Oregon Food Bank at Burch and Jim Gido for working a fraction of the cost at a retail on solutions to the Public store. Works problems. Of course, any time is a Our new Police Chief, Mike good time for a donation, but Cahill worked with Pat Dean of when the next food drive hap the Columbia County Sheriff’s pens, why not include a check with the items you are donat Library column moved ing. They can do so much with “Between the Bookends” the funds. The address is Ver nonia Cares, P.O. Box 126, may be found on page 6. Vernonia, OR 97064. It has been temporarily Many thanks, moved in order to allow Judy Riley more letters on this Vernonia Thanks to participants in the QuakeEx drill page. April is time to Make Vernonia Shine To the Editor: It’s that time of year again. Vernonia Clean Up Day will be Saturday, April 26. Registration will be at 9:00 a.m. at Provi dence Health Center. All volun teers welcome. Please join us for good eats afterward at the Scout Cabin. Katie Poetter, for Vernonia Pride Editorial was right; Bush is frightening To the Editor: I thought your March 20 Edi torial was outstanding. You re ally nailed it. President Bush is far more frightening than any world figure of our time. He is more frightening than Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden put to gether and then some. Our service people are mur dering innocent civilians by the gross and an occasional “Home Land Defender” as any of us might be when under at tack. There is no honor in mass murder. Using the world’s most advanced equipment to slaugh ter third world people who can’t even buy shoes is not heroic. Bush is taking over Iraq’s oil for Texaco, not for what happened 15-35 years ago. I believe 9-11 was spurred by George Sr.’s attack that killed thousands of innocent by standers to save his stocks in Texaco Oil. It was not the peo ple of Iraq or Hussein either, but militant Arabs who hate us for good reason, striking back for those who had perished and the embargo since [the first Gulf war]. It happened right af ter Jr. took office. What will be the retribution for the murder ous crimes of our President now? Killing the Iraqi people will not destroy our enemies. Our enemy is we militant Amer icans—or can we not see be yond our over-blown attitudes. “An eye for an eye makes a world full of blind people." What frightens me nearly as much as George Jr. is that the people around me are very much like the people in pre-war Nazi Germany with their nar row, bigoted, supremacist, ag gressive, hateful, thoughtless herd instincts and lynch-mob mentality. Bush Jr. is the Adolph Hitler of the new millennium and we are well on our way into World War III with Iran, Lebanon, N. Korea, Russia, Pakistan and Syria next to be conquered. There is no satiating a mass murderer once he has tasted blood. I am very proud of The Inde pendent for being a free press newspaper and for speaking out on important issues even when the majority of the public is dead wrong or too afraid to use their free speech. Thank you, Noni, for your excellent editorial. When we get shipped off to George’s prison camps it will be an hon or to share the same cattle car. Marcia Denison Vernonia Thanks for help to American Legion To the Editor: Thank you for the nice ad for the American Legion Post #119 promoting our Bingo games. You did a great job with it and we appreciate your contribution to your community and the American Legion. I will be ob taining the dates and times of our future games and plan on running an ad at our expense, but I wanted you to know that the ad you folks wrote and so graciously donated to us is very much appreciated. I’m sure the exposure will draw a bigger crowd so that we can help our children of Ver nonia better their education, their sports and all the other things that are so greatly need ed due to lack of funding. After all, the children of today are our future and should not be denied the things that are fun and the right to become someone who feels good about themselves and contributes to their com munity. Again, thank you on behalf of all the Veterans of the Am er ican Legion. Paul Meyer Post Service Officer American Legion Post #119 Vernonia Most media feeding “slop” instead of news To the Editor: I missed your earlier issue with the editorial re: Bush’s War and its very real “domestic con sequences.” Must have been quite powerful and well written, considering the letters and per Paqe 3 sonal attacks! From now on, consider me an Independent reader and supporter! It’s about time we Americans begin to think for ourselves again. We are cur rently being fed such media “slop” (from a few controlled sources) that we’re acting like the “hogs” who deserve it! Wake up, freedom lovers, you’re seeing the beginning of the end of what our forefathers and founders fought and died for - legitimate revolution and individual freedom. Sincerely, John Hiestand Banks Other countries act in own self-interest To the Editor: Your March 20 editorial on President Bush (“President Bush is far more than a bully") contains a number of myths and misconceptions that must be corrected. You wrote that the United States - under President Bush’s leadership - has frittered away the sympathetic coalition that supported the U.S. after Sep tember 11, 2001, and has fabri cated links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. Admittedly France and Germany had sympathy for the U.S. after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. However, that sym pathy was superficial at best, and could not survive when the socialist governments of those two nations acted in their own self-interest in opposing the war to try and cover up their shady, lucrative business deal ings with Saddam Hussein. That’s why they oppose the Iraq policy of the U.S. But, even while their socialist, anti-Ameri can citizens dem onstrate against the United States, these countries’ governments still continue to fully cooperate in the war on terrorism. Please see page 14 FOUCT ON LETTERS The INDEPENDENT wel- comes readers’ letters and will publish as many as pos sible. AH letters must be signed, including those sent by fax, and include a verifi able address and telephone number, which will not be printed except at the writer's request. Unsigned letters will not be published.
