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
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