The INDEPENDENT, April 21, 2005
Page 3
Letters
Make Vernonia Shine
day will be May 7th
To the Editor:
This year’s “Make Vernonia
Shine” day, sponsored by Ver-
nonia Pride will be held May 7.
Registration will start at 9:00
a.m. at the Providence Medical
Group building. Come watch
Jazzercise kick off the event.
The event goes until 1:00 p.m.
Groups and organizations are
asked to register early by call-
ing Donna Webb at 503-429-
5201. If you have a project or
area you wish to go to, tell her
at that time.
If you have the following
tools, please bring them: hoes,
weed eaters, rakes, gloves, etc.
Lunch will be furnished at
the Scout Cabin at 1:00 p.m.,
free for all who helped.
For your tired aching mus-
cles, Heather Lewis of New
Day Massage and Body Works
will offer massages. The
charge will be $1 a minute with
all proceeds going to Vernonia
Pride.
Hope to see you there.
Deloris Webb
Vernonia Pride
Expect trees to be cut
in logging community
To the Editor:
I have been reading the Let-
ters to the Editor with great in-
terest. With every edition I have
more questions. Vernonia and
surrounding areas have been
logging communities for well
over 100 years. The forests
have been managed as a re-
newable crop. Are there still
trees here? Do we not see
them replanted when there is a
logging job done? Logging is
an honorable profession. They
are great caretakers of the
land. Our climate can grow a fir
tree faster than anywhere in the
world. We do not make our liv-
ing in the logging industry, but
we are having trouble of late
with the constant criticism of
logging and loggers.
My main question is where
people get the feeling of entitle-
ment when they buy a piece of
property. They own the piece
they paid for. If there is a forest
next door, they feel they have a
right to say what is done with it.
The fact that someone else
paid for it, pays taxes on it, and
chooses to cut the trees is none
of their business. My sugges-
tion would be buy the land with
Between the Bookends
By Nancy Burch, Librarian
Vernonia Public Library
Did you know that the
flowering dogwood is con-
sidered by some garden-
ers to be the harbinger of
warmer weather and that
they watch for the emerg-
ing blooms and use that
as a guide as a safe time
to plant? Be sure and
watch the dogwood plants
at the library as they begin to blossom. But, as
the latest issue of Birds & Blooms tells us, these
“flowers” are actually modified leaves and that
the true flower is yellowish green and is located
in the center of the four “petals”. To learn more
about the flowering dogwood and its long and
colorful history, be sure to check out the
Feb/March issue of this magazine at the library.
Inside the library you will also find the annual
symbol of spring with the Study Club-sponsored
Silver Tea, to be held Wednesday, May 11 from
2:30 until 4:30. The ladies of this organization
will have the library decorated with collectable
tea pots and flowers from their gardens as they
serve tea, punch, and cookies. Entertainment
this year will feature Madeleine Gendron’s musi-
cians as well as Bert and Barbara Tschache’s
musical offerings. The public is invited and any
donations received will be used to benefit the li-
brary. Previously purchased items have been a
display for DVD’s, a laminating machine, and a
speaker system.
The spring “Adopt a Book for the Library” dis-
play is in place. Most of the items are books that
will be used to supplement the 2005 Summer
Reading theme of “Dragons, Dreams and Daring
Deeds,” as well as a few new gardening books.
Be sure and have Thursday, May 5th marked
on your calendars as the date for the visit of au-
thors, Patricia Rushford and Birdie Etchison.
This event will take place at 7:00 p.m. and will
feature discussions about writing by these
prominent northwest authors, as well as offering
the opportunity for purchasing books by these
ladies.
We are also pleased to announce that Forrest
Wheeler, one of our favorite local residents, bet-
ter known by some as one of the clowns who
went to Afghanistan a few years ago in a project
to help children of that country, will be here to
speak and sign copies of his newly published
book, Using the Power of Humor to Improve
Your Life. This event will take place Thursday,
May 19 at 4:00 p.m. Having heard Mr. Wheeler
speak, I can attest that all in attendance will be
entertained and inspired.
New books include Hard Truth by Nevada
Barr, Murder at Five Finger Light by Sue Henry,
No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark, Sat-
urday by Ian McEwan, Legacy of Masks by Sal-
lie Bissell, Ya-Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells,
Plan B by Anne Lamott, The Ice Queen by Alice
Hoffman, and The Years of Pleasure by Eliza-
beth Berg.
Book for discussion this month is A Parch-
ment of Leaves by Silas House, with the next
meeting taking place Monday, May 23rd at 5:30.
For parents and others interested in the up-
coming performance by Vernonia’s 7th grade
class, the library has “The Music Man” on DVD
which may be checked out. Be forewarned, as
we have been by our grandson, that since this is
a movie, it has a copywrite and cannot be video-
taped by the audience.
Enjoy the season by watching nature as it is
awakening from winter and by taking advantage
of the offerings of your local library.
Vernonia Public Library: 701 Weed Ave.
Hours: Mon., Wed., Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.;
Tues., Thur. 2 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Sat. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Preschool Story Time: Mondays, 10:30
a.m., when school is in session.
Phone: (503 ) 429-1818
the trees so they won’t be cut. I
don’t think Vernonia is a good
place to live if you don’t under-
stand that it is a logging com-
munity. It seems easy to figure
out when every other rig you
meet coming to town is a log
truck.
Caroline Cook
Vernonia
Correction is in order
To the Editor:
Bergh Bechen, in his letter
published in the April 7th edi-
tion of The Independent, points
out a very embarrassing error I
made in a recent Legislative
Report you graciously pub-
lished. The Oregon Institute of
Technology is, in fact, in Kla-
math Falls and not in Ashland. I
apologize to you and your read-
ers for the mistake.
Best regards,
Betsy Johnson
State Senator
Floor drains can be
hazardous to health
To the Editor:
Especially for stay at home
people. Plumbing always incor-
porates a “P” Trap or similar de-
vice to block sewer or septic
gas in drain systems.
Traps must have water in
them at all times! This includes
floor drains, sinks, showers and
tubs.
When not used for lengthy
periods water evaporates al-
lowing gas to enter your living
or working quarters.
To eliminate this problem
pour water into drains at least
every two weeks.
Good health to all.
K. P. Fisher
Vernonia
Real life questions
for drug addiction
To the Editor:
What are you? A liar and a
thief, a business person work-
ing in the shadows as a dealer
of deception and pain praying
on the weak to survive, your co-
workers wear masks to hide
their past, hoping to avoid the
pain, your boss is the product
that controls your life, as you try
to avoid responsibility while so
eagerly consuming that which
has consumed you.
Who are you? You are the
child of a parent that struggles
between hope and disappoint-
ment, you are the parent of a
child who hears only promises,
apologies, and “I’ll see you
soon.” Abandoned and be-
trayed time after time they miss
you, yet they dread your return,
they fear the chaos that sur-
rounds you yet they continue to
love you.
You set unrealistic goals and
make no attempt to reach
them, refusing to realize your
own potential, unable to live as
you are and unwilling to
change, who or what you have
become is the host of a para-
site drug.
You are an addict, stop let-
ting the bag be the boss.
Sam K. Potter
Vernonia
Beware of liberal
public education
To the Editor:
Believe it or not folks, the
major political issue of today is
not the “privatization” of Social
Security. One way or the other
America will eventually come to
terms with this issue and re-
solve the matter (for better or
worse) within the narrow limits
of congressional responsibility.
No, the major issue in America
today goes to the heart of our
culture and the character of our
society. When we, as a nation,
relinquish our elective respon-
sibility to the judicial powers of
state and local government –
we put our culture at risk. It’s
called “judicial tyranny” by sub-
mission.
What amounts to a war, in-
volves every level of society
from toddlers and students to
adults and educators. By the
time our (publicly educated)
children reach college age
many are thoroughly brain-
washed into accepting liberal
ideology without question.
Once in college, the over-
whelming force of liberal think-
ing takes charge and the indoc-
trination of the liberal mind-set
is complete. In a recent analy-
sis – the depth of liberalism in
our universities and colleges
was brought to light in a Wash-
ington Post commentary by
staff writer Howard Kurtz:
Tuesday, March 29, 2005;
“College faculties, long as-
sumed to be a liberal bastion,
lean further to the left than even
the most conspiratorial con-
Please see page 23