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The INDEPENDENT, July 20, 2006
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Publisher Clark McGaugh,
clark@the-independent.net • Managing Editor Rebecca Mc-
Gaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net • Editor Noni Ander-
sen, noni@the-independent.net
Opinion
How many deaths will it
take til they know…?
If 100 people disappeared from Vernonia each day,
Vernonia would be empty in 23 days.
Iraq is a bit larger than twice the size of Idaho and
has a population of 26,783,383 (Just for reference, Ida-
ho’s population is 1,429,096). Most of the people in
Iraq are civilians.
The New York Times printed a story yesterday enti-
tled “Iraqi Death Toll Rises Above 100 Per Day, U.N.
Says.” The United Nations reported Tuesday that an
average of more than 100 civilians per day were killed
in Iraq last month. It goes on to report that 1,778 civil-
ians were killed in January, in February the number was
2,165, March = 2,378, April = 2,284, May = 2,669 and
3,149 in June. Why? The article said “this sharp upward
trend reflected the dire security situation in Iraq as sec-
tarian violence has worsened and Iraqi and American
government forces have been unable to stop it.”
The report does not say who killed all those civilians,
but it does mention sectarian violence between the
Sunni Arab and Shiite communities. Newsday wrote
that before the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, the
most common cause of death was heart attacks,
strokes and other chronic diseases. After the invasion,
violence was the primary cause of death.
Are the Iraqi people better off than when we started
helping them? The solution is not so simple as to say
“we should pull our troops out” and let them do what
they will. This writer doesn’t know what the answer is,
but can’t help but be appalled at the numbers of the
dead on all sides and was struck by the similarity of
numbers between the civilians losses in Iraq monthly
and the population of Vernonia, a number that has
more meaning than the number of dollars spent so far
on the war; $297,195,750,000 (that’s 297 billion, 195
million, 750 thousand) as of 5:00 p.m. on July 19, 2006,
and still increasing by $1 million every nine minutes.
A thought on democracy
“The point of complaining is not that it’s going to
change things. It’s more kind of an existential act that
is essential to democracy.” Quote by Matthew Bakkom,
a conceptual artist, on the history of complaints to New
York mayors. From The New York Times, July 8, 2006.
Opinion
Vernonia School Board needs lessons
The Vernonia School Board held a
work session before convening their July
13 business meeting. The work session
was held to interview applicants for va-
cancies on the school board.
According to Oregon Public Meetings
law, work sessions are open to the pub-
lic. This one was not. A reporter from
The Independent was allowed to attend
the work session, but the board ran it as
though it were a closed door executive
session.
There were two glaring violations of
state statutes on public meetings:
1. There was no notification of an ex-
ecutive session, as is required by law.
The meeting notice and the agenda
specifically identified the interview peri-
od as a Work Session.
2. Even if the interviews had been
called an executive session with proper
notification, the purpose violated the law.
That law clearly states that board ques-
tions, discussions and decisions for the
purpose of appointing someone to a va-
cant elective position may not be held
behind closed doors.
The Vernonia School District has a
new superintendent, who was among
those not allowed in the work session. At
his first board meeting, he handed out
copies of the public meetings law and
recommended that board members fa-
miliarize themselves, particularly, with
what may, and may not, be included in
closed door executive sessions.
That was a good call on the superin-
tendent’s part.
There are board members, however,
who have spent multiple terms on the
board and have no excuse for not hav-
ing learned the basics by this time.
School board members are all volun-
teers and are not paid for their service.
Nevertheless, when they seek to place
themselves in that position, they must
also accept the responsibility that goes
along with it, after all, we tell kids they
must be responsible for their actions.