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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2011)
The INDEPENDENT, July 7, 2011 Where to Find Them U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (Dem) 1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Suite 585 Portland OR 97232 Phone: 503-326-7525 223 Dirksen Senate Ofc. Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510-0001 Phone: 202-224-5244 E-Mail: http://wyden.senate.gov/ contact Website: http://wyden.senate. gov U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (Dem.) One World Trade Center 121 SW Salmon St., Suite 1250 Portland, OR 97204 Phone: 503-326-3386 313 Hart Senate Ofc. Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 Phone: (202) 224-3753 E-Mail: http://merkley.senate. gov/contact WebSite: http://merkley.senate. gov U.S. Representative David Wu (Dem) OR District 1 620 SW Main, Suite 606 Portland, OR 97205 Phone: 503-326-2901 2338 Rayburn House Ofc. Bldg. Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-0855 Website: http://house.gov/wu Senator Betsy Johnson (Dem) Senate District 16 PO Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056 Phone: 503-543-4046 900 Court St. NE, S-314 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1716 E-mail: sen.betsyjohnson@ state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/johnson Representative Brad Witt (Dem) House District. 31 21740 Lindberg Road, Clatskanie, OR 97016 Phone: 503-728-4664 900 Court St. NE, H-373 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1431 E-mail: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/witt Representative Deborah Boone (Dem) House District 32 PO Box 926 Cannon Beach, OR 97110 Phone: 503-717-9182 900 Court St. NE, H-375 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1432 E-mail: rep.deborahboone@ state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/boone Page 3 Letters If we really care, we can work together To the Editor: To the people of Vernonia who have taken it upon them- selves to comment on so many recent issues… Everyone has differences of opinion – It doesn’t make one person better than another – just different. As far as I can tell this com- munity is full of people who say they care about the future of Vernonia and it’s citizens, if this is true then why so much ha- tred? Why, after we have suf- fered so much together and ac- complished so much together should we allow petty differ- ences to destroy us from the in- side out? “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Now is not the time to focus on the differences – Now is the time to focus on the similarities – the main one being our love for this community. If we are to move forward, we must lock arms and move toward this common goal, lest all our hard work be in vain, we have already lost so much ground – Let’s not call in the dump trucks… Public perception is not fact, opinions are not fact, rumors are not fact, interpretation is subjective. If you want to know what someone’s intent is, ask that person – not your neigh- bor, not the bartender, not the grocer, the baker, or the can- dlestick maker – the person. Be prepared. No one is go- ing to be able to agree with everyone, all the time, over everything. If everyone agrees, no one really cares and no one is thinking for themselves, everyone has to give a little bit. Expecting everyone else to give and only being willing to take shows a lack of character and maturity. What do the banners say in the middle school? “Be Safe”, “Be Respectful”, “Be Kind”. How can we expect the youth in our community to follow these admonitions if we aren’t willing to do the same? What kind of example are we setting for future generations? If we show our youth that focusing on the negative is the way to process difficulties in life, we are ensuring that same pattern in theirs. It’s time to break the cycle of hate, time to bury all respective hatchets, let the proverbial wa- ter run under the bridge. It’s time to put the big girl/boy pants on and set a better ex- ample – It’s time to learn to work together for the future of Vernonia. Esther Nicks Vernonia Shoot First policy is rarely questioned To the Editor: Like some frothingly-mad Zeus or Thor, the CIA wants to spread out and greatly-widen its “death by drone aircraft” campaign from the tribal wilds of Pakistan to the even-wilder tribal regions of Yemen. Per- haps 1100 “terrorists” in Pak- istan have been slain by this astonishingly-deadly method, together with a fairly substan- tial number of civilians. Lang- ley’s aerial sharpshooters would like to make sure that Yemen’s swirling chaos in no way hampers our cowboy-in- the-white-hat urge to bump off as many perceived bad guys as we possibly can. We conse- quently learn that a “drone base” is being swiftly brought on line near to Yemen. Obvi- ously, Panetta’s “posse” is filled to bursting with the urge to shoot first, and never ask any difficult subsequent questions. Questions about the morality of firing deadly munitions into crowded mud brick slums on the other side of the world. This so-called “clandestine program” of targeted assassi- nations is really about as secret as the presence of a King Co- bra in a five-star hotel’s lobby. Any literate American can “read all about it” or “hear all about it” by one means or another. Yet we apprehend nary a protest- ing word or vague ethical doubt regarding it from either the dun- derheaded masses or from the well-connected smart set. After all, according to our spy ser- vice’s moral calculus, “terror- ists” are being justly slain. Isn’t that an undeniably good thing? Don’t these Koran-spouting buggers fully deserve their ex- plosive fate? Well, let’s see. Those Americans who’ve been around long enough can easily remember how enthusi- astic this country’s “re- spectable” folks were when headlines informed them that “U.S. Planes Kill Many Cong” and “North Viet Losses Huge”. Only after a fairly considerable amount of time had passed did Americans see just how sadly their country had lapsed into moral/ethical folly in its quest to “stop communism in Southeast Asia”. What had seemed like a good idea at the time was in- stead finally exposed as wretched thuggery and futility. It may be that time’s pas- sage will ultimately vindicate the CIA’s “butchery by ad- vanced buzz bomb” initiatives in Pakistan and Yemen, but I wouldn’t really bet too ardently on this premise. Langley’s his- torical record is simply too be- strewn with instances of moral odiousness for us to say, with any degree of assurance, that the “drone” program is a truly good thing. There was a time when the CIA’s mid-1954 over- throw of Guatemala’s reformist government garnered glad headlines in our press, and generated loud verbal expres- sions of support from our cravenly conformist politicians. It is true that at present most Americans don’t care about the drone program’s spate of but- Please see page 20 Policy on Letters The INDEPENDENT will not publish letters with per- sonal attacks on private citi- zens. Preference will be giv- en to brief letters, 300 words or less. All letters must be signed and include a verifiable ad- dress or phone number. Salem Scene By Representative Brad Witt Oregon District 31 Most of the bills that we deal with at the end of session are budget bills that have finally worked their way through the Ways and Means process to the floor for a vote. But some of the bills get to us late in the session because they are controversial and have experienced a fair amount of opposition. Here are a few bills that caused a good deal of discussion on the floor when they came up for a vote: SB 412C grants tribal police officers the right to enforce state law off tribal lands, even though the crime might not have been committed on a reservation. Currently, state law allows tribal of- ficers to arrest off tribal lands, but only under narrow circumstances, namely if the suspect is attempting to elude and resisting arrest. SB 412C expands a tribal officer’s ability to provide law enforcement off tribal lands beyond those two categories, but it also carries with it certain requirements, mainly with respect to training and certification. With the passage of SB 412C, tribal officers will now have to complete all the training and certification requirements imposed on all other police officers by the Department of Public Safe- ty Standards and Training. The tribes will also have to waive sovereign immunity from tort lia- bility, insure public access to records, preserve biological evidence and adhere to the require- ments surrounding the use of deadly force. The bill passed 33-25, and I supported it because it will improve the overall professionalism of tribal forces and provide additional law enforcement for those adjacent communities that wish to cre- ate agreements of mutual cooperation. Another bill that squeaked by on a 31-29 vote was HB 2726B, which modifies the definition of “smoke shop” for purposes of the Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act. As you know, since 2007, smoking has been prohibited in almost all public places except cigar bars and smoke shops certified by the Oregon Tobacco Prevention and Education Program (TPEP). But since December 2008, TPEP has received close to 50 applications for a Please see page 20