The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current, November 16, 2011, Page Page 2, Image 2

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Page 2
The
The INDEPENDENT, November 16, 2011
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Wednesdays of each month
by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St.,
Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Deadline is noon the Friday before each issue.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes
Opinion
Be thankful and help others
Thanksgiving in this country is considered to have
started in 1621 when Wampanoag Indians and the
Mayflower pilgrims shared a meal in Plymouth.
Throughout the world, many civilizations have some
type of fall harvest festival or feast or otherwise cele-
brate “a day of thanksgiving to honor God”. In 1863,
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thurs-
day of November as a national Thanksgiving Day.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving
to the third Thursday but after significant opposition
moved it back to the fourth Thursday in 1941. There
probably was not a turkey at the 1621 meal, but Ben
Franklin gave the turkey a boost when he tried to have
it named the national bird. The bald eagle beat out the
turkey for that honor.
This year, in addition to giving thanks, consider giv-
ing instead of receiving. And not just during the holi-
days, but year ‘round like the Freewheelers do (see
picture on page 1). Here are just a few ideas; when
you buy your Christmas tree at Mike’s Tree Farm, take
two cans of food and get $2.00 off the tree. The food
goes to Vernonia Cares and Mist-Birkenfeld Fire De-
partment’s food drive. Or, just take a turkey or some
money to either food drive or, in Banks, give to the
Sonrise Food Drive. Sign up to sell Christmas trees at
Murphy’s Furniture (see page 10), they give 100 per-
cent of the money to the Inukai Family Boys and Girls
Club. Sign up to help SOLV get rid of invasive plants at
Stub Stewart Park this Saturday (see page 7).
Have a skill you can share? Make a quilt for some-
one who will appreciate it. Help a neighbor fix a fence.
How about doing the dishes for a sick friend or taking
them a casserole?
Help Vernonia’s Kiwanis Club fill dignity bags to be
given to children here in town who are in need of such
simple items as shampoo and deodorant.
All of the many community organizations – the Ver-
nonia Senior Center, the Lions Club, the Vernonia
Boosters, Vernonia Cares, American Legion, Boy
and/or Girl Scouts, the Pioneer Museum, volunteer
firefighters, volunteer ambulance association – to
name just a few – do good works and can always use
a few bucks or a few hours of volunteer time.
Put giving back in Thanksgiving. Everybody has
something to give and the rewards of volunteering are
tremendous.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Out of My Mind…
by Noni Andersen
The 12 member Con-
gressional “Supercommit-
tee” that is working on
deficit reduction hasn’t yet
been able to develop a
plan to reduce debt and
increase income. It ap-
pears that, in spite of the
many resources and staff
people they can call on,
they need help.
Here are a few suggestions:
• Reduce defense spending, which has dou-
bled over the last decade. Former Defense Sec-
retary Gates suggested eliminating several bil-
lion dollars worth of expensive, unneeded equip-
ment, but Congress refused to make the cuts.
• Return income taxes on those with annual
earnings of $1 million or more to the rates during
the Clinton administration. This would raise their
rates by less than four percent.
• Tax capital gains and stock dividends at the
same rate as regular income. People whose in-
come is derived from investments should pay
the same tax rate as those whose income is de-
rived from their labor.
• Reduce or eliminate agriculture subsidies
for the crops that receive 90 percent of those
subsidies (cotton, corn, soybeans, rice and
wheat), most of which go to large corporate
agribusiness, not family farmers.
• Eliminate ethanol subsidies. Most ethanol is
made from corn and soybeans, which already
get the lions’ share of ag subsidies – even while
they are at all-time highs. They are already guar-
anteed a market by government regulations re-
quiring regular gasoline to include at least 10%
ethanol.
• Eliminate the tax provision that lets highly
profitable oil and gas companies deduct the cost
of searching for oil and gas. It is an operating ex-
pense, nothing special.
• Eliminate the depletion allowance for the
gas and oil industry; it makes no sense. Their
business is selling petroleum products; why do
we subsidize them for depleting the supply?
• Change Medicare Part D to allow the
Medicare administration to negotiate the costs of
prescription drugs. (Canada buys the same
drugs, from the same makers, at half the price.)
• Eliminate the tax break that pays corpora-
tions to send jobs and profits overseas. U.S. cor-
porations with significant foreign profits paid tax
rates to foreign countries that were almost a
third higher than they paid to the IRS on their do-
mestic profits.
• Eliminate no-bid and cost-plus contracts.
They’re invitations to over-charge.
• Close Guantanamo Bay. Keeping prisoners
there costs $800,000 per prisoner per year!
Some of the reasons are that all supplies (office
supplies, food or bulldozers) must be delivered
by sea or air; personnel get combat pay, like
troops in Afghanistan; and a revolving staff of
1,850 troops, linguists, intelligence analysts, fed-
eral agents and contractors. There are also
schools, an Irish pub, a McDonald’s, satellite TV,
Please see page 3