The INDEPENDENT, November 16, 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 ace
pl
620 SW Main, Suite e 606
r
Portland, OR 97205
o on
Phone: 503-326-2901
– n lecti
d e Ofc. Bldg.
2338 Rayburn
l
ne ti House
g
i
Washington,
s un DC 20515
e
t
Phone:
R en 202-225-0855
Website:
m 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
Student seeks work
to fund trip to Italy
To the Editor:
My name is Bridger Steward
and I am a fifteen year old
sophomore at Vernonia High
School. Some of you in the
community may know me,
some of you may not. I have an
opportunity to travel to Italy
during the summer of 2012 with
my Literature teacher, Ms. Sai-
fier, and a few other students.
The dates for my trip are June
27 – July 11, 2012.
I am especially looking for-
ward to going to Milan, Venice,
and Rome. What I will be doing
in Milan is visiting the town’s
Roman arena, which dates
back to the first century. In
Venice we will visit Doges’
Palace. In Rome we will be
seeing the Coliseum of course
and many other sights.
I need to earn money to help
pay for my trip. I am willing to
do any yard work (raking
leaves, mowing, weed eating).
Do you have any returnable
bottles and or cans? I would be
happy to come and pick them
up if you would like to get rid of
them. Also do you have a pet
needing care? I’m willing to
feed and take care of a pet if
you are leaving and need a pet
sitter for a few days. The total
cost of my trip is $3362.00 plus
spending money.
Please call me at 503-804-
4078. This is a once in a life-
time trip and I am looking for-
ward to the experience.
Thank you,
Bridger Steward
Vernonia
Regulations and law
are synonymous
To the Editor:
Thank you for including the
responses of Republican Jim
Greenfield to the questions
posed to all District 1 candi-
dates. They helped clarify his
position and those of Republi-
cans in general.
A recurring theme of his an-
swers was that business regu-
lations are the root cause of all
our economic woes. The gist of
his argument is that if we elimi-
nate regulations, like the wave
of a magic wand, our economy
Out of My Mind…
From page 2
a library, sports facilities, etc. Oh yes, and 171 prisoners.
These few suggestions add up to billions, maybe trillions, of
dollars, but don’t expect Congress to accept any of them.
Too many members of Congress get big “campaign donations”
from defense contractors, big agriculture, pharmaceutical, com-
munications, financial, heavy equipment, mining and energy com-
panies. Too many members of Congress are more interested in
keeping that income flowing than they are in doing the job their
constituents elected them to do.
When politicians talk about cutting “entitlements”, they are re-
ferring primarily to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They
should be talking about how ordinary people are subsidizing prof-
itable corporate entitlements. They should be talking about how
ordinary people are subsidizing entitlements for the wealthy
through a tax code that charges them at lower rates than most of
us.
A recent study of 280 profitable Fortune 500 corporations, re-
vealed an average effective tax rate for 2008-2010 of 18.5 per-
cent, about half the statutory rate of 35 percent. Tax subsidies giv-
en to all 280 profitable corporations from 2008-2010 totalled
$222.7 billion. More than half of federal corporate tax subsidies
for companies in the study went to four industries: financial serv-
ices, utilities, telecommunications, and oil, gas & pipelines.
Job creation and other community needs are increasingly un-
derfunded. Recent census data reported that the poverty rate for
2009 was 14.3 percent, higher than it has been since 1994. There
is also a rise in extreme poverty, with more than 20 million people
living on income that is half, or less, of the federal poverty line.
Economic injustice is reaching further into mainstream America
than at any time since the Great Depression.
But…if you paid any federal income tax last year, you paid
more than General Electric, Pepco (Pepsi), Boeing, Yahoo, Yum
Brands, Marathon Oil, FedEx, Hewlett Packard, American Ex-
press, and Time Warner – combined.
will prosper.
The best way to test the fea-
sibility of that argument is to
look at nations that have fol-
lowed those recommendations
and see how they are doing.
The best current example that
fits that criteria is Somalia. No
business laws are enforced in
Somalia – no Environmental
Protection Agency, no wage
and hour regulations, no
OSHA, no Equal Employment
Opportunity regulations, no
product safety regulations, no
minimum or maximum interest
rate on loans. No Social Secu-
rity taxes, no Medicare, Medic-
aid, Workers’ Comp, collective
bargaining or unemployment
insurance to worry about.
There are no zoning regula-
tions or building codes. There
are no laws that protect a busi-
ness from being taken over at
gunpoint by someone who
wants to do so. There are no
courts where an aggrieved
business owner or employee or
consumer can plead their case.
In other words, for those
who says that deregulation is
the cure to whatever ails ya,
Somalia is the closest thing to
heaven on earth.
This does not prevent busi-
ness from operating, in a fash-
ion. The official unemployment
rate is 47%. Per capita income
is $600. Annually. Somalia has
two highly lucrative industries:
kidnapping for ransom and
weapon sales. Without regula-
tions to control them, they
thrive.
The words “regulations” and
“laws” mean the same thing.
Whenever you hear a candi-
date lobby for doing away with
regulations, s/he is proposing
the elimination of laws. The ab-
sence of law, by definition, is
anarchy.
Miles R. Wickstrom
Vernonia
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.
School continues funding search
From page 1
and federal governments, and
individuals to make up the dif-
ference. With their help, we
have recruited a great set of
Portland area and local busi-
ness and community leaders to
assist with this effort. One of
the first meetings that were set
up, was to discuss bridge fi-
nancing, to get enough funds to
construct the school while
fundraising efforts began.
Through the Metropolitan
Group’s work, since January
2010, our fundraising commit-
tee with the ongoing help of
Oregon Solutions, has identi-
fied an additional $16.7 million.
The major elements of that ef-
fort include a $1 million chal-
lenge grant from The Ford
Family Foundation, which has
helped to garner an additional
$700,000 in contributions so far
this year. With our government
partners, we were able to ob-
tain a $1.1 million Oregon De-
partment of Energy grant for
the biomass boiler and other
energy saving aspects of the
new schools, and Governor
Kulongoski announced a $3.8
million grant through Oregon
Department of Transportation
to pay for the street and trans-
portation improvements. Our
federal legislative delegation
and local elected leaders
helped support the work of
Oregon Emergency Manage-
ment and our local flood relief
folks to obtain an additional
$11.3 million from FEMA. How-
ever, some of these funds are
needed to pay for demolition
and the construction of
Spencer Park, so $1.5 million is
not included, since these items
were not in the scope of the
new schools project budget. It
is our hope that some portion
of these funds will be returned
to the project budget.
Now, we still have a way to
go to finish the schools. So we
are looking for ways to save on
See School on page 12
— NOTICE —
The INDEPENDENT pub-
lishes on the first and third
Wednesday of each month.
Because November has five
Wednesdays, there will be
three weeks before the next
issue, on December 7, 2011.
The deadline for the Dec.
7 issue is Friday, Dec. 2.