Demanding Accountability
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JOCO D.A.
A REAL JOKE?To the Editor:
I sat with several Josephine County court watchers recently as we attended a 3-day farce of a court trial, compliments of our District Attorney (DA) Stephen Campbell, who is famous for wasting our tax dollars prosecuting frivolous cases. This was one of those cases.
The DA accused Stanley Strange, Louie Pombo and Glen Seybold with reckless driving and Strange with assault, even though Ed Snook of the US~Observer had given him irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Mr. Campbell refused to look at the evidence.
This all happened after defendant Stanley Strange called 911 for help. While Stan and his friends were out for a Sunday afternoon ride, a car containing 3 college kids tried to run Stan off the road. When Stan got to a safe place he parked his bike and went to the driver’s window to tell the driver he had endangered his life. The driver caught Stan’s arm when he rolled up his window and began dragging him several feet down the highway. Stan eventually pulled his arm free and he fell to the ground, injured. The driver sped away, yet the DA prosecuted Stan and his 2 friends.
After hearing all the evidence, the 6 person jury (and everyone else in the courtroom) couldn’t do anything but find them NOT GUILTY after deliberating only 15 minutes! It was so blatantly obvious. You have to read the story and even then I don’t know if you’ll believe it.
Keep in mind that the guilty party drove off into the sunset, free as a bird. Doesn’t this make you feel safe on our highways? All thanks to our DA, Mr. Campbell.
Lorraine Walter
Josephine County, Oregon
IRS AS LORD?
Dear Editor,
I find this story rather interesting and yet quite disturbing. I cannot imagine that the American people will stand for the IRS to lord over them much longer. Its current state of abuses surpass all usurpations of authority in the history of not only this country but the entire world. If the citizens of America do not wake up and start standing for righteousness we can expect to continue to be treated like criminals and slaves. Does one's ox really need to be gored before reality hits between the eyes? The story of the frog being placed in cold water and slowly heated up is what has happened and continues to happen. If change were to take place dramatically like the frog being thrown into a pot of boiling water, then the people would be up in arms about the freedoms that are being stolen from us one by one.
Tax accountants and lawyers need to be hit with a good dose of Truth and then maybe they will stop aiding and abetting the real criminals in victimizing We The People. May I suggest that they get a constructive job?! McDonald's is always hiring.
We Christians must get off our laurels and start obeying God, for then will He hear us and heal this land.
Judith Belli
TEAR DOWN THE
STATUE OF LIBERTY!?Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.
Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan. None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people.
When we liberated France, no one in those villages was looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are in 2007 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
Rosemary LaBonte
MORE FED LAND GRABGreetings from Baker County, Oregon.
Baker County is unique in the state of Oregon and in the United States. The county was settled because of mining with the discovery of gold around 1861. Today, Baker County holds nearly one-quarter of all mining claims in the state of Oregon. In Baker County, first came the miner followed by the supplier, the saloon owner, the courier, the merchant, the rancher and farmer, the banker and the establishment of towns throughout the county.
After the decline of mining in the 1930s, the Baker County’s economy relied upon the natural resources in the local Wallowa-Whitman National Forest lands with hundreds of jobs in the timber industry.
Census figures indicate that in the final year of full-scale timber production in the early 1980s timber receipts equaled approximately $25 million in Baker County alone, (include as well, timber receipts from Baker County’s two neighboring counties Union and Wallowa Countys, all sharing Wallowa-Whitman forest lands: Union County’s timber receipts circa 1981 totaled $17 million and Wallowa County at over $28 million).
Since then, we’ve all witnessed the death of the timber industry and the loss of thousands of jobs in this region. Add to this the failure of congress to live up to their commitment to the counties over the Payment in Lieu of Taxes legislation.
Over the past several years, under the direction of the National Travel Management Rule, listed in the 2005 Federal Register, the United States Forest Service has been working on the national Travel Management Plan. This plan proposed to close 4,261 miles of road in the local Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. The Forest Service has even claimed authority over RS 2477 right-of-way.
I have been covering this story for over a year now for a local newspaper and I plan on covering this and related subject matter until the final decisions are made, scheduled for the fall of 2009.
Thank you,
Brian Addison
Baker County, OregonEditor’s Note: Brian, we share your interests and we are more than willing to assist you in getting your important information out.
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