Re: “Forget Smoke: Let’s Ban Grass!” (Sunday, June 17): I’m sorry for Ms. D’Amico’s health problems related to grass seed pollen. It’s unfortunate that, given her extreme allergies, she’s chosen to live where approximately 75 percent of the world’s cool-season grass seed is produced. Perhaps if she had done some rudimentary research prior to moving to Eugene, she would have made a more informed choice regarding where to live.

In less than five minutes on the Internet, I found:

• Multiple websites track pollen counts and give the types of pollen blowing on any given day.

• Eugene has the highest pollen count in the world because of the shape of the Willamette Valley and proximity to grass seed production.

• Some 460,000 acres are under grass seed production in the Willamette Valley; 2,500 square feet of grass releases enough oxygen for a family of four. Translation: Grass seed fields in the Willamette Valley produce enough oxygen for 32,060,160 people, while absorbing carbon dioxide and other noxious chemicals. The estimated 2006 population of the entire state was 3,700,758 people.

• The predominant soil type in grass seed production is Dayton silt loam, a very deep, poorly drained, very slowly permeable soil with slow runoff or ponded conditions which is well-suited for growing grass and of limited value for producing other crops.

• Dense grass is six times more effective than a wheat field at absorbing rainfall. More wheat would mean more flooding.

• Ten thousand people work on grass seed farms or in directly related non-farm industries.

• In 2005 the Willamette Valley’s grass seed industry farm gate value (what the growers were paid) was $343,620,000. Using the applicable economic multiplier, valley grass seed contributed $1,030,860,000 to the Oregon economy!

Also, as my crop-science-major husband pointed out, all plants pollinate.

Imagine what I could find out about a place if I was doing research to actually move there!

Terri I. Burr

Lebanon

Senator Smith’s not yet facing up to Iraq

Sunday’s George Will column contained this characterization of Senator Smith’s performance: “Since Smith’s ’end of my rope’ speech six months ago, the senator has been voting with the Democrats on such Iraq matters as timelines and benchmarks, stopping short only of voting for Sen. Russ Feingold’s proposal to cut off funds for the war next March.”

Oregon Democrats voted “no” on the May 24 Iraq bill, while Senator Smith voted “yes.” Senator Smith has a long way to go to face up to the problem in Iraq, a trip he’s not likely to make in time to be re-elected.

Steve Novick, Democratic Senate candidate, praised Sen. Ron Wyden’s vote against an “open-ended war in Iraq.” What was once President Bush’s colossal foreign policy blunder, the military action in Iraq, is growing in ownership across party lines. The Iraq Study group offered the nation the only hope for getting out of this mess.

But even the Iraq Study Group noted, “...many of Iraq’s most powerful and well-positioned leaders are not working toward a united Iraq.”

A two-state solution sits before us. The Kurds in the North have all but wrapped up forming an independent Kurdistan. Not without problems, at least this part of Iraq looks doable. This leaves the sectarian-violence-ridden remainder of Iraq. Get involved with the neighboring countries to contain this powder keg, and get our troops out of Iraq! Let’s start putting this boondoggle behind us!

Robert G. Gourley

Corvallis

Islam and extremism? True story is different

All religions have their extremists. Was Rev. Falwell speaking for Christianity when he attributed 9/11 to our tolerance of gays? Or when he called Bishop Tutu a “phony“? Falwell did not represent main-stream Christianity. Bishop Tutu does.

The Ayatollahs, like Falwell, represent a fringe, not mainstream Islam. They are only found in the Shia sect, who make up 10-15 percent of the 1.3 billion Muslims.

The rest are Sunnis, and constitute the mainstream.

Most of them do not even recognize the Shia as fellow Muslims. (The Sunnis also have extremist sects like the Wahabis, that are out of the mainstream, and do not speak for it. Osama bin Laden is a Wahabi.)

Reading and understanding the Quran is a pre-requisite for discussing its teachings. In it you will discover that “there is no compulsion in religion.” That’s a direct quote. It’s unequivocal, and was followed strictly by

Muhammad and his early followers (in spite of what you’ve been told). The myth of Muhammad spreading his religion by the sword was concocted by the popes promoting the Crusades. (And of course it became gospel in the West.) Until that time, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived harmoniously in Egypt, Lebanon, the Holy Land, Iraq and Spain.

When the Catholic Church got control of the latter, it initiated the Inquisition to force Muslims and Jews to either convert to Christianity or leave. That resulted in widespread torture of Jews and Muslims, the burning of many of them alive.

You won’t get the full story of Islam from its enemies. Would you consult Sam Harris or Christopher Hitchens on Christianity? (Both are popular atheists).

For an honest, warts-and-all history and explanation of mainstream Islam by a widely recognized expert (and American Muslim born in Iran), see “No god but God” by Reza Aslan. He is a professor of world religions, fluent in Arabic, and expert in Judaism and Christianity, as well as Islam. No praise is too high for this monumental work! It is destined to become the standard in English on Islam. You can get it from Amazon for under $8. I urge you to do it.

John Goodwin, Ph. D.

Lebanon