A question for Obama

It was gratifying to see so many young people at the Obama rally at the fairgrounds Friday. The event was well organized and on schedule. So many youthful hands were raised during the Q and A session, I’ll ask mine now, on the subject of peace in the Middle East.

Mr. Obama, Rami Khouri, a U.S.-educated Palestinian-Jordanian now at American University in Beirut, stated recently as the 2008 Linus Pauling Peace Lecturer at OSU, that “Jimmy Carter was right to speak directly with both Hamas and Israel’s government on his recent trip.” I read that you have been asked to repudiate Carter for this. (Lars Larson suggested “yanking Carter’s passport” in retaliation for his conciliatory statesmanship.) An Oregon Democratic candidate, Jeff Merkley, recently acquiesced to pressure from the Israeli lobby and returned a check of support to a group affiliated with the Palestinian cause.

Are you willing to withstand similar intimidation and stick to your convictions to work, negotiate and structure a just and lasting settlement to this dispute, which is at the bottom of nearly every other obstacle we encounter in that region of our world? Time is running out for Israel, so it is in their interest as well as the Palestinians’ to see the peace process get back on track and continue to fruition.

Regarding yesterday’s D-H column by Richard Holbrooke on Israel’s 60th anniversary, one could well question his conclusion. It is now apparent that had Truman listened to his “wise men” and among them “the greatest living American,” his secretary of state, Gen. George C. Marshall, all principals in the Middle East and our country would have been spared a lot of misery. And our world would be a more peaceful place.

Ray Kauffman

Albany

Obama changed me

I shook hands with presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center on Friday afternoon as one of five Obama supporters chosen to greet the senator when he entered the venue. It is a moment I will never forget.

Like Amy Roy, the opening speaker, I have never campaigned for a candidate, never donated money to a campaign (other than checking the box on my IRS 1040 form), never canvassed door to door, nor worked at an information table at a community college — until now.

Sen. Barack Obama changed me. His message of hope, of change, of not accepting the status quo resonated in me. He galvanized me and thousands and thousands of others like me to donate time and money to his campaign, to deliver his message to neighbors and friends, and to believe “business as usual” in Washington is a thing of the past. I’ve embraced Sen. Obama’s message that he will provide the leadership we need if “we the people” accept our responsibility to become actively engaged in the process.

Senator Obama spoke of issues important to the Willamette Valley: family farms struggling while agro-businesses collect government subsidies, workers laid off as businesses like Pope & Talbot or HP down-size or go out of business, underfunding of the Oregon Health Plan resulting in a lottery that leaves many lower-income Oregonians without health coverage, and decreased or flat-lined spending for education and scientific research. With Sen. Obama as president, we have an opportunity to change the paradigm and address these and other pressing problems.

You are my neighbors, my friends, my community. Please listen to Sen. Obama’s message, read his policy papers at BarackObama.com, and cast your vote for him as the Democratic candidate for president of the United States of America by May 20.

Karen Dierksen

Lebanon

Revisiting war’s history

This is in response to the letter from Jason Boone, “How easy it is to forget” (May 5).

Mr. Boone claims that President Bush got approval for the Iraq invasion from the United Nations. That isn’t true. The Bush regime drafted a resolution to use force against Iraq, but they withdrew it from the U.N. Security Council when they realized that it would not be approved. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called the subsequent invasion “illegal.” In addition, the U.N. Charter explicitly prohibits “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”

President Clinton signed the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, but it wasn’t “originally President Clinton’s idea in the first place,” as Mr. Boone claims. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Benjamin Gilman, and it passed through the House and Senate before Clinton signed it. The bill does not authorize or legalize any invasion.

Congress did not have the same intelligence as the White House. It is well known now that Bush/Cheney cherry-picked the “intelligence” that they presented to Congress as fact. Prior to the invasion, when Bush was on TV claiming that Saddam Hussein wouldn’t let U.N. weapons inspectors in, those very same weapons inspectors were in fact in Iraq, still looking for WMDs that didn’t exist. “So easily we forget?” It’s pretty difficult to forget things that never actually happened.

Mitch Scheele

Albany

No vision for Lebanon

Over the last three months, I have been appalled at the actions of Debi Shimmin, Josh Wineteer and Rick Alexander. I would like to ask these three Lebanon School Board members what their vision is for the education of our children. I am convinced that they don’t have a vision. Rather, their only concern is the advancement of personal vendettas against the current Lebanon school administration. Unfortunately, as Ms. Shimmin, Mr. Wineteer and Mr. Alexander launch attacks against the administration, our children are getting caught in the crossfire.

As a parent, I am gravely concerned with the damage that these three board members are doing and can do in the future to education in Lebanon. It is hard to understand what the agenda of these three board members is. Where are their values? Time and again these three have shown that their values do not include the advancement of education. If Ms. Shimmin, Mr. Wineteer and Mr. Alexander cannot see the damage they are causing, they should resign.

Alan Plattner

Lebanon

Prepare for bike traffic

Hooray for your editorial “Do more on bikes” (May 6). It is refreshing to read about one way to conserve energy rather than more grousing about the price of gas.

Mr. Hering’s suggestions for encouraging “nonmotorized” traffic are timely given the current activity of the city in updating Albany’s Transportation System Plan (TSP). The TSP will guide the city’s transportation system development for the next 20 years. Thus it is critical that we, the citizens of Albany, ensure that this plan includes strategies such as mandated bike lanes on main thoroughfares for encouraging and facilitating bicycle traffic.

The updated TSP can be viewed on the Internet at: http://www.cityofalbany.net/publicworks/streets/management_plan/index.php#tsp.

Terry M. Wood

Albany