What the signs really mean

I'd like to clarify the information provided in last week's Mailbag about recent changes to Oregon law regarding "Wheelchair Only" parking spaces.

In very large parking lots, there will be certain accessible parking spaces with an additional sign reading "Wheelchair Only." Unless you use a wheelchair and have a special "wheelchair user" parking permit, you may not park there.

However, if an accessible space only has a standard sign or a "Van Accessible" sign, anyone with a regular disabled person parking permit may legally park there, including people without a van or a wheelchair.

"Van Accessible" simply means that the space has an extra large unloading area for those people who might need it; it does not prohibit other accessible parking permit holders from using it.

Lisa Bennett, Disability Access Coordinator, City of Albany

The answer was obvious

I received my Jan. 30 copy of the Albany D-H in the mail today, and I am at a loss to understand the quandary of the front-page photo, the circular pattern in the wild blue yonder. Some said it was a permutation made by, variously, Air National Guard, Russian cookie bakers, bears, foxes or witches.

But, heck, it clearly looks like a halo to me. And why not, it's right over the United Presbyterian Church!

Why is it so hard to connect the dots in Albany? Probably because of a wild Oregon blackberry deficiency.

Kent J. Schoenenberger, Carmichael, Calif.

Rush shoots his own foot

So Rush had all of his mindless drones calling Congress to derail the stimulus package promoted by our president. That's a great plan. Right after they do that they should get out their guns and shoot themselves in the foot.

If any of Rushie's listeners think that he has their best interest or for that matter the country's best interest at heart, these folks are prime prospects for that piece of swampland you've been wanting to get rid of.

Here's a flash to all Limbotomites. He couldn't care less about you, your families, your children, or the problems that you face. Rush Limbaugh only cares about one thing in the universe, and that is Rush Limbaugh.

He tells his listeners to work toward the failure of the administration's efforts to stem the tide of economic collapse, but just who will that collapse affect? Will it be the ultra-rich like Rushie and those of his ilk with millions stashed safely off shore, or will it be the wage-earning family man trying to feed his family and educate his children?

The time has come for all Americans to look past fear and ignorance, because we are quite literally staring into an abyss.

The very people that created this disaster we are facing today rise straight-faced on the floor of the House and Senate to voice opposition to the stimulus on the grounds that it is too expensive?

These people that have spent our great grandchildren's legacy on blunder after blunder, now wish to counsel us on frugality?

The times call for bold decisive action, and President Obama has put forth a plan. Is it perfect? No of course not, but it has a lot of what seem like wise ideas and well-thought-out approaches to our current dilemma. Let's get behind them and try to help make them work.

J.M.Collins, Lebanon

Gaza greenhouse myth

This letter is in response to a letter to the editor today, Feb. 7:

Oh, yes, the "Gaza greenhouses" myth, as espoused by Rich Limbaugh-wanna-be Michael Medved, whose great ecumenical Jewish outreach stops at the Gaza border. Asking Medved to give a true opinion on Gaza is sort of like asking the fox whether or not the hens invited him in.

The facts on Gaza's greenhouses and other agriculture are that their produce rotted at the closed borders when Israel would not allow them to export their goods to waiting European markets. Once they failed to meet a deadline expected by their buyers, those buyers went elsewhere, thus bankrupting Gazan agriculture. Read Sara Roy, whose parents survived the Holocaust, "The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development," which details Israel's involvement in destroying Gazan development.

And by the way, the borders of Gaza are still closed by Israel, which is collective punishment - illegal under international law - of the entire starving, impoverished, traumatized population.

All Americans of good conscience should write immediately and repeatedly to their legislators and President Obama asking for the complete opening of Gaza's borders to 100 percent of the goods needed to support life and repair the massive damage done by Israel to homes and infrastructure, not the measly 20 percent currently allowed in.

If you don't write, your lawmakers will think you approve of Israeli cruelty. Abe Lincoln said, "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men," and - I might add - women.

June Forsyth Kenagy, Albany

Celebrating Darwin Day

Feb. 12, 2009, marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of his work "The Origin of Species by Natural Selection" that changed the course of the life sciences. What Isaac Newton had done for the science of physics a century and a half before him, Darwin had done for the field of the life sciences by his discoveries.

His insights in the foundations and workings of life have made possible the staggering advances in all life sciences. Without Darwin's discovery that all living things on this planet, plants and animals, share a common origin and are related to each other, we would not have been able to advance any of the many disciplines of life sciences to their current state.

Modern agriculture would not have been able to increase food production to such a high level by scientifically bred crop and livestock varieties. Our advances in medicine would not have been possible without Darwin's notion that we are a mammalian species that shares basic anatomical and physiological properties with all other animals. Thus, by studying animals such as the laboratory rat, scientists who came after Darwin have discovered more about ourselves in only 150 years than those before him had found out in millennia.

The strange phenomenon that Darwin still is seen as a controversial figure by some can only be explained by a lack of scientific knowledge. Biologists have confirmed his theories within the past 150 years without a shred of doubt.

In recognition of Darwin's eminent importance, his 200th birthday is celebrated as "Darwin Day" all over the world on Feb. 12.

Wolf Krebs, Sweet Home

Krebs is a retired professor of anatomy.