From Mother's Day to al-Nakba

While Anna Jarvis Jr. suggested the officially-approved Mother's Day, Julia Ward Howe ("Battle Hymn of the Republic") had suggested it 38 years earlier in 1870, after becoming disgusted by the carnage of the Civil War and the beginnings of the Franco-Prussian War. She wrote a hymn urging mothers of the world to arise and put a stop to war. Here are some lines of that 1870 hymn:

"Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage/For caresses and applause./Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn/All that we have been able to teach them of/charity, mercy and patience.

"We women of one country/Will be too tender of those of another country/To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

Howe's Mother's Day was observed in 18 cities until 1873 and in Boston till 1883. In our times, it still carries a resounding message of the need for human understanding.

On the topic of Israel's 60th, Holbrooke's suggestion we "recognize" Truman's recognition of Israel (Opinion, May 11) is moot: it obviously happened. However, I will never "admire" it. Israel was founded over the land, homes, and dead bodies of another people whose Palestinian commemoration of "al-Nakba" I do admire. The majority of them still protest non-violently, as in the weekly protest at the B'ilin portion of Israel's Apartheid Wall.

I can't admire Israel's creation, which was nothing more than the brutal theft of another people's homeland. But I greatly admire the fact that the beaten-down Palestinians can still protest that injustice after 60 years of humiliation and oppression, as the Nakba catastrophe grinds relentlessly on.

June Forsyth Kenagy

Albany

No excuse for digital delay

The May 11 letter "It must have been an oversight" defended the Republican-controlled FCC for their decision that will inconvenience Albany and Corvallis TV viewers.

Our public airways are being sold to corporations for billions of dollars, which was supposed to pay for digital TV converter boxes.

Republican legislators partially reneged on this promise supposedly to "save taxes."

I agree that FCC members are political appointees who normally lack the training to "engineer" anything on purpose. However, only a naive partisan would believe FCC decisions are never made to help cronies.

The supposed engineering "oversight" was poorly resolved by Republicans permitting low-power translator TV stations to delay digital broadcasts until 2012. Democrats equitably proposed giving stations only the few extra weeks needed to switch, which would eliminate the need for analog pass-through in DTV converter boxes.

Broadcasters have had 12 years to plan and budget for the digital TV switchover in 2009. There is no excuse for further delay.

Thomas Kraemer

Corvallis

We give because there's a need

Regarding Ted Salmons' May 11 letter:

A common mistake people make in their thinking is that we can somehow make others like us. Everyone is free to choose to either like or dislike another. It is true that how we speak or act towards another may influence their response, but it is also true that there is no guarantee. How we choose to act says more about us than it does about the person on the receiving end.

How the junta in Myanmar sees the U.S. should not influence our decision to help those that are helpless and in need. We as a nation and as individuals give, not because it makes us feel better about ourselves or because we want others to like us as a result of our generosity. We give because it is the right thing to do when we see others less fortunate than ourselves suffering.

The giving of international aid relief to others, in my opinion, is more likely to create goodwill among peoples around the world, than all the shock and awe that our military might can bring on innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of religious, political and economic differences.

I have a sense of pride in the USA when I see our military being used to bring aid to others, and I am saddened when I see pictures of innocent children caught in the path of our smart bombs. Which says more about us?

Roger Paul

Corvallis

As in the news, so in science

I saw Mr. Hering's editorial (5/11/08) about how the news of the dead sea lions was initially reported one way and then, as the facts became known, was correctly reported later, as a great analogy about science.

With science, many hypotheses are put forward about how something in nature works. These hypotheses are tested and if they seem to explain what is happening, they are published in a science journal. Other scientists study the hypothesis and if they can duplicate the results, they consider the hypothesis a good working explanation, or theory of how something works.

Often, no one can duplicate the results and the theory is changed or dropped. Sometimes these theories stand for centuries with little or no change, but then new understandings or more refined equipment allow scientists to revisit those theories and possibly prove them right or wrong, at which point the whole process starts over. Science is self-correcting.

Religion is not self-correcting; it is often driven by dogma and by ancient beliefs. There is no self-correcting process. As the universe is becoming better known through science, it often does not compare well with religious thought. There is nothing wrong with being religious. But denying what science has overwhelmingly proven, because of religious beliefs, is wrong.

Evolution is no longer a theory; evolution is a fact. It has been proven through fossils and genetics, time and time again. The only part of evolution that is still theoretical is exactly how it works, and we are discovering that it works in a multitude of ways. When people say, "after all, evolution is only a theory," it is like saying, "After all, gravity is only a theory."

There is a deplorable trend in America now. Science is being dumbed down or ignored completely when making decisions about how to run our country. The Bush administration has censored its own scientists and made decisions based on personal beliefs only; science was completely ignored. Two of these decisions were about global warming and stem cell research, there are many others. If the people of the world continue to put religious or philosophical beliefs before the facts, we will be led into another dark age.

Dan McMinds

Jefferson

For a better bus system

In 1966 I purchased a Volkwagen convertible for $2,204.90. Gasoline was 32cents a gallon. List price for a Volkswagen convertible is now $23,890.00 and gasoline is $3.77 a gallon. It seems that the price of gasoline is keeping up with inflation plus a war tax, so why is this so unexpected?

Expensive gasoline has been the norm in Europe since the invention of the automobile. The Europeans saw early on that a personal vehicle was the most expensive and wasteful form of transport and taxed it heavily. As a result they have excellent, cheap and available mass transit as well as social programs that benefit the entire population.

We elected to follow Henry Ford with massive expenditure of public money to build the infrastructure the auto required. As a result we have urban sprawl, traffic congestion and social problems that could be solved if we weren't spending so much on the automobile. Since there is no reason to expect that oil will be cheap again, it is imperative that we embark on expanding mass transit.

We have the basis of a complete bus system here in Corvallis. You can get to most parts of town with a short walk from existing lines, but there are not enough buses. One bus an hour is never going to serve more than a fraction of the population. A bus every 15 minutes would serve almost everyone's needs. It might mean raising taxes, but a $50 fill-up is a tax, too.

George Novak

Corvallis

Watch the moving lips

It's time to stop being silly. I keep hearing about how "stupid" George W Bush is, and conversely how brilliant the Democrats are. Allegations that Bush lied about WMD? Well folks, you can't have it both ways.

Either GW is stupid or brilliant. He must be brilliant.Democrats say he is the one who convinced them that Saddam had WMD.

Video from 1998 exists showing leading Democrats saying Saddam had WMD years before Bush even ran for president. It's amazing, convincing them about WMD before they even knew him.

No, you say? Google "Democrat WMD video." See Democrats' lips move in 1998. Somebody keeps lying. Guess who?

Rich Kellum

Albany

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