Put a signal at that spot

I was in a horrible car accident at that intersection at Seven Mile Lane and Highway 34, and now I live with pain in my neck every day.

I had driven those roads for 30 years with never an accident, until that sunny day in June 2005 when everything changed. My coworker and I had just worked in Lebanon that day and were driving back to Corvallis at 4:45 p.m. along Highway 34, when suddenly a car came off Seven Mile Lane right through the stop sign as if it wasn't there! The next thing I knew was the screeching of tires, a hideously loud crash, and a blinding flash, and then heat, fumes and pain!

If our air bags had not deployed, they said we would not have survived that crash. I was hospitalized for several days and had to miss many days of work that year due to vertigo and pain from the injuries. Even now, almost two years later, we still cringe when we have to drive past that creepy intersection, as it triggers terrible flashbacks.

When you stop to realize that there are six lanes at that one intersection (two turning lanes, two north bound, a center lane, and two south bound), it is obviously a dangerous interchange. Seems like the state could look at the empirical evidence in their records to determine whether a signal is justified at that deadly location.

Elaine Dahl, Monmouth

Time to end field burning

This letter is in response to tonight's front page article (March 30) relating the Linn County Commissioners' unanimous opposition to the burn ban being proposed in the Oregon House of Representatives.

I urge all Linn County citizens to vote these commissioners out of office at the next election. They certainly don't represent me!

To Commissioners Lindsey, Nyquist and Wooten: I understand that I live in "The Grass Seed Capital of the World." That doesn't give grass seed farmers the right to negatively impact my ability to breathe.

It appalls me that in 2007, we still practice "slash and burn" agricultural techniques that cause misery to many (and death; remember the I-5 chain-reaction crash due to field burning smoke), so that a few can prosper.

Bill Gsell, Albany

A presidency under fire

It seems the new liberal Congress has made its mark, shown its true colors, and clearly questioned the authority of our president.

Nancy Pelosi and her team are crying foul over the firings of eight U.S. federal attorneys. But the hard truth is this: Federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States. It is perfectly legal for him to fire any - or all - of the U.S. attorneys for any reason at all.

In March of 1993, the Clinton administration fired all 93 federal prosecutors with absolutely no fanfare. No controversy. No congressional subpoenas or public hearings.

But the House of Representatives - and now a Senate panel as well - have issued the OK for subpoenas of key aides to the President.

The liberal-leaning House of Representatives is pushing hard, putting on the pressure, grasping at whatever means possible to defy the president. True to form, the political spectacle is being led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

This is unprecedented in United States history. The Constitution grants the executive privilege. A move to subpoena the president's top aides, such as Karl Rove or Harriet Miers, and force them to testify under oath sets up a political showdown unlike any we have ever seen. If the president's top White House aides are compelled to testify publicly, this issue will end at the Supreme Court of the United States.

Cyndie Hightower, Jefferson

Palestinians didn't 'leave'

I read with utter disbelief the line in the article (March 24, A9, "U.S. may offer own peace proposals") that says: "Palestinians … left when Israel was formed in 1948." Left?

Palestinians did not "leave." They were forcibly expelled, often massacred, according to Plan Dalet (Plan D) of Israel's leaders in 1948. On March 10, 1948, 11 veteran Zionist leaders, led by Ben-Gurion, formulated the plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine. Within only six months, they had expelled some 800,000 Palestinians (half the land's population), completely destroyed 531 Palestinian villages and 11 urban neighborhoods. The ethnic cleansing of villages was so high a priority that they continued it even during ceasefires ("The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe).

This ethnic cleansing has been covered up since 1948 by a massive and highly-effective Israeli propaganda campaign which has succeeded in painting the Palestinian victims as "irrational terrorists" who have no justifiable cause for their resistance. But every people on earth has the right to resist being subjugated by an occupying power.

It is high time the truth was told on this terrible injustice, and its perpetrators judged internationally.

June Forsyth Kenagy, Albany

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