Posted: Saturday, August 6, 2005 10:00 pm
May OSU honor its veterans
Cheers for OSU students who seek to create a campus symbol honoring OSU people who served in the armed forces.
All of us veterans especially honor the memory of those who gave their lives. The class of 1923 had many World War I veterans who contributed generously to create the Memorial Union.
They created the bronze plaque naming OSU men who lost their lives in World War I. Today that plaque has no illumination and seems hidden under foreign flags in the MU main concourse, unreadable. That travesty needs correction.
The students now pressing for a visible symbol of honor for those who served began with recognizing the shabby treatment of that WWI plaque established by leaders like Bob Hamill and others who graduated as veterans in 1923.
Let's support today's OSU students who want to honor our OSU people in the service.
Fred W. Decker, Corvallis
The plight of immigrants
Regarding Bill O'Reilly's July 31 op-ed on Rosalina Dias, who was providing a place for illegal immigrants to sleep, although she was gouging them on the rent amount:
1. She had so many in one house because there ARE so many who have no place to sleep while they work to send money back to their families in Mexico and South America.
2. O'Reilly asks us to imagine our street housing these people. I think a different exercise in imagination is more to the point:
Try to imagine that you and your family are separated because you can no longer raise corn in Mexico since the NAFTA agreement allows subsidized U.S. conglomerates to undersell you.
Imagine that you must leave your beloved family and farm behind and risk your life to cross the border into the US, a situation in which many have died from the fierce heat.
Imagine that you are alone in a land where you do not speak the language, desperately trying to find a way to earn enough money so your family back home will not starve.
Imagine that you have no place to lay your head after a day of hard labor that most Americans refuse to do, at wages determined by a breed worse than "slumlords": the noble capitalists who hate to pay any more for labor than is absolutely necessary, and certainly never give a thought as to whether or not a person can live on that wage.
I doubt Mr. O'Reilly, like President Bush, has ever been hungry or homeless. I daresay that experience would change their politics.
June Forsyth Kenagy,Albany
Too lenient on killers
In reference to Kyle Odegard's article, "Street justice":
So, once again, criminals are shown that they can commit a heinous crime and receive a virtual slap on the wrist.
These three punks committed premeditated murder. Why?
For revenge. They previously had assaulted the homeless man who became their victim. In the victim's attempt to defend himself, he cut one of his assailants.
They vowed their revenge and searched for him for five days, until they found him, and they murdered him.
And then Benton County, in a typical move, allows them to plead to a lesser crime, and sentences them to 6 or 10 years in prison. These three have to serve a maximum of 10 years in prison - a term that will probably be cut short for "good behavior" - for intentionally ending the life of another.
My, the punishment certainly fits the crime, doesn't it?
Take a good look at this, all of you out there who are proud to live in a "blue state" - in as little as two-four years, once again, murderers will be released from prison to kill again. I hope you're proud of yourself.
Brian Harris, Albany
What TV teaches us
It's strange the "blindness" that occurs in some folks. On Wednesday, Aug. 3, ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast a segment on the increasing incidents of female teachers sexually abusing male students in middle schools and high schools. Bill Weir, the ABC newsperson, interviewed West-chester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, an expert in sex abuse cases.
They made much of the devastation that the victims experience. Bill wondered if three such incidents that have come to national prominence within the past year indicate an increase in female abuse of underage males. Pirro speculated that such cases have occurred for generations and now are being reported more often.
Although ABC staff members never miss a chance on "GMA" to laud and titter about ABC's hit series "Desperate Housewives," it didn't seem to occur to Bill on Wednesday morning to discuss the influence that the series might have on our society when it glorifies the illicit relationship of one of the housewives with a young gardener who appears to be a teenager or a man in his early 20s.
Could the show be a case of "art" imitating life?
Or perhaps art (if the show can be called that) is helping shape our lives.
And ABC, through its glorification of inappropriate female sexual relationships with young men, bears some responsibility for the shape our society is assuming. If so, then clearly I also bear responsibility when I patronize ABC by watching the entertaining show.
Jim Magruder, Albany
Hiroshima: Part of bigger story
On Sunday evening, Aug. 7, three peace activist groups will sponsor the commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, when U.S. planes dropped uranium and plutonium bombs on these cities and forced the imperialist nation of Japan to surrender.
It is right that we remember our dead. To those who participate in this ceremony with a full understanding of the whole story, I offer my condolences. Some, however, will participate and concentrate only on the devastation and loss of lives caused by this event and perhaps condemn America for using "the bomb."
There is a beginning to this story that must be remembered to understand it fully.
Our nation was dragged unwillingly into World War II by Japan's violent, devastating attack on Pearl Harbor that cost 2,400 American lives. For over four and one-half years, Americans bled and died in the Pacific and in Europe to beat back two aggressive, imperialist nations who wanted to destroy America.
Dropping the atomic bombs shortened World War II and avoided an invasion and the predicted more American lives. Allied forces found Japan's plans for defense after Japan's surrender. There were 12,700 aircraft held in reserve to defend their homeland, 20 new take-off strips with underground hangers, 35 camouflaged airstrips and nine seaplane bases.
They also had 40 remaining submarines with long-range torpedoes, 23 destroyers, and two cruisers, plus stockpiles of ammunition and supplies. The beaches were mined, and the mountains had a network of caves, bunkers, command posts, and hospitals connected by miles of tunnels.
The plan was that all Japanese, elites and commoners alike, men, women and children alike, were armed with every type of weapon imaginable and would fight to the death. They had been schooled for over 20 years by a militarist god-emperor to hate America and to destroy it.
Yes, the 5 million Purple Hearts manufactured for this war might have been needed, had not President Truman weighed the consequences and ordered the atomic bombing of Japan. By so doing, he saved at least 1 million American lives and unimaginable consequences for America.
That, in a nutshell, is history you may not hear in the classrooms of America today. Was it ethical for the United States to use resources necessary to defend our country and to save American lives? I believe it was.
Charles R. Nelson, Corvallis
Casualties in perspective
In response to Dee E. Brausch's July 31 letter, "Thought twice: Same conclusion": I must disagree. If they had indeed thought twice, they would have realized that 2,000 deaths over two years is not a high rate.
Historically, large battles alone have killed many more than 2,000. Pearl Harbor killed 2,400 Americans, not in two years, but two hours. D-Day killed 5,000 Americans in one day. The Battle of the Bulge took 19,000 American lives in only 44 days. Iwo Jima took 7,000 American lives in 36 days.
Overall, World War II took the lives of 400,000 Americans - few compared to other nations. The Soviets lost 9 million soldiers, Germany lost 2 million and Japan 1.5 million. (All WWII numbers are from American History Magazine, August 2005, page 24.)
In the Battle of Gettysburg during the War Between the States, more than 50,000 soldiers on both sides died in three days. I don't recall any large protests against that war.
The cost of a war does not matter if you believe in the objective. Where would the world be if the United States had not joined WWII, or had pulled out halfway through because we did not want to lose any more young men? It is not a question of casualties, but a question of belief in the cause.
I for one believe this war is making America safer, as is President Bush.
Josh Woods, Corvallis
A short course in 'intelligent design'
President Bush, drawing upon his deep understanding of matters scientific, thinks that we should teach intelligent design in our schools. Well, so do I. It should take about five minutes. Here is the entire lesson:
"Evolution is a comprehensive scientific theory that is the basis for modern biology and is consistent with discoveries in every other major scientific discipline. However, at present there are some gaps in the data and in our understanding of detailed evolutionary mechanisms. Until these gaps are removed, you (the student) are welcome to invoke intelligent design, magic, or other supernatural effects to fill in those gaps. This requires no thinking or learning, has no scientific purpose, and has no explanatory or predictive capability, but it is otherwise mostly harmless and you may find it somehow comforting. Do keep in mind, though, that this approach has been used throughout history to account for complicated phenomena (weather, astronomy, gravity, disease, etc.), but one after another such descriptions have ultimately turned out to be unnecessary."
William Wickes,Corvallis
GOP is doing its bit for recruitment
With all the good things our leader is doing, it's no wonder that our country is awash with miracles: Rep. Tom DeLay, along with Karl Rove, remains unindicted.
Mr. Bolton has been given his rightful place at the table of our leader, and national security-minded conservatives - such as the Clemens Foundation - continue to defend our shores by protecting our youth from the weed of Communism at Oregon State University.
I, for one, am happy that the Clemens Foundation is doing its part in the Glorious Conservative Cultural Revolution. With the armed forces likely to miss even its reduced recruiting targets for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the Army raising the age of enlistment to 42 and its lowering of enlistment standards, steps must be made to entice enlistments.
It is the hard work of such groups and people as House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, the Clemens Foundation and the College Republicans, who are doing their part to encourage heterosexual American youth of Oregon to consider the military. By cutting off funds, raising college costs and fighting liberal bias on campus, they are only aiding our working class in making those sacrifices during war. After all, who wants a draft?
Allen J. Burton, Corvallis