Let us smokers alone

I just have to comment on the letter titled, "Quit smoking, feed world."

Wow! Really? Do you believe you can feed a child on a $1 a day? Do you believe everything you see on TV?

OMG! I have to ask is there anything else us smokers can be responsible for? Anything else you and others want us smokers to do for you, or pay for?

Have you once thought about if all smokers quit smoking, who's going to pay for all the taxes attached to a pack of cigarettes, or any other tobacco product?

Already, smokers are unfairly taxed, banned to hiding in cold, dark places and discriminated against.

Come on, a lot of smokers are hard-working, taxpaying people who have rights too.

Earlene Little, Lebanon

Saved by our neighbor

My husband Herold and I live on Golden Valley Drive outside of Lebanon. Last night we were watching TV and our dog started barking.

My husband went to see, and it was one of our neighbors - by the way we would like to say "thank you" to this very helpful neighbor - who stopped by to tell us we had a flue fire.

If she had not done that I'm not sure the house wouldn't have caught fire. This person not only stopped to tell us, she helped my husband secure the ladder and get the hose to the back of the house so he could reach the chimney.

She stayed until the firemen arrived. Everyone was so nice and helpful.

So a big "Thanks" to everyone, the fire department for their quick response and especially our neighbor.

Edythe and Herold James, Lebanon

What workers provide

Regarding Jsoenne Krueger's Feb. 23 letter, "It's not junk," I wonder if it has ever occurred to Ms. "It's nobody's business how I spend my food stamp money" that a little thank you and appreciation to all the hard-working men and women who provide her with food stamps could go a long way. Remember it was their money first.

Many of these working people can't afford to buy overly priced chips, expensive 100-calorie packages of cookies, diet colas, Sprite or 7-Up.

Nor do they have the time to take their children on picnics, much less camping. They are much too busy providing food stamps, health care, child care, WIC, Medicaid, federal subsidy for housing, heating, electric bills. They also provide free breakfast and lunches for all children. They pay for loans to college students who never pay them back, drug treatment and rehabilitation, permanent disability for druggies doing all kinds of drugs. They pay for abortions, condoms and all kinds of birth control. The list goes on and on, and God only knows what they will be paying for under the new stimulus program since no one has even read it.

I thank God that we do have some people who are on food stamps who are very careful how they shop and I appreciate that. Unfortunately many of this generation not only abuse the system but they also consider it their constitutional right to welfare, food stamps and every other program out there.

Heaven forbid someone paying for these programs should question their motives or that they should ever consider that some hard-working person is going without to provide you with the same item you consider health food.

Jeani West, Sweet Home

How to stimulate jobs

Jobs are hard to come by. Duh! I have a few suggestions and I'm sure other people may have more. Let the state have the "stimulus money" so it can hand it out where needed. Under close scrutiny, of course.

Start building fish ladders around the dams instead of tearing the dams out. Build more windmills and solar panels. Until we can build nuclear plants that don't produce nuclear waste, we should quit talking about nuclear plants. We don't "need" them and it's just silly to think we do.

Just about everything electrical is being made to use less electricity so we should actually be using less, right? If all the windmills in place now were actually generating at capacity, the power grid wouldn't be able to handle it.

OK, I'm off track.

Repair trails in the wilderness areas. The wind storms and snow have wiped out trails all over Oregon.

Get the steel mills going again and kick the union out. In my opinion the unions' $60 to $100-plus per hour, every benefit known to man, and unable to get rid of people abusing the system, are running plants out of the country. Eight dollars to $40 per hour is what most people are getting paid. Getting steel prices back to normal would be right up there with getting the price of gas down.

Russ Blumenstein, Scio

Our tax-debt problem

We are a family of four and doing everything we can to make ends meet in a very tough time. I am writing to point out what the state of Oregon is doing to a lot of people.

We have a tax debt of about a $1,000 from last year's taxes to the state of Oregon, which we are making monthly payments on. We owe no federal taxes; we are getting about $2,000 for a refund from the IRS, from which the state will take any money owed to them. Sounds simple. Ha! Not at all.

I just got a letter from the IRS that states that our full refund has been turned over to the state for state tax debt. We were counting on the money from our IRS tax return to pay bills and rent.

We are not deadbeats. Of the four of us, there is my 75-year-old mother on a small set income, my wife who was laid of from her full-time job a few months ago, and myself. I am a taxi driver in Albany and make very little money. We also have a 4-year-old.

So I call the state to find out why they took double their money from us (we really need this money) and I am told that the debt is put out on both (my wife and my self) SSI numbers and that they will send us the difference in a couple of months. I was then told that they can do this because it is a state law.

I also have to keep making my monthly payment to the state on my payment plan for the taxes I owe until they get the money from the IRS. I also asked if I would be getting interest on the money that is mine that the state took and I was told no. But I have to pay daily interest to them.

It is very sad that they are doing this to probably thousands of people. There is nothing I can do but try to find a way to make my rent and feed my son and wait for the state to send me what is mine.

Donald Bauman, Lebanon