Posted: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:00 pm
Driving on Highway 34
In response to the letter in Thursday's paper (Nov. 8) about people using the right lane and leaving the left lane open, what if the person in front of you is going to be turning soon? What if you two are the only ones on the whole road?
I drive Highway 20 and 34 also, and having legal reason to be in the left lane have been tailgated and had the driver coming up behind me flash his bright lights in my mirror. I've been pushed over the speed limit, forced out of the lane so that I had to go a different way to get to my destination, all because drivers like the letter writer simply don't want to change lanes.
I think everyone on the road needs to wise up and pay attention. We all have to be somewhere at a certain time. I move over when I can, so can the other person, and without the road rage, because that's what is caused by bright-lighting, tailgating, high speeds, honking, and forcing the person in front out of the position they are driving. And it deserves a ticket!
Besides, the speed limit is 55 mph in both the lanes anyway.
Sue Wilson, Sweet Home
Dogs behind the wheel
I hope the police are issuing a lot of citations to the dangerous drivers who seem to think it clever to drive while holding a dog in their lap.
Scott Pirie, Albany
What group homes are
Group home residents are not criminals with clever lawyers who managed to dupe judges into handing out lenient sentences. They are mentally ill people who have endured confinement, chains, boredom, disappointments, and still did the work and jumped through hoops to convince a board of senior mental health professionals that they can be trusted to live in normal society.
The group home gives them the opportunity to work on gaining more privileges that can some day result in the inmate becoming a productive member of our society pursuing the same dreams everyone else does. The residents live with a constant threat of being "revoked" and sent back to the hospital if any rule is broken.
Most people don't know or care about mental diseases or the mental health system unless they or a loved one have been dragged into it. The diseases or just like any other cruel disease - diabetes, cancer, Parkinson, Alzheimer's, strokes - that can result in loss of body parts, organs, senses or, of course, death. Mental health diseases are the ones that get you locked up, chained up, removed from your family, homeless and, in some jurisdictions, shot. I can prove to you that one psychotic episode can get you seven months of 23-hours per day lockdown in the Linn County Jail.
I prefer the group home idea to just warehousing people in facilities like the one on Center Street in Salem where thousands of Oregonians found themselves over the last 100 years and in fact a few thousand still have their remains stored in the basement. President Kennedy's sister got sent to one of those joints back in the '30s so she wouldn't embarrass any of the healthier Kennedys. Think about all she could have done for the Democratic Party!
Actually, I would like to look into setting up a group home on my property.
Randy Altstock, Albany
A sad sight for children
This is for whoever hit my cat this morning and did not even stop to pull it off the road so other cars would not smash it. What if it was the pet of small children and they looked out the window for their cat and saw it smashed in the road? I know it was "just a cat," but that cat belonged to someone and was loved. It did not bark all night and day and disturb the neighbors, it just gave unconditional love. Will you tell my grandchildren what happened to their pet? I, of course, will lie, because I don't want them to be disillusioned so early in life, to know there are people who just don't care. When you kill a pet, you hurt the people who loved that pet.
Darlene Coffey, Albany
Unaffected by tobacco ads
I was disappointed to hear that in an AP interview, Gov. Kulongoski alleged today (Nov. 7) that the tobacco industry "bought the election" by it's massive spending on advertising.
Since I made my mind up to vote no after the legislature passed this turkey, long before anyone paid a dime for an advertisement, I'm sure they didn't buy my vote.
In blog reactions, I see that many of the 60 percent of the voters who voted as I did are offended by the governor's remarks. If you don't vote with the governor you must be either stupid or easily swayed, apparently. He has been listening to too many of his elitist ultra-liberal friends. You know, the ones who know what's best for all the rest of us. The ones who will take care of us because we are incapable of doing so. The ones whose public policies are designed for "our own good."
All they need from us is our tax money because they know best what to spend it on, always in our behalf and with excellent intentions.
Bill Molloy, Scio
Prison - from the inside
I would like to elaborate on the letter "More prisons don't help" (Mailbag, Oct. 24).
The way I see it from the inside: Although I do agree with the general opinion - that the system should be geared to benefit society in general, since they pay for it, and there should be more effective programs designed to reduce recidivism - that is clearly not what the current criminal justice system is designed for.
First of all, the taxpayers only fiance the criminal justice system. The government runs it and they run it like a business is supposed to be run, for profit and control. Now, while additional work release and halfway houses sound like good ideas that would probably benefit society and foster rehabilitation, they are clearly inconsistent with the current goals of the criminal justice system. I think if there was profit in rehabilitation, the prison system wouldn't be as blown out of proportion as it is.
Secondly, most people probably think that more prisons equal less crime. In a nutshell, more prisons equal more prisoners, more taxes to pay for them and more profits for the prison industries, not less crime. Here is one idea for improvement: Deport the illegal aliens and create some new and improved work release and rehabilitation programs. That has a better chance of reducing crime than constructing more prisons.
Why doesn't the government deport the aliens and use some of the millions of dollars it saves on incarcerating them to patrol the border and promote rehabilitation of convicts? Why doesn't the government spend some of the tax dollars to benefit society? These are questions your political representatives should be able to answer for you.
C. Trent Sells, Sheridan
Sells is an inmate at the federal prison in Sheridan.